GUEST BLOG: How can advancements in Call Intelligence influence the brand experience?

For a number of marketers, using software to understand what made the phone ring isn’t a new concept. Call tracking has become a mainstay of campaign management for many in the profession, who use channel-specific telephone numbers to gain an insight into how their comms are performing at an activity level.

But with the advent of more diverse routes to market – not to mention marketers’ utilisation of a growing number of communication channels – customers’ paths to purchase have become increasingly complex. Their often fragmented journeys are now far harder to analyse using only campaign-level insight and, as a result, call tracking solutions now struggle to uncover the meaningful data that modern marketers require.

The successor of the space
Call Intelligence naturally became the successor of the space, enabling marketing teams to measure ROI using visitor-level technology. By allocating a unique telephone number to an individual, rather than a campaign, it soon became possible to examine every single interaction the person had with the brand – online and offline – up until the point of them making a call. And, by integrating data from multiple external tools ranging from Google AdWords to SalesForce, marketers then garnered the ability to unravel the source of an individual’s journey, the impact of PPC campaigns at keyword level, which pages were subsequently visited, for how long, and at what point they left to call.

In short, armed with newfound knowledge as to what truly made the phone ring, marketers have begun to be able to attribute enquiries and sales conversions to specific campaigns, meaning activities and budgets can be optimised thereafter.

The business case for Call Intelligence is clear. But all of this detail still sounds like background narrative to the key question here, which is – How can advancements in Call Intelligence influence the brand experience?

A marketer’s role in the brand experience
Any modern marketer worth their salt will recognise the role that they play in managing the customer experience. They will also hopefully acknowledge that, in truth, organisations don’t set the brand agenda any more – their consumers do. So, failure to communicate effectively with the target audience, could immediately mean a competitive disadvantage.

Despite being a rapidly expanding adventure business, Go Ape uses the technology, for instance, to deliver information-rich, personalised communications that translate into growing visitor numbers and a faultless customer experience. Of course people can book their visit online. But for large or more complex bookings, many customers prefer to speak to a dedicated events coordinator, over the phone, who can address their specific queries.

Because Call Intelligence is in place, dynamic numbers can track the caller’s journey from the first click to the point of them picking up the phone. Calls are also routed directly to the most appropriate contact centre team/operator – according to the customer’s location and request type – which immediately personalises the conversation and removes the headache associated with speaking to multiple people or using an automated telephone menu system.

And relating this back to the marketer? Paid search conversion rates have risen as a result, with corporate enquiries alone having more than doubled since the tech was implemented.

Is the phone here to stay?
Of course, the phone does not matter to every organisation – nor is it a preference for every customer – but it does resonate with many. Perhaps it is because it facilitates a more humanised form of brand interaction which organisations should not lose sight of, particularly at a time when bots seem to be taking over the world.

To offer some closing food for thought, further interesting findings can be found in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index, published this summer by the Institute of Customer Service. The report highlighted that complaint handling, over the phone experiences and getting things right first time, are key differentiators between the top 50 organisations and the rest, with specific reference given to the helpfulness and competence of staff.

So how can Call Intelligence influence the brand experience? By providing marketers with another tool in their arsenal to improve this all-important customer satisfaction performance.

Further information about Call Intelligence can be found at www.responsetap.com.