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Performance Management for Sales and Marketing

Call Management

4 Ways to Improve Call Management for Dealerships

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Car dealerships cannot ignore the phone. Once you can ensure that employees are picking up the phone every time it rings, you must also ensure that they are delivering a great phone experience to potential car-buyers. Read on for tips to improve your call management process at your dealership.

Maximize Your Phone Answering

Do you know how many of your phone calls go unanswered or are mishandled every day?

Give every caller the same amount of attention that you would give to a lead who walks into the showroom. Only about half of all inbound calls are potential sales, so make every call count.

PHONE TIPS
  1. Answer the phone
  2. Make sure your IVR routes correctly
  3. Remember that the goal of every call is to set the appointment
  4. Make every call successful with these elements:
    • Build Relationship
    • Understand Needs
    • Create Value
    • Ask for the Commitment

If you don’t set the appointment, the caller is going to your competition.

Stop Your Call Routing Madness

CallSource’s automotive data insights show that 80% of viable customer calls don’t result in an appointment. Don’t let a lead’s phone experience be the reason they aren’t walking in the door.

Are you sure phone routing isn’t a problem?

When was the last time you called your dealership and asked to be connected to Sales or Service? How was your experience? If it wasn’t seamless, you need to make operational improvements.

TIPS:

  1. Make sure your IVR system routes to the proper department. Check your call tracking data to see how many calls go to voicemail.
  2. If a lead leaves a message, who is responsible for calling him/her back? Who makes sure that is happening?
    If your customers’ experience isn’t perfect, they are going to hang up and call your competitor.

Download our free Automotive Phone Tips to keep at your desk as a reminder to have great phone calls.

Dedicated Phone Team

Although a lot of dealerships are moving to a BDC model, you don’t have to have one to maximize your inbound phone leads.

If you want to maximize your phone to capture more opportunities, you have to prioritize a phone-handling team and call-management system.

Phone handling is a skill that needs to be developed. Inbound call handlers should qualify leads, make sure the caller has a great phone experience, and get them to the right department as quickly as possible.

Inbound call auto data shows the average appointment-setting rate in a dealer’s Sales department is less than ¼ of all possible opportunities – and the Service department sets just over 50% of opportunities. Both of these stats leave much room for improvement.

Best Practices for Inbound Calls
Thank you for calling _NAME_ Dealership. This is _YOUR NAME_, how may I direct your call? [LISTEN]
Sales: I’m happy to transfer you to sales, was there a specific model you were interested in? [LISTEN] Ok, I’m going to connect you to _NAME_. He’ll be happy to find what you are looking for.
Service: Did you want to set a service appointment or would you like to speak with your Service Advisor? [LISTEN] Ok great, I can help you with that.

Dedicated “Call Back” Employee

Missed opportunity alerts are a great way to save a customer and turn a loss into a win. Training a call handler to specifically recapture missed opportunities will increase your call-to-sale rate.

TIPS:

  1. Have a dedicated area for the call handler.
  2. Don’t require this call handler to cover the phones while making outbound calls.
  3. This call handler must solve the customer’s question or come up with an alternative; he or she needs to listen to the call and find the solution before calling the lead back.
  4. Create an incentive program for every appointment set.
  5. Train this employee on your CRM, inventory system, and other tools so they can overcome the caller’s objections.
  6. Use DealSaver Alerts to prioritize calls.
Best Practice Call Back
Hi _NAME_, this is _NAME_ from _NAME_ Dealership. I understand you were looking for a _YEAR,_MAKE_&_MODEL_. I know the salesperson told you we didn’t have a new one in stock, but we do have a few pre-owned options. Can I set an appointment to have you come in?

See how CallSource can improve your phones

Contact us to learn more about CallSource can help you control the phone experience and gain more customers by setting more leads into appointments.

Improve your employees’ phone skills with reporting, training and coaching for better calls.

What Is Call Tracking and Why Is It Important?

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What is call tracking?

Call tracking is a solution that aids marketers in attributing advertising, both online and offline. Call tracking provides the foundation for your marketing attribution data by capturing every call’s originating advertising source and the caller’s information, allowing you to make smarter marketing decisions.

How does call tracking work?

The process of implementing call tracking is quite simple. Depending on what kind of call tracking you are using, the way it works varies a bit. Static call tracking is used in offline advertising, as well as on some digital ads. Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) is used on digital formats only; mainly on websites and landing pages, and requires installing code on your page.

CallSource has both regular call tracking and call tracking with dynamic numbers available.

Here is one of our podcast episodes if you want to learn more about what is DNI and how does it help my business?

