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Reputation Management

The Importance of Online Reviews [Infographic]

April 27, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

(FREE “How to Respond to Negative Reviews” Checklist Inside!)

Your reputation management is more important than ever. See why.

Online reviews are becoming more and more important for businesses – no matter what service or product you provide. People are just as likely to hop online and do a search for online reviews of the best business for their need as they are to go find a friend to ask for a recommendation.

Need more convincing for why you should be focusing on online reviews as a part of your business priorities? Check out these facts in the infographic below.

Importance of Online Reviews - InfographicImportance of Online Reviews - 2

Works Cited:
https://moz.com/blog/new-data-reveals-67-of-consumers-are-influenced-by-online-reviews
https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey
https://searchengineland.com/70-consumers-will-leave-review-business-asked-262802
https://moderncomment.com/customer-feedback-stats
https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/09/06/how-a-strategy-for-customer-reviews-can-impact-seo-brightonseo/

Filed Under: Reputation Management Tagged With: Reputation Management

How to Properly Establish Business Goals with Call Tracking: Pt. 1

April 24, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

Maybe you have goals, maybe you don’t – either way, check out these steps to make sure you’re establishing useful and specific goals.

In order to achieve higher results, whether in business, personal life, or elsewhere, it is important to set goals. How can one expect improvement without knowing what to aim for?

Whether big or small, short term or long term, there should always be goals to achieve. Successful leaders work with their team to set goals and ensure continued progress by establishing accountability.

“A goal properly set is halfway reached.” —Zig Ziglar

When setting your goals, there are important steps to follow:

  1. Determine goals based on business objectives
  2. Set specific goals
  3. Develop a timeline for accomplishing each goal
  4. Communicate goals to each team member
  5. Create accountability through regular monitoring and employee feedback
  6. Practice continuous improvement

Customer Service Representatives are a vital part of the business and help you achieve your goals as a whole. They are the first person new customers will speak to and leave a lasting impression on your business.

Determining Your Goals

The first step in setting goals is to analyze your current standings; once you have an understanding of where you are you can then begin thinking of where you want to go. Utilizing the tools CallSource provides helps identify your current standings in the following categories:

  • Marketing
    • Number of prospect calls
    • Cost per prospect call
  • Sales
    • Conversion rate
    • Number of appointments set
    • Cost per Appointment
  • Customer Experience
    • Call handling consistency for all prospects
    • Branding is maintained
  • Online Reputation
    • Total online reviews

After you establish your current standing baseline, you need to determine your desired goals. Your office’s areas for improvement may be evident, or some assistance may be needed. When analyzing reports within CallSource or whatever call tracking software you use, your areas for improvement or “red flags” should become apparent.

Focus on specific areas, rather than all areas simultaneously. Within certain areas, you may choose to focus on improving only specific metrics. Focusing on improving the conversion rate, not the number of appointments set, is one example.

The number of areas – and specific goals – chosen should be manageable for your business given the exact circumstances, staffing, and market variables. You may find some areas require immediate action or there is a logical progressive order. Over time you can refocus your attention to other goals. Creating goals is an essential step to improved performance and business outcomes.

The goals you set should reflect the overall business objectives. When creating your goals consider the following questions:

  • What do I want to accomplish?
  • Why is this important?
  • Who is involved?
  • How will this be accomplished?
  • What obstacles are there to achieving my goal?

Set Specific Goals

It is important that the goals you set are specific. For example, to increase your conversion rate, it is not enough to say your goal is to “increase conversion;” set a specific conversion goal such as increase the conversion from 45% to 60%. If you do not set specific goals (SMART GOALS- Specific, Measurables, Assignable, Realistic, Time-Related), you create ambiguity and leave the result open to interpretation. Creating a culture of accountability is not possible in an ambiguous climate.

Well-defined goals establish clear expectations. Anyone on your team, including new employees, will have a clear understanding of what is expected of them.

Once you determine your goals, it is crucial to communicate these goals to each member of your team. Consistently sharing the team’s actual numbers compared to their goals reinforces the importance of meeting the goal. It also allows you and the team to monitor individual and team progress and identify what steps need to be taken to reach the goal.

