Is Call Routing Missing from Your Marketing Automation Workflow?

Lead handling and routing is one of the most vital features of any marketing automation solution. With a robust solution such as Marketo, for example, leads from specific forms can be configured to alert a specific set of sales reps and other interested parties, and trigger many other behaviors upon delivery, such as scoring values. The idea behind advanced lead handling this is simple – getting priority leads to the right people at the right time.

If your company handles any phone leads, call routing should also be a key component of your marketing automation workflow. This isn’t only because calls are more valuable (they are far more likely to close than web leads). The importance of routing is often overlooked, but consider that every second that a prospect spends on hold, or perhaps worse yet, on the phone with the wrong rep, is one second that your business isn’t moving closer to a deal. In fact, if a prospect isn’t quickly routed to a skilled sales rep, they are likely to hang up the phone and call your competitors.

The purpose of marketing automation is to enable more sales with less manual effort. Here are a few ways that advanced call routing can help.

Direct Call Routing

Imagine that your business sells 20 types of products. If those products are all different brands of industrial faucets, then it might not matter which rep a prospect is routed to. But more commonly, businesses have sales reps who specialize in certain products, or at least at certain deal stages. Financial services, insurance companies, software providers, and auto dealerships are all examples of businesses with highly stratified and specialized sales teams.

We wanted to create a voice marketing automation solution that would allow businesses to quickly set up routing rules to automatically route calls to the right sales reps. For example, if a prospect clicks a paid search ad for “eating disorders” on Google, he can be automatically routed to an appropriate specialist at a behavioral healthcare provider. If another prospect sees a TV ad for life insurance and calls in, she can be routed straight to the rep who specializes in life insurance, rather than having to self-select among many different phone menus. Skills-based routing is a great way to ensure that prospects speak to the right rep.

Time-Based Routing

Companies that have reps in different time zones can take advantage of time-based routing to help make certain that prospects don’t slip through the cracks. Imagine your business has an office in San Francisco and one in New York City. The New York Office opens three hours before the San Francisco office, but the San Francisco office stays open three hours later. Time -based routing can ensure that all calls are routed to the right office at the right time.

IVR Routing

When most people think of IVR menus, they think of those complex phone menus that sit on the top of credit card companies, banks or government agencies. You know the ones – those automated voices asking you to press numbers on your keypad or say your address. It’s fair to say that many peoples’ experiences with IVR have been less-than exciting, or even downright frustrating. I know I have too many memories of listening to a robot voice give me options that have nothing to do with the reason why I called. No, I don’t want to hear about the Los Angeles Parking Enforcement Masquerade Charity Ball, I just want to pay off my ticket. 

But what most people don’t know is that businesses can create a slew of custom IVR phone menus that are specific to unique campaigns or scenarios. This way, businesses can capture prospect data and provide self-service options without burdening customers with a barrage of options that don’t likely pertain to them.

In the past, IVR solutions were cumbersome and needed to be set up by IT. But with cloud-based IVR, a marketer can set up a new IVR phone menu and associate it with a call tracking number in less than a minute. Now, it’s easier than ever for marketers to add creative phone trees that can help ensure that customers always have an optimal experience. This helps marketing teams stay agile and constantly optimize their IVR menus to add value. Call tracking solutions can give marketers a wealth of insight into customer behavior. If a prospect searched Google for “industrial faucets” than it’s likely they are interested in buying a faucet. But IVR can add a new layer of data. An IVR menu can instruct a prospect to “press 1” if they are interested in purchasing a faucet, “press 2” if they’d like to return a faucet or “press 3” to speak to customer service. The industrial faucet rep can therefore spend more time selling and not have to waste time with customers that are looking to make returns or need installation support.

Is advanced call routing missing from your marketing automation workflow? If so, our call routing solution could be a hassle-free way to ensure that your prospects reach the right reps at the right time.