Static Call Tracking

Call tracking requires using trackable phone lines to use in your business’s advertising. When the client dials the call tracking phone number that is displayed in an ad, they are then routed to the company’s main phone line. That caller’s call information, as well as the call recording and additional analytics (depending on the call tracking provider and how robust their call tracking solution is), are then captured and reported.

how-does-call-tracking-work

Dynamic Number Insertion

DNI is a call tracking solution used strictly for digital marketing that allows customers to more effectively track their web traffic by breaking down searches to the referral site and keyword level. It uses dynamic numbers, meaning that a unique call tracking number is assigned in each of your online paid search advertising to a specific keyword used in Google, Bing or another search engine by using a script on the site.

DNI allows the phone number on the potential customer’s webpage to change based on the keywords used in the web search, so you can track what keywords are driving the most phone calls from your paid search advertising.

Knowing this lets you optimize your online marketing budget by utilizing the best ads and disposing of wasteful, unproductive keywords.

how-does-dni-work

Why is call tracking important?

Call tracking allows you to see which ads are the most effective at driving calls to your business, as well as capturing leads and booking appointments. It is the first step to understanding your customer’s journey and provides the marketing attribution you need to judge and adjust your advertising.

See why other marketing professionals recommend
you use call tracking.

How can call tracking help your business?

Call tracking is a necessity to make better-informed marketing decisions for your business. Check out some of the ways that call tracking will have a positive impact when implemented at your company.

Improve marketing spend

Instead of assuming that any specific advertisements are bringing in the number of calls promised, call tracking ensures that you know not only how many calls those ads are driving, but what types of calls are coming in from those advertisements.

Having call handlers ask callers where they heard about you isn’t as reliable – call tracking shows the exact advertising source that each person called from, leaving nothing to guesswork. Make sure that your ads are bringing you in true leads, and not junk calls, to allocate your marketing dollars wisely to the best-performing ads for your business.

Evaluate leads

CallSource’s human analysts, who have an over 95% accuracy rate, effectively label calls that come in through call tracking numbers as prospects or non-prospects depending on the type of caller dialing in.

Seeing only the volume of calls isn’t enough to evaluate true marketing performance – by knowing how many real leads call your business off of different ads, you know which advertisements are targeting the right type of customers for your business. Don’t make decisions based on calls alone; you want to see the types of calls that come into your business for more robust and granular reporting that will make a difference in your marketing.

Improve employee phone skills

By tracking and recording your phone calls, you can listen to calls and evaluate how well your employees are performing on the phone. Are they following call scripts or prompts, and booking appointments? Some call tracking companies, like CallSource, offer employee performance solutions that go beyond call tracking to help improve call performance. By listening to calls or looking at reporting with call tracking, you can determine which employees are under-performing or need additional training and coaching to book more leads.

Download our free Call Handler Audit to start scoring employee’s phone skills now.

Who should use call tracking?

Call tracking is beneficial for most businesses that use a phone number in their advertising and rely on the phone to make appointments and sales. Automotive dealerships, home service companies, healthcare practices, and marketing agencies are some of the industries that can benefit the most from call tracking solutions.

Any business that relies on marketing to gain new customers needs to improve its marketing tactics, and wants to grow their business will greatly benefit from call tracking.

The only type of business that probably isn’t a great fit for call tracking would be any small business that doesn’t do much marketing and relies strictly on word-of-mouth, or is at capacity and not wishing to expand their business. But if you are looking to grow and improve, then call tracking is a must.

Does call tracking have an impact on local SEO?

We’ve covered this topic in more detail, but to reiterate, thinking that call tracking affects local SEO is one of the many myths of call tracking.

NAP consistency is not affected by call tracking when done properly, and savvy marketers know that both marketing attribution with call tracking and SEO are important for a successful brand and marketing plan.

How can I start using call tracking?

Getting started with call tracking is simple. The process requires obtaining call tracking numbers to place on your advertising sources or porting your existing phone numbers to get them call-tracking-enabled.

Talk to a call tracking specialist to learn more about call tracking and how to get it set up ASAP for your business.

Start tracking your inbound calls.

Get Call Tracking.

I want to talk to someone about utilizing call tracking at my business.

Dreaming of a Great Vanity Phone Number?

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What if you launched an advertising campaign using a Vanity telephone number, and within just a few days, your phone was ringing off the hook with thousands of calls coming in? Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?

Well, for one company, it’s a dream come true. The number is 888-88-DREAM, licensed through CallSource. Record label Dreamville launched it recently for an EP they released, called 1-888-88-DREAM. They use the phone number to speak with fans and play tracks for them. It’s a marketing campaign that’s clearly working extremely well.

Finding an easy-to-remember, catchy number is a great – and proven – strategy for all kinds of companies to get their phone to ring more. You can highlight your product, your company name, or a service you provide.

Here at CallSource, we’ve got Vanity phone number clients ranging from car dealerships to home services companies, from retail & service companies to healthcare providers. Think 800-4-TOYOTA, 800-FIX-LEAK, 888-PROSPER, and 877-DENTIST, all of which are available through CallSource. We have access to thousands of great options and can work with you to find just the right number for your business.