Establish an Improvement Timeline

It is essential to assign a reasonable deadline for meeting your goals once they have been determined. Without an end date, it is difficult to enforce that the goal will be met. This also creates ambiguity for your team.

For example, if your office is currently converting 60% of prospects to appointments, but you would like to improve the conversion rate to 85%, this cannot be achieved in a one month period. Both short term and long term goals need to be implemented in this example. Increase the conversion in small increments each month. Perhaps try improving by 5% monthly, until you reach your goal of an 85% conversion rate within five months.

While it is important to share the long-term goal(s) with your call handlers, it is vital to then break down the plan of attack to reach this overall goal by using short-term goals. By asking your team to concentrate on short-term goals while advancing to the end goal, it makes the effort seem achievable. Each step should be celebrated.

Asking your team to improve their conversion rates by 25% and not offer additional information, may make the goal feel unobtainable and therefore lower the morale. This will result in a counter effect.
Improvement steps with a specified completion date create accountability and ensure goals remain the focus of your team – not get lost in the day-to-day shuffle.

Set Steps to Achieve Goals

Once your improvement timeline is complete, set the steps of how your team will achieve each of these goals. These steps might include having call takers take certain webinar courses, reviewing their recorded calls and conversion rates, and internal training.

The steps you create should correspond to a specific action plan and be given to call handlers to keep handy. This way, they will know what steps to achieve according to your schedule. There will be no surprises when the deadlines approach and they will know with clarity what steps need to be taken.

With every mini goal, there should be some training and feedback for the call handlers to go along with meeting these goals. Whoever supervises the Customer Service Representatives should ultimately be responsible for ensuring their success.

Stay tuned for part 2 of how to properly establish goals – subscribe to our blog now to be notified as soon as the next post goes up!

Filed Under: Reputation Management, CallTrack, Call Coaching, Telephone Performance Analysis Tagged With: Call Management, Performance Management, Digital Management, Reputation Management

3 Ways to Earn More Online Reviews – With Templates!

April 2, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

FREE “How to Respond to Negative Reviews” Checklist Included!

Simply hoping that your customers will leave a review after doing business with you isn’t enough.

If you haven’t already heard by now, online reviews are just as important to businesses as things such as quality products and a great website. Without any of these things, your business probably won’t survive in the internet-era we live in.

Gone are the days where the only way for people to find out about a new business was by word of mouth – they can now simply pick up their smartphone and type in a quick search. That is why you need to not only focus on gathering online reviews but make them a real priority in your business.

You cannot simply hope that your customers will leave a review because of your great service – you must ask them to do so.

In fact, more consumers are more likely to write a review without any prompting if they have a negative experience than a positive one – but that is why we have you covered with our checklist on how to respond to negative reviews in just a few steps!

How can you earn reviews from customers besides purely trusting that they will leave one for you, unprompted? Here are three ways of asking that you can implement in your business right now.

1. Verbally ask

This is the simplest way to start gathering online reviews!

Whenever you are interacting with a customer, whether it be during the service, after the purchase, or anywhere in between – ask them if they wouldn’t mind leaving a review on one (or a few) of the review sites where you are trying to build your online reputation. You can even print out business cards, magnets, signs, or something with visual cues to help the customer remember.

This can be on the phone with a current customer, when they are in your office, or if you are servicing their need somewhere else. The added personalization of verbally asking someone helps them realize how important it is to you, and may prompt them to go ahead and leave you a review right away.

Below is an example of a verbal ask that you can say to a customer after their appointment is finished.

“Mr./Ms. [Name], is there anything else I can do for you? If not, I’d really appreciate it if you could leave a review on any of the review sites listed here [hand business card, magnet, point to sign, etc.]. We are always striving to do our best and it is feedback from people like you that help us improve and also help others find out about us. I appreciate it!”

2. Leave “the ask” in your email signature

I know – you are busy at your job, and even if you are making receiving online reviews a priority, there are times that you are bound to forget to ask.

Leaving a quick blurb about asking customers to leave you an online review with a link to different review sites is a passive, but easy way to ensure you are always “asking” them to leave you a review. It’s as easy as that!

