Ask HN: How important is a phone number on your site?

[voxxit]

A little background: a company I work for has been up and running (profitably) for about ten years now. However, they have reached a plateau, and we're brainstorming on ideas which could get more money in the door.

One idea which I brought to the table: simply putting our freaking phone number on our website and asking people to call. We've have a number of customers saying how great it is when we give them calls back to handle their issues quickly over the phone, and wonder why we don't have a number on our website for customers (both new and existing) to call.

The question is: is it worth the extra effort in providing phone service and support? Could it help us break through the glass ceiling?

[solutionyogi]

If your company is in B2B market then yes, I would say that phone number would definitely help.

Solid endorsement about putting phone number from a real business:

http://www.userscape.com/blog/index.php/site/comments/how_to...

I think Joel also advocates putting phone# on the product homepage.

[aberkowitz]

Perhaps a support chat service like Olark[1] would be easier than a phone number.

[1] http://www.olark.com/

[bkrausz]

GazeHawk launched with a phone number: we get very few calls, but I feel like it builds confidence, especially if it's a B2B product.

[RealGeek]

We've learned from experience that most people don't call. But, it increased our conversion rate.

[lem72]

Indochino.com currently only offers email support and although we do get some requests (Very Few), we find people are very happy to work with us through email.

The key to email support is answering all questions and then from the questions they asked, figuring out what they subsequently might ask and answer those questions in the email as well, even if they didn't ask it.

We may do phone support in the future, but not until we have scaled our email support to the full extent and then need to speak to customers in real time and not have a 24 hour window for a reply.

[hendler]

At your stage (you mentioned 10 years) a phone number would make a lot of sense, and the added service could be critical if you learn something. As soon as the calls get repetitive then you can delegate the calls. The only risks for you are that the customers really need the calls, and you can't scale to meet the demand.

Phone support is something people are willing to pay for, so it certainly can be worth the hassle.

So I think the delicate task is to manage expectations and roll it out for a few customers to see how it works and gage demand/value.

[hansel]

B2B deals can be closed on the phone. For B2C, you can always put on your contact form that all emails are read and that you will respond within 12 hours and usually within X hours. Every time we (PlantMyPhone.com) responds instantly, people are quite amazed and tend to blog about it. This has happened with other startups I have ran also. It helps to be a bit A.D.D. and feel the urge to instantly respond. When things start to get a bit hectic you should start using a CRM system so no customer gets dropped.

[jonhendry]

Websites without meatspace contact info always seem a bit less trustworthy, IMHO.

I'd like to see a physical address, and a phone number, even if I'll never use either. If both are missing, it suggests that they want to make it hard to find them. Especially if the domain name is registered through a proxy.

Make sure you specify the hours during which the phone will be answered, with time zone.

[ashitvora]

Depends. Geeks might like to email you the queries they have but other would definitely want to call and get their issues resolved quickly.

[ashitvora]

Do one thing, put it on your website for a month or two and see if sales goes up. You will have your answer.

[gallerytungsten]

Maybe you can install a 1-900 number for one of your incoming lines.

[underdesign]

As a B2C business, I get idiot phone calls all the time from people expecting hand-holding while they place their order online.

I've spent hours (days) formulating my web site, writing a well-thought out FAQ, and answers to all major questions. Yet, still I get lazy customers (who usually spend the absolute minimum) calling me and wasting untold hours of my time to satisfy their inability to read.

While having a phone number on your site may raise trust, it's a invitation for the idiot to call.