After you’ve determined if your company needs one, it’s time to select a vendor and schedule demos. It’s important to schedule them as close together as possible to help make relevant comparisons. Also, make sure all potential internal users are on the demo call, and pay attention to the following:

• How easy is the platform to use?
• Does the vendor seem to understand our business and our marketing needs?
• Are they showing us our “must-have” features?

Here are 37 questions to ask vendors during the software demo to help you gauge whether the tool you are evaluating is the right one for your organization:

Explore platform capabilities from vendors like CallRail, Invoca, CallSource, DialogueTech and more in the full MarTech Intelligence Report on enterprise call analytics platforms.

Click here to download!

Phone numbers

• Do you offer both local and toll-free numbers? Do you have any international coverage?
• Can you support mobile callers by supplying local numbers or extensions that are dynamically generated based upon the site visitor’s location?
• How do you clean your numbers? What is the number quarantine period you use before reissuing them?
• Are phone numbers portable? In other words, do we own the numbers and can take them with us if this engagement doesn’t work out?

Onboarding

• What makes this platform technically unique from all the others?
• How difficult is platform set up and implementation? How long will it take for us to be up and running on the system?
• How intuitive is the platform user interface? How easy is it for business users to customize the machine learning-based models or settings?
• What is your service reliability guarantee? What telecom carriers do you work with?
• Do you manage proprietary telephony infrastructure or are you white-labeled?
• How scalable is the platform? How many calls can it handle? How many calls have been successfully processed?

Call tracking

• Does the platform record calls? How long are call recordings available to us?
• Does the platform track data at both the session and keyword-level for search ads? Does it track data to the ad level for Facebook and display ads?
• How does the platform enable multichannel attribution?
• How does the platform measure and report call outcomes? Can we customize outcomes to our business needs?
• What type of call fraud detection and prevention tools do you have in place? Are they included in pricing? Or is there an additional spam-control fee?

Speech analytics

• How does the platform use AI or machine learning algorithms to analyze the content of phone conversations or chats?
• Does the platform utilize natural language processing or some other analytics tools?
• How does the platform’s speech analytics help us score calls and feed the call data into our CRM, ESP or other martech systems?

Call data privacy

• Which data privacy regulations does the platform comply with? For example, does it meet HIPAA and CCPA requirements?
• Is PII automatically redacted from transcripts and recordings?
• Are you GDPR compliant for our European Union customers or calls?

Marketing automation and agent training

• Does the platform use machine learning-based call scoring and routing to automatically route inbound calls based on caller location, business hours and/or staffing?
• Does the platform feature whisper messages to announce caller sources or other valuable information to our agents before accepting the call?
• Can call scores be automatically fed into rep performance assessments?
• Does the platform enable other marketing automation capabilities, such as automatically generating online display or email nurturing campaigns?
• Do you offer native, off-the-shelf integrations with third-party systems such as search, web analytics, CRM or marketing automation platforms? If so, which ones?
• Are APIs available? Is access included in pricing?

Pricing and support

• What is pricing based on? What features are included? Are there additional fees (consulting, add-on features, APIs, quotas)?
• What is the minimum contract length? Is there a short-term contract or an ‘out’ clause if things don’t work out?
• Is a free trial or pilot program available?
• Can the platform be white-labeled for agencies or multi-location marketers?
• Who will be our day-to-day contact?
• Who pays if the system/team makes an error?
• What kind of customer support is available? Can I pick up the phone to report problems?

Strategy and product roadmap

• Do you have other clients in my vertical?
• How does the company handle requests for product modifications?
• What new features are you considering for the platform? What’s the long-term roadmap and launch dates?

Our latest report Enterprise Call Analytics: A Marketer’s Guide is available for download here

The post 37 questions to ask call analytics vendors during the demo appeared first on MarTech.

But deciding whether or not your company needs a call analytics platform is no simple task. It requires the same evaluative steps involved in any software adoption, including a comprehensive self-assessment of your organization’s business needs, staff capabilities, management support and financial resources.

Before jumping in, gather your team and answer these 10 questions to help you decide if these platforms are right for your organization.

Are we optimizing inbound phone calls as a sales or lead-generating channel?

The phone continues to play an integral role in customer communications, particularly 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.

How much of our revenue (if any) 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, then 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.

Explore platform capabilities from vendors like CallRail, Invoca, CallSource, DialogueTech and more in the full MarTech Intelligence Report on enterprise call analytics platforms.

Click here to download!

What is our process for analyzing inbound phone conversations?

What kind of data can we pull out of 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.

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? The answers will help your organization choose a vendor that can help you meet your goals.

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. In either case, without the proper resources in place, the platform can end up becoming an expensive reservoir of untapped data with unfulfilled potential to increase revenue and improve your customer experiences.

How much training will we need?

Different platform vendors provide different 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.

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.

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 and, more importantly, you want to be sure that that extra information derived from call analytics will drive better decisions.

