When inbound call measurement became popular a few years ago, managers were amazed at the insight it offered on their staffs' productivity. Often times, employee performance improved simply because people knew that their calls were being monitored. Managers sought to install the same level of accountability to the telephone calls that were being dialed out, so we developed a solution that brought call measurement to outbound calls. 

Last month we had a couple of customers that used over 30,000 minutes through our outbound system. Since it would be nearly impossible for a single manager to analyze that many calls individually, we rolled up our sleeves – building out additional reporting modules to provide a nice overview of activity by each employee. 

The data we reports on shows a breakdown of how many calls each employee handled and how many calls each employee placed. You can now observe whether John Doe is going through on Friday afternoon and trying to place an entire week's worth of calls. 

This new functionality was built at the request of an auto dealership in Texas that was looking for a quick and easy way to summarize whether or not its sales staff was hitting quotas. As always, we appreciate suggestions and requests from customers who are using Century Interactive as their call measurement provider! www.centuryinteractive.com

When inbound call measurement became popular a few years ago, managers were amazed at the insight it offered on their staffs' productivity. Often times, employee performance improved simply because people knew that their calls were being monitored. Managers sought to install the same level of accountability to the telephone calls that were being dialed out, so we developed a solution that brought call measurement to outbound calls. 

Last month we had a couple of customers that used over 30,000 minutes through our outbound system. Since it would be nearly impossible for a single manager to analyze that many calls individually, we rolled up our sleeves – building out additional reporting modules to provide a nice overview of activity by each employee. 

The data we reports on shows a breakdown of how many calls each employee handled and how many calls each employee placed. You can now observe whether John Doe is going through on Friday afternoon and trying to place an entire week's worth of calls. 

This new functionality was built at the request of an auto dealership in Texas that was looking for a quick and easy way to summarize whether or not its sales staff was hitting quotas. As always, we appreciate suggestions and requests from customers who are using Century Interactive as their call measurement provider! www.centuryinteractive.com

Call tracking helps dealerships capture prospective customers at the point of interest, when they show intent, rather than prompting an email form to generate a call later. Data (and intuition) shows this leads to higher conversion rates and happier customers. 

However, as businesses devote more of their marketing budget to digital platforms, we notice they often devote more energy to tracking online responses only. If your main focus is electronic shopping carts and forms-fills to service customers, that’s great, but the automotive sales process is a highly consultative one, and you may be underwhelming your prospects who prefer human interaction right away if your call-to-action is a form-fill.

This presents a dilemma for general managers:  How do you optimize your website to present the right calls to action, including addressing those who want to have a question answered and make an appointment all in the same sitting?

Until now, measuring phone responses has been hit or miss (think: How did you hear about us?). That, plus the need to have a friendly, patient sales agent live and ready provides reason for many Internet managers to de-emphasize phone calls as a lead source to be optimized.

Breakthroughs in call tracking innovation, however, provide marketers the ability to quantify the offline impact of their online presence at a keyword level. By showcasing a clearly displayed telephone number on your website, prospects can simply call for information to help finish the sale. Otherwise, the alternatives almost always end badly – either the session times out or the customer goes elsewhere to make the appointment.

This measurement revolution is made possible because of the great strides in call tracking sophistication over the years. Call tracking has historically consisted of telling the merchant how many callers came from a particular media type (i.e. billboard, yellow pages etc).

Today, advanced call tracking solutions provide a hitlist of actionable data that shows the full picture of responses from every sort of digital campaign (PPC, organic, email, display) that drives a phone call. This means Internet managers can now quantify the offline impact of their online presence at a campaign level by identifying which keywords are generating phone calls.

We're working hard to create these call tracking tools and more that allow businesses to gain greater insight into how their marketing dollars are performing. Our goal is to bring accountability to what used to be a guessing game, making advertising measurable and our dealers smarter marketers.

Call tracking helps dealerships capture prospective customers at the point of interest, when they show intent, rather than prompting an email form to generate a call later. Data (and intuition) shows this leads to higher conversion rates and happier customers. 

However, as businesses devote more of their marketing budget to digital platforms, we notice they often devote more energy to tracking online responses only. If your main focus is electronic shopping carts and forms-fills to service customers, that’s great, but the automotive sales process is a highly consultative one, and you may be underwhelming your prospects who prefer human interaction right away if your call-to-action is a form-fill.

This presents a dilemma for general managers:  How do you optimize your website to present the right calls to action, including addressing those who want to have a question answered and make an appointment all in the same sitting?

Until now, measuring phone responses has been hit or miss (think: How did you hear about us?). That, plus the need to have a friendly, patient sales agent live and ready provides reason for many Internet managers to de-emphasize phone calls as a lead source to be optimized.

Breakthroughs in call tracking innovation, however, provide marketers the ability to quantify the offline impact of their online presence at a keyword level. By showcasing a clearly displayed telephone number on your website, prospects can simply call for information to help finish the sale. Otherwise, the alternatives almost always end badly – either the session times out or the customer goes elsewhere to make the appointment.

This measurement revolution is made possible because of the great strides in call tracking sophistication over the years. Call tracking has historically consisted of telling the merchant how many callers came from a particular media type (i.e. billboard, yellow pages etc).

Today, advanced call tracking solutions provide a hitlist of actionable data that shows the full picture of responses from every sort of digital campaign (PPC, organic, email, display) that drives a phone call. This means Internet managers can now quantify the offline impact of their online presence at a campaign level by identifying which keywords are generating phone calls.

We're working hard to create these call tracking tools and more that allow businesses to gain greater insight into how their marketing dollars are performing. Our goal is to bring accountability to what used to be a guessing game, making advertising measurable and our dealers smarter marketers.