VBMA for Financial Services and Insurance Companies

white paper

VBMA for Financial Services and Insurance Companies: A Primer for Marketing, Sales, and Support

white paper

VBMA for Financial Services and Insurance Companies 2

3 Introduction

4 The Importance of Tracking Inbound Phone Calls Back to Marketing

11 Automate the Scoring, Routing, and Management of Inbound Sales Calls

19 Automate Outbound Phone Message Delivery to Save Time and Generate Revenue

21 Provide Superior Customer Support Over the Phone from Anywhere

25 Connect and Align Marketing, Sales, and Support

TABLE OF CONTENTS

VBMA for Financial Services and Insurance Companies

The telephone is still one of the most important assets for

any financial services or insurance company. Even with the

increasing role of the Internet, these companies still rely

heavily on the phone to generate and work sales leads,

acquire new businesses, upsell to existing accounts, and

support customers.

Because of the phone’s importance, many financial

services and insurance companies are implementing voice-

based marketing automation (VBMA) technology to get the

most value from their phone interactions. VBMA is a type

of cloud-based software used by marketing, sales, and

support teams, and a growing number of financial services

and insurance companies are using it to:

• Track what ads, direct mail and email blasts, online

keyword searches, and other marketing sources are

generating inbound phone calls and revenue

• Send thousands of phone messages in seconds

to promote loans, investment services, and other

offerings

• Automatically score and qualify inbound calls before

passing to a sales agent

• Route inbound calls to any sales or support agent, no

matter where they are, and to any device they choose

• Automate the delivery of outbound phone calls for past-

due collections and account updates

• Set up an IVR auto-attendant to answer and route calls

and provide customer self-service options 24/7

This white paper explains how financial services and

insurance companies use VBMA to cut costs and generate

revenue by automating these and other vital business

functions.

Introduction

© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (877) 540-5266 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog

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https://twitter.com/ifbyphone

http://public.ifbyphone.com/blog


Financial services and insurance companies spend a

significant amount each month on marketing to acquire new

customers. They use a wide range of tactics to generate

leads, from Google paid search ads, to online and mobile

banners, to direct mail and email blasts, to TV and radio

spots.

To understand campaign success and fix programs that

aren’t working, you need to track every lead back to its

source and through to revenue. Most marketers can do

this for web leads (like web form downloads) using a

combination of marketing automation or email reporting

tools, Google Analytics and AdWords, and a CRM system.

However, your ads, marketing campaigns, content, and

web pages also generate phone leads, and tracking those

inbound calls back to their source requires voice-based

marketing automation.


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The Importance of Tracking Inbound Phone Calls Back to Marketing

Call Tracking Helps WiderFunnel Show a 42% Increase in Phone Calls for Client

WiderFunnel, a marketing optimization agency, was engaged by Saint Jude Retreats to increase phone leads from their web site, since phone inquiries were more likely to convert into sales.

To do it, WiderFunnel designed several web landing page variations optimized for phone call inquiries and used Ifbyphone to track calls from each page. The result: WiderFunnel measured a 42% increase in phone calls from their landing pages, demonstrating a significant boost in business for Saint Jude Retreats.

“Ifbyphone’s call tracking tools and customer support is second to none. Ifbyphone played an integral part in measuring the success of our landing page optimization efforts, and we couldn’t be any happier with the results,” said Daniel G. Hidalgo, Marketing

Director of Saint Jude Retreats.





Why Marketing Teams Use VBMA to Track Phone Leads

VBMA comes with call tracking technology you can use

to attribute inbound calls to the proper marketing source.

Using VBMA you can track phone leads (and the pipeline

and revenue they generate) back to specific online, offline,

and mobile ads, keyword searches, direct mail and email,

social media sites, content, or any other source.

You no longer have to guess which campaigns and content

are really driving sales calls. Instead, you get a complete,

detailed understanding of which programs are generating

phone leads and how those leads are impacting pipeline

and revenue. You can then use call tracking data to pinpoint

which activities are working – and which aren’t – and

make improvements. By reinvesting only in marketing that

generates leads and revenue, you can grow your business

without increasing your spend. Plus you are able to prove

to your executive team how your work is impacting the

business’s bottom line.


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Why Phone Leads MatterNot all leads are created equal. Just ask any sales

manager which types of leads they prefer (see Figure 1).

