Books and Beyond Case Study

Company Overview

Books and Beyond operates an Internet bookshop, www.alltopbooks.com, serving the general public. They aim to regularly offer prices that are lower than those of Amazon and similar online retailers. All prices on their website already include UK postage. They have built up a loyal base of repeat customers, including large scale bulk buyers such as educational establishments, law firms and event management/corporate consultancy companies. They are based in London, UK.

The Challenge

Books and Beyond were asking themselves questions to try and improve their customer offering. Why, for example, were people arriving at their web site and then leaving without taking advantage of their “get a quote for a book not in stock” service? Books and Beyond visitors were coming to the web site via search engines with direct links to products. But then they would leave. Potential customers, having read about the product they searched on, left the site leaving Books and Beyond with more questions. Was there a way to engage these people, by proactively contacting them to see how near to buying they were? If people were not motivated enough to ask for more information about the company, and were considering becoming affiliates or bulk buyers, how could they raise the level of the visitors’ interest and convert them into long-term customers?

Velaro Solution

Books and Beyond chose Velaro’s hosted live help solution for use on www.alltopbooks.com in order to create an accessible and trustworthy online shopping experience for their customers, as well as boost conversion rates, and keep customers on the site to place their order. They particularly noted Velaro’s flexible approach to customer support. With instant international phone calls from the sales and technical people, the two companies were able to reach a pricing solution that no other provider of chat could match. This was important, as Books and Beyond needs to ensure that it’s expenditure is kept within tight limits.

The Results

Using Velaro’s hosted live help solution, www.alltopbooks.com immediately noted significant benefits in customer contact. The number of people using the chat was substantially higher than was the case with their previous chat providers. They also noted that the chat button loaded far more quickly, with chat uptime being much more reliable. No more embarrassing situations where the chat provider’s hosted product crashed during a chat with an All Top Books customer.

Achievements extend beyond the intangible benefits of more customer confidence. Sales have increased too, with the value of customer orders increasing by on average 10% plus.

Likewise, Velaro chat has given All Top Books customers confidence to negotiate far bigger deals than previously achived. For example, they recently negotiated a contract that will be 700% larger than their previous largest contract. It has also made it far easier for the media to contact them and get instant replies in writing than by having to use email or phone (no written record available.)

“We do believe customer confidence is the way to clinch more sales”, said Dilip Sinha, managing director of Books and Beyond. “It’s very difficult to convince people that you are different from the other websites – we call ourselves ‘the difference in online bookselling’ – and Velaro’s pricing, reliability and virtually instantaneous support when needed allow us to use a tool which enables us to deliver instant answers to customers questions. This allows us to demonstrate our fast response in sourcing books and our personal pricing, which leads customers to go ahead and buy.”