Call Management

Make sure that the money you’re paying your answering service is paying off for your business

Many home services companies use answering services that exist outside of their actual office.

There are many reasons that answering services are incredibly helpful to your business.

However, it is essential to be aware of call outcomes happening from your answering service. It does prove to be a bit more difficult to know this when people are answering phone calls outside of where you are working – but with call tracking solutions, it is just as easy to track what’s going on outside of your four walls as it is inside your business.

To get the whole picture of how successfully your business is operating, you have to look at the entire picture. Use your data to get a complete view of your call handlers’ and your answering service’s call outcomes.

Check calls going to the answering service to see how many are answered or missed.

The point of having an answering service is to not miss any customer calls. Statistics show that 72% of callers will hang up instead of leaving a message when reaching a business’ voicemail; an answering service to help with your phone needs makes sense.

If your office closes at 5 PM, and calls are transferred to your answering service from 5-9 PM, review your call tracking data and notice how many calls are answered or missed. Depending on how detailed your call tracking service gets, you can also see how many appointments are set vs. missed opportunities.

It is trickier to know which calls are answered or missed in the office or by your answering service if they function as a rollover service receiving calls during the day.

CallSource simplifies this for you. Analysts listen for call handlers’ names to label each call. Your answering service can also be tagged enabling you to see call outcomes and effectiveness of the service.

If you have missed opportunity alerts, evaluate internal call handlers versus your answering service.

Whether your answering service functions as a roll-over service or an after-hours service, missed opportunity alerts are time-stamped to let you know when and who didn’t set the appointment.

Listen to the call recordings and address why these missed opportunities are happening. Ensure that all staff is adequately trained on how you want phone calls handled.

According to US Answer, “98 percent of callers state that they get a bad impression of the company if a non- qualified and ill-informed operator picks up the phone who does not know exactly what to do or so.” Just like you train your internal call handlers, make sure to give your answering service all of the necessary information they need to set the appointment, too.

Do you let them set appointments? If not, you may miss out on that potential customer by the next day.

If your answering service doesn’t set appointments, pay close attention to these calls as well as to employees designated to make these callbacks to ensure that callers are being followed up within a timely manner. Perhaps you will even want to re-think allowing your answering services to make tentative appointments.

If employees take too long to get back to a caller, there is a good chance that person will hang up and call the next business who can help with their problem. You’ve lost a potential lifelong customer due to lack of appointment-setting ability. Keep this in mind: Over half of callers call into a business to schedule an appointment, according to a recent survey.

Ultimately, it is up to you as the business leader to choose whether or not to use an answering service, and how to utilize them for your appointment-setting needs. Remember, it is important to keep tabs on all aspects of your business – especially when you are paying more money for a service that is meant to aid you in areas that you do not have available in your actual business.

For more insight into your call outcomes for your business, subscribe to our blog and talk to a CallSource representative today to see how we can help.

Start using call tracking to improve your dental office with just 30 minutes a week.

Utilizing call tracking efficiently requires a bit of effort on your end, kind of like going to the gym- you get out what you put in.

By putting in thirty minutes of your time a week, you will see a positive effect on your business. Our infographic below will show how to maximize your time and call tracking data.

Digital attribution only gives you a portion of your data – offline tracking is needed for offline marketing campaigns.

Question.

What are two things that have been around long before the internet yet are still highly useful in your marketing tactics?

Answer.

Direct mail and call tracking.

(I may have given that one away simply by the title).

If you are direct mail marketer or utilize direct mail campaigns for your business, call tracking is vital to determine the success of your pieces. Take the guesswork out of their performance and look at the real data to determine success.

Ultimately, you want consumers to call your business and set an appointment with you based off of your direct mail piece, right? Here’s how to determine the success of your next direct mail campaign with call tracking in a few simple steps.

1. Provision a unique call tracking number for your specific direct mail campaign

Simply provision or request a unique local or toll-free phone number labeled accordingly for your direct mail campaign. Make sure your number routes to the target phone line that you want to receive calls (probably not your mobile phone).

2. Print that unique phone number on direct mail marketing

Once your unique call tracking number is provisioned and labeled correctly within your call tracking system for reporting purposes, use that phone number on your direct mail collateral.

3. Measure results with your call tracking metrics

When the campaign has run its course (you should define start and stop dates before the campaign begins), pull reporting specific to that call tracking number through your call tracking service.

Pay specific attention to certain metrics such as:

• Number of inbound phone calls received
• Amount of prospects vs. calls received
• Cost per lead (CPL)
• Appointment conversion rate

Make sure that you set out specific metrics for success before and see how well your direct mail campaign measured up.

By using these metrics, you can see if you should repeat, or what to fix for your next direct mail campaign.

Want to learn more about call tracking? Speak to one of our representatives now.

Your hearing practice probably goes through ebbs and flows with phone calls – use these slower times to your benefit when phones aren’t ringing off the hook.

Right now is a sort of “in between” seasons for hearing offices. You’re still a bit on the heels of Better Hearing Month in May where you probably got an influx of calls, and a quarter before the holiday season when families may be spending time with loved ones and scheduling calls for them to come get their hearing checked.

According to CallSource’s call data, there is a bit of a lull in inbound calls in hearing offices around this time of year. So what to do? It’s important to use this extra time you may have to get all of your office ducks in a row.

Check previous years’ call volume to stay prepared

By reviewing the calls you received last year with your call tracking data, you can be prepared for your next influx of calls.

Check out the upcoming months and weeks for the previous year and see when you had more or less incoming calls. Also be sure to pay attention to what campaigns you had running at these times, if any, and compare that to if you are running similar campaigns or not this time around – since that will make a difference in your inbound call numbers.

It is important to pay attention to the calls you received by hour to staff according to your peak inbound call times.

Don’t get short-staffed and fall behind on inbound calls as well as taking care of front office patients. Be prepared by reviewing the correct data.

Review your current, or recent, data

Don’t have call tracking information from a whole year back? Maybe you just recently signed up for call tracking, or maybe you don’t have any call tracking data yet at all.

If you do have call tracking but don’t have last year’s data, look at the past few weeks or months to determine any patterns. For example, are there fewer calls from 3-5pm? Block off calendar time to make sure you dedicate it to other important tasks since you know you’re less likely to get sidetracked with lots of calls instead of doing those during busy times and possibly making a mistake.

Efficiently Schedule Employees

By reviewing your inbound call data, as briefly mentioned above, you can staff employees according to call volume for maximum efficiency.

This is especially useful for hearing businesses with more than one office. Make sure you have the right amount of employees covering each office, and at the right times.

Do you need to open another office earlier or keep it open later than usual? If you are missing too many inbound calls, it may be worth it to have an employee on call or roll over your phone lines at a certain time to another office that may be open later.

Don’t let the down times in your office go to waste – use the slower season to prepare for what’s ahead, and do it more efficiently with call tracking.

Curious to learn how CallSource’s call tracking can help you in the areas noted above, as well as in other aspects of your business? Contact a representative now.