Why Response Trust Marks?
For years online shoppers have worried about security when they go to ecommerce sites, but visitors to B2B websites and large-ticket B2C sites that do not sell products online have a different concern; they want immediate information and answers to their questions, and they want it now.
Response trust marks tell visitors you respond quickly to their inquiry
A recent response study (presented at the Omniture Summit 2008 in Salt Lake City) of the top Alexa-ranked Web sites by Incoho, an independent research firm in Quebec, Canada, found that:
- The average first response time by email was 19 hours and 32 minutes (next business day.)
- The average first response time by phone was 35 hours and 53 minutes (usually two business days.)
- B2B companies responded 8.3 hours faster than B2C companies.
Our in-house experience with lead response and lead management practices shows that:
- Only 40% to 50% of all Web-based leads ever get contacted.
- Sales representatives make an average of four to five attempts to make contact with a Web-based lead before they give up.
- Most companies wait 24 to 48 hours to make their first contact attempt (usually delays are in lead routing practices.)
- Larger companies responded slower than small companies.
The landmark Lead Response Management study by Dr. James Oldroyd of MIT brought to light the dramatic increase in contact and qualification rates when Web-based leads are responded to immediately.
- The odds of making contact with a Web-based inquiry increase 100x by responding within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes. A recent study by Incoho, a
- The odds of qualifying a Web-based inquiry increase 21x by responding within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes.
- If you are unsuccessful in making contact within the first 20 hours from a Web-based inquiry you actually hurt your chances of ever making contact and qualifying a lead with each successive contact attampt.
A recent study by TND, an independent research firm found the following statistics about trust marks overall:
- 88% of online shoppers say it is important to include a trust mark of some kind.
- 79% of oline shoppers expect to see a trust mark on a Web site's home page and the majority of shoppers expect to see a trust mark on the page where they enter their personal information.
- 70% of online shoppers terminated a transaction because they did not have confidence in the transaction.
- 53% of consumers who terminate their transaction due to a perceived lack of security feel they would have continued their purchase if the site had included a recognized trust mark.
- One in five shoppers did not know what purpose trust marks served.
Lower Response Times
A ResponseAudit trust mark on each form on your site is the first step to consistently lessen response times to Web inquiries.
Increase Lead Contact and Qualification Rates
Many ResponseAudit customers are able to increase overall contact and qualification rates of leads from the same marketing budget by two to three times.
