by Laura Noonan, published in Dealer Marketing Magazine Online – September 2012
It’s inescapable — we live in a world that is driven by data. Many GMs, sales managers, and their teams are tasked with compiling masses of data to be categorized, analyzed, digested, and relayed back to management in every imaginable form. But, is it really happening? Are dealerships able to take on the seemingly insurmountable responsibilities of extracting the right data that will be most useful, analyzing those metrics correctly, and then making sound business decisions?
Maybe some are, but certainly many are not. From our experience as a company that thoroughly tracks every lead, sale, and marketing program to the finest detail, we know it’s extremely time-consuming. Given that perspective, we suspect there are many dealerships that are not able to put the right amount of resources on the mission to track the source of every incoming lead and call, and the results of those leads and calls — how many converted into new business.
This is the reason why dealers are more often turning to call tracking services to gather the data they need, and provide it in an easily digestible, informative, and actionable way.
Call tracking services provide the accurate insights to answer many of the business questions that run through the minds of executives every day, and that are discussed during management meetings:
- Are we missing potential sales calls, and how does the sales team get those callers back?
- Are we spending our marketing and advertising dollars most effectively and in the right places?
- How can we improve our employee training programs to reduce turn-over?
- On average, how many unique, new leads do we have each month?
- What are our customers telling us they need and want from our service?
- What markets are we most successful in, and where are our advertising not being effective?
- How do we keep a pulse on what our competitors are doing?
A business can answer these questions rather easily if they use a call tracking system along with call recording technology. The information to get to these answers is available in real-time, so data is ”˜up to the minute’ and downloadable for easy reporting and analysis.
For example, tracking and recording services will alert you of missed calls, provide data on the cost-per-lead of an advertising campaign, capture customer conversations and provide key insights into how well front line employees are handling calls and if they are following a company sales script. Call recording technology also provides the necessary details on precisely what customers are asking for, trends in the marketplace, and any mentions of competitors and their pricing or promotional strategies.
Call tracking reports easily segment your call data and provide you with tangible evidence to support strategic marketing, customer service process, and overall business decisions. Having access to this in-depth data empowers you with accurate business intelligence and eliminates the guesswork and uncertainty about employee and customer behaviors.
Call data to address these business challenges is available to dealers of all sizes, not just multi-location, larger dealers. To ensure you get the critical business data you need without the high costs of hardware and software installation, start by identifying a service provider with a solid reputation — one that takes advantage of today’s technology to provide robust and cost effective business solutions.
Additionally, dealers are advised to should seek a provider with a track record of developing forward-thinking technology enhancements, and one that keeps a pulse on what companies need in order to address customer-facing business challenges.
Today, small to medium-sized dealers have even greater access to call tracking data. Make sure your business stays competitive by having the ability to track every lead, sales and customer experience in order to answer these seven questions about your business.
Laura Noonan has 19 years of experience working with the SMB market. She leads the marketing teams at 800response and CallFinder, delivering telecommunications solutions and web-based marketing technology tools including sophisticated Call Routing platforms, real-time Call Tracking, Custom 800 Number service, and Call Monitoring services like Call Recording and speech analytics. Contact Laura at [email protected] .