What is the total cost of ownership?

Enterprise call analytics platforms use on-demand pricing, meaning customers pay a monthly subscription fee that will vary by usage. The majority of vendors profiled in this report 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.

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 be able to benchmark success later on. Without them, justifying the expense of the platform or subsequent marketing campaigns to C-suite executives will be difficult.

Our latest report Enterprise Call Analytics: A Marketer’s Guide is available here

The post Does your organization need a call analytics platform? appeared first on MarTech.

Why it matters. While phones are now a platform for a huge number of things, letting one person talk to another is still the primary reason people have them. That is especially true when someone wants information from a business. Phone calls provide businesses with an opportunity to offer deep in-the-funnel prospects fast answers and connections to real people.

AI-driven technologies, including smart speakers, virtual assistants, chatbots and messaging apps are also driving calls to businesses. Seventy-seven percent of U.S. adults experienced a change to their daily routine due to the pandemic, and voice-assistant usage increased during this uncertain time, according to the latest Smart Audio Report by NPR and Edison Research.

The study found that 35% of American adults, or around 100 million people, owned a smart speaker in 2022, up from 21% in 2019. Use of those devices seems to drive additional use of smart assistants on mobile phones, with 46% of smart speaker owners with smartphones saying they used the phone assistant more often since getting the speakers.

Although both smart speakers and virtual assistants are most frequently used for music, weather, directions, games and setting alarms, about one-third of users are finding local businesses, while around a quarter of users use them to order food.

What they do. Call analytics platforms help marketers identify and activate the rich data hidden in the growing volume of inbound calls. Call analytics platforms track both online and offline leads, following a call from its source (i.e., website, social media and click-to-call search or display ads) to a sales representative (i.e., based on geographic location or product line and on to a conversion or lack thereof).

Call tracking software

The ability to track calls is a core use case of call analytics technology. However, advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are driving more sophisticated applications, including the following:

• First-party database-building: As marketers lose access to third-party cookie data, first-party data sources such as phone calls are becoming more valuable in brand efforts to build privacy-compliant customer databases. Call analytics platforms facilitate the scaled collection and analysis of caller data.
• Customer journey attribution: Call analytics platforms provide online-to-offline attribution across media channels, helping marketers understand the role that each customer touchpoint plays in a conversion. The result is more efficient resource allocation and more relevant messaging based on customer preferences.
• Marketing campaign optimization: Call analytics platforms connect calls to the search keywords, social display ads or webpages that drove them. Marketers can use unique phone numbers for each website visitor to understand which pages and elements are driving the highest quality calls, as well as which ones are causing visitors to leave. Call data, including demographics, product interests and buying stage, can also be used to optimize search bids or make on-the-fly changes to campaign messaging and creative.
• Audience segmentation and targeting: Call analytics platforms record and transcribe calls, then apply AI-based models to the results to determine the characteristics of the highest-performing callers or leads. Using the data, marketers can build personas or look-alike audiences to create high-performing customer segments.
• Personalized, intelligent routing for lead generation: Call analytics platforms use machine learning to score and route calls based on factors including call source, geography, demographics, purchase history or intent. Tools such as whisper messages arm sales reps with known customer information that personalizes the caller experience.
• Sales rep coaching and development: Many call analytics platforms include automated sales performance and evaluation tools to provide scoring/grading systems, script optimization and real-time alerts that flag lost opportunities.
• Integrations with chat applications and SMS messaging: Like phone calls, online chat and messaging are key channels for customers to interact with businesses, so some players are extending their experience with conversational analysis to popular messaging apps as well as site-specific chat and SMS.

Core capabilities of call analytics platforms

Most platforms offer a core set of capabilities focused on call tracking, recording, scoring, routing and fraud prevention. Dynamic number insertion (DNI) is used to enable marketers to assign unique phone numbers to different digital marketing campaigns in order to track the source of an inbound call. When a consumer clicks through to a site from an online ad, DNI technology displays the phone number that’s unique to the specific search engine, webpage, keyword or another source. Vendors offer DNI by call source, online session or URL. The ubiquity of mobile calls to businesses has led to increased demand for local numbers or extensions that are dynamically generated based upon the consumer’s location, without jeopardizing the accuracy of name-address-phone (NAP) information for SEO purposes.

Call fraud prevention is another important feature, as automated dialers, fax machines and even computer programmers can hack into carrier networks to fraudulently inflate call volumes and revenue for pay-per-call services. In response, vendors have developed proprietary call fraud detection and prevention tools that identify, monitor and block suspicious call patterns and routes.

Vendors begin to differentiate their platforms by offering more advanced capabilities, often requiring additional investment, which includes – but are not limited to – the following.