Want to explore the potential of licensing a great Vanity number through CallSource? Give us a call at 855-GOT-VANITY – or check out our available vanity number options. We’ve got YOUR number.

How to Improve Your Marketing and Acquire More Hearing Patients

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Although visiting a hearing office is something that is done out of a necessity rather than a want, it is still vital to market your practice to potential patients to win business.

Most people who have hearing problems aren’t jumping for joy at the thought of getting their hearing checked and having hearing problems, ultimately leading to purchasing hearing aids. Yet, when they do decide to finally reach out to an office – you want it to be your office – and you must showcase your hearing practice so that they can find you to fulfill their needs.

Unless you’re the only hearing office for a 50-mile radius (unlikely), you need effective marketing to acquire additional patients and help people with their hearing.

“People may forget where they heard about you, and busy call handlers may forget to ask while on the call from time to time.”

Read below for tips to improve your marketing and experience to attain additional patients to your practice.

Track your phone calls

You won’t know anything about your marketing’s effectiveness if you aren’t tracking it. Call tracking is vital to track your marketing – especially your offline marketing – to see which ads are driving the most calls to your office.

The old method of having front office staff asking “how did you hear about us” isn’t fool-proof. People may forget where they heard about you, and busy call handlers may forget to ask while on the call from time to time. By automatically having call tracking numbers assigned on your direct mail pieces, TV ads, and other advertising sources, you can easily view reports to see where potential patients are discovering your practice.

Adjust marketing based on data

When you can look at a report to see which ads people are calling the most (and the least), you can re-adjust your marketing spend to invest in the most successful ads, rather than wasting precious marketing dollars at ads that you’ve been using but aren’t seeing much return on. Invest those marketing dollars into the avenues that are bringing leads to your office instead, and gain more patient opportunities with successful marketing tactics.

Improve phone experiences

When you are utilizing a call tracking service, it leaves the guesswork out of the equation and removes a step from your front office staff so they can focus on the patient experience on the phones. It can take people with hearing loss many years to finally pick up the phone and call a hearing office about their problem, so you want to make sure their first impression of your office is a good one. The marketing worked, they called your practice, and now you want them to meet with you to help treat their hearing impairments.

Grab our free call handler checklist to ensure
great phone conversations.

If you aren’t delivering superior phone experiences, you are also wasting marketing dollars. When the phone rings, that means your marketing worked, and you want to follow through with those leads to turn them into a fan and a lifelong patient of your practice.

Improve marketing spend with call tracking

Getting started with call tracking is simple. The process requires obtaining call tracking numbers to place on your advertising sources or porting your existing phone numbers to get them call-tracking-enabled.

Talk to a call tracking specialist to learn more about call tracking and how to get it set up ASAP for your business.

Start tracking your inbound calls.

Get Call Tracking.

I want to talk to someone about utilizing call tracking at my business.

Performance Management for Appointment-Based Businesses

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Introduction

For companies that have an appointment-based business model, the phone plays a vital role. Products or services cannot be sold solely on the internet or in brick-and-mortar stores. Potential customers must phone your business and engage with a real person to book an appointment before the sale is finalized.

Appointment-based businesses’ marketing campaign ads are not limited to digital advertising – they use many advertising channels in addition to digital such as TV, radio, direct mail, and more. Digital attribution is a built-in part of online marketing, but offline attribution must come into play as well for a holistic view of your marketing analytics. Appointment-based companies need to track incoming phone calls to determine what channels drive customers to call, which ads generate qualified leads, how call handlers handle these inbound calls, and how many prospects result in an appointment.

Determining where to spend your marketing dollars successfully should be based on the data to determine your ROI. Should you keep advertising with Campaign A, or reallocate that marketing budget towards Campaign B that generated more leads with a lower cost-per-lead investment? In a world with so many advertising options, it is imperative to make data-based decisions and not rely on antidotal information.

Ensuring great call experience and outcomes are also vital not only for your brand reputation and customer experience, but it directly correlates to your sales. Without call handlers booking phone appointments from inbound leads, you cannot make sales.

Performance management helps companies understand how their phone lines and offline marketing attribution, as well as call handler performance, impacts their overall marketing and company success. The phones are a vital step in consumers’ buying journeys; so employees’ performance on the phones must not be ignored. Having a performance management system in place is essential to make informed marketing decisions based on real data, not assumptions, of marketing and employee performance.

What is the basis of performance management?

At its core, a performance management system is based on data collected from your phones. However, it does take more than having phone lines for effective performance management.

To truly participate in a performance management solution, internal changes must be made and adhered to. Performance improvements must be put into place and followed through based off of the data that is collected through your phones and reported on.

A true performance management solution takes the data you receive to the next level of business optimization. Performance management shows how many inbound calls are true prospects, a breakdown of appointments made vs. missed opportunities, employee phone performance data, missed opportunity alerts, and call coaching opportunities.

