When most people think of Jenny Craig, they probably think of spokeswomen Kirstie Alley and Valerie Bertinelli proclaiming their dramatic weight loss.

The national television and print advertising campaigns have been a success for the provider of weight loss programs. But there's another voice at work that the company attributes to its increased sales: the voice of customer service agents.

Victoria Kreutzkamp, director of call center operations and vendor management for Jenny Craig, credits the click-to-call feature on its Web site for part of the company's "huge" growth in sales (because the company is private, Jenny Craig declines to give sales numbers).

Launched in January 2006 to handle the call influx after the holiday season, the click-to-call functionality, powered by estara, proved to be more valuable than simply accommodating increased Web and call volume. The real potential is in connecting prospects to centers in their area, avoiding the risk of losing prospective customers who don't get the immediate information they need from the Web site or through the national call center.

"With click-to-call, they can learn more about a center and they're connected to the center nearest to them," Kreutzkamp says. The Jenny Craig employee who answers the phone sets up an appointment to visit a nearby Jenny Craig or to explain JennyDirect, an at-home weight loss training and coaching alternative, and a program that Kreutzkamp says was confusing and virtually unknown until click-to-call. "Click-to-call helps potential clients in the moment reach out to us to get faster service and information," she says. "We can also better educate them on the benefits.… We've seen leads go up because we're more accessible."

John Federman, CEO of estara, calls Jenny Craig "innovative" for delivering leads to its 446 local franchises. "What Jenny Craig does that's so great is it uses the program to link the national campaign to a local implementation," he says. "They're delivering [the local weight loss center] the right person at the right time."

The strategy seems to be paying off. Kreutzkamp says that click-to-call's impact on Web conversion is higher than those of other methods like toll-free numbers and email. In addition, the company has seen an increase in total call volume, incremental revenue gains, and higher close rates.

To evolve the strategy Jenny Craig is currently overhauling its Web site with a planned relaunch at the end of this year, Kreutzkamp says. "It's going to be aesthetically gorgeous, but more interactive, informative, with video streams and more testimonials," she says. "We're taking the Web site leaps and bounds from where it is now."