Multichannel attribution

Most call analytics platforms offer some level of call tracking that enables users to attribute the source of a call back to a specific ad, keyword or webpage. By tracking inbound calls from their sources, call analytics platforms provide an important link between online and offline channels, and allow marketers to more accurately measure the ROI of their multichannel marketing campaigns. Some vendors are offering more sophisticated attribution tools that can identify call sources beyond search – including native social ads and display ads that don’t include a click-to-call button. The goal is to more effectively allocate spending across marketing channels, and establish a more accurate link between digital campaigns and offline conversions.

AI-driven speech analytics

Call analytics technology has evolved from providing basic analytics to providing “conversation intelligence” based on AI-driven algorithms that extract and predict caller intent, and measure caller tone, sentiment and emotion. AI is increasingly being applied to analyze and “spot” keywords, phrases and speech patterns for positive or negative signals of conversion intent.

These signals can also include the length of time a caller speaks versus how long the sales rep speaks. Many call analytics platforms use a variety of natural language processing (NLP) and machine-learning algorithms to automatically assess calls and score leads. The results can be used immediately to help sales reps on the call by using whisper messages heard through the rep’s headset to influence call outcomes. The data can also be used post-call to feed CRM systems and trigger nurturing campaigns.

Intelligent call scoring/routing

Machine learning-based or “intelligent” lead scoring and routing systems are now being used to optimally route a call to the rep or location most qualified to close a sale or other conversion action (i.e., make an appointment). These types of scoring and routing tools automatically qualify and distribute calls to the appropriate sales reps or departments based on variables such as caller source (i.e., website, social media, search ad), geography, demographics (i.e., age, gender, income) or intent. Some of the tools used in intelligent call scoring and routing include interactive voice response (IVR), which prequalifies callers before they are routed to a rep through a short series of automated questions, and whisper messages that alert reps to relevant caller data before they pick up the call. Calls can be tracked through the system to follow conversions and other qualifying events.

Native social analytics integration

Call analytics software vendors are leveraging the growth in native social advertising and click-to-call to more seamlessly integrate social media and call analytics. Most vendors offer Facebook and Instagram call tracking software to attribute calls back to social media ads.

Several vendors also use Facebook’s offline conversion API to integrate their call data directly into Facebook ad campaigns through the Facebook Ads Manager.

Chat and messaging integrations and analytics

Chat applications — either mainstream messengers like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, or chat functionality on websites — have become key channels for customer service and pre-sales inquiries. Additionally, many such interactions are now enabled by SMS. Some call analytics vendors incorporate connections and data gathering from these sources, to give marketers a more holistic view of customer interactions and sentiments.

Sales rep coaching/evaluation

Several call analytics software platforms are rooted in sales coaching and evaluation, and use call recording tools to maximize efficiency in the call center and among sales staffs. Today, the platforms provide machine learning-based call handling analytics tools that assess location and/or rep performance, and provide scoring/grading systems, script optimization and real-time alerts that flag lost opportunities.

Data privacy compliance

Call data privacy continues to be a priority, particularly for businesses in the healthcare and financial services markets, which must comply with HIPAA and HITECH regulations and the CCPA. U.S.-based marketers with European prospects or customers are subject to the European Union’s GDPR. Many vendors automatically redact personally identifiable information (PII) and consumer financial information from call recordings and transcripts to conform to the PCI DSS.

Martech ecosystem integration

Integrating call analytics data with martech and ad tech software systems has become essential to creating a unified view of callers, webpage and store visitors, prospects and customers. Call analytics vendors have expanded the number of built-in or native integrations available with SEO, PPC, DSP, CRM and marketing automation systems, as marketers try to create a more seamless customer experience across all touchpoints. In particular, calls play an important role in establishing the link between digital and offline channels. To that end, call analytics platform vendors continue to expand their connectivity with social media, Google and Bing, analytics tools, affiliate marketers and digital agencies. Most vendors also offer APIs to facilitate importing and exporting third-party data from external marketing and advertising systems. Access to these APIs may or may not be included in base pricing.

Explore platform capabilities from vendors like CallRail, Invoca, CallSource, DialogueTech and more in the full MarTech Intelligence Report on enterprise call analytics platforms.

Click here to download!

The benefits of using call analytics software platforms

Call tracking software and analytics play a vital role in bridging the gap between online and offline channels, leading to more efficient marketing resource allocation and improved sales staff effectiveness. The specific benefits of using an enterprise call analytics platform include – but are not limited to – the following:

• Improved multichannel attribution. By using DNI to track inbound calls to their source, call analytics establish the link between inbound calls and online search, display, social or email campaigns. The data can be fed into attribution models for greater accuracy.
• More unified customer view. Integrating call analytics data with CRM, marketing automation, tag management and other martech or ad tech systems provides the enterprise with a more complete view of each prospect and customer enabling more relevant, personalized marketing.
• Optimized marketing campaigns. Inbound calls can be tracked to their marketing source at the keyword, session, campaign or channel levels, and followed through the conversion funnel to identify the most profitable sources. Campaigns can then be optimized to focus on the messages and sources that attract the highest quality calls.
• Smarter marketing resource allocation. Understanding which ads, keywords and web pages drive the most profitable calls leads to more informed marketing and media spend decisions.
• Increased sales staff productivity. Tools such as IVR and intelligent call routing send high-value leads to the right agents or locations to close sales more efficiently. Call analytics can also reveal inefficiencies that, when improved, can boost key metrics such as lost opportunities.
• Better sales performance. Call analytics platforms record and analyze inbound calls to identify which agents and sales techniques close the most sales. Training can be provided to improve results, where necessary. Whisper messages help agents customize their approaches based on known customer information during calls.