It is up to you to determine what parts of performance management fit your business goals – whether it be some or all of the solutions. Like any organizational change to see results, it is only effective if you commit to taking action on the data you receive and implementing new processes to meet your goals.

Creating goals based on KPIs for accountability

A properly implemented performance management program means accountability for your business and your employees. An accountable business doesn’t stay complacent; they set goals.

When setting your goals, there are important steps to follow:

  1. Determine goals based on business objectives
  2. Set specific goals
  3. Develop a timeline for accomplishing each goal
  4. Communicate goals to each team member
  5. Create accountability through regular monitoring and employee feedback
  6. Practice continuous improvement

Customer Service Representatives are a vital part of the business and help you achieve your goals as a whole. They are the first person new customers will speak to and leave a lasting impression on your business.

“A goal properly set is halfway reached.” -Zig Ziglar

The first step in setting goals is to analyze your current standings; once you have an understanding of your baseline data, you can plan where you want to go. Utilizing the tools your performance management system provides helps identify your current standings in the following categories:

Marketing

  • Number of prospect calls
  • Cost per prospect call

Sales

  • Conversion rate
  • Number of appointments set
  • Cost per appointment

Customer Experience

  • Call handling consistency for all prospect customers
  • Branding is maintained
  • Call handler scheduling based on volume to ensure each call is answered the first time

By setting a baseline for all of these areas based off of your performance management program’s data, you can set specific KPIs (key performance indicators) for each employee and your team as a whole to reach towards for improvement and bettering your business.

How do I figure out if I need a performance management solution?

Simply put, if your business depends on the phone and uses call handlers at any point in the customer journey to make a sale, you will benefit from a performance management system. Try these simple questions to determine if call management is right for you.

  1. My business follows an appointment-based model.
    Do most of your customers make an appointment to purchase your product or service? Although some businesses may adopt an online form appointment booker, most consumers will still choose to call in and book an appointment over the phone by speaking to a live representative.

    Phone traffic to appointment-based companies has increased four-fold in the past several years due to click-to-call with smartphones. Within local services, 76% [of potential buyers] would use call features to schedule an appointment for professional services.1 Regardless of your marketing spend, you have one chance to turn a caller into a potential customer. Understanding your call to appointment rate, and knowing the outcomes of calls to improve call handler performance, is vital to the health of your business.

  2. My business has a dedicated call handling team to answer inbound calls.
    Your business either has a front office staff answering phone calls and speaking to customers, an in-house call handling department, or uses a call center. When you’re paying employees to handle phone calls, you need data to understand call outcome rates and how to make employees perform better.
  3. My business relies on repeat customers.
    If your business model depends on return customers (regardless of frequency), then every new customer requires nurturing over time. Customer service is the key to creating loyal customers. A performance management system aids you in seeing where your customer experience is lacking and where to improve for better future experiences.
  4. In-person appointments are required to make a sale.
    If making a sale requires customers to come to your business or for you to dispatch a technician for a consultation, then phone handling and appointment booking rates (taking into account no-show rates) are imperative to understand your true marketing ROI. If booking three more appointments a month without increasing more marketing spend can impact your profitability, it is imperative to continuously work on call handler skills and recapturing potential lost business.

Incentivizing employees

Incentive plans help motivate your team and help them appreciate that they have control over booking a sale or a call handler booking a prospect into an appointment. As owners and managers, you must decide what you want your employees to accomplish. A good incentive plan is considered fun, exciting, and rewarding.

Choosing the right plan depends on what you hope to achieve; you have to decide which type works for your company and your employees. There are basically three main categories of incentive plans: individual, group, and company. Individual plans reward each employee based on their own merits and can be tailored to suit each employee.

Utilizing a performance management solution gives many opportunities to put incentive programs into place. By delivering specific KPIs based on data delivered by your performance management program, you can implement incentive plans to help you and your team reach specific goals.

Once you have decided on an incentive plan that is right for your company, you need to create a plan that works for your office. To do this, you will need to conduct a need analysis. This should reflect your current situation and be tied in with your goals. Once you have set your goals, the next step is to structure your incentive plan; the results should be measurable and objective. See a detailed list below:

Creating an incentive plan that is right for your office

  • Set goals for where you want to be in the next 18 months (or longer)
  • Conduct a Needs Analysis
    • Current data tied to your goals
    • Set incremental micro goals to get you to your macro goals
  • Create an incentive plan for your employees tied to the micro goals
  • Create an evaluation time line/check-in to see if the plan is working
    • Get feedback (positive & negative) from your employees
  • Course correct as needed

Below are some questions to ask before coming up with the perfect incentive plan. The answers you come up with will help you identify which incentive plan will work best for you.

  • What does my team need to improve or work on?
  • What do I want to accomplish this year?
  • Are customers getting the experience they deserve?
  • Does each prospect have a different experience when they call the office?
  • How is team morale?

