When people ask about recommendations for improving their marketing spend, the conversation always pivots to a discussion about how they are currently tracking leads and campaign results. What marketers often see is that many small to midsize companies don’t diligently track web visits, phone calls, email open rates and a variety of other important metrics. Calls are often the very first touch point with a new client, so getting things right on how your calls are answered (or not) is critical to your business and marketing ROI. In this article, we’re going to focus on basic call tracking technology that any size business can implement.
Call tracking software produces daily reports on calls by date, time of the call, source (i.e., website), caller ID, length of the call, recording of calls and many other management tools that help improve your business. Fortunately, there are easy and inexpensive ways to get call tracking started… and you don’t need to be an IT expert.
One of the vendors I’ve used in the past is CallSource. It and dozens of other cloud-based call tracking software providers can be relatively inexpensive for a small to midsize business that only needs to track a few phone numbers. It can also arrange to obtain new 800 numbers if needed — or port over an existing number into your account. GetApp.com, an independent technology review website, gave CallSource a 4.4 out of 5 star overall rating. Its highest ratings came in the ease of use and customer service categories. Other service providers, however, may be a better fit for your specific business needs.
Implementing call tracking metrics should be considered for all size businesses that rely on phone calls to keep current customers happy and to create new ones looking for your products or services. For more advanced call tracking, the use of dynamic number insertions and geo-routing technology may also be considered. We’ll discuss that and other call tracking metrics in a future article.
Contact us today if you would like to talk about your marketing and business development needs.
Guy Hanford
President
Vesteras LLC
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