How Freedom from Call Accounts Can Enhance Your Business
Many video calling services require users to create a dedicated account in order to use the system, either once at the host level or for every individual user.
In this article, we will discuss the challenges associated with the necessity of these accounts and look at ways of responding to them in order to create a smoother experience.
The Costs of Account Requirements
1. The sharing of personal information
Services necessitating the creation of accounts require users to provide personal information and agree to the provider's terms of use when registering, which can be both burdensome and time-consuming.
Naturally, when attempting to attract new users, it is beneficial to remove as many of these kinds of hurdles as possible.
2. Account management and maintenance
In typical call systems, the service provider — namely, the tutor — must possess an account. For tutors who remain with the company long-term, the initial creation of the account is a straightforward process.
In practice, however, tutors join and leave organizations frequently, which necessitates the creation and deletion of accounts each time.While this process is manageable with a small number of tutors, it becomes increasingly burdensome for management as the number of tutors grows.
3. Potential for direct communication between tutors and students
Providing tutors with their own dedicated calling accounts allows them to invite students to call URLs directly. This direct connection could facilitate the offering of paid lessons on an individual basis. Furthermore, it could lead to potential issues arising from personal interactions outside of the service.
Bellbird Removes the Need for Accounts
Bellbird, a video calling system developed by DMM Eikaiwa, addresses the challenges resulting from account requirements in the following ways:
1. The removal of obstacles during setup
By removing accounts, the process of initiating a call is much simpler; users only need to click a URL.
2. The elimination of tutor account maintenance
As accounts are not necessary, there are no operating costs associated with creating or deleting them when tutors join or leave the company. These costs consist of both money and valuable man-hours.
3. The Prevention of direct connections between tutors and students
With Bellbird, all call URLs are prepared by management, meaning tutors cannot invite students directly. Additionally, calls can be monitored, preventing tutors from offering paid lessons or personal interactions outside of the service.
What Are the Addtional Benefits Offered by Bellbird?
Let's now examine the further benefits of Bellbird. These benefits are what we at DMM Eikaiwa experienced ourselves upon our own switch to the service.
1. An increase in new users
Previously, DMM Eikaiwa required users to create two separate accounts, one for the overall service and a second specifically for video calls.
This split resulted in much user confusion. Not surprisingly, many dropped out partway through registration, and those who didn't struggled to take trial lessons due to problems creating their required account IDs.
After switching to Bellbird, we observed the following outcomes:
- A 50% increase in the number of trial members
- A 10% increase in the rate of conversion to paid members
For companies struggling to get users to take trial lessons, or those whose number of member registrations is low compared to the number of Unique Users (*1), we encourage you to try Bellbird to see what kind of effect it can have on your business.
*1 Unique Users (UUs) = The number of individuals who visited a website during a specific period of time.
2. A Reduction in operational costs
As mentioned previously, when each tutor requires their own account, it results in much additional work when they join or leave the company. This work only increases for companies that have integrated their booking system with tutors' accounts in order to enable automatic URL issuance.
Naturally, as the number of tutors increases, these tasks will place a growing strain on operating costs. With Bellbird, however, they will no longer be necessary.
Consider the Particluars of Your Organization
The effects mentioned above are examples from an online English service that had over 10,000 instructors at that time.
If your service is small, with up to several dozen tutors, account management will be straightforward. However, as the numbers of users and tutors rise, challenges can begin to appear. Therefore, if your service anticipates steady growth, we recommend making the switch to Bellbird now.
Summary
Bellbird's video calling system can be used without creating or managing accounts. At DMM Eikaiwa, this simplicity has contributed greatly to a boost in sales numbers and users as well as a reduction in operating costs. Try it out to see if it has the same effect on your business. Take advantage of our free trial, currently underway!