To implement an incentive plan, you need to clearly define the role of who you are incentivizing. When creating an incentive plan, keep in mind the risks. The incentive plan you choose can and will change the behaviors of your team. A poor incentive plan will lower morale, create conflict, and ultimately encourage the behavior you don’t want. Your incentive plan should benefit the employee and benefit the office. It will also allow you to see who your top performers are and who may be a good fit for a deeper role in the company than they currently have.

Sometimes incentivizing your team in one area is not enough; a hybrid incentive combines two or more goals for your team to meet. It incentivizes your team to concentrate on multiple areas and rewards a broader range of desired outcomes. Hybrid incentive plans allow your team to see the correlation between the goals that are set and met.

Coaching vs. Training

In your business, your sales and service call handlers are a key part of your sales team. They give your customers their first impression of your company, “selling” themselves and your business to book the appointments that lead to revenue and profit.

Performance and results must be top priorities for your sales and service phone handling. If your team is not yet giving you the results you expect, or if you want your team members to achieve higher levels of proficiency and performance, coaching by experienced professionals who know your business can meet your needs.

What exactly is coaching? Many businesses already train employees on particular aspects of their company and their job position. So how does coaching differ, and how can it help you?

Training and coaching are often used interchangeably, but they are two different approaches with two different goals.

Training teaches a person a specific skill or type of behavior. It is usually a one-time event, in which the agenda is controlled by the trainer in a formal setting. Training is also typically a “one size fits all” approach. Think of when a new system is being put in place – everyone needs to be trained on the new system. Employees go through a training meeting or course to know how to use this new system. The training is then complete, but as a short-term action without specific performance goals or long-term business growth.

Coaching supports a person in achieving a specific goal. It is an ongoing development that allows persons being coached to find a solution for themselves. The coach and the “learner” both determine the content, making it highly personalized and an ideal way to manage and enhance performance. Coaching relies on a “learn-do” feedback loop that holds employees accountable for their performance and outcomes. For example, when you coach a person on their individual phone skills, you both review the strengths of that person and specific areas for improvement. In the sales environment, a coach helps phone handlers own their performance according to their developed insights. These insights are ongoing, and there are always opportunities for further improvement during each coaching session.

Training Coaching
Learning objectives Performance objectives
Learner works in isolation Learner and coach in a learning partnership
Learner capability is unknown Learner capability is established
Knowledge-oriented Task-oriented
Focuses on acquiring skills Focuses on applying skills to solve business issues
Success is subjective, learning results are not linked to job performance Success is objective, based on job performance and measurable results
Limited or unknown ROI Easy to measure ROI

What should I do before implementing a performance management program?

Once you determine the right performance management solution for your company, be sure to read the following section before implementation.

Define specific goals for your performance management system

Create specific SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant & Time-bound) Goals you want to achieve with your call management system.

Make a timeline for yourself for achieving your goals.
If you don’t know where to start—answer why you want to purchase and implement performance management and work backward. Discuss your goals with the vendors you are deciding between and validate your timeline with them. If they don’t take an interest in your goals or your business before they make the sale, it is indicative of the support you will receive later in the relationship. If your vendor isn’t helping you in making the right decisions, it’s probably not the right system for you.

Team buy-in and excitement
Remove ambiguity from your team. Explain to your call handlers and office manager(s) how and why you are implementing performance management. Call handlers can have anxiety over having their calls recorded or monitored; it can feel punitive if not approached appropriately in the beginning. This can change your desired company culture.

Designate a call management team to train them on your “why.” This teach-the-teacher system will create transparency. Create clear expectations of responsibilities and accountability with regards to the reports and data each person will use and how to create a system for a feedback loop to find out what is working and what is not. Remember, negative feedback isn’t bad as long as it is constructive. Your employees who are answering the calls are closest to your new call management system; their feedback is needed for success.

Look at online reviews
Before purchasing your new call management system, look at their online reviews and testimonials. Some great review platforms to read reviews for call tracking and management companies are G2 Crowd, Google, and Capterra.

Consult industry groups and talk to peers who may use performance management platforms and find out first-hand what they do or don’t like about who they use.

Still skeptical? Here is how performance management will improve your business.

Since 1991, CallSource has been working with call tracking clients, but have created a myriad of products at our clients’ request. From Tier 1 companies to small mom-and-pop businesses, our call tracking and performance management system has helped over 300,000+ clients improve marketing spend, advance call handler performance, and ultimately increase their appointment conversion percentage and their bottom line.

First, using a performance management system keeps you informed. Major decisions should not be made without using sound data. By habitually reviewing your call analytics reports and scheduling regular meetings with your dedicated representative, you are committing time to improve your business. Once reviewing your performance management data becomes a part of your regular work routine, you can easily spot areas where you are excelling and hitting your KPIs, as well as areas you need to improve.

Utilizing a performance management system also improves your bottom line. Allocating marketing dollars to advertising effective channels rather than wasting budget on ad sources that are underperforming will maximize your marketing spend. Call processing reports and call coaching ensure your call handlers are increasing call-to-appointment rates and improving call handling skills.