While web form leads, research reports, and interactive

online tools are excellent vehicles for generating leads,

those prospects are often just beginning their research.

Inbound phone leads are different. Someone who calls

you is often further along the buying processand ready to

engage in a serious discussion with a sales rep.

It’s why inbound phone leads are the most valuable to

sales, and the leads marketers most need to generate and

track.

Figure 1. Larger percentage of SMBs rate telephone leads as “excellent” or “good” – more than any other lead type1.





How Call Tracking Works in General

VBMA’s call tracking technology gives you clean trackable

phone numbers (local, toll-free, or vanity) that you can

insert in your marketing material. When someone calls that

number, VBMA knows exactly what source they’re calling

from and captures that source information with the lead

information. If that lead goes on to become an opportunity

or a customer, you can tie those events back to the original

source, so you can understand and prove how your

marketing is impacting lead generation and sales.

How Call Tracking Works for Offline Ads, Content Marketing, and Email

For offline advertising (such as print ads, direct mail

campaigns, TV or radio spots, billboards, or trade show

materials), content marketing (like research reports,

webinars, brochures, and videos), or email blasts, call

tracking is a fairly basic concept. You simply insert a unique

number in each of your marketing materials, attribute those

numbers in the VBMA software to their respective source,

tell VBMA where to route the call (more on that later), and

you’re off. VBMA can then generate real-time reports on the

calls each source generates (see Figure 2).

For more information on the value of call tracking for content

marketing, visit the Ifbyphone web site and download the

white paper: “Marketer’s Guide to Proving (and Improving)

Content Marketing ROI”.


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Beacon Technologies Sees Over 400% Higher ROI with Call Tracking

Beacon Technologies is a web technology and marketing agency. Beacon uses Ifbyphone as the critical link between online marketing spend and offline phone call conversions.

For one client, Beacon used unique phone numbers from Ifbyphone to track call activity from sites like Lawyers.com, FindLaw.com, Google Local, and social media outlets. They now understood which channels were working and adjusted spending accordingly. The end result was a significant increase in ROI.

“A lot of companies don’t just get leads that take place on the web. Consumers often pick up the phone and call,” said Brad Henry, Director of Web Marketing at Beacon. “It’s important to know where that lead originated, particularly if the web is involved, in order to optimize marketing initiatives moving forward.”

http://public.ifbyphone.com/landingpage/marketers-guide-proving-improving-content-marketing-roi/

http://public.ifbyphone.com/landingpage/marketers-guide-proving-improving-content-marketing-roi/




Lawyers.com

FindLaw.com


How Call Tracking Works for Online and Mobile Sources

For online and mobile sources such as Google SEO or PPC

ads that send people to a web page, call tracking works by

using a technique called dynamic number insertion (DNI).

DNI automatically displays a unique call tracking phone

number on your web pages based on the online or mobile

referral source for each visitor.

Here’s a simple summary of how it works:

1. First, you should include a phone number prominently

on your web pages with a “call us now” call to action.

2. You then replace that phone number in the HMTL with

a small snippet of call tracking JavaScript code you get

from VBMA.

3. The code then automatically displays a unique phone

number on your web pages for each visitor based on

how they got there (i.e., Google or Bing keyword search,

PPC ad, banner ad, referring web site, social media

post, etc.).

4. When the visitor calls the number, the phone lead is

attributed in VBMA to the right referral source.

5. Finally, you can generate reports using VBMA on how

online and mobile activity is generating calls. And like

marketing automation tools, you can integrate call

tracking software with your CRM system to follow each

phone lead from the source through the salescycle to

revenue (more on this later).

For more information on call tracking for Google SEO and

PPC, visit the Ifbyphone web site and download the white

paper: “Marketer’s Guide to Call Tracking for Google SEO

and PPC”.


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Figure 2. Generate reports that track phone leads to their source.

http://public.ifbyphone.com/landingpage/marketers-guide-to-call-tracking-for-google-seo-and-ppc/

http://public.ifbyphone.com/landingpage/marketers-guide-to-call-tracking-for-google-seo-and-ppc/





Generate Detailed Web-Based Reports to Analyze Call Sources

VBMA enables you to configure, schedule, and generate

your own real-time and historical web-based reports on

phone leads (see Figure 2).