The post What is call analytics software and how is AI giving marketers more power to measure inbound call data? appeared first on MarTech.

More and more enterprise marketers are using call analytics platforms to collect, analyze and act upon the growing volume of caller data now being captured from the billions of inbound calls to businesses.

Below you will find a list of 19 call analytics vendors that we profiled in the latest MarTech Intelligence Report on enterprise call analytics platforms.

These platforms provide a core set of competencies that automate and scale call tracking, recording, scoring, routing and fraud prevention.

Every enterprise is unique and at a different level of maturity in its web, social, mobile and multichannel marketing efforts. Marketers must carefully weigh current analytics needs against future goals when evaluating the return on call analytics investments. The market is continually developing, and many vendors are investing heavily in AI and machine learning to expand the range of marketing and sales use cases for their solutions. A careful and comprehensive internal evaluation of business goals and resources is the first step in the decision-making process. The result can be a long-term, productive call analytics partnership that boosts both revenue and profit for your marketing organization.

Here is our list, which is organized alphabetically and not in any order of importance. For information on pricing and a deeper feature breakdown, download the MarTech Intelligence Report.

CallRail

Atlanta-based CallRail was founded in 2011. It has 300 employees and has raised more than $132 million in venture funding.

Target customers

CallRail serves SMBs or marketing agencies with clients that rely on communications with customers — phone calls, texts, form submissions, and/or chats — to generate leads, close deals, and grow their businesses in the home services, real estate, legal services, financial services, healthcare and automotive industries. Key customers include Cardinal Web Solutions, Einstein Industries, Molina Healthcare, Slamdot, West Dermatology and Workshop Digital.

Product overview

CallRail offers four solutions: Call Tracking, Form Tracking, Conversation Intelligence, and Lead Center.

• Call Tracking is a real-time solution that lets users track and analyze inbound calls to optimize marketing campaigns and maximize lead generation, conversion rates, and each campaign’s ROI.
• Form Tracking captures and tracks form submissions, connecting online and offline marketing efforts to provide a more complete view of the customer’s
  journey.
• Conversation Intelligence automatically records and transcribes inbound phone calls in real time and pairs with Call Tracking to classify, qualify, and quantify conversations using keywords that the user defines.
• Lead Center, an intuitive business communications solution, lets users take, make, and manage calls, texts, and chats from one unified inbox, within the CallRail platform. Provides a real-time view of the customer journey to have smarter customer conversations.

CallRail says its platform provides seamless, real-time, native integration to 45 different marketing solutions and platforms, including CRMs, social media and search engine ad platforms, marketing management solutions and more.

It also supports custom integration via Zapier, webhooks, custom cookie capture, and API and its Lead Center mobile app lets users run a business efficiently from anywhere.

CallSource

Westlake Village, California-based CallSource was founded in 1991. It has more than 100 employees.

Target customers

CallSource serves SMBs, enterprise brands, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and multilocation marketers in the automotive, professional services, home services, healthcare and franchise industries. Key customers include Champion Services, Dealer.com, Sonic Automotive Group and Trane.

Product overview

CallSource offers a call tracking for offline attribution solution that has evolved to include advanced digital marketing, and call coaching and performance.

It also offers a variety of services to maximize advertising ROI and call handler performance. Solutions include call tracking, lead categorization/parsing and alerts for missed opportunites and review responses.

Its solutions are designed to maximize call-to-appointment rates by helping employees improve phone-handling skills. Key metrics include cost-per-lead by ad source, as well as lead conversion rate by employee.

CallTrack captures and identifies call numbers, locations and sources; records calls for review.

• Local, toll-free and vanity numbers available.
• Dynamic number insertion (DNI) available and can track up to 5 dynamic phone numbers on a single webpage.

Its Deal Saver feature delivers alerts to owners if an appointment opportunity was missed. It provides the caller’s essential contact data, call handler information, an audio file of the call and notes what department the alert came from.

Telephone Performance Analysis (TPA) is an employee evaluation tool that analyzes agent sales/customer service skills by reviewing and grading sales calls based on specific criteria.

Call Coaching uses recorded calls scored against CallSource’s proprietary principles to build call handlers’ skills and increase call-to-appointment rates.

EveryLead combines offline and online attribution in a real-time dashboard.