Last, a performance management system helps owners and managers use data-driven forecasting. Discover how many actual prospects your marketing is driving to your phones and how your employees are handling those calls. Look at past data to stay prepared for upcoming seasons. Seasonal trends in advertising will also become apparent when reviewing data over time. Creating benchmarks and evaluation periods when trying new channels will also help you make more informed business decisions. By decreasing wasteful spend and improving call handler performance, you will stop leaving money on the table. If you decide to combine your performance management system with a digital attribution management system (which CallSource also provides), you get an even clearer picture of your customer journey.

How has utilizing performance management helped other businesses like mine?

  • A plumbing, heating, air and solar company that has been in business for over 17 years with 200+ employees increased their overall conversion rate from 74% to 78% and added over $43,000 in revenue to their bottom line by working with CallSource to improve their call handling experience with employee performance.
  • A large automotive dealership that has been run by family for three generations increased their work orders by utilizing CallSource’s performance management services, resulting in an additional $17,500/month in service revenue.
  • A well-known audiologist who has been in practice since 1994 increase their call to appointment conversion rate from 45% to 78%, dropped their average patient acquisition cost as much as 50% compared to the industry average and improved their overall marketing ROI while decreasing their marketing spend by $50,000.

In Conclusion

Choosing a performance management system shouldn’t be a quick decision. Evaluate all your options; make sure the company you are going to choose can support your business goals and provide the level of support that you want.

We hope that this guide has answered your questions about performance management and how using performance management to stay accountable and make real changes internally can help your marketing and operations teams improve to achieve greater ROI.

If you have further questions regarding performance management or just are interested in learning more, subscribe to the blog for more insights and solutions.

We are the experts in call tracking, call management, performance management, review management, and digital management. Contact us today to learn how we can help with your performance management needs.

Call Management: Your Guide to Better Phone Experiences

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Introduction

For companies that have an appointment-based business model, the phone plays a vital role. Products or services cannot be sold solely on the internet or in brick-and-mortar stores. Potential customers must phone your business and engage with a real person to book an appointment before the sale can be made.

Appointment-based businesses’ marketing campaign ads are not limited to digital advertising. Appointment-based businesses use many advertising channels in addition to digital such as TV, radio, direct mail, and more. Digital attribution is a built-in part of online marketing, but offline attribution must come into play as well for a holistic view of your marketing analytics. Appointment-based companies need to track incoming phone calls to determine what channels drive customers to call, and which ads generate qualified leads.

Determining where to spend your marketing dollars successfully should be based on the data that you receive to determine your ROI. Should you keep advertising with Campaign A, or reallocate that marketing budget towards Campaign B that generated more leads with a lower cost-per-lead investment? In a world with so many advertising options, it is imperative to make data-based decisions and not rely on antidotal information.

Call management helps companies understand how their phone lines and offline marketing attribution impact their overall marketing and company success. The phones are a vital step in consumers’ buying journeys; they must not be ignored. Having a call management system in place is essential to make informed marketing decisions based on real data, not assumptions, of marketing and employee performance.

What is the basis of call management?

The backbone of call management is your phones. However, it does take more than having phone lines for effective call management. The foundation of any successful call management system is call tracking or call recording.

Call tracking, which was invented by CallSource in 1991, is how data is gathered to aid marketing professionals in determining the success of their phone-driven marketing campaigns. At its simplest, call tracking requires creating and then publishing a unique phone number (local or toll-free) for each marketing campaign that you want to track. Ideally, this includes all of your distinctive ad sources: your website, television advertising, direct mail campaign, etc. Each unique phone number is routed to your main line(s).

When a potential customer calls in to each these numbers, detailed information including the caller’s phone number, name, address, connection status, duration and more are automatically captured, and the call is recorded. The call recordings can be listened to almost immediately for review.

As vital as it is, call tracking is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to call management. Analyzing a phone call provides robust analytics for marketing and operations managers alike. Leaders can improve in all departments with more detailed analytics about each phone call.

It is impractical for a staff member to review all your recorded calls and score call handler conversion rates. This is why appointment-based companies rely on call processing systems to do the dirty work for them. Call processing not only delivers insights into what channels consumers are calling from but also how the call was handled internally and what the outcome of the call was: did it end in an appointment or was it a lost opportunity?

Don’t be fooled, not all call processing companies are alike. Some call management systems utilize speech analytics to deliver more data about the phone call; this is inadequate for determining a call outcome as the technology is not quite there. Tone, nuance, and people’s accents are not understood by computers. 100% accuracy is simply not available with AI software like speech analytics. It is reported that speech and voice-to-text analyses only reach an accuracy of 77%1, while CallSource’s human analysts come in at upwards of 95% accuracy. When choosing a call management system to process your calls, you need human analysts that can truly determine call outcomes.

By diving deeper with these advanced call management systems, you can make more informed decisions to better your business.