Here are a few ideas to add to your signature line right away:

Have feedback for us? We’d love to hear it! We are always looking to improve. Please leave us a review on any of the sites below.
[Insert Links to Your Page on Review Sites]

Please help us to keep delivering the best customer service possible! Leave a review on any of the review sites below.
[Insert Links to Your Page on Review Sites]

Have any tips, comments, or helpful suggestions? Let us hear them! Please leave us a review on any of the following sites: [Insert Links to Your Page on Review Sites]

3. Send an email with “the ask” in a follow-up email

Another way to gather reviews is by asking current or new customers to leave you a review soon after they have an appointment or speak to you.

This is something that you can do manually, or schedule to set up within an aggregate review platform.

Contact us about CallSource’s new online review platform – CS Reviews – which can send emails on your behalf!

If you have time to send these emails out yourself, here is an email template you can use for clients who have recently finished a service or appointment with your business.

Subject Line: Will you review [Business Name] online?

Hi [First Name],

I’m reaching out today to get your feedback on [Business Name]. We are working on gathering reviews and feedback from our users to hear what you like & also help us improve from real customer opinions.

Leaving a review will help us improve your user experience and will help your peers make better decisions when looking for [service or product that you provide].

Write a review of [Business Name] on any of the below sites>>
[Insert Links to Your Page on Review Sites]

We appreciate your honest feedback. If you have any questions about the review process, please let us know. Just reply to this email and we’ll be happy to help.

As always, thank you for being a valued customer.

Sincerely,
[Name]

Get started on your online review strategy right now! And remember – if you happen to get a few bad reviews along the way, make sure to download our “How to Respond to Negative Reviews” Checklist!

Be sure to check out our new CS Reviews platform. Speak to a CallSource representative today if you need help with your online reputation.

Filed Under: Reputation Management Tagged With: Reputation Management

Why Online Reviews Are Important for SEO

February 22, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

You know online reviews are important for your business’ reputation – but did you know they can assist your SEO efforts as well?

Online reviews.

SEO.

Google.

Keywords.

Ranking.

Are you sick of these terms yet? Well, if you are a marketer or business owner, you need to embrace them. Whether you want them to or not, they have a lot of pull when it comes to your business’ success (especially in the online world – which some people may be more involved with on a regular basis than the actual real world).

Although the world of SEO is ever-changing, there are still habits to be made and key areas that will always be important (at least we think so). And let’s face it; being proactive in at least one of these areas is never going to have a negative impact on your online presence.

I’ve already talked about why online reviews are important for your business’ online reputation, what to do when you receive negative online reviews and how to properly respond to them, but have yet to cover another positive influence that online reviews can have for your business – an increase in your search engine optimization efforts.

Yes, it’s true. Having your customers do the work for you by writing reviews for your business will have a positive impact on your SEO—especially when it’s reported that reviews account for about 10% of your total ranking factors. Why? How? Let’s get into it.

Long Tail Keywords

Keywords are important determining factors for how consumers find your content on the web. What are they searching to reach your business? What needs or wants do they have that you provide the solution for? You should be aware of what keywords to be targeting in not only your paid search but also your organic search as well.

But besides using your own created content to drive consumers to find your business, online reviews can also help you in this component of SEO.

What exactly are long tail keywords, you ask? They are typically three-to-four word searches or phrases that visitors are typing in their search bar to look for what it is they want or need to purchase. Long tail keywords focus on consumers that are later in the buying journey (typically BOFU, or bottom of funnel leads) and know specifically what they are looking for.

Since reviewers have already purchased from or had an experience with your company, it is likely that they will be mentioning some of your long tail keywords in their review – which will help when other consumers are searching for solutions or products for those same phrases. Not only will it bring them to your company, but also show that you are a reputable and reliable source for their need.

Relevant & Recent Content

Piggy-backing off of long tail keywords, online reviews also contribute relevant content on the web about your business and continuously give the internet recent content about your company as well.

Sure, perhaps you are constantly creating new blog articles, lead magnets or web pages with good keywords and relevant content, but reviews will do this for you in addition to your own work – and without any effort! When someone else is writing content for you and about you, it will improve your rankings as well as improve your online review rating. What’s better than that?

Increase in Traffic

Consumer searches for something they need.

