THE IMPORTANCE OF CALL TRACKING

IN THE CLOUD CONTACT CENTER

THE IMPORTANCE OF CALL TRACKING IN THE CLOUD CONTACT CENTERDuring the economic recession companies began thinking outside the box in order to save money. Contact centers were included in this thought process, and business leaders began thinking outside the traditional contact center setup. The recession brought to light the shortcomings of traditional, on-premises contact centers and skeptics of cloud contact centers soon began to see the benefi ts and made the switch. Companies today see the drastic reduction in total cost of ownership, the fl exibility of the hosted solution which can grow with ease and without the need for more capital and lengthy deployments of new software, hardware, and the hiring and training of new agents. This entire infrastructure is now in the cloud.

Companies that rely on contact centers to push their product aren’t losing out on the key software features that help them run an effi cient operation. Call tracking, for instance, is still a vital piece of the puzzle that fi ts perfectly in a cloud contact center solution.

The basic function of call tracking is to keep track of data that comes with a telephone call, a very important step in evaluating the performance of telephone campaigns in marketing and advertising.

Call tracking includes data that can allow a supervisor to see the number associated with the call, where it comes from, how long the call takes from beginning to end, and other information, including if an outgoing call went to a busy signal or an answering machine or connected with an actual live person. It can also include the number of rings it took to get to that busy signal, machine, or person. With this data and other features attached to call tracking software, supervisors can achieve greater visibility into the contact center process and make arrangements, where needed, to improve the service.

WHAT IS CALL TRACKING AND HOW DOES IT WORK?One of the major goals of companies using call tracking technology is to narrow in on buying behaviors. Looking toward a technology such as call tracking to shore-up ineffi ciencies and take away the guesswork makes total sense. Call tracking has been around for more than a decade, but not until recently has the technology advanced to a level that focuses on a client’s behavior that leads to them calling to your contact center.

Integration between call tracking technology and online paid search services such as Yahoo Search Marketing and Google AdWords has provided an easy-to-read analysis of what is going on with customers and their interaction with contact centers. Integration with call tracking continues to be a valuable customer relationship management software and web analytics solution for calls generated through online activities. Call tracking takes on a whole new life when looking at what can be derived from Web-related calls. For instance, what keywords did the client use to get to the contact center? Which page on the website was the client on when the call was made?

One thing is certain – call tracking does much more than just record how many calls were made and from who it came from or went out to. The mechanics behind call tracking includes passing the call from the telephone provider through a proprietary phone system that tracks the data in the call (though not the conversation). Call tracking in standard T1 digital phone circuits will utilize a Time-division multiplexing system. In addition, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) delivery is gaining popularity.

WHY IS CALL TRACKING IMPORTANT FOR THE BOTTOM LINE?Companies are spending little on their call tracking solutions and coming out winners. Spending a “little” might be a loose interpretation of the costs, which can sometimes go into six digit monthly fi gures, but the bottom line is return on investment, and it is sometimes quite large. Take into account how advertising and telemarketing strategies utilize the perks of a call tracking solution.

ADVERTISING STRATEGIESWord of mouth only goes so far. At some point, almost every successful company has shelled out a pretty penny on advertising. However the issue with advertising is that upwards of 80 percent of the money spent is misdirected. Call tracking allows companies to direct their advertising dollars to the right place, and it lets companies know when an advertising strategy is working and when it isn’t. It’s as easy as using a number in one advertisement of the campaign and a different phone number in another advertisement.

So, if you were to take your advertising budget and divide it into four equal parts and advertise in four different mediums, you can use call tracking to assign a different number to each type of medium. If you used one number in your local paper, and another number in billboard up the road, you could track which number is getting more play and redirect more advertising funds to that medium.

TELEMARKETING STRATEGIESCall tracking data can also be used by telemarketers to tweak campaigns, but it can also be used to tweak the performance of the telemarketer. The metrics will show what calls were placed to whom, at what time, and the outcome of that call—whether a sale was made or not. It also helps to determine which telemarketing script is working best. Call tracking can help you here too, just look at the metrics laid out by the call-tracking interface.

Just as it is recording all the “invisible” data that many people don’t think about, some call tracking software allows for the recording of calls for supervisors to playback and judge performance of the agents handling the sales. Customer service gets a leg up with call tracking as telemarketers can also use call tracking to log customer inquiries. Those inquiries can be placed in the queue for an automatic call back at a later date when the answer to the question is known, which is more of auto-dialer function, but gets its start in call tracking solutions.