How do I figure out if I need a call management product?

Simply put, if your business depends on the phone at any point in the customer journey to make a sale, you will benefit from a call management system. Try these simple questions to determine if call management is right for you.

  1. My business follows an appointment-based model.
    Do most of your customers make an appointment to purchase your product or service? Although some businesses may adopt an online form appointment booker, most consumers will still choose to call in and book an appointment over the phone by speaking to a live representative.

    Phone traffic to appointment-based companies has increased four-fold in the past several years due to click-to-call with smartphones. Within local services, 76% [of potential buyers] would use call features to schedule an appointment for professional services.2 Regardless of your marketing spend, you have one chance to turn a caller into a potential customer. Understanding your call to appointment rate is vital to the health of your business.

  2. My business has a dedicated call handling team to answer inbound calls.
    Your business either has a front office staff answering phone calls and speaking to customers, an in-house call handling department, or uses a call center. When you’re paying employees to handle phone calls, you need data to understand call outcome rates.
  3. My business relies on repeat customers.
    If your business model depends on return customers (regardless of frequency), then every new customer requires nurturing over time. Customer service is the key to creating loyal customers. Call analytics will help you determine repeat customers to market and speak to them as an existing customer rather than a potential client.
  4. In-person appointments are required to make a sale.
    If making a sale requires customers to come to your business or for you to dispatch a technician for a consultation, then phone handling and appointment booking rates (taking into account no-show rates) are imperative to understand your true marketing ROI. If booking three more appointments a month without increasing more marketing spend can impact your profitability, it is imperative to use call processing.

What should I look for in a call management vendor?

Although call tracking has been around since CallSource invented it over 26 years ago, many other call management-type solutions have popped up over the years. When researching companies, cast a wide net and narrow down your choices based on criteria that matters to you.

Below are a few items to consider when choosing during your evaluation.

  • Experience
    • Make sure that the company you choose has experience. There are a lot of fly-by-the night call tracking companies that appear in the industry and disappear just as quickly, leaving you in a lurch as your phones simply are not ringing. Call tracking is no longer an innovative technology; many companies and CRMs have adapted using call tracking as a part of their services. Having the capability to record a call does not mean they understand call processing and have the ability to support your business’ goals. Ensure that the company you choose has been in the industry for a while, is financially secure, and will provide the right level of customer service that you need.
  • Reliability
    • When a company is partially responsible for handling your phone lines and delivering phone numbers for your business, you want to make sure that they will be reliable and working. Just like Verizon and AT&T dominate as phone carriers for most mobile phone services, make sure your call management provider has a good phone carrier presence with quality phone routing.

      Besides reliable phone routing, make sure that the website uptime reliability for your provider is top-notch. Website downtimes mean you cannot login to view your data.

      Last, is the data reliable? Does the vendor score calls based off of algorithms that may not fit your actual phone calls? Do they use speech analytics or human call processing? If your call handlers are self-scoring, using a third party call processer will give you unbiased data. Make sure to get answers to your questions about reliability. A reputable call management company will have no problem answering how and who is scoring your calls. Don’t make critical business decisions from unreliable data.

  • Customer Service & Onboarding Process
    • Implementation of a management platform and maximizing it to improve your business requires commitment on your part as well as your provider.

      Implementing call tracking or call management is likened to buying a gym membership. You only see the results of getting fit if you commit yourself to make a change. Fortunately, call management doesn’t take a toll on you physically—but you do have to put the initial time in to make it work.

      It is vital that the vendor you choose has excellent customer service and dedicated representatives to your business, especially during your onboarding phase. As you move through the onboarding process and you have published your phone numbers, a dedicated representative should be there to help you understand your data. Receiving data is just another report if you don’t turn it into actionable and achievable goals.

  • Industry Knowledge
    • Some call tracking vendors focus on specific industries as their specialties in the call management sphere. If you are in a niche industry that needs specific industry knowledge, make sure your call management vendor can provide you with what you are looking for before deciding to hire that firm.

      A reputable call management system should be able to provide proprietary data to compare your business to others similar to yours. This gives you benchmarks and confidence that your customer representatives understand your needs and goals.

  • Pricing
    • Just as all call management providers aren’t created equal, neither are their pricing models. Find out what products you would benefit from and at what point they recommend you using each product. Buying all offered products at one time can be overwhelming. You can also be paying for products you don’t need yet. For instance, if you are looking for a call performance solution based on conclusive information for your employees/call handlers, you need a baseline of information before implementing an improvement strategy.

      Find a vendor that will create a pricing structure with you based on your call management goals. Be wary of contracts that lock you in; find a flexible, month-to-month solution that allows you cancel anytime, but is confident in their services to know that you’ll want to stay with them.

