Using call data to overcome growth challenges

Recently, Infinity CEO Warren Newbert contributed to How To Run A Successful Business: Interviews With Successful Game Changing Business People, a book full of practical, proven and easy to follow advice on how to start, run and grow your own business. In his chapter, Warren discusses the most common problems faced by growing teams and how they can be overcome with call data. Here are Warren’s key takeaways!

Keep a close eye on the numbers

Businesses get measurement wrong consistently. A typical mistake made by business leaders is not knowing which numbers they should be focusing on and using that data to inform decision making to drive improvement.

It would be remiss to not measure or monitor at a granular level to obtain a view of whether the specific activities we invest in and rely on are delivering actual business results. But a narrow view of how to measure the impact we’re really making can often leave leaders unequipped with the intelligence they need to make robust decisions.

In a digital first world it’s easy become unintentionally blinkered and believe everything begins and ends online. In reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Mapping the customer journey

According to Google, only 11% of customer journeys can be classed as online only. With a plethora of channels and platforms in play, the path to purchase has become incredibly complex. It doesn’t follow a linear route, but rather a twisting and winding track that goes back and forth between touch points.

Think about how you buy. You might start your research on Google. Do some more research, then pick up the phone to find the answers to the questions that are playing on your mind. Hang up. Then call back to pull the trigger. By the end of that process, you’ve hopped channels and moved from online to offline a number of times. Your customers do this too.

Attribution and learning become impossible if you’re not tracking and mapping every facet of your customers’ journeys, it will be difficult to identify what you’re doing well and what areas need improvements. As a leader, it’s important you leverage all of the tools you need to measure both online and offline engagement so you can see the full picture and build a clear bridge between digital spend and offline conversions.

Charting the path for success

Every organisation should always have robust short- and long-term business plans, and to successfully see these plans through, realistic quarterly and yearly goals must be set.

Setting goals for a business helps leaders understand the trajectory of the business and how they are going to get there. However, many businesses fall short by setting unrealistic goals, which can dishearten and lead to cross-company burnout.

Goals are just ideas. Ideas are should be our blood flow i.e., constant and plentiful. The planning and review are what really matters, and execution becomes the equal bit in the middle. Once your goals are in place, how can you keep moving toward them?

The importance of metrics

Objectives and key results (OKRs) help define, prioritise, and achieve those goals—no matter what kind they are. However, OKRs are a major driver of growth only when they’re properly attuned to business needs.

When OKRs are properly defined, aligned, executed, and crucially- visible, to all employees and stakeholders, they are at their most successful. OKRs should always remain solution-agnostic and easily understood by all stakeholders. This level of transparency helps create ownership, which is why it is important to make OKRs visible to stakeholders at all levels and in turn they understand how their priorities roll up to the company goals.

Measurement is the key to success; and OKRs can be easily tracked and measured in a simple and easily digestible roadmap format. They can evolve each quarter and they ensure the business is making strong, recognised, progress and that this is communicated , understood, and lived by all.

It is best practice for an organisation to avoid creating roadmaps with too many details that are difficult to decipher and track – it is not a “to do” list but sets out the priority and the key results and allow the nominated person/team to work out “how” to deliver.

It’s time to start leveraging call data

It’s not just about the bottom-line. 75% of business leaders are actively seeking to invest in technologies that will improve the customer journey and help them make data-driven decisions.

Call data is the secret weapon in your sales, marketing and operations arsenal. With the right software in place, you can enhance your agent training, convert customers faster and ultimately, grow your business and provide frictionless experiences. With rich customer data at your fingertips, you can continuously optimise your call centre performance. If you’re not factoring call data into your strategy, you’re at risk of losing business and revenue.

Key takeaways

So, how can business leaders overcome growth challenges? Focus on three key areas:

• Mapping the customer journey
• Setting clear and realistic objectives
• Track the right metrics

Infinity's Conversation Analytics shines a light on the many truths contained within each phone conversation you have with your callers. Use this for smarter attribution, strategic agility, and training phone agents faster.   about Agent ID and Conversation Analytics.

This blog post is adapted from an extract which originally appeared in How To Run A Successful Business: Interviews With Successful Game Changing Business People.