CS Reviews & RespondNow uses real people to aggregate and respond to online reviews for business owners to protect brand reputation using customized criteria.

CallShield is a cloud-based fraud detection and prevention service that blocks telephone hacking and computer-generated robocalls.

CallTrackingMetrics

Severna Park, Maryland-based CallTrackingMetrics was founded in 2008. It has 65 employees and is privately funded.

Target customers

CallTrackingMetrics serves bid-market B2B and B2C brands, plus agencies, consultancies and performance marketers (lead resellers) serving industries relying on critical communication channels such as addiction treatment, law, healthcare, home services, multi-location franchises and enterprise-level call centers. Key customers include Crystal Cruises, Pulte Homes, SearchKings, ServiceMaster and The Goddard School.

Product overview

The CallTrackingMetrics call tracking platform combines conversation intelligence with contact center functionality to drive more informed marketing decisions and facilitate smarter customer acquisition and communication across sales, marketing and customer service teams.

The platform conditionally directs calls, texts, chats and online forms based on actions visitors have taken on a brand website, conversation history, location, custom criteria and more.

The platform defines rules and milestones with an autodialer to strategically manage calls in line with team availability and caller behavior.

Call tracking features include:

• Reliable dynamic number insertion (DNI) for session-level attribution.
• Local, toll-free and vanity tracking numbers for online and offline tracking.
• Omni-channel attribution across calls, texts, form fills and chats.
• Conversation intelligence tools like live listen, transcriptions, call recording and keyword spotting.
• Real-time activity stream to view all conversations as they happen.
• Standard and custom reporting dashboards to track activity volume.

Contact center features include:

• Browser-based softphone to facilitate the communication of in-office or remote workforces.
• Bulk SMS messaging and auto dialer features.
• Advanced call routing options and smart routing from customizable IVRs to georouting.
• Intuitive team and role structures to power agent queues, schedules and real-time agent reporting.
• Customer service tools to meet users where they are, while remaining in one platform to answer calls, texts and chats.
• Whisper messages, automated tagging, wrap-up panels and call scoring for efficient communication and follow-up.

Infinity

London-based Infinity was founded in 2010 and has 135 employees. Its global services available in 85-plus countries worldwide. In September 2021, Infinity acquired call tracking and analytics provider ResponseTap. It has additional U.S. offices in San Francisco; international offices in Madrid and Reigate, and Surrey and Manchester offices in the U.K.

Target customers

Infinity serves brands in the automotive, financial services, leisure, healthcare, education, professional services, technology, communications, utilities and real estate markets, as well as agencies that serve them. Key customers include Allianz, Laureate, Mazda, Meliá Hotels International, Samsung and TruGreen.

Product overview

Infinity offers full visitor journey attribution, call recording and visitor-level call tracking for granular visibility on channel performance when a phone call is a touchpoint.

It provides call handlers with real-time caller insights, including digital journey tracking and PPC keywords and pinpoints which marketing campaigns lead to highest value calls to inform future activity.

Infinity uses the online journey and customer conversations to tailor the customer experience, including routing with no need for an interactive voice response (IVR), call prioritization, and agent pairing.

Other features include:

• Call transcription for data analysis for better customer interaction and benefits around call handler development, marketing insight and revenue tracking.
• Fully encrypted session initiation protocol (SIP) calls for inbound and outbound calls across multiple major markets.

Explore platform capabilities from vendors like CallRail, Invoca, CallSource, DialogueTech and more in the full MarTech Intelligence Report on enterprise call analytics platforms.

Click here to download!

Invoca

Santa Barbara, California-based Invoca was founded in 2008. It has more than 320 employees and more than 2,300 customers. Invoca acquired call tracking and analytics provider DialogTech in May 2021. It has raised $116 million in six rounds of venture funding.

Target customers

Invoca serves marketing, ecommerce, sales, and customer experience teams at enterprise and mid-market B2C brands, as well as agencies and pay-per-call marketers serving high-value purchase industries, including automotive, healthcare, financial services, insurance, telecommunications, home services, and travel. Key customers include BBQ Guys, DISH Network, University Hospitals and 1-800-GOT-JUNK?.

Product overview

Invoca’s Active Conversation Intelligence platform enables marketing, sales, customer experience and ecommerce teams to understand and act on the information consumers share via conversations to accelerate revenue by improving marketing and sales results.

The platform integrates with leading marketing technology, adtech, CRM, and call center platforms to turn conversation data into automated action to create better experiences, more conversions and higher revenue.

