Is your company looking for ways to drive your offline sales from online customers?  Finding innovative and successful approaches to offline selling by way of the internet is never an easy challenge.  There are several hurtles to overcome, such as competition that offers a completely online experience and the ever-challenging motivation to get customers to pick up the phone to call your company.

MarketingSherpa has a great case study illustrating how Jenny Craig was able to merge their offline-only sales approach with the latest in online technology.

The company behind one of the most popular weight-loss programs in the world didn't want to change the personal nature of its offline sales model, which is probably a good idea.  Potential Jenny Craig customers are making a big choice both financially and lifestyle-wise and that type of choice is never easy.  Having a live person to speak to either by phone or face-to-face is probably a big motivator and part of the reason Jenny Craig has been so successful.

But the company also wanted to take advantage of its website to help spur those offline conversations which ultimately lead to new customers.  To tackle the challenge, the internet marketing department at Jenny Craig came up with a click-to-call feature that allowed customers to request an immediate phone call from the company.  With a simple click of a large, bold button on the company's home page, visitors are taken to a form requesting their name, phone number, and email address.  They are also asked if they would like a call from the local Jenny Craig office or the main corporate headquarters.

Within seconds, the phone rings with a recorded message from company spokeswoman Kirstie Alley telling customers about her success with the program.  After the message, customers are connected to the location of their choice and are able to speak directly to someone from the company.  While on the phone, a window on the company's website remains open until the customer hangs up.  Once the call has been terminated, a short survey about the click-to-call service appears.

The system required a reprogramming of the company's phone system to alert call center and local customer support representatives that the call had come from the internet.  The click-to-call features, combined with a new email campaign that sends personalized emails to members during every step of their progress through the program, has been very successful for the company.

Results:  Company conversion has doubled;  75% of customers rated the service as "good" or "very good"; 90% are satisfied with the speed of the new service.

By putting the burden of making the call into the hands of an automated system, Jenny Craig has been able to successful merge it's on and offline services.  Sometimes that's all it takes.  What can you do to your current sales system to take some of the burden of buying off of the customer?