Open contact is the presentation of real employee contact details such as name, email and telephone number on company websites to facilitate customer first contact. How much do buyers appreciate it when vendors make it easy to find the right person to contact?

In the report, The First Contact,Brockmann & Company reviews the perspectives of 260business-to-business buyers and their preferences, brand impressionsand frustrations particularly surrounding 'hard-to-reach' vendors andpotential vendors. One of the surprising results was how stronglyrespondents felt about companies that participated in 'open contact' -the rapid and convenient access to real people in the enterprise. Opencontact is about posting email and telephone numbers of sales orcustomer support persons contact details on the website so customerscan find them easily. Respondents argued that open contact made thecorporation more human and interested in offering more personalizedinteractions.

One of the biggest drawbacks to open contact is the higher incidenceof spam since trawl-bots are the frequent consumer of email addressesavailable in the web or newsgroups. The report recommends web forms andchallenge-response technology can effectively meet the requirements andavoids the pitfalls of open contact. 

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