Platform features include:

• Inbound call tracking on a 1:1 consumer and session-level basis with dynamic number insertion (DNI) for toll-free and local numbers.
• Call recording and conversation transcriptions that automatically redact sensitive information like credit card and social security numbers.
• Granular customer journey data capture (e.g. campaign, search keyword, product viewed, data entered into online shopping carts, etc.) with Invoca’s first-party JavaScript website tag.
• Real-time call classification, conversion topic and outcome detection, and call segmentation with artificial intelligence-based conversational analytics, spoken keyword detection, and pre-call marketing data (IVR keypress, caller attributes, referring marketing source, activity on websites, etc.).
• Automated quality assurance (QA) and call scoring to quantify agent performance and track script compliance.
• Automatically identify coaching moments and improve agent performance through data-driven coaching.
• Lost Sales Recovery automatically detects missed sales opportunities when callers either fail to reach a live agent (because they hung up or reached voicemail) or high-intent callers that did not convert.
• Offline conversion and revenue data import via file upload or CRM to measure the intent, outcome and exact revenue generated from each call.
• Bi-directional integrations with an array of adtech, marketing technology, analytics, CRM, CDP, DX, and CCaaS platforms, including Google Ads, Facebook, Salesforce, Five9, Tealium, and Medallia.
• In-platform reporting suite with customizable dashboards and reports to visualize high-level trends, access detailed marketing and sales insights and drill down into each call to review all data, signals, recordings and transcriptions.
• Cloud IVR (interactive voice response) and dynamic call routing using data captured before the call (e.g. campaign, calling page, ecommerce data, caller location, language, day/time, sales vs. support call, etc.) to prioritize routing of high-value calls and connect callers to the right agents or locations right away.

Iovox

London-based Iovox was founded in 2007. It has 50 employees. The company is privately held and Octopus Ventures and Columbia Lake Partners are the primary institutional investors. Iovox also acquired French-based WannaSpeak in 2019. It has offices in London, Paris, San Francisco and Sydney.

Target customers

Iovox serves enterprise and mid-size businesses looking to incorporate call tracking or speech analytics into an automated marketing process to drive or enhance lead flow. Typical industries served include marketplaces, classifieds, directory services, hospitality and digital agencies. The iovox mobile and web apps are aimed at small businesses and individuals that rely heavily on the phone. Key customers include AutoTrader U.K., British Telecom, Immobiliare.it, LaCentrale Group, REA Group and Zoopla.

Product overview

Iovox offers a combination of inbound call tracking and value-added services to SMB and enterprise accounts. It is available on a standalone basis via mobile or web app or integrated with a REST API.

API modules include: Voice, Email, Live Chat, Call Data and SMS.

Other features include:

• Mobile and web-based dialer software, enabling outbound calls and customizable Caller ID when used in conjunction with iovox numbers.
• Iovox WebConnect, which adds a call button to any website enabling site visitors to place a call directly from a mobile device, tablet or PC, and includes site attribution features in its analytics. The solution allows for full call tracking functionality without requiring the use of unique telephone numbers.
• Iovox WebCallBack enables web visitors to request a call back at a time convenient for them.
• Inbound options include both dedicated and dynamic call tracking (source and session based) for conventional marketing automation and conversion tracking.
• Two-way mobile call tracking solution allows individuals and SMBs to track and organize calls made from mobile phones. Companion web app enables additional number purchasing with enhanced features such as transcriptions, call whispers and keyword spotting.
• Mobile call center functionality to allow small teams to form virtual call centers to handle calls when working from home or remotely.
• Iovox Insights uses natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI) to help marketers, sales teams or call centers to identify the reasons for a call and evaluate outcomes and sentiments of every conversation.
• Supplies unique local numbers in hundreds of countries and offers enhanced features such as call whispers, customizable interactive voice response (IVR), call recording and transcription, keyword spotting, web call back, spam filters and blocking, SMS tracking and CRM integration.

Marchex

Seattle-based Marchex was founded in 2003. It is publicly held and trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol “MCHX.” Marchex has more than 250 employees and has more than 30 technology patents.

Target customers

Marchex serves enterprise and mid-market brands, multi-location businesses and agencies with clients in a range of verticals, including automotive manufacturing and services, real estate/senior living, home services, healthcare/dental, e-learning/education, insurance, lending and mortgage, and travel. Key customers include General Motors, Meineke Car Care Centers, Thryv, Wyndham Hotels Group and Zillow.

Product overview

Marchex offers a suite of conversation intelligence products for marketing and sales teams: Marchex Marketing Edge, Marchex Engage, Marchex Sonar and Marchex Spotlight.

Marchex Marketing Edge uses actionable Al to create more high-intent, revenue-generating conversations. The solution enables brand marketers, agencies and marketing services providers to connect online marketing campaigns to the revenue-generating offline conversations they drive, and reveal which campaigns and marketing channels have the highest ROI and lowest cost per lead.

Key capabilities include:

• Multichannel attribution dynamic number insertion (DNI) that connects consumer calls, texts, chats and web form completions to marketing campaigns.
• Integrations with a range of third-party martech, adtech, CRM and chat systems including Salesforce CRM, Adobe Analytics, Google Ads and HubSpot.
• An intuitive user interface to enable easier campaign management and provide customizable, real-time analytic views that highlight campaign performance.