Consumer clicks on review website to find the best company to provide what they are looking for.

Consumer finds your company as highest-ranked with the most recent reviews.

Consumer goes to your website.

It’s pretty simple, right? So why wouldn’t you work on increasing your online review presence when it’ll drive more potential customers to your website?

Besides getting more leads coming on your site – websites with higher traffic receive better relevancy scores for their SEO. If people are searching and clicking through to your site more often, then Google sees that as “good” and will increase your ranking.

Visibility on Review Sites

This one is a no-brainer.

Achieve more online reviews, and show up more on review sites.

If you are looking for Thai food and go to Yelp and type in “Thai” in your area, what are you going to see first? The restaurant with the most reviews or highest ranking – it’s that simple.

The more reviews you have, the more you will show up not only in regular searches but in peoples’ searches on particular review websites as well. And when roughly 85% of consumers reported reading online reviews and about 67% of them read 6 reviews or less before they form an opinion about a given business – you want your business showing up as an option.

So why delay collecting online reviews when they can help so much? Speak to a CallSource representative today to see how we can help you increase your online presence with great reviews.

Filed Under: Reputation Management Tagged With: Digital Management, Reputation Management

How to Make Sure Consumers Remember You When They are Ready to Buy

January 30, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

Everyone in business knows that it takes more than one or a few touches to make an impression – here’s where to focus on ensuring you’re first in new consumers’ minds when they’re ready to buy.

As I sit here thinking of what to write, hands on keyboard and eyes on computer screen, something pops into my head.

A song, of sorts.

But it isn’t any normal Top 40 song you’d listen to on the radio – although I do hear this song on the radio (quite frequently, apparently).

It’s the phone number jingle for a local plumber in my area.

Now, I don’t ever spend my spare time researching plumbers. And to be honest; I don’t know the names of any other plumbing companies in my city since I have yet to need to have one at my house. But I do know this particular plumbing company’s name and phone number.

Why?

Well, if you are in marketing or advertising, the term effective frequency may be something that you’ve heard of before.

(This plumbing company has a lot of effective frequency on my brain).

If you aren’t familiar with this term, according to Wikipedia, effective frequency is “the number of times a person must be exposed to an advertising message before a response is made.”

Right now, my response is singing their phone number jingle in my head at my desk, but you better believe that in the future when I have a plumbing need, my response will be to immediately think of this company that I am already aware of and familiar with.

What does your company embody that you want consumers to know about you before they know anything else?

So how do you make sure that consumers know about and remember you? When it’s reported that the average consumer is exposed to up to 10,000 brand messages a day, what are you doing to make sure your brand stands out amongst the noise? There are a few key areas to pay attention to when it comes to gaining attention and retention from consumers.

Brand Logo

If you’ve been paying attention to brands you love over the past years, you’ve probably noticed slight changes in their logos. Whether it’s Google’s easy-to-read Product Sans font they created in-house for their new logo, or Dunkin Donut’s switch from the full name in their logo to just the orange and pink “DD” letters, one thing is for sure – logos are getting more and more modest. Just think of these easily-recognizable brands that you can effortlessly identify by their simple logos:

  • Nike’s simple black check mark. (more on Nike for slogan)
  • McDonald’s iconic golden arches
  • Apple’s bitten apple
  • Adidas’ Trefoil slanted bars
  • Starbucks’ green crowned mermaid

Just search “iconic brand logos,” and you’ll find copious more brands recognizable by their logos alone. You’ll also notice that the majority of these iconic logos have evolved into more simplistic versions of their starting logos over the years, and many have eliminated the brand name from their logo altogether.

Make your logo work for you – while it should be tied into the business name somehow, of course, do some research and make sure that it has something that stands out, yet is easy to remember.

Advertising Slogans

This one takes a bit more effort but can truly be the push that brings your business more to the forefront of consumers’ minds if clever and catchy enough. “I’m Lovin’ It,” “Just Do It” and “The Quicker Picker Upper” are three that you probably will recognize immediately (McDonald’s, Nike, and Bounty, of course).

