Finding a call tracking partner is a bit like a job interview.
The best candidates are the ones who will fit seamlessly into your organisation, consistently deliver, can grow with your business, and are happy to do the tea round once a week.
Ok, maybe not that last one.
It’s an exciting opportunity for both you and providers to explore a potential relationship, but it’s not a task to be taken lightly. You need to be asking the right questions of potential providers in order to ensure you get the maximum return out of your investment.
Before you sign any contract, here are the top 5 questions to ask any call tracking provider.
”Tell us more about telco charges?”
By using call tracking to its full capability, you’ll begin to see more inbound certified calls - which is great. But, with an influx of calls means an increase in telco charge you’ll receive per call. You simply can’t have one without the other.
A telco charge is a charge a call tracking providers give to customers based on a call being routed in and out of their platform and then onto the customers business.
Usually, a telco charge pales in comparison when you compare it to the cost-per-acquisition (CPA) of each customer. But, sometimes these things can add up.
Asking a call tracking provider what their buying power is in terms of telco charges means opening up the conversation to learn whether or not this will affect the charge they pass onto their clients. What sort of relationship do they have with telecom providers? Ultimately, this is going to affect your monthly/annual bill, so it’s wise to ask this question first.
“Are you capable of growing with our business?”
No-one likes rigidness in business. Being flexible and capable to change or grow with a business is the key to proving yourself as a team player. Call tracking providers should be no different.
Whether you need call tracking for a few campaigns or a full-scale view on your business, you must pick a provider that is able to provide it with all and match your ambitions as a business. What is your long-term business plan? Can your chosen call tracking provider match them and scale with you?
Quick tip: Ask your call tracking provider to send you a copy of their product road-map. If they can show what their platform is going to look like in the future, you can see if it is aligned with your own plans whilst using it to help inform your final decision.
“How do you support your team?”
Platforms are only as powerful as the people behind them, and whilst most call tracking providers operate via cloud-based software, it’s wise to be asking what sort of support the company offers its clients.
What you’re ideally going to be looking for is proof that should a problem occur, the platform has the right people in place who are able to provide a solution as soon as possible. A potential provider should be able to offer:
- 24/7 support
- The option to have a customer success manager
- Training sessions with knowledgable team members
- In-depth resources which allow clients to self-service smaller problems
Like everything in life, everyone starts off as a beginner at something new, even call tracking. But with the right amount of support, you can find yourself an expert in no time.
“What do people say about you?
A common interview question can be “How would your team describe you?” and this is no different for call tracking providers. Learning what past and present clients say about the platform is an invaluable way to make a balanced judgement of whether the provider is the right fit.
The best way to find out is to check out reviews online. These reviews give a more realistic view of the platform. Ideally, you want to be reading middle to average ones, These are more likely to give an honest and balanced review of the good or bad parts of the platform. It will also give you the chance to see if the provider has responded to any of the reviews to show how they’ve implemented the feedback into their platform.
Additionally, each tech platform should have a wealth of case studies across a mix of industries, showing excellent results for a variety of use cases. Download the case studies that have used call tracking in a similar way you intend to and see what the results were.
Finally, ask around. Do any of your LinkedIn contacts know anyone who has used the platform before and has the first-hand experience of how it performs? Can they recommend a certain provider, or do they know something you don’t?. It’s important to cast the net wide - so get networking.
“Do you work well with others?”
Imagine employing someone who probably wouldn’t fit in with your team, and would cause tension in the ranks.
Not really a candidate you’d want working for you, is it?
It’s the same with call tracking providers. And since siloing your call tracking provider from the rest of your tech stack isn’t going to give you the results you want, you need a platform that plays well with others. Without this capability, not only can it create inconsistencies in viewing your complete customer journey, but it can reduce the amount of rich data you can obtain which will ultimately inform how your efforts are working.
Ask potential platforms whether they can sync with data and information you already have? The standard integrations are Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Salesforce. But, this is a bare minimum. What other integrations do they have, and if they don’t, are they planning on creating them in the near future?
If the platform doesn’t have a certain integration, this may not be the case forever. Any provider worth their salt is always seeking new partnerships with additional technologies, so it’s worth asking whether a custom integration with a different platform is achievable.
Signing on the dotted line
Hopefully asking these questions of any call tracking provider will save you time and energy in the long-run. It helps to outline to the company exactly what you’ll need from call tracking, and give them time to explain how they can be a solution to this.
At Infinity, we’re confident to answer all of these questions in a quick phone call, so start your own conversation with us today.
