Any call tracking provider will always be enthusiastic about call tracking metrics. After all, the whole point of tracking these metrics is to save money, and who doesn’t like the sound of that?! But what are call tracking metrics, why do you need them, and how do they help improve your bottom line?
Let’s start with a breakdown. These metrics are broken down into two main categories:
- Call Metrics: These relate to the call itself. For example, the duration, or the time a caller spends in IVR.
- Origin Metrics: These relate to where the call came from. So that could be the country of origin or the PPC ad that led to the phone call.
By keeping an eye on these metrics in real time, you start to form a picture of the customer journey, and it becomes easier to spot where you can make improvements. For instance, knowing which PPC ads generate the most sales calls makes it super easy to optimize spend.
On the other hand, you might notice high call volumes at different times during the day coupled with long wait times. With that intel, you know you’ll need more hands on deck to make sure potential customers aren’t dropping off.
Some examples of call metrics
From the time someone presses the call button to whenever they disconnect, you can track a variety of metrics which give you a much clearer picture of your customer's journey.
Here are some of the key call tracking metrics:
- Ring, IVR, and queue duration
- Call drop-offs
- Call duration
- Call time of day and day of week
- Conversation Analytics such as keyword scoring.
You’ll likely be familiar with most of those, but Conversation Analytics might need a bit of an explanation. Conversation Analytics is a suite in our platform that gives enormous insight into what happens on outbound and inbound calls. It enables you to listen out for specific keywords or phrases that you can either score positively or negatively. Having this intel makes it a ton easier to understand the tone of a conversation and what the outcome was.
Going back to the other metrics, it’s super useful to look at them individually. For example, looking at the ‘call time of day’ metric enables you to optimize staff rotas to prepare for peak times. You might also find that people who discuss certain keywords on support calls have very short call times, so you could look to include an FAQ about that keyword on your website to reduce the number of unnecessary calls. However, you can unlock even more potential with these call tracking metrics when you combine them with origin metrics.
How origin metrics work
For this type of call tracking metric, we’re looking at where the call came from, and what led to the customer calling. Call intelligence tools like Infinity show you whether they saw your number on a social media page, from a PPC ad, or through a certain page on your website.
You can also create tracking pools to segment people by call country, or by which branch of your business they were contacting. The real power of all these call tracking metrics comes when you use them in combination with each other.
Let’s say you work for an internet provider, and you notice you suddenly got a surge of calls. Call Intelligence software enables you to spot the region these calls came from, the time of day, and even details about the keywords they searched before calling you. You’ve now got a clear picture of what caused this influx, and you can potentially increase bandwidth for an area. You can also pick up on best practices, what generates positive outcomes, and make that the standard across the board.
Another example would be to look at the PPC ad they clicked on, combined with some keywords found in Conversation Analytics. You can then use these metrics to find out if the PPC ad was correctly targeted for your customers wants.
Alternatively, if you want to enter new markets or geographies, you could look at the call times and keywords that spark the most interest. Combine this with location data and you’ve got a ton of insights into potential regions to invest in.
How do these call tracking metrics help you?
Call tracking metrics positively impact both operational costs and marketing spend.
Operationally, you get a better understanding of peak times and optimizing staffing, improving IVR functionality to reduce call operator’s workload, improving FAQs to minimise basic support queries, and even reducing customer drop-off to improve sales opportunities.
There are also lots of ways Marketers can use call tracking metrics. Linking up the online world of paid search, SEO, and social media with the offline world of call metrics gives you a full overview of customer journeys. As a result, you know exactly what your customers are looking for which makes budget optimisation a breeze!
In addition, it accurately shows the real ROI of your marketing activities, so you can say so long to the issue of losing track of a customer as soon as they leave the online world to pick up the phone.
