Recently, a friend was brainstorming for ways to create their new product. They wanted to offer phone support for customers who pay a subscription fee. As a small business they of course don’t have the kind of budget for the big boys solutions. She wanted to go easy and low tech and give subscribers a phone number to call after they subscribe.

Low tech is good. Many times, I too like to go simple and low tech because it’s so much easier and less chances of tech problems. But I pointed out this may not work so well in her case because, if the phone number is a static one, there’s nothing stopping a past subscriber from calling the number. Yes, at time of call you can quickly check your records but that can be ineffective because it would increase the time she’d have to be on the phone and simply do a lot of unnecessary searching. On top of that, if the customer is no longer a subscriber and he’s on the phone with you, no matter what you say, it’s not going to come up so good especially to him. It might seem to him you’re accusing him of trying to weasel you… ah… the joys of customer service. not sure about you, but I personally like to limit as many potential bombs as possible. So, I came in and helped her figure out a better, more cost effective and yet simple way.

The suggestion, use a program like aMember to create and manage their membership. Then, get themselves an account at a company like thinkingVOICE. thinkingVOICE is a click to call service. You place a button or a form on your site, people fill in their information including their phone number and click call me. Their system will call you, when you answer, it will connect the customer and you together.

Your phone numbers are not revealed to the customer. The cost? A queen’s ransom of $6.95 a month + $0.15 per minute. Back to my friend’s case. She would only have to put this form or button inside the membership area so it’s only accessible to active subscribers and eliminate the problem of being able to call after the subscription is cancelled.

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