Marchex Engage uses conversation intelligence to empower sales teams to improve sales outcomes while delivering a better buying experience. It unlocks the content of conversations and enables sellers to increase sales efficiency, take the right action to make the most of every opportunity, and sell more.

Key capabilities include:

• Action Lists that identify a specific list of conversations that require priority attention based on their outcome to help focus a sales team’s follow-up conversations on the best leads
• Deal-saving Action Alerts sent to a team specialist so they can take quick action to save a lead, make sure a follow up occurs, and coach their teams after a conversation ends unsuccessfully.
• Workflow management to track and change the status of conversations that sellers have acted on and identify who is responsible for the next action.
• Visual conversation playback to listen and move quickly through the most interesting parts of a recorded conversation and follow along via a synchronized transcript.

Marchex Sonar uses intelligent mobile messaging to empower sales and marketing teams to communicate with prospects and customers personally at scale using two-way text messaging and dramatically increase critical actions, customer engagement and conversions.

Key capabilities include:

• Send and receive SMS and MMS messages over local or toll-free numbers.
• Send campaign-specific messages to any segment of a target audience based on properties and include data for A/B testing and response rates.
• Route customers or prospects through an automated conversation flow for lead qualification, saving sales team time and effort.
• Schedule drip campaigns or automated text messages based on customized times or specific user actions.
• Add more contextual information to conversations either automatically by a bot or manually by a seller.
• Stay compliant with the evolving messaging policies and standards by tracking customer opt-out, obtaining double opt-in consent to send messages, and protecting against sending text messages to customers outside of acceptable hours.

Marchex Spotlight measures the performance of a company’s locations in how they are handling inbound conversation opportunities against company benchmark targets, quickly zeroing in on areas of the business where opportunities exist to improve conversation handling performance and results.

Key capabilities include:

Benchmarking at the highest level of an organization all the way down to an individual location, helping to pinpoint performance results where action can be taken to improve performance.

Proactive, guided insights that surface performance issues a company can immediately be informed of, and directed to, that require corrective conversation handling action while shortening the amount of time it takes to identify the source of the issues.

Ringba

Dover, Delaware-based Ringba was founded in 2015 and has 33 employees.

Target customers

Ringba serves performance marketers, media buyers, digital agencies, enterprise brands and call centers in verticals such as insurance, financial services, healthcare, legal and home services. Key customers include 1-800-DENTIST, Progressive Insurance, eHealth, National General Insurance Corp., Health Network and Allstate.

Product overview

Ringba provides enterprise-grade call tracking to businesses, pay-per-call networks, agencies and performance marketers of all sizes. The company’s real-time tracking and analytics are designed for media buying, click arbitrage and substantial scale.

Use cases include:

• Campaign tracking. Allows users to track and monitor call campaigns with real-time analytics.
• Call attribution. Lets marketers attribute specific traffic sources, keywords, and other data to calls.
• Automated routing. Enables the creation of dynamic routing plans to automatically manage call flow.
• Real-time bidding. Allows programmatic buyers to bid on calls in real-time.

Smith.ai

Los Altos, California-based Smith.ai was founded in 2015 and has 25 employees.

Target customers

Smith.ai serves marketing agencies, franchise-based large organizations, and SMBs in service-driven industries, including automotive, IT, legal, marketing, personal, pet, and homeowner (contracting, lawn/garden, plumbing, HVAC, etc.). Key customers include Colorado Lawyer Team, Convert IT Marketing, Edwards Family Law, Indie Law, Mockingbird Marketing and the Youngblood Group.

Product overview

Smith.ai leverages human and machine intelligence to provide 24/7 answering, intake, scheduling for businesses, plus controls for call routing and spam blocking, as well as insights through call analytics and call metadata.

The service’s work-from-home receptionists answer and return calls, respond to live website chats and SMS text messages, qualify leads, intake new clients, book appointments, and accept payments. Website chat can prompt an outbound call to Smith.ai receptionists or the business owner, and is available as a live-staffed or AI-only solution.

Transfer notifications can be sent via SMS or chat app (such as Slack) instead of a call, for silent prompts.

The Client Dashboard provides tools for adjusting call-handling settings, so insights from metadata can be used by clients to adjust the course of action on the next call. This is often a collaborative endeavor between a business owner and their staff, the business and Smith.ai support staff, or the business and its marketing agency.

Smith.ai integrates with Slack, MS Teams, SMS, email, and software like business management tools HubSpot or Salesforce to ensure workflows and collaboration are promptly initiated in the right system and assigned to the right person. For example, a New Lead call goes to the sales team, whereas an Existing Client call may go to their account manager. Infrastructure is deployed on Amazon Web Services (AWS) which complies with GDPR. Data is encrypted with Secure Socket Layer technology (SSL).

