Enterprise marketers are increasingly using call analytics platforms to collect, analyze, and act upon the growing volume of caller data from billions of inbound calls to businesses. These platforms automate and scale call tracking, recording, scoring, routing, and fraud prevention, making them invaluable tools for modern marketing teams.
However, deciding whether your company needs a call analytics platform is no simple task. It requires a comprehensive self-assessment of your organization’s business needs, staff capabilities, management support, and financial resources – essentially a readiness audit.
Before jumping in, gather your team and answer these 10 call analytics audit questions to help you decide if these platforms are right for your organization.
1. Are We Optimizing Inbound Phone Calls as a Sales or Lead-Generating Channel?
The phone continues to play an integral role in customer communications, especially as more consumers work and shop from home. An Ipsos report commissioned by Google found that 70% of mobile searchers have used click-to-call capabilities to connect with a business. If your organization isn’t leveraging inbound calls as a sales or lead-generating channel, you might be missing out on significant opportunities.
2. How Much of Our Revenue Do We Attribute to Inbound Phone Leads?
If the revenue you are already attributing to inbound calls is greater than the cost of the platform, it makes sense to invest in one. For example, if you are in the automotive, financial services, or telecom industries, your customers have a high propensity to use the phone to qualify “considered purchase” decisions.
3. What Is Our Process for Analyzing Inbound Phone Conversations?
Consider what kind of data you can extract from calls. Call analytics platforms use AI and machine learning-based speech analytics and natural language processing to provide robust insights into call quality, particularly around caller sentiment, tone, and intent. Understanding your current process will help you identify gaps and areas where a call analytics platform could add value.
4. What Call Analytics Capabilities Does Our Organization Need?
Prioritize the available call analytics features based on your most pressing business needs. For example, do you need to get started with basic call tracking data? Or send reports to clients if you are an agency? Are call conversions, missed opportunities, or other in-call metrics most important? Or are pre-call tools, such as intelligent IVR and call routing, more critical to your goals? Answering these questions will help your organization choose a vendor that can meet your specific needs.
5. Who Will Use the Platform? At What Level in the Organization Will It Be Managed?
C-suite buy-in and appropriate staffing are crucial to the effectiveness of any call analytics platform. Increasingly, martech platforms such as call analytics are being managed by the CMO – and not the CTO or CIO. Without proper resources, the platform can become an expensive reservoir of untapped data with unfulfilled potential to increase revenue and improve customer experiences.
6. How Much Training Will We Need?
Different platform vendors provide varying levels of customer service – from self-serve to full-serve – and strategic consulting services. It’s important to have an idea of where you fall on the spectrum before interviewing potential partners. Training is essential. If your organization chooses not to hire internal staff, then consider whether you need to use a certified platform partner to effectively use the system.
7. Can We Successfully Integrate a Call Analytics System with Our Existing Martech or Ad Tech Systems?
Many enterprises work with different partners for email, ecommerce, CRM, social media, paid search, SEO, and display advertising. Investigate which systems the call analytics vendor integrates with – whether natively or via API – and find out if they offer seamless reporting and/or execution capabilities with them.
8. What Are Our Reporting Needs?
What information do your marketing managers, salespeople, customer support teams, and IT departments require to improve decision-making? You want to know the specific holes in your current reporting that will be filled by additional functionality. More importantly, you want to ensure that the extra information derived from call analytics will drive better decisions.
9. What Is the Total Cost of Ownership?
Enterprise call analytics platforms use on-demand pricing, meaning customers pay a monthly subscription fee that varies by usage. The majority of vendors charge for both phone numbers and minutes. Some have platform and onboarding fees, and some do not. Examine your feature requirements closely, as modular pricing models mean vendors vary in their inclusion of some features as standard or add-ons.
10. How Will We Define Success?
What KPIs do we want to measure, and what decisions will we make based on call analytics data? Set your business goals for the call analytics platform in advance to benchmark success later on. Without clear goals, justifying the expense of the platform or subsequent marketing campaigns to C-suite executives will be difficult.
In Conclusion
By asking these questions and conducting a thorough readiness audit, your organization can determine if a call analytics platform is the right investment. These platforms offer significant benefits, including enhanced customer insights, improved lead generation, and better decision-making capabilities. However, careful consideration and planning are essential to ensure you select a solution that aligns with your business needs and goals.