You can configure the data any way you want to create

meaningful reports on which ads, campaigns, content,

social media sites, and search keywords are driving inbound

calls. You can also access rich data on each call’s duration

and time of day, the caller’s geography, how long they spent

on hold, the call activity of your sales agents, and much

more.

Track Revenue from Phone Leads with CRM Integration

Voice-based marketing automation is designed to be a

standalone platform. But it also integrates easily with CRM

systems like Salesforce.com, giving financial services and

insurance companies additional value. All call tracking

data is passed to your CRM, so you can generate reports

detailing how each marketing source is driving phone leads,

opportunities, and revenue, and include that data with your

web leads, trade show leads, and other leads as part of your

overall marketing reports (see Figure 3).

Include Call Tracking Data in Google Analytics and Universal Analytics

Many financial services and insurance companies use

Google Analytics to better understand activity on their web

site. In 2013 Google took their analytics platform to the next

level with the release of Universal Analytics, which gives

businesses the ability to view not just web activity, but also

data on offline interactions, mobile app traffic, and other

sources – all in the same interface.


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Figure 3. Include phone call data in your Salesforce.com dashboards and reports.

Salesforce.com




Salesforce.com



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With VBMA you can integrate your call tracking data with

both Google Analytics and Universal Analytics and add the

critical phone data piece to Google’s marketing analytics

puzzle. Google Analytics users can view and analyze call

data alongside web traffic data to better understand how

web visitors and callers find your business and better

measure campaign ROI. Universal Analytics users can

take it a step further by viewing rich, context-specific

call tracking data alongside your other online and offline

marketing analytics, so you can:

• See which ads, search keywords, or social media

platforms are driving web visits and phone calls to your

business

• Compare web visits and phone calls from organic vs.

paid search on one screen

• See which of your web pages or videos a person viewed

before and after calling you

• See which of your content they downloaded or items

they purchased before and after calling you

• Access a color-coded heat map to see where people

are calling you from (see Figure 4) – it’s great for retail,

franchises, and other multi-location businesses

Figure 4. Integrate call data with Universal Analytics to see where visitors are calling from geographically.






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Accurately Track Google PPC ROI in Google AdWords

Most financial services and insurance companies advertise

on Google. They then use Google AdWords to see which

keywords, PPC ads, and landing pages are generating

impressions, clicks, and conversions.

But Google AdWords only tracks web form conversions.

It can’t tell you if someone came to your landing page,

then picked up the phone and called you. That means

your AdWords conversion data could be very misleading.

A landing page might be generating few form downloads

but a high number of inbound calls, which are leading to

opportunities and revenue. But if you can’t tie calls back to

landing pages, ads, and keyword searches, how will you

know? You might end up editing, or even deleting, a landing

page with a high ROI.

VBMA call tracking integrates with Google AdWords, so all

incoming phone calls from any type of Google paid search

ad (even mobile) will be properly captured and attributed as

conversions in Google AdWords. You can get a complete

understanding of what’s working and what isn’t to more

intelligently manage your campaigns.

Summary of VBMA Functionality for Marketing

Lead Tracking & Generation

• Call tracking

• Clean, trackable phone numbers provisioning

• Dynamic number insertion

• Web form calling

Call Scoring

• Inbound IVR

Analytics

• Call tracking reports

• Google AdWords, Google Analytics, & Universal Analytics integration

• Call recording and transcription

CRM Integration

• Salesforce.com integration

• API integration for other CRM tools

Learn more about how marketing teams use VBMA by downloading “The Definitive Guide to Voice-Based Marketing Automation”.




Salesforce.com

http://public.ifbyphone.com/definitive-guide-voice-based-marketing-automation/




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Generating a high volume of inbound sales calls is a great

way for financial services and insurance companies to

grow their business. But only if you have the processes and

technology in place to manage these calls and get them to

the right sales rep right away, not matter where they are.

Voice-based marketing automation has a suite of tools

that can assist with and automate the scoring, routing, and

management of inbound sales calls to improve close rates.

Pre-Qualify and Filter Inbound Calls with an IVR

Chances are that not every inbound call marketing

generates will be ready to engage with a sales rep. Many

might not be. And you don’t want to waste your reps’ time

by having them field a high volume of incoming calls from

leads that aren’t qualified. But many companies don’t want

to waste money paying a live person to ask each caller a list

of qualifying questions.

