is call analytics software? How can AI give marketers more power to measure call data from inbound calls? //

It is what it does. What is call analytics software? It manages the inbound telephone channel, including landlines and mobile phones. This software handles everything from assigning call tracking numbers, measuring, monitoring and reporting on the campaign results and caller data. These platforms enable call tracking, recording and routing, as well as attribution tools.

It matters. Although phones can now be used for many things, the main reason people own them is to talk to each other. This is especially true if someone needs information from a company. Businesses have the opportunity to connect with real people and offer in-the-funnel prospects deep answers by calling.

Businesses are also being driven by AI-driven technologies such as smart speakers, virtual assistants, and messaging apps. According to NPR’s latest Smart Audio report, 77% of Americans experienced a change in their daily routines due to the pandemic. Voice-assistant use increased during this time, according Edison Research.

According to the study, 35% of American adults (or around 100 million people) owned a smart speaker by 2022. This is up from 21% in 2019. The increased use of these devices may drive more people to use smart assistants on their smartphones. 46% of smart speaker owners who have smartphones reported that they have used the assistant more frequently since receiving the speakers.

Virtual assistants and smart speakers are used most often for music, weather and directions. However, around one-third of the users use them to find local businesses and 25% to order food.

What they do. They help marketers find and activate rich data hidden within the increasing volume of inbound phone calls. Call analytics platforms can track both offline and online leads. They follow a call from its source (i.e. website, social media, click-to-call or display ads), to a sales representative (i.e. based on geographical location or product line, and then to a conversion.

Software for calling tracking

Call analytics technology is best known for its ability to track calls. But, machine learning and artificial Intelligence (AI) have made it possible to create more advanced applications.

• First-party database building: As third-party cookie data is no longer available to marketers, first-party data sources like phone calls are increasingly valuable for brand efforts to build privacy-compliant customer lists. Call analytics platforms allow for the collection and analysis on a large scale of caller data.
• Customer journey attribution: Call analytics platforms allow online-to-offline customer attribution across all media channels. This helps marketers understand the role of each customer touchpoint in a conversion. This results in more effective resource allocation and relevant messaging based upon customer preferences.
• Optimization of marketing campaigns: Call analytics platforms connect calls with the search keywords, social media display ads, or webpages that led them. To understand which pages or elements are driving visitors to a website, marketers can assign unique phone numbers to each visitor. Call data can be used to optimize search results, make changes on the fly to creative and messaging, and even to determine demographics and product interests.
• Audience segmentation and targeting : Call analytics tools record and transcribe calls and then apply AI-based models the results to identify the most-performing callers and leads. Marketers can create personas and look-alike audiences from the data to create high-performing customer segments.
• Intelligent, personalized routing for lead generation. Call analytics platforms employ machine learning to score calls and route them based on factors such as call source, geography or purchase history. Sniffer messages provide sales reps with customer information to personalize the caller experience.
• Sales rep development and coaching: Many call analytics platforms offer automated sales performance and evaluation tools. These include script optimization, scoring/grading systems and real-time alerts to flag missed opportunities.
• Integrations of chat apps and SMS messaging: Online chat and messaging are important channels for customers to communicate with businesses. As such, some players have extended their conversational analysis to popular messaging app as well as site-specific chats and SMS.

Call analytics platforms have core capabilities

Many platforms provide a core set capabilities that allow for call tracking, recording and scoring as well as routing and fraud prevention. Dynamic Number Injection (DNI) allows marketers to assign unique phone number to different digital marketing campaigns to track who made the call. DNI technology displays the unique phone number for the particular search engine, website, keyword, or other source when a consumer clicks through an online advertisement. Vendors provide DNI via call source, online session, or URL. Due to the widespread use of mobile phones for business calls, there is a greater demand for extensions or local numbers that are dynamically generated based on the location of the consumer. This does not compromise the accuracy of the name-address phone (NAP), information for SEO purposes.

