askLaila testing click to call service (Google failed to implement in India)
Google failed to implement Click-to-call in India (advertisers weren’t pleased with the quality of service), and now askLaila is testing the service in it’s portal.
The current testing is being done for restaurant query, Bangalore and is being tested upon one of the founder’s owned restaurant, Potluck.
This is an interesting development, because if you are a local search player (web based), you only have limited options to maximize the value of your product (and beat the beast, i.e. justdial)
- Launch voice service (Google launched voice service and is now integrating voice recognition to automate the search) – this needs some serious cash, if you are going call center route, but otherwise you won’t get 100% accuracy in voice recognition.
Even if you are taking the voice recognition route, you need to have a fallback option of human support and that means burning a lot more cash. - Leave the voice business to justdial (and other regional players) and focus on web – that means, leaving quite a major portion of money on the table.
The most optimum way to monetize Local search is via lead generation and web based local search players have no option, but to take the click-to-call route : voice or no voice.
Period.
What are the other monetization models? Do share.
Recommended Read:Local search stats for Indian Market
Sulekha too has implemented click-to-call service in it’s portal – any feedback on the quality?
About the author - Ashish Sinha is a Startup Mentor/Product Strategy Coach, and the founder/chief editor of pluGGd.in.
He has launched/managed couple of products (consumer as well as enterprise) in US and India, and now consults with startups/small businesses on their product/media strategy. He can be reached at: ashish (at) pluGGd.in [+91 98452 06443]
It will take some time for indian public to get used to all this techy stuff. I am not talking about you or me but the majority of the public who don’t use internet for passing time. For them Net is only meant for emailing their resumes once somewhere or taking a look at indian railway site sometime. The local players have to make sure that they provide solutions which the general public can accept easily.
Click to call is nothing new i have seen many players doing it for sample even in rediff classifieds page there is a click to call feature however the problem is that this feature should be there only for big ticket products for smaller products advertiser feels it is an irritant to him since the call can come at even odd hours
“since calls can come at odd hours” : this can easily be taken care by the implementer of the Click to Call service – a simple check for working hours / “good” hours to call
Asklaila’s click to call service is very different from google’s. It isn’t a voice recognition service where one has to speak a word to search for a local query. It’s not an automated version of justdial.
It plainly connects your call to the restaurant. Give your mobile number, and you will get a call from the restaurant itself.
I think the author of this post got it wrong by what the service meant.
I guess you read it wrong – nowhere its mentioned that asklaila’s click-to-call is same as Google’s.
Infact, that’s the basic pt. that I am trying to make – voice is a costly business and if you aren’t getting into that, how do you monetize?
Hi Ashish, as you said voice is a costly servise, how just dial able to do the business with voice servise, if the servise is possible with just dail, it should work out for the ask laila?
“The most optimum way to monetize Local search is via lead generation and web based local search players have no option, but to take the click-to-call route : voice or no voice.”
Crux of the discussion
I hope they dont spam like sulekha does. After seeing a property, i used this service to contact the seller. While the deal didnt go through for the next 6 months i was bombarbed with spam mails and calls from sulekha. And even after asking them to stop, it continued for sometime.
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