Some companies end up being known by their slogan more than their name, or they become so intertwined with one another that you almost cannot hear or see one without the other. Now, this may not be the case with your company and certainly is not how it works for everyone – but it is worth considering for your business. What does your company embody that you want consumers to know about you before they know anything else? What kind of emotion do you want to evoke when thinking of or hearing your brand name?

Perhaps you don’t have a specific slogan for your brand (or don’t want one), but how about for specific advertising campaigns? These can be switched up depending on the advertisement, and you can test out to see which seem to elicit more of a response than others. It can be the differentiator when it comes to consumers remembering something specific about your company.

Phone Numbers

In the digital day and age we are living in, you may not think of a phone number as one of the most important aspects of your branding – but that is far from the truth. If your company relies on appointment-setting for sales, then you need to pay attention to your phone numbers even more so. Do you want consumers to contact you for a particular service? Then you better be sure that you have a memorable way for them to do so. This is where vanity numbers come into play.

Some companies make their phone name their brand – or vice versa. Just think of 1-800-FLOWERS or 1-800-CONTACTS. Ever heard of them? I’m sure you are nodding your head yes. These two companies utilize vanity numbers to their maximum potential. And who doesn’t recognize these easy-to-remember brands?

But maybe there is no way to incorporate a phone number into your company name – and that is fine. While it is great to have your phone number reflect your brand or company name, vanity numbers can also be useful to advertise any specific product(s) or campaigns. Just think of campaigns that you advertise in mediums that clients may see/hear in passing but have a difficult time remembering. Vanity numbers are great options for ads that may appear in these places:

  • Radio
  • Television
  • Billboard
  • Podcast
  • Landing Page
  • And more…

It was found in a Chicago Tribune advertising survey that advertisers using vanity numbers were getting ten times the amount of response to those advertising with a local numeric number. Why? Well, what is easier to remember, a random assortment of numbers or a word? When about 84% of ad viewers are able to recall a vanity phone number after seeing it in an advertisement, I think you have your answer.

But don’t just take my word for it – CallSource’s vanity numbers are also trackable, so you can see down to the lead and if the appointment was set off of a vanity number to ensure that it is working efficiently for your business. Check out our vanity options here.

See why an 833 vanity number may be the best option for your business.

Now get to work on building your brand to be as memorable as it can be – through your logo, slogan(s) and phone numbers…soon consumers will be singing your praises in their daily lives before they even use your products or services!

Want more information on how to better your business to get more customers and help keep them coming back? Talk to a CallSource specialist today on how we can help.

Filed Under: Reputation Management, CallTrack Tagged With: Call Management, Reputation Management

Managing Client Acquisition Constraints

January 29, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

blue-buttons

The ultimate goal of your business is to acquire new customers and make sales – but how do you figure out the areas of your business that may be preventing this from happening to its best capacity?

Business exists in a world of big data.

This sounds exciting on the surface, but what does it really mean? The more information we have available, the easier it becomes to make the right decisions – or so it seems.

Unfortunately, big data all too often leads to clutter. Instead of clarity, we have noise. Instead of using data to guide the business we find ourselves working in the business reacting to events.

“The capacity [of your business] is equal to the capacity of its bottlenecks”
-Eliyahu M. Goldratt

 
Focusing on the metrics that matter is the remedy to the weight of big data.

In Eliyahu M. Godratt’s book, “The Goal,” he introduces us to the theory of constraints. Though the book reads like a novel and uses a factory as its business, this theory can still be applied to your business as well.

Basically, the theory of constraints states that the step within a process with the smallest capacity – the constraint – dictates throughput.

But what does that mean? Let’s get right into it.

Throughput and Business Growth

In the client acquisition cycle, the “throughput” is revenue (do I have your attention now?).

Revenue represents success in acquiring and onboarding new clients – the fuel to sustaining business growth. Businesses inevitably lose existing clients over time. Without actively working to acquire new clients, businesses will eventually contract.

Avoid Throughput Conflict

Organizations preferring to use a metric other than revenue as throughput need to identify the target.

Throughput must be an appreciable, objectively measured target that is the goal of a cycle or process.

Businesses that focus on high blended ticket value will shift their strategy to higher paying prospects. Marketing tactics will be altered to avoid lower paying prospects. Marketing becomes responsible for motivating the right prospects to respond and not the total prospect responses.