VBMA makes it easy and cost-effective to pre-qualify your

inbound calls from any marketing source automatically

using an IVR. IVR stands for interactive voice response. It is

a telephone technology that people interact with using their

voice or phone keypad to answer questions or acquire data.

The IVR can answer calls and ask callers the questions your

marketing and sales team determine work best to see if they

qualify for a loan, financial service, or any other product you

sell.

Leads that score high enough are passed automatically

from the IVR directly to sales for an immediate conversation.

Others can hear a custom marketing message and be

given the option of leaving a voicemail for sales, or even be

passed to a second IVR. Marketers and sales staff can set

up IVRs for different campaigns in minutes, monitor real-

time reports on their results, and make changes on the fly

when needed – all without involving IT.

Automate the Scoring, Routing, and Management of Inbound Sales Calls





Close More Business with a Cost-Effective Virtual Call Center

So once qualified calls come in for sales, who should they

go to? Financial services and insurance sales teams are

structured in different ways, depending on the size of the

team and their rules of engagement. For example:

• Some teams are strictly inside sales, where reps gather in a physical office location to make and receive calls

• Others have outside sales agents that spend their time in the field, travelling to meet customers and close business

• Some have telemarketing agents that field and evaluate all incoming call

• Others have reps that work either full-time or part-time from home

• And many are some hybrid combination of them all

To further complicate matters, financial services and

insurance sales teams might change their structure to meet

demands for growth and to accommodate downsizing,

mergers, and acquisitions. Plus, they assign leads based on

a wide range of criteria – including by geographic territory,

size of the account, and even time of day the lead comes in

– which is also subject to change.

For financial services and insurance teams that rely heavily

on phone conversations to close business, these factors

can make call routing a challenge. Many companies are

finding that traditional on-premise call centers can’t meet

their needs. Instead, they are using voice-based marketing

automation to deploy cost-effective virtual call centers

that are fast to implement and easy to modify to meet new

requirements.


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Category On-Premise VBMA

Hardware Installed at your

office

No special hardware

to install or phone

equipment to

purchase

Cost to Deploy Expensive Inexpensive - you pay

for what you use

Time to Deploy Weeks or months Hours

Difficulty of Updating Very - requires

programmers

None - updates are

installed automatically

Flexibility Changes can take

weeks and require

extensive coding

Changes can be made

on the fly by anyone

from anywhere

Supports Agents at

Home or Travelling

No Yes

Works with Any

Device

No Yes, including

landlines, mobile, and

softphones






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On-Premise Call Centers vs. VBMA Virtual Call Centers

Traditionally, call center solutions were all hosted on-

premise. A business would have to purchase the call

center equipment, deploy it at their own office, and

maintain it throughout its lifecycle. That meant high setup,

maintenance, and hardware costs, as well as lengthy

deployment and update times. You would need to hire

programmers skilled in development and maintenance to

keep things running and make improvements. Plus you

would force your sales agents to be physically present in the

office to handle calls.

VBMA’s virtual call center technology changed all that.

VBMA makes it easy for financial services and insurance

companies of every size to cost-effectively deploy a

professional call center in little time. Because it is a

cloud-based solution, you don’t need to purchase and

install expensive hardware. In fact, you don’t need any

programmer assistance at all. Your call center can be up

and running in minutes, and changes can be made on the fly

by sales personnel without any technical background.

VBMA virtual call centers are extremely flexible, so your

agents can work from home, the road, or any office location

using any phone or device they wish while still operating

seamlessly as one team.

To learn more about the benefits of virtual call centers, you

can visit the Ifbyphone web site and download the white

paper “How Sales Teams Use Integrated Virtual Call Centers

to Close More Business”.

10 Questions to Ask Any Virtual Call Center Provider

1. Can I customize the on-hold experience?

2. Can my agents receive calls at any location on any type of phone? Even softphones and Skype?

3. Can I set up schedules based on my individual agents?

4. How can my agents receive caller information before answering?

5. Can I access call reports and records online?

6. Does your service offer call recording and transcription?

7. Are there any setup fees or contracts?

8. Am I able to transfer callers to another agent, department, or IVR?

9. Do you charge per-agent or per-seat fees?

10. Does it integrate with applications like Salesforce.com and Zendesk?




http://public.ifbyphone.com/landingpage/close-more-business-with-an-integrated-virtual-call-center/

http://public.ifbyphone.com/landingpage/close-more-business-with-an-integrated-virtual-call-center/

Salesforce.com



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Automatically Route Calls to the Right Sales Agent Wherever They Are

VBMA virtual call centers have advanced call routing

technology that enables your business to route calls based

on your own customizable rules. Rules can be easily set

up and updated on the fly as needed. Call routing options

include:

• Route by schedule: Create custom routing based on

your office hours, the time zones of your customers,

weekends, holidays, and more.

