Without crunching too many numbers, try and think of how many minutes there are in 73 billion calls that average three minutes per call. Answer: a lot. What’s more? BIA Kelsey estimates that calls influence more than $1 trillion in U.S. consumer spending. So it’s pretty clear – in the age of digital marketing, picking up the phone still makes an impact.
What This All Means
Despite these figures, there’s a disconnect between the actions of marketers. Some businesses solely rely on web leads and often don’t even include phone numbers on their websites. Others exclude call encouragement from their advertising campaigns, but in order to make a difference in business, optimizing pay per call insurance leads is ultimately full of value. One way to effectively manage your call leads is through an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.
What is an IVR?
An IVR is an automated system that answers incoming calls, collects information, and provides options for how to route the call. Many IVRs require callers to input their information via their telephone keypad, but advanced IVRs allow voice response and recognition. When choosing an IVR, it’s important to remember those key differences and understand which would better serve your business and customer journey. An IVR plays a big role in influencing a caller’s perception of customer service, buying journey, and ease of use for what’s to follow since it is the first point of interaction between a caller and organization.
For insurance marketers, an IVR can often be a main source of generating information when qualifying leads. Here are a few examples of best practices when it comes to using this system to manage your pay per call insurance leads.
Keep it Simple
There are several ways to track your call leads and analyze the data using different types of technology. However, it’s important to understand why certain pay per call insurance leads are converting first. Think of a situation where you rejected a certain business based on the call process, or were frustrated by the time you reached an operator. What happened? Most likely, the company’s IVR was where the disconnect occurred.
By providing an effective self-service tool such as an IVR, you are narrowing down your business process to only the necessary steps and revolutionizing the customer journey with clear messages and easy to follow steps that reflect your organization’s brand.
Utilize Technology
Any effective insurance entrepreneur should not only be maximizing the capabilities of an effective IVR, but working towards integrating all of their automated processes. This can be done in several ways, but most commonly is achieved through linking technology. More specifically, linking your IVR technology with your CRM can automatically direct and organize pay per call insurance leads based on their phone number or other preferences. Intelligent routing that is optimized for your customer journey can reduce waiting times, improve your rates of incomplete calls, and provide more information about business workflow.
Make sure your solution is easy to use and also gives you the freedom to create branded IVR flows. It is important to be able to have different menu options, make voice recordings, and interact with data using a simple and intuitive interface.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is an IVR?
An IVR is an automated telephony system that interacts with callers to solve their requests on the spot or connect them to a matching live operator. IVRs interact with callers using touch-tone selections or – more advanced systems – voice recognition.
What is inbound and outbound IVR?
Inbound IVR processes incoming calls, whereas outbound IVR makes calls to consumers to deliver marketing messages, feedback, or reminders. Outbound IVR systems can deliver pre-recorded or response-based dynamic messages.
How does an IVR work?
When a caller dials a company’s phone number, the call is routed to the cloud-based or on-premise IVR, which guides the caller through a conversation to solve their request or redirect them to a relevant live operator based on the provided answers. To communicate with the IVR, the caller presses numbers on their keypad or gives voice commands.