Client acquisitions will be reduced by avoiding smaller sales. This can be accomplished by an outright refusal to serve low need prospects or increasing basic service fees to dissuade lower paying consumers from becoming clients.

Setting goals of acquiring as many new clients as possible and simultaneously raising the blended average ticket value creates a conflict of Throughput.

These conflicts can be navigated by carefully designing goals – defining Throughput – based on the best interests of your organization. Revenue works by establishing Throughput that avoids conflicts.

Other organizations may focus on a different metric. New client acquisition may be the right Throughput for organizations that are focused on increasing market share (e.g. a new business).

The key is ensuring that each departmental goal works in collaboration with the other.

The Relationship Sales Cycle

The client acquisition cycle can be broken into several linear steps. Any step can act as a constraint, straining efforts to grow the business.

A business’ ability to acquire new clients efficiently is reduced due to the constraint. Expensive client acquisition costs, missed growth targets, and reduced throughput are the results of constraints.

Client acquisition, and business growth, can be likened to a manufacturing assembling line.

Manufacturing requires each unit produced be processed by a series of individual machines before the end goal of sales throughput is achieved – sales throughput being the final sale of the unit to the end customer.

The machine with the smallest capacity dictates the number of units produced.

For example, if machines A and B have a capacity of 100 units, machine C a capacity of 50 units, and machine D’s capacity is 500 units, only 50 units can be produced. Maximizing machines A and B to their fullest potential will still yield only 50 units to throughput. Machine C cannot process more than its limited capacity.

The relationship sales cycle is a similar process. Client acquisition for businesses engaged in relationship sales tends to have a longer cycle, as opposed to transactional sales. Understanding the individual steps and the steps influence the process overall helps create a manageable process.

The steps include:

  1. Awareness
  2. Connection
  3. Evaluation
  4. Acquisition + Scheduling
  5. Throughput

Each client acquisition navigates through these steps. Each step is measured discretely.

white-button-chart

The above example demonstrates how a constraint negatively impacts new client acquisition and revenue. Each step is individually measured providing insight into where the constraint exists and where we should target our resources. The constraint is found in the second step of the process. The Connection step is dictating Throughput or the revenue earned.

All other scores remain constant. The number of Acquisitions remains at 85% of Evaluations, for example.

Awareness

4diamonds  Measurement: Prospects Calls

Generating leads is the first step in acquiring customers. Businesses cannot grow beyond the number of leads generated (this may seem obvious).

Any activity intended to create awareness of the business, including a website, digital ads, direct mail, print ads, networking, etc. comprises this step. This is the marketing activity.

Success in this activity means driving prospect response, or garnering prospect calls.

The marketing dollars are used to “purchase” prospect calls, appointments, and ultimately new clients. New client revenue can be expressed as the monetization of the dollars invested in marketing efforts.

Although the intent of marketing dollars is to drive revenue from client acquisition, prospect calls are the measurement of success for this step as all the other steps directly influence client acquisition.

Prospect calls indicate the effectiveness of marketing activity.

In the scenario illustrated above, the same volume of prospect calls based on the same marketing budget and activity occurs, yet different Throughputs are achieved. A common response is to purchase additional prospect calls with additional dollars to make up for the revenue drop off. This results in expensive client acquisition costs.

The ability to effectively monetize the marketing investment becomes out of balance. Marketing costs comprise a higher portion of the overall cost of gaining new clients.

Marketing as a Constraint

Marketing efforts, or the Awareness stage, acts as a constraint if all other steps are operating efficiently. As the first step in the client acquisition cycle, it effectively caps the number of opportunities.

If 100 prospect calls are generated, client acquisition opportunities are limited to 100 for the time period being measured.

Setting goals for each phase helps identify the constraint. If the organization is hitting its conversion rate target (Connection Phase) then this can be eliminated as the constraint. If it is determined that all other steps are meeting their targets, and the business wants to grow beyond its current rate, then marketing should be examined.

Even if it is determined that marketing is not the constraint, additional marketing may succeed in expanding the number of prospect opportunities. Careful analysis will determine if this is the appropriate option based on individual circumstance.