• Route by agent: Ensure that your best performing

sales reps receive the most calls by routing a certain

percentage to specific agents.

• Route by geography: If your business has multiple

locations or assigns leads based on territory, set up

incoming phone calls to be routed based on the caller’s

location.

• Route by number: Screen incoming calls and set up

custom routing and queuing rules for specific phone

numbers.

• Route by product interest or marketing source:

Because VBMA can tell which product, ad, marketing

campaign, or other source a person is calling about or

from (more on this later), you can set up rules to route

those calls to the best place based on that source.

You can also minimize the risk of important calls going

unanswered by using VBMA to implement conditional and

selective call routing. Forward incoming calls to different

types of phones or devices (cell phone, work phone, home

phone, Skype, etc.) and agents based on various schedules,

including:

• Simultaneous ringing: Ring an agent’s home, work,

and cell phone simultaneously to ensure that the call is

answered, whether the agent is working from home or

travelling.

• Specific ring order: Ring agent phones in a specific

order, such as work phone first, cell phone second,

home phone third, etc.

• Multi-agent ringing: Ring several agent phone numbers

at the same time; the first agent who answers gets the

call, even if they are working from home.

• Office schedule: Forward calls to various agents based

on your office schedule.





Control Your Call Queuing Experience

When callers are placed on hold, you want full control

over their experience. VBMA lets you select the music or

promotional messages they hear, the maximum amount

of time they’ll have to wait, the number of callers in your

queue, and much more. You can also set up priority queuing

to speed VIP customers to the front of the line.

Integrate Your Call Center with Your CRM System

VBMA virtual call centers can integrate with CRM systems

like Salesforce.com. For sales leads, this means that every

incoming call gets logged automatically in your CRM either

as a new lead or as part of an existing record, along with

data on the caller and the marketing source that lead them

to call:

• Have customer information at sales’ fingertips

before every call: When a call comes in from an

existing customer or prospect, VBMA instantly triggers

a screen-pop with information on the lead, contact, and

organization (see Figure 5). No time is wasted searching

for the correct CRM record.

• Boost agent productivity and reduce input errors:

When a new lead calls, VBMA creates a lead record in

your CRM and auto-populates the contact number, lead

source, and other information. This keeps your agents

productive and improves the quality of your data.

• Never miss a phone lead: If a call from a new lead

goes unanswered, VBMA creates a new lead record for

you with an open case to ensure proper follow up. If the

number is associated with an existing CRM contact, a

new case is automatically added to the record.

Convert Web Form Leads into Instant Sales Calls

Ask yourself: When a lead fills out one of your web forms,

how long will it take for a sales rep to respond and get the

lead on the phone? Research shows that a sale is 22 times

more likely to happen when you make contact within the

first five minutes. Waiting even ten minutes dramatically

decreases your chances of converting that lead to a sale.


15

Salesforce.com






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VBMA has tools that make it easy for any web form lead

– including Google PPC – to talk to the right sales rep

right away. Using VBMA, you can generate immediate

connections from any online form, including Request a

Demo forms, Contact Us forms, or the forms on any of

your Google PPC landing pages.

Here’s how it works:

1. Whenever a lead completes a web page form and

clicks submit, VBMA immediately calls your sales

rep and “whispers” the lead’s information in their

ear. This can include the name of the form that was

downloaded, the lead’s name, and their phone number.

2. If the rep decides to accept the call, VBMA will

automatically call the lead and connect both parties

over the phone.

It can be a very effective strategy for improving the number

of Google PPC leads and other web form leads that

convert to opportunities and revenue.

Arm Sales with Valuable Caller Data Using Agent Panels

The more information sales agents have upfront about

inbound callers, the more successful the call will be. So

VBMA provides a web-based agent panel that displays on

each sakes rep’s computer screen (see Figure 5).

