The internet is a mammoth gateway for creating a buzz, increasing visibility and traction. Comments and conversations can happen over chat, Email or even social media.
Digital marketing is steadily gaining ground as an important avenue for businesses both big and small. Today, every company reserves a major share of their marketing budget for digital marketing. Some companies even go as far as to solely rely on it. Yet, one thing has not changed much at all. People are still crazy about talking. Phone calls are the easiest way for people to connect with a prospective or existing service or product provider. In fact, research says that people tend to distrust businesses that do not have a transparent calling mechanism in place.
Phone calls are a wealth of information to companies that are largely left untapped. Understanding who’s calling your business and why provides new insights to optimise campaign performance, improve the customer experience, and ultimately drive more sales. And let’s face it, we all strive for increased sales!
Increasing number of inbound calls is directly correlated with increased customer acquisition.
Why?
Because a phone call means that the person has decided to spare a few minutes to learn more about your business. That, by itself, is a strong indicator of purchase intent. He has already covered half the distance which skyrockets his likelihood of actually becoming your customer.
So how do you ensure you get your customers to call and thereafter use that information wisely?
How we use call intelligence at Exotel:
1. Phone numbers as clear Call-To-Action buttons:
Call-To-Action buttons have been known to increase conversions by significant amounts – sometimes up to 300%. A strong call-to-action (CTA) encourages the customer to take specific actions – such as ‘download an ebook’, ‘attend a webinar’ or ‘call now for details’. CTAs need to be strategically placed at a spot where people are likely to notice it more. Of course, the CTA has to be persuasive enough to prompt action. A good, clean design is crucial for a CTA to really work.
Most users have moved from desktop users to being mobile users. Gone are the days when potential customers had to copy the number a business wanted them to reach on. With most users having smartphones, all CTAs can go one step further and become clickable telephone links. Clicking on the CTA initiate the call for you. This feature has come to be viewed as so convenient that many customers avoid contacting businesses that do not have this feature.
2. Call history to understand potential customers:
When we see someone registering for a free trial, we do a check to see if they have called us before registering. If they have, then we use the information on the call to give us context on the needs of this potential customer. Once we understand that, it becomes easy for us to highlight and bring the most useful features to the forefront for their business.
3. Analyse sign ups from specific campaigns:
Based on the number the call has come into, we modify our pitch to the customer based on the campaign they’ve seen before registering. In fact, companies like Exotel take it one step further by helping you calculate your marketing ROI using the numbers you’ve given as CTAs. We can easily assign specific virtual numbers to every campaign, calculate the ROI on each of these campaigns and every platform the campaign was run on. Infact, one of our client’s Jagriti Yatra does exactly this.
Having this kind of data provides a complete view of what’s working most for conversions- allowing you to quickly optimise your search terms, landing pages, marketing platforms – thereby giving you a whole lot of control on your marketing spend and outcomes. If you’re using this for print, having one number for each ad will help you figure which ad performs better than which one.
4. Improving conversations using recordings:
We use call recordings to understand what the customer wants better. It ensures that our customer facing teams improve their conversations based on what the customer has said. Even after signing up, our call analytics continue to provide us with invaluable data to increase value for our customers.
Call intelligence is invaluable to improving customer experience. Unfulfilled callers can be tracked to understand the nature of their issues. For example, dropped calls and confusing menu options can be easily identified and rectified. Call intelligence is the surveillance camera over your caller experience.
5. Ensuring availability based on call volumes:
Having call data ensures you understand the underlying problem of a situation. For instance, we first started our 24/7 customer support center noticing a spike in the call volumes that came later at night. Eventually, upon further analysis of call data, we moved to a 7 AM to 12 AM model. This helped us ensure that no customer query went unanswered. It also helped ensure we were always available to answer their queries. In fact, our client, Bawa Group of Hotels also used call intelligence to gauge their customer calling patterns and handled their manpower requirements accordingly.
6. Establishing the right connection:
Another simple thing we use call intelligence for is to determine the path a customer or a potential customer should take when he calls. When a customer calls Exotel for the very first time, he has an IVR option which allows him to either connect to the sales or support team. If the potential customer has already called before and is still in the trial account stage, he is connected directly to the sales team. When the customer moves to the converted stage, he then directly gets connected to the support team. This makes it convenient for the customer to speak to the relevant team. Now, this may not seem like a huge deal but it works well for us.
We also use another feature we call ‘sticky agent’ to enhance our customer’s experience. When a customer or a potential customer calls for the second (or even third) time, this feature ensures he’s connected to the person he spoke to the first time. It helped our customers get connected to the executives that were already up to speed with what they wanted, thus avoiding having to repeat themselves. Do you see how the frustration level of the customer instantly drops by 50%?
A business cannot succeed without customers – both new and existing. Today’s customers need quick fulfilment. An existing customer, if nurtured and taken care of well will have plenty of reasons to recommend your business to others. A new one, if catered to on time and well, will be convinced about your business in no time. These simple yet effective call intelligence techniques will give you a comprehensive view of the customer while giving them the confidence they need in your business.