THE CALL TRACKING FEATURESGeographical Call Routing – Call tracking solutions allow you to route your calls by physical location. This can be achieved by using a zip code or a geocode. This technology allows all callers to call one number, and based on their location, the call is routed to the nearest business for the closest agent to assist. Surveys show that customers want to talk to someone as soon as possible. Geographical call routing uses technology that bypasses the machine interface whereby the customer has to enter information before they can be routed to the right location. The call routing does it automatically.

Call Recording – All calls can be recorded with call tracking features. As mentioned in the telemarketing strategy, this can lead to excellent customer service as agents’ performance is monitored and perfected. Improve not only your agents’ call handling skills, but hear for yourself what your clients are saying and how your scripts are working on them.

Custom Audio/Ring Tones – Sometimes, the caller doesn’t need to talk to an agent directly and a simple custom audio recording will suffi ce. Inbound callers can receive any number of dynamic messages that suit the promotion they’re calling about.

Real Time Reverse Match – The more an agent knows about who they are about to talk with, the more likely they will know how to approach that potential client/customer. The agent can know the name of the contact and their address before they’re even connected. Depending on the customer’s history, they can also have previous items purchased at their fi ngertips too.

Real-Time SOAP/Web Service Data Transfers – Reams of data that’s months old has its place, but sometimes there is a need for real-time simple object access protocol (SOAP) to give supervisors a snapshot of what’s going on for that day. The interface should be customizable to allow supervisors to see only the relevant data that can help him/her make decisions that affect your campaign.

Integrated Voicemail – Callers need to feel that their time is valuable. If all the agents in the contact center are engaged, a voicemail service available through many call-tracking solutions allows them to leave a message for callback. The integrated voicemail is another means of improving customer satisfaction.

Real-Time Notifi cations – This has many applications, but is yet another feature that boosts customer service and agent awareness. In some solutions, the notifi cation feature tells the agent that he/she has missed a call or has a new voicemail. In other solutions, the real-time notifi cation will alert an agent of where a call is coming from before they answer.

Dynamic QC/CRM Surveys – Quality control doesn’t end with a sale or a recorded message. Surveying clients is a valuable means of improving processes. The statistics realized in post-call quality control surveys can lead to a more highly effective campaign because it arms the company with valuable information directly from the customer who has experienced the campaign.

WHY CONNECT FIRST WHEN IT COMES TO CALL TRACKING?Connect First became an award-winning SaaS cloud contact center solutions provider by offering the technology that businesses need to thrive. Obviously, one of those needs is call tracking, which Connect First is uniquely positioned to offer. The features listed above can all be found with Connect First’s call tracking and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solutions.

Connect First’s solution is suited to companies that want their calls to fl ow transparently through a call tracking platform that can record the important metrics that companies can analyze to get the maximum amount of visibility into their telemarketing strategies and advertising campaigns.

Connect First’s hardware uses carrier grade, Tier 1 facilities in its call tracking and routing system. The call tracking software system records the important information from the calls before transferring the call to the suitable route. It’s at this point that if geographic routing is implemented, the information from the caller’s data will determine where the call will be routed next. And if for some reason that call cannot be completed, the caller is not left in the lurch – they’ll be put through to a custom audio message or voicemail, and a real-time notifi cation is sent to an agent.

Through fl exible routing, call delivery, and scheduling, Connect First can create an effi cient fl ow of inbound calls and provide the most cohesive quality assurances that contact centers require. Some contact centers require more advanced fl ow functionality and complex telemarketing campaigns. Connect First has a team of engineers that can bring the most cost-effective call tracking and IVR solutions that these types of contact centers require.

CONCLUSIONThe perks of using call tracking technology have been obvious to those who have used them, and the push toward adopting this technology is only going to increase as more and more marketing campaigns see added value and return on investment.

Connect First pushed ahead of the curve on this technology, and is a perfect example of a cloud contact center infrastructure solution that is helping companies attain visibility through its solutions, as well as the fl exibility that a hosted contact center can provide to a growing company. Advanced call metrics, used in the right way, can improve any company’s return on investment. Connect First offers a cost-effective solution that is fl exible and feature rich.

ABOUT CONNECT FIRST

Connect First is an award-winning SaaS telecommunications and cloud contact center software provider that focuses on customer satisfaction and elegant hosted solutions. Connect First offers a robust platform, designed and supported by a team of highly experienced engineers, designers and business analysts, and backed with personalized in-house customer care. Solutions include Cloud Routing, Inbound ACD, Outbound Dialing, Call Tracking, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Voice Broadcast, Disaster Recovery, Predictive Dialer, Real-Time Telemetry, CDR Reporting, Live Agent Chat and more. Through a consultative approach with each customer interaction, Connect First builds customized solutions to meet the needs of a discerning customer base.