Connection

4diamonds  Measurement: Conversion Rate

Secondary Measurements:

  • Brand Experience
  • Outbound Calls

Setting the appointment is the second step in generating sales throughput.

The Connection phase is the first time the organization has direct contact with a prospective new client. If the opportunity is handled effectively the relationship advances by setting an appointment for an evaluation. Being ineffective may result in permanently losing the opportunity.

Some clients may focus on setting a specific number of appointments, but the conversion rate provides a clearer picture if appointment setting is a constraint.

The total number of appointments set is impacted, positively or negatively, by marketing response rates and seasonality.

Below-average conversion rates indicate appointment setting is a constraint. In the example above, even a relatively small drop will have a significant negative impact on client acquisition and revenue. The longer the constraint exists the more expensive it becomes.

Call handler skills are likely lacking in one or more areas. Identifying opportunities for skills training is important. CallSource recommends setting specific goals for call handlers and reviewing scores on a regular basis.

Connection Outcomes

There are three prospect outcomes to the Connection phase: Fostered, Lost, or Nurtured.

Fostering the relationship is setting the appointment on the initial call. The prospect has the opportunity to become a client during the evaluation stage. The call handler succeeded. A positive brand experience was provided and the relationship is progressing, which is the goal of the stage.

A lost opportunity occurs when the prospect has a brand experience that does not meet their needs. A high risk of defection to a competitor exists.

Nurturing the relationship occurs when the prospect is not able to set an appointment on the initial call, but has a positive brand experience. This encourages them to book when they are ready to move forward. Some industries lead nurturing plays a small role and other industries it is essential.

Lead nurturing often occurs when the caller is conducting research on behalf of someone else, such as a parent or partner. Schedules will need to be confirmed prior to booking an appointment.

Conversion rate is a vital leading indicator of success even in industries with a significant lead nurturing need. Conversion rate is arguably the most important indicator of performance in most industries and especially those that must book on the initial call or lose the prospect.

A high success rate on the initial call translates into more appointments booked overall.

Brand Experience

Prospects form immediate opinions of the business during the initial call.

A positive brand experience means the call handler effectively communicated the value of the business.

If questions were not adequately answered, if the call handler sounded indifferent, or an appointment was not offered the prospect will likely not set an appointment. They may defect to a competitor or decline to seek service at all.

CallSource measures the brand experience using the Telephone Performance Analysis, or TPA. A strong brand experience has a higher likelihood of setting an appointment. Conversely, a weaker experience has a higher rate of missed opportunities. This results in a longer acquisition cycle or a constraint.

Outbound Calls

Recapturing missed opportunities is the second aspect of eliminating appointment setting as a constraint. Even businesses with strong conversion rates and provide a positive brand experience will have some missed opportunities.

Maximizing appointment setting to its fullest potential reduces limitations to business growth and maximizes marketing spends. Outbound calls to missed opportunities reduce defection rates and prospects that will not move forward any service.

A missed opportunity is a prospect that expresses an interest in a product or service but does not book an appointment for a specific day and time.

Should a poor brand experience occur, it is imperative to reach out to the missed opportunity and correct that experience.

Lead nurturing campaigns include outbound calling. These missed opportunities are prospects genuinely interested in a service but were prevented from booking an appointment on the initial call. Successful lead nurturing requires an active approach. Passively waiting for the prospect to call again is a lead nurturing strategy based on hope.

Outbound calling missed opportunities boost the effectiveness and expands the capacity of the Connection step.

Evaluation

During the evaluation step, the prospect’s needs are determined.

The evaluation may determine that some prospects do not require service. This is not an example of a constraint. This is a lead nurturing opportunity. When the person will benefit from being served there is a likelihood they will return to this organization due to the positive brand experience (or refer someone).

The Evaluation constraint typically comes in two forms: cancelled appointments and the inability to move the prospect to pay for a beneficial service.

Appointment Cancellations

A high rate of cancelled appointments undermines the effectiveness of the first two steps in the client acquisition process. The marketing provided a prospect response. The call handler moved the prospect to setting an appointment.

Appointment reminders may be effective. This is a valuable and low investment effort to motivating prospects to keep their appointments. Prospects booking future appointments (not same day) will benefit most. A simple call the day before may be all that is needed. If the prospect is required to travel to the business for the appointment, ensuring (S)he has transportation may be helpful.