  • Integrations
    • Do you work with specific CRMs or marketing software with your business that you just cannot imagine adding another platform to look at in your day-to-day? If so, it is important to make sure that the call management provider you choose can integrate or push data into your existing platform. You want to ensure you’ll actually utilize the data – not just let it sit in another sphere that you only look at from time to time because you feel too overwhelmed.

Choosing a call management provider doesn’t need to be daunting; make sure you are clear on what you want to achieve when trying to find the right fit. Remember, call management should augment your business and make life easier for you, not more cumbersome. The above suggestions aren’t an exhaustive list but a starting point to use when speaking to different vendors.

What should I do before implementing a call management program?

Once you determine the call management provider, be sure to read the following section before implementation.

Define specific goals for your call management system
Create specific SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant & Time-bound) Goals you want to achieve with your call management system.

Make a timeline for yourself for achieving your goals.

If you don’t know where to start—answer why you want to purchase and implement call management and work backward. Discuss your goals with the call management vendors you are deciding between and validate your timeline with them. If they don’t take an interest in your goals or your business before they make the sale, it is indicative of the support you will receive later in the relationship. If your vendor isn’t helping you in making the right decisions, it’s probably not the right call management system for you.

Team buy-in and excitement
Remove ambiguity from your team. Explain to your call handlers and office manager(s) how and why you are implementing call management. Call handlers can have anxiety over having their calls recorded or monitored; it can feel punitive if not approached appropriately in the beginning. This can change your desired company culture.

Designate a call management team to train them on your “why.” This teach-the-teacher system will create transparency. Create clear expectations of responsibilities and accountability with regards to the reports and data each person will use and how to create a system for a feedback loop to find out what is working and what is not. Remember, negative feedback isn’t bad as long as it is constructive. Your employees who are answering the calls are closest to your new call management system; their feedback is needed for success.

Look at online reviews
Before purchasing your new call management system, look at their online reviews and testimonials. Some great review platforms to read reviews for call tracking and management companies are G2 Crowd, Google, and Capterra.

Consult industry groups and talk to peers who may use call management platforms and find out first-hand what they do or don’t like about who they use.

Still skeptical? Here is how call management will improve your business.

Since 1991, CallSource has been working with call tracking clients, but have created a myriad of products at our clients’ request. From Tier 1 companies to small mom-and-pop businesses, our call management system has helped a multitude of our clients improve marketing spend, advance call handler performance, and ultimately increase their appointment conversion percentage and their bottom line.

First, using a call management system keeps you informed. Major decisions should not be made without using sound data. By habitually reviewing your call analytics reports and scheduling regular meetings with your call management representative, you are committing time to improve your business. Once reviewing your call management data becomes a part of your regular work routine, you can easily spot areas where you are excelling and hitting your KPIs, as well as areas you need to improve.

Utilizing a call management system also improves your bottom line. Allocating marketing dollars to advertising effective channels rather than wasting budget on ad sources that are underperforming will maximize your marketing spend. Call processing ensures your call handlers are increasing call-to-appointment rates and improving call handling skills.

Last, a call management system helps owners and managers use data-driven forecasting. Discover peak times for inbound calls by looking at your past data to stay prepared for upcoming seasons. Seasonal trends in advertising will also become apparent when reviewing data over time. Creating benchmarks and evaluation periods when trying new channels will also help you make more informed business decisions. By decreasing wasteful spend, you will stop leaving money on the table. If you decide to combine your call management system with a digital attribution management system (which CallSource also provides), you get an even clearer picture of your customer journey.

How has utilizing call management helped other businesses like mine?

  • A large company that is part of a major home service network saved over $45,000 once they started using CallSource’s call management system by negotiating with one of their ad vendors after seeing their true ad performance with call track reporting.
  • A plumbing, heating, air and solar company that has been in business for over 17 years with 200+ employees increased their overall conversion rate from 74% to 78% and added over $43,000 in revenue to their bottom line by working with CallSource to improve their call handling experience with employee performance.
  • A large automotive dealership that has been run by family for three generations increased their work orders by utilizing CallSource’s call management services, resulting in an additional $17,500/month in service revenue.
  • A well-known audiologist who has been in practice since 1994 increase their call to appointment conversion rate from 45% to 78%, dropped their average patient acquisition cost as much as 50% compared to the industry average and improved their overall marketing ROI while decreasing their marketing spend by $50,000.

In Conclusion

Choosing a call management system shouldn’t be a quick decision. Evaluate all your options; make sure the company you are going to choose can support your business goals and provide the level of support that you want.

We hope that this guide has answered your questions about call management and how call tracking analytics can help your marketing and operations teams improve to achieve greater ROI.

Offline marketing attribution (and combining it with your online marketing) isn’t talked about quite as much in this digital age. It is, however, where the industries are going. Call tracking has evolved since its start over 26 years ago, and understanding how it works and what it can do for your business is vital before determining if it is a product that your business can benefit from.

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We are the experts in call tracking, call management, performance management, reputation management and digital management. Contact us today to learn how we can help with your call management needs.