Before taking a call, the sales rep can see who is calling

and what ad, marketing campaign, search term, or other

source led them to call. If the caller has a record in your

CRM system, the panel provides one-click access to that

record. If not, that same click can create a new record with

pre-populated data.

This panel can display on any computer, no matter if the rep

is working in your office or at home. If an agent is working

from home using their cell phone and wants to transfer

a caller to someone in another location, the agent panel

makes it easy.





Monitor Call Center Activity with Real-Time and Historical Call Reports

Monitoring sales agent call activity is easy using VBMA’s

web-based real-time and historical reports.

• How many did each agent handle in a given time?

• How long did calls last?

• What was the average time a lead waited to speak with

an agent?

• How many hours a day does each agent spend on

incoming calls, outbound calls, and break?

• What time do agents first log in and last log out?

All this data is at your fingertips, no matter where each

agent is working, so you can centrally manage your call

center from anywhere.


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Figure 5. Agent panels arm sales reps with valuable data on incoming callers.





Record and Transcribe Calls to Improve Sales and Marketing

VBMA can also record and transcribe every call for future

review. Call recordings and transcription can provide a

wealth of information from your leads and customers for

marketing and sales to mine. Find out:

• What terminology prospects use

• How they describe their pain points

• What are the sticking points sales has to overcome

• What sales approaches work best to close deals

Use this knowledge to build more effective marketing

campaigns and educate sales reps on how best to

overcome barriers and close more deals.


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Summary of VBMA Functionality for Sales

Virtual Call Center

• IVR auto-attendant

• Intelligent call routing

• Agent panel

• Manager dashboards


Voice Broadcasting

• Outbound IVR and prerecorded blasts

• SMS messaging

• Web-based reporting

CRM Integration

• Salesforce.com integration

• API integration for other CRM tools

Learn more about how sales teams use VBMA by downloading “The Definitive Guide to Voice-Based Marketing Automation.”




Salesforce.com





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VBMA voice broadcasts are a cost-effective way to

deliver prerecorded phone messages or outbound IVRs to

thousands of people at once. They can be a powerful tool

for to automate the delivery of past-due collection phone

calls (“This is a reminder that your bill is past due by 45

days”) or to promote new loan offers, deals on investment

services, new insurance products, and much more.

Many businesses today use voice broadcasting as an

effective alternative to email. People may receive a hundred

or more emails in a day, and having your message stand

out can be difficult. Voice broadcasts cut through the email

clutter by calling your audience directly.

Instead of having your staff spend all day making outbound

calls, you simply use VBMA’s cloud-based software to

create your message or IVR, upload a spreadsheet with the

phone numbers you wish to target, and let the system do

the rest. It also brings together a wealth of features to make

voice broadcasting easier and more effective, including:

• Message personalization with text-to-speech:

Personalize your voice broadcasts for each recipient

by having the text-to-speech feature insert their name,

company, account balance, payment deadline, or any

other information you want into their message.

• Interaction with IVR: Use outbound IVR to add

interactive functionality to your calls to ask questions,

collect information, or tailor specific messages based on

responses.

• Complete scheduling control: Get complete control

over when to schedule broadcasts, how quickly to send

out messages, and when to pause your voice broadcast

campaigns.

Automate Outbound Phone Message Delivery to Save Time and Generate Revenue






20

• Live transfers: Give voice broadcast recipients the

option to be transferred directly to a live agent to make

a payment, place an order, or any other activity.

• Voicemail detection: Customize your broadcasts with

two messages: one for when a live person answers

the phone, and an alternative for when the call goes to

voicemail.

• Real-time reporting: Access real-time broadcast

reports on your voice broadcast campaigns online

whenever you want.

• API integration: Integrate voice broadcasting with your

company’s CRM system or other software to trigger

calls automatically based on dates or account events

and log responses in your CRM.

To learn more about the benefits of using VBMA voice

broadcasts, you can visit the Ifbyphone web site and

download the white paper “New Ways to Integrate Voice

Broadcasting into Your Marketing and Sales Strategy”.

DPS Uses Voice Broadcasting and IVR to Drive Revenue for their Clients

Dealer Product Services, Inc. is a provider of marketing solutions to over 1,600 automotive retail clients. DPS wanted to integrate voice broadcasting into its clients’ CRM systems to automate phone calls to advertise warranty renewals, oil changes, and other services.