Sales

Not every professional prefers to consider him/herself a salesperson. Yet every success business organization requires sales.

Sales is simply moving someone to purchase a product or service that benefits that individual. Moving the prospect toward a purchase requires effective communication. Communication is not complete until the listener receives – hears and understands – the message.

Communication may be the issue if the constraint is at the evaluation stage.

  • Is your communication effort unnecessarily complex (jargon or abstract language)?
  • Have the benefits of service been clearly articulated?
  • Do you understand the prospect’s reluctance?
  • Have you made a full effort to understand the prospect?

Improving sales requires altering approaches and experimentation. New efforts may not immediately gel. Being prepared to learn what works, and what does not, is a necessary part of the sales process.

Acquisition and Scheduling Capacity

Some businesses have grown beyond their ability to actually schedule the service for all prospects. Scheduling availability essentially determines or limits the size of the business in these cases.

In these situations, the marketing is effective and connection phase is not an issue.

When 80% of scheduling capacity is reached, businesses start considering their options.

Many CallSource clients would love to have the problem of filling all available appointments. Appointment slots are a perishable product. At the end of the week any unused appointment times can never be sold. The revenue that could have been generated from those unused appointment slots will never be generated.

Businesses that reach their maximum scheduling capacity must turn away some customers. These unscheduled prospects may be permanently lost customers.

Expanding scheduling capacity may not always be feasible for any number of reasons. This is especially true if scheduling capacity is a constraint during brief peak seasons. It rarely makes business sense to boost capacity for only a short period.

Businesses Not Increasing Scheduling Capacity

  • Reduced marketing
  • Larger customers
  • Increased fees

Businesses purchase prospects with their marketing. The phone does not ring for free. Prospects that are turned away represent a wasted cost.

If a client does not wish to expand scheduling capacity they have some options. Reduced marketing is an obvious choice. Reviewing current marketing and eliminating underperforming sources is a worthy exercise. Cut marketing costs immediately improves the bottom line. The client no longer purchases prospects that are ultimately wasted.

Clients still need to market their business. Cutting marketing too much, too quickly, may lead to a lack of prospects. Any reduction in marketing should be a methodical process.

An overabundance of prospects allows businesses the luxury of being selective. Turning away low margin prospects to focus on higher paying customers may reduce scheduling constraints. Since there is a scarcity of appointment slots, the value of the appointment increases. Businesses should understand the value of their appointments and strategize accordingly. This will not increase scheduling capacity, but may help boost revenues by granting appointments to higher paying customers only.

Raising fees will need to be considered against market forecasts and branding concepts.

The prospect is not actually acquired unless they can be scheduled.

Shifting Constraints

Growth constraints may shift over time. This may be temporary, signal an emerging problem, or due to fixing a previous constraint.

Marketing or scheduling may act as a temporary constraint due to seasonality. Conversion rates may ebb and flow due to a number of factors. Acts of intervention are unnecessary for temporary issues.

Expanding the capacity in one area may make another area in the sales assembly line the constraint point, even if its capacity remains steady.

Marketplaces change overtime. A commitment to monitoring the metrics enables business leaders to identify constraints and take action.

Operational Capacity

Although not directly part of the sales process, a business’ operational capacity impacts growth.

Time resources are one example of operational constraint. A Business leader may only be able to successfully manage a business of a particular size. Business growth requires the investment of managers beyond this point. Business owners may be reluctant to invest in operational support due to the added risk. Talent limitation is another area of operational constraint.

As a business advisor, we may not be able to address these issues directly, it is important to be aware of such limitations as you work with clients.

Understanding Throughput

Throughput cannot be controlled. The end result of any process can never be controlled. It is a lagging indicator of the preceding steps in the process.

The leading indicators – the steps in the client acquisition process coming before throughput – can be controlled. Focusing time, energy, and resources toward correcting growth constraints will positively impact business growth.

Filed Under: Reputation Management, CallTrack, Call Coaching, Telephone Performance Analysis Tagged With: Call Management, Performance Management, Digital Management, Reputation Management

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