I’m going to be honest with you: I don’t have a degree in Business. Or Marketing. I double-majored in Political Science & History…and minored in Philosophy. I’m an egghead, and I’m not even embarrassed about it. But while these disciplines may seem esoteric, and maybe even – dare I say it? – useless, they’ve been immensely helpful to me in my professional life. All three take copious amounts of information & organize it all to make sense in a broader picture – whether it be to better understand our systems (political science), our past (history), or our very existence (philosophy). This method of thinking & understanding data has convinced me of one thing during my time at RSVP: call tracking changes lives.
Wait, what?
Bear with me.
Call tracking is simple: when your business advertises with us, you have the option to add a call tracking number (and if you participate in our annual bundle program, it’s free!). This number is unique to your RSVP ad, and directs to whatever phone line you choose – your business line, your personal cell phone, or a message service. All calls are recorded, and we provide you with a unique & confidential login, so you can listen to the calls generated by your RSVP ad any time you want. We also email you weekly updates that show how many RSVP-based calls you received that week. This is awesome for multiple reasons:
- You see results immediately – you don’t have to wonder if the prospect calling you is calling because they saw your billboard, your online ad, or what. Their number pops up on your RSVP call report & there you have it!
- Call recordings are excellent training tools – we use them at RSVP ourselves! It’s great to be able to go back & listen to a call for what went well, as well as what could have gone better.
- We know you’re busy, so you can’t personally answer every lead call that comes in. Call recordings enable you as a business owner to ensure that proper procedures & protocols are being followed when lead calls come in – even if you’re not the one taking them.
“Ralph’s Roadkill Cafe, you kill it, we grill it! JUST KIDDING! Thank you for calling Serious Business, Inc., how may I direct your call? Hello? Hello?”
But my favorite reason call tracking rocks is because listening to call recordings helps you pick up on patterns – which offers generate the most interest, or which designs seem most eye-catching. In short, call tracking enables you to take copious amounts of information & organize it all to make sense in your broader business picture. And that is right up my intellectual alley, so I am naturally thrilled when a client calls or emails us and says, “Hey, I haven’t had time to listen to my call tracking calls. Can you help me with that?” Or, even better, “I’m not getting any response on my RSVP ad!” (because I also like proving people wrong). These scenarios give me the opportunity to glimpse into our clients’ businesses & find out what RSVP is – or isn’t doing for them, and what we can do to help their business succeed.
Sometimes our clients are grateful, like the busy client who needed help plodding through her calls to compare them with her sales in order to determine her RSVP return on investment (spoiler: it was pretty darn good!). Other times, our clients are sheepish – such as a long-time client who suddenly claimed RSVP wasn’t working, but in one of the recorded call tracking calls, told a competing advertiser that he uses RSVP over other ad sources specifically because RSVP works. And on rare occasions, our clients are not happy with our call tracking analysis – such as the client who advertised in Dayton & Cincinnati, but only spent 4 hours per week in his Cinci location – the location that most of his RSVP prospects were interested in. We suggested he look into spending more time at that location, and he stopped working with us.
Still, as far as I’m concerned, call tracking is nothing but a win-win option for both us at RSVP & our clients. When we can use call tracking to help a business owner succeed, we win because we have a happy, satisfied client on our hands, and our client wins because her business is growing stronger – and that’s truly life-changing.
Contributed by Renee Pugh
Confused cat GIF source.