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The ability to track calls is a core use case of call analytics technology. However, advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are driving more sophisticated applications, including the following:

1. First-party database-building: As marketers lose access to third-party cookie data, first-party data sources such as phone calls are becoming more valuable in brand efforts to build privacy-compliant customer databases. Call analytics platforms facilitate the scaled collection and analysis of caller data.
2. Customer journey attribution: Call analytics platforms provide online-to-offline attribution across media channels, helping marketers understand the role that each customer touchpoint plays in a conversion. The result is more efficient resource allocation and more relevant messaging based on customer preferences.
3. Marketing campaign optimization: Call analytics platforms connect calls to the search keywords, social display ads or webpages that drove them. Marketers can use unique phone numbers for each website visitor to understand which pages and elements are driving the highest quality calls, as well as which ones are causing visitors to leave. Call data, including demographics, product interests and buying stage, can also be used to optimize search bids or make on-the-fly changes to campaign messaging and creative.
4. Audience segmentation and targeting: Call analytics platforms record and transcribe calls, then apply AI-based models to the results to determine the characteristics of the highestperforming callers or leads. Using the data, marketers can build personas or look-alike audiences to create high-performing customer segments.
5. Personalized, intelligent lead routing: Call analytics platforms use machine learning to score and route calls based on factors including call source, geography, demographics, purchase history or intent. Tools such as whisper messages arm sales reps with known customer information that personalizes the caller experience.
6. Sales rep coaching and development: Many call analytics platforms include automated sales performance and evaluation tools to provide scoring/grading systems, script optimization and real-time alerts that flag lost opportunities.

Learn more about call analytics by downloading our Martech Intelligence Report.

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However, call analytics platforms now work for a number of marketing use cases, including the following:

• Marketing attribution: Call analytics provide flexible attribution across media channels, helping brands understand which digital media are driving phone calls. PPC marketers, in particular, have adopted call analytics to connect callers to specific campaigns and keywords, and track keywords to conversion events. The goal is to optimize bids for the keywords driving the most productive calls.
• Personalization: Call data can be combined with other martech system data to improve marketing personalization. Call analytics surface demographic data, product interest, buying stage and customer type. By pushing caller audiences into PPC, CRM or other marketing automation systems, marketers can optimize for the next right action.
• Persona and lookalike audience building: Call analytics platforms record and transcribe calls, then apply AI-based models to the results to determine the characteristics of the highest-performing callers or leads. Marketers can then build personas or lookalike audiences to use in campaign development and execution.
• Retargeting: Call recordings and transcriptions can also be used to retarget prospects based on the content – and insights derived – from their prior calls.
• Sales enablement: Call analytics platforms can score calls based on transcript analysis, to identify which callers merit callbacks, evaluate agent performance and learn which scripts or offers work best.

Many of these marketing applications are being fueled by vendor investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, which are driving greater speed and accuracy into caller insights. Call analytics technology is evolving from providing basic analytics to providing “conversational intelligence” based on highly sophisticated algorithms that can extract and predict caller intent, and measure caller tone, sentiment and emotion. The goal is to enable brand marketers to increase marketing effectiveness and sales conversions.

Marketing apps emerge for new technologies

New AI-driven technologies, including intelligent voice assistants, chatbots and messaging apps may also have a positive impact on the volume of mobile calls to businesses, although industry experts are still debating the marketing value of those calls. Nearly a quarter of U.S. adults (24%) own a smart speaker in 2020 — representing more than 60 million people, according to The Smart Audio Report, published by NPR and Edison Research. The report also found that the number of smart speakers in U.S. households surpassed 118 million in 2018.

And it appears those smart speakers and voice assistants are being used to connect with businesses, with many respondents saying they’d ordered food within the last week using their smart speaker (18%) or the voice assistant on their phone (24%). Additionally, seeking information about local businesses is a regular activity, with 31% of people reporting using their smart speaker for the purpose in the last week and 38% of respondents using the assistant on their phone.

Call data governance remains a priority

But even as brand marketers gain greater access and insight into individual consumer intent, call data privacy continues to be a priority, particularly for brands in the healthcare and financial services markets. Call analytics platform vendors must comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) regulations.

Many vendors automatically redact personally identifiable information (PII) and consumer financial information from call recordings and transcripts to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), a set of security standards designed to ensure that companies that accept, process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.

Several vendors use security measures such as data encryption and two-factor authentication. Others invest in third-party data security audits through organizations such as TrustArc (formerly TRUSTe), a technology compliance and security company.

The European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect in May 2018 and impacts all U.S. marketers and data firms handling European data or serving customers in the EU. In June 2018, California legislators passed the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, which grants consumers more control over the use of their personal information online. The law went into effect in January 2020, and defines personal information as anything that can be associated or linked with an individual or household.

These regulations are driving an expanded industry focus on data governance, with a view toward complying with new standards for the benefit of consumers, as well as marketers.

If these benefits sound like what you’re looking for, check out our Martech Intelligence Report for in-depth info on the call analytics space and in-depth profiles of vendors.

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