“We chose Ifbyphone due to their flexibility and their programming expertise,” said Tim O’Neal, President and CEO of DPS. “They have helped us integrate our systems, streamline processes, and automate all of our call delivery.”

Using Ifbyphone’s VBMA solution, DPS was able to generate more revenue to their clients while realizing a cost savings of 20%.




http://public.ifbyphone.com/landingpage/intelligent-voice-broadcasting-white-paper/

http://public.ifbyphone.com/landingpage/intelligent-voice-broadcasting-white-paper/


Many financial services and insurance companies handle

hundreds – even thousands – of customer service calls

each week. But even if you only get a handful a day, each

call is important. If your support team is taking too long to

respond, customers get frustrated, their satisfaction level

drops, and your churn rate goes up.

VBMA Virtual Call Centers Give Support Teams Flexibility for Less

A cloud-based VBMA virtual call center makes just as

much sense for support teams as it does for sales. Smaller

financial services and insurance companies with a few

support agents can still provide customers a professional

call center experience – even if the agents work from home

– giving callers the impression your company is bigger than

it is. And larger companies with dozens – or even hundreds

– of support agents can cut costs while providing faster,

more efficient phone support using a VBMA virtual call

center.

Some highlights:

• VBMA virtual call centers are inexpensive and easy to

get up and running. No IT help needed.

• You can use the phones you already have in your office,

at home, or in your pocket. No extra equipment to buy.

• Agents can field calls from anywhere, so it is very easy

to hire part-time or seasonal workers to staff your help

desk.

• As mentioned early, a wide range of automatic call

routing options are available to ensure no support calls

are missed no matter where your agents work.

• No matter where agents are, call activity can be

centrally monitored using real-time web-based reports,

same as for sales teams.

• And because VBMA virtual call centers are so easy to

configure and update, they have the flexibility to grow

with you as your company and support team evolves.

To learn more about the benefits of deploying a VBMA

virtual call center for customer support, you can visit the

Ifbyphone web site and download the white paper “The

Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud”.


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Provide Superior Customer Support Over the Phone from Anywhere

http://public.ifbyphone.com/landingpage/the-next-generation-of-virtual-call-centers/

http://public.ifbyphone.com/landingpage/the-next-generation-of-virtual-call-centers/





Manage Call Volume and Enable Customer Self-Service with IVRs

Inbound IVR is nothing new for the call center – companies

have been setting up inbound IVRs as their virtual

receptionist for years. Rather than having a live agent

answer every phone call, the IVR picks up the phone and

routes the call to the correct person or department.

But IVRs have become increasingly more sophisticated.

Now they can be used to provide callers with information

and services 24/7 that they previously had to wait for a live

agent to receive, such as:

• Account and billing info

• Order renewals

• Order status updates

• Changes to contact information

• Password retrieval and updating

• Business hours and locations

Automating this functionality with an IVR enables your

customers to serve themselves quickly and saves your

agents for more elaborate support calls. Plus, IVR can also

gather information from callers around the clock (for a new

insurance claim, for example), including their name, phone

number, address, and reason for their call, before either

passing it to a live agent or a recorded message.

Treat Your VIP Customers Like VIPs

Keeping VIP customers happy is extremely important to

any business. And the faster your support team is able to

respond to and resolve issues from VIPs, the more loyal they

will be will be. So if you receive a high volume of support

calls, you can use VBMA to set up custom rules that place

VIP customers at the top of the support queue. This type

priority queuing also enables you to generate extra revenue

by charging customers for different tiers of phone support,

with your most expensive tier enabling VIPs to skip to the

front of the line.


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Improve Support and Agent Productivity with Help Desk Integration

If your support team uses a help desk system like

Zendesk, you can integrate it with voice-based marketing

automation’s virtual call center technology to improve

support team efficiency. The benefits of this integration

includes:

• Turn voice messages into support tickets: When

a customer leaves a voicemail, your agents will

automatically receive an email with both the transcribed

text message as well as the recorded file. The system

will automatically open a support ticket for the caller in

your help desk system, eliminating manual work and

saving your agents time.

• Acknowledge support requests 24/7: No matter when

a caller leaves a voice message, they will automatically

receive an email acknowledging receipt of their ticket.

• Manage calls and tickets on one platform: Many

help desk systems like Zendesk don’t include a phone

component. By integrating them with VBMA, agents can

simply sign in to their help desk account and they are

automatically logged in to the call center. They can then

make and receive calls without leaving the help desk

system.


