It is critical for advertisers to begin advertising in the local search space, and delivering quality leads through local search is clearly a way to convince advertisers to do so. Many people identify local search as being associated with service-based businesses – plumbers, pizza places – but the reality is that it incorporates major product categories, including automobiles and jewelry.

For a business, whether it is a local or national, it is important to advertise at all stages of the buying cycle for consumers. It is especially important in the stages where consumers are aware of their need and they begin researching and evaluating their buying criteria. As consumers get further along into the buying cycle, it is important for advertisers to key-in on the advertising geography – especially at the stage when a consumer is deciding to contact the business or purchase a product and/or service. For example, national companies should focus on distributing leads to local franchise locations or retail outlets, and small- to medium-sized businesses should focus on the various products they carry or the services they offer.

As consumers are using more sources of information to make purchase decisions, platform-neutral leads to a business are critical because the sources of traffic could be coming from a variety of places. For Superpages.com advertisers, exposure to consumers in various platforms is enabled through strategic partnerships, thus providing leads from consumers via online and mobile searches. Although money is being spent online, 97 percent of U.S. retail spending is still spent offline according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Much of the transaction, especially in the local space, takes place offline.

According to analysts, the majority of consumers that conduct local searches transact offline.  The ability to convert this online traffic to a phone call or a visit to an offsite premises is vital as consumers are shopping on the Internet. With technology, tracking phone calls can measure the quality of a lead and making sure that advertisers are able to convert online traffic into valuable leads. Publishers and agencies are leveraging call tracking and monitoring programs to improve performance across channels to both local and national advertisers, and help close the in on that “last mile” to conversion by extending the utility of online ads through services like click to call and save & send, which allow consumers to connect with businesses immediately or save directory listings in their preferred format for later use. More importantly, these services provide granular ROI data for marketers to prove performance to their advertisers.

Consumers have buying power in the local search space, and compared to the average Internet buyer, the local search buyer has a higher buying power index according to comScore. The value of local search and the importance of measuring the quality of a lead are paramount for any online and offline advertising campaign to be successful.

Robyn Rose is VP, Internet Marketing, at Idearc Media Corp. the official publisher of Verizon® Yellow Pages and Superpages.com® (www.superpages.com). Rose is responsible for marketing the company’s advanced Internet/Web products and pay for performance advertising solutions, and Superpages.com to buyers and advertisers.

What happens now if a Wal-Mart customer is shopping for a new plasma television and gets stuck on the check out screen, or has a few questions and wants to be reassured by a live voice? By eliminating the phone as an option, Wal-Mart is potentially alienating a valuable would-be customer who is on the cusp of completing a sale.

According to analyst John Ragsdale of the Service & Support Professionals Association, “To propose that self-service is the only avenue for support is a problem.” He adds, “With the holiday shopping season right around the corner, I hope other retailers don’t follow Walmart.com’s lead.  It could make for an even more frustrating shopping season than usual, and that, my friends, is a terrifying thought.”

The voice channel remains an important option for customers looking to quickly resolve questions, particularly inquiries about big-ticket or complex purchases. In fact, a recent forecast from JupiterResearch, Trends in Customer Service Technology Purchasing and Operations, reports that “customer service by phone will continue to be consumers’ contact channel of choice,” even as people buy more goods and services online. According to Jupiter, although service contacts started online are expected to double from 2006 to 2012, they will still be only 14 percent of the total.

Instead of abandoning the phone channel entirely, Wal-Mart would do well to take the lead from other high-volume retailers and consider alternative strategies to guide consumers to the most appropriate channel based on their needs.  Other internet retailers, for example, have found ways to avoid expensive “order tracking” phone calls while not dropping the ball with their high-value prospects that may require personal assistance though using click to call.  

Click to call allows retailers to engage customers at strategic points throughout their Web site, so high-value customers gearing up to make a significant purchase can connect with the company’s call center.  At the same time, companies are leveraging real-time Web analytics to channel non-sales inquires to less costly service options like email, chat and self-service.  These rules-based, or proactive, click to call deployments ensure companies service loyal customers with the right sales channel for their needs, without overwhelming their contact centers. 

By forcing all of its online customers down the self-service path, Wal-Mart is forgetting that customers today view customer service as a significant differentiator, and a reason to form loyalty in an overcrowded marketplace where competing offers are just a click away. 

Denying customers their preferred method of contact, just to cut service costs, could wind up costing you something even more valuable…loyal customers.