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FundNet Systems Uses VBMA to Cut Support Costs by 80%

FundNET Systems provides web-based communication software for financial services professionals. They wanted a way to ensure all support requests received via phone were automatically entered and tracked in Zendesk.

Ifbyphone helped FundNET set up the following solution with VBMA:

1. When financial advisors call FundNET for support, their support question is recorded and transcribed.

2. The transcription, along with an attachment of the audio recording, is then automatically entered as a support ticket in Zendesk.

3. The caller then receives an email confirming their support request that includes the transcription and a link to the audio recording.

“The Ifbyphone-Zendesk integration reduces our firm’s phone costs by 80%, ensures our clients receive high-quality customer service, and saves our support team time by aggregating all support inquiries, via phone, email, and web, in one place,” said FundNET President Jonathan Hunt.





Measure Customer Satisfaction with Automated Phone Surveys

Phone surveys are an invaluable tool for measuring

customer service. Phone surveys provide feedback from

customers on how your support agents are performing—

are they timely, professional, and knowledgeable? Were

they able to solve the customer’s problem in a satisfactory

way? This data enables support teams to make changes to

improve customer retention and loyalty.

VBMA makes it easy for your support team to build their

own inbound and outbound automated phone surveys using

IVR technology (see Figure 6). You can:

• Transfer callers to a quick IVR survey to provide

immediate feedback after speaking to an agent, while

the transaction remains fresh in the customers’ minds.

• For times when a customer’s satisfaction with the help

you provided can’t be immediately gauged, you can use

VBMA to send an outbound IVR that automatically calls

customers after a certain period of time and ask them

questions.

• You can also provide a toll-free hotline on receipts or

invoices encouraging people to call and take a phone

survey.

All IVR responses are accessible from real-time web-based

reports, and that data can be integrated with the customer’s

record in your CRM system.


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Figure 6. Example of post-support customer satisfaction IVR survey built using Ifbyphone.





You can see how VBMA helps marketing, sales, and

support individually. But by providing a common platform

for managing and optimizing phone interactions – and by

integrating with your CRM, help desk, and other systems

– VBMA also connects all three groups together and helps

keep them aligned:

• Marketing can pass lead source data to sales when they

get an inbound call and access CRM data and sales call

recordings to improve campaigns

• Sales can see the marketing source of every call before

answering to improve conversation quality and access

support call recordings to better manage accounts

• Support can access complete customers histories

(including answers to phone surveys) and sales call

recordings to improve service.

With VBMA, all groups not only work better, but they work

better together.


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Summary of VBMA Functionality for Support

Virtual Call Center

• IVR auto-attendant

• Intelligent call routing

• Call forwarding

• Agent panel

• Manager dashboards

• IVR phone surveys

Analytics

• CRM integration


Help Desk Integration

• Zendesk integration

• API integration for other help desk tools

Learn more about how support teams use VBMA by downloading “The Definitive Guide to Voice-Based Marketing Automation”.

Connect and Align Marketing, Sales, and Support








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Next Steps

Call Ifbyphone today at (877) 540-5266 to learn how Ifbyphone can help you grow your business. You can also request a demo of Ifbyphone’s VBMA solution at www.ifbyphone.com.

Sources:1. BIA/Kelsey report on Call-Based Ads, May 29, 2012




www.ifbyphone.com.at

About Ifbyphone

Ifbyphone, the leader in voice-based marketing automation

(VBMA), connects, measures and optimizes sales and

service calls for businesses and organizations. Ifbyphone’s

VBMA solutions capture and manage phone leads and

information that often slip through the cracks of traditional

marketing automation and CRM software solutions.

The Ifbyphone product suite is a set of software-as-a-service

applications including call tracking, hosted IVR (interactive

voice response), call routing, virtual call center and voice

broadcasting. Organizations of all sizes in all industries use

Ifbyphone, including marketing agencies, lead generation,

e-commerce, direct response, financial services and

insurance, health care, retail and logistics, and SaaS and

technology. For more information, visit www.ifbyphone.com

www.ifbyphone.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ifbyphone

Facebook: http://facebook.com/ifbyphone

(877) 540-5266

300 West Adams Street, 9th Floor

Chicago, IL 60606

© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. All rights reserved.

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