Another important feature is call fraud prevention. Automated dialers, fax machine operators, and even computer programmers, can hack into carrier networks in order to fraudulently increase call volumes and revenue for pay per-call services. Vendors have created proprietary tools to detect, monitor, and block fraudulent call patterns and routes.

Vendors seek to differentiate themselves by offering advanced capabilities. This often requires additional investment.

Multichannel attribution

Call analytics platforms usually offer some call tracking, which allows users to assign the call source to a specific keyword, webpage or ad. Call analytics platforms track inbound calls and attribute their source to a specific ad, keyword, or webpage. This allows marketers to better measure the ROI for multichannel marketing campaigns. Some vendors offer more advanced attribution tools, which can identify call sources other than search. This includes native social ads and display advertisements that do not include a click to call button. This will allow for more efficient spending across marketing channels and create a better link between offline and digital conversions.

AI-driven speech analytics

Call analytics technology is now more than just basic analytics. It provides “conversation intelligence” that uses AI-driven algorithms to predict and extract caller intent and measure caller tone and sentiment. AI is being used to “spot” keywords phrases, speech patterns and phrases for conversion intent.

These signals may also include how long a caller talks versus how long a sales rep talks. Call analytics platforms often use natural language processing (NLP), machine-learning algorithms, and other methods to automatically score calls and score leads. You can use the results immediately to assist sales reps by listening to whisper messages through the headset. This will allow you to have an impact on call outcomes. You can also use the data post-call to trigger nurturing campaigns and feed your CRM systems.

Intelligent call scoring/routing

To route calls to the most qualified reps or locations to close sales or take other conversion actions (e.g., schedule an appointment), machine learning-based lead scoring and routing systems can now be used. These routing and scoring tools automatically route calls to the right sales reps and departments based on caller source (i.e. website, social media, search ads), geography, demographics (i.e. age, gender and income) and intent. Interactive voice response (IVR) is one of the tools in intelligent call routing and scoring. It prequalifies callers and routes them to the appropriate sales reps or departments through a series of automated questions and whisper messages. Reps are then alerted to the relevant caller data, before picking up the call. The system allows you to track calls and follow conversions.

Native integration of social analytics

Vendors of call analytics software are taking advantage of the rise in click-to-call and native social advertising to integrate social media with call analytics more seamlessly. Many vendors offer Facebook or Instagram call tracking software that allows you to attribute calls to social media ads.

Many vendors also make use of Facebook’s offline conversion API through the Facebook Ads Manager to integrate their call information directly into Facebook Ad campaigns.

Chat integrations, messaging integrations, and analytics

Chat apps — whether they are mainstream messaging platforms like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, or functionality on websites that allows for chat — have been key to customer service and pre-sales inquiries. Many of these interactions can now be made via SMS. To give marketers a better view of customer sentiments and interactions, some call analytics vendors include connections.

Coaching/evaluation of sales reps

Many call analytics platforms are designed for sales coaching and evaluation. They use call recording tools to increase efficiency within the call center as well as among sales staff. The platforms offer machine learning-based call analytics tools that can assess location and/or rep performances, as well as scoring/grading systems and script optimization, and alerts that flag potential lost opportunities.

Compliance with data privacy

For businesses operating in the financial and healthcare markets, call data privacy remains a top priority. They must adhere to HIPAA, HITECH regulations, and the CCPA. U.S.-based marketers who have European customers or prospects are subject to the GDPR. To comply with the PCI DSS, many vendors redact personal identifiable information (PII), and financial information about consumers from call recordings and transcripts.

Integration of the Martech ecosystem

Integrating call analytics data and martech and other ad tech software systems is essential for creating a single view of customers, callers, website visitors, prospects, and customers. As marketers strive to provide a seamless customer experience, call analytics vendors have increased the number of native or built-in integrations with SEO. PPC, DSP and CRM. Calls play a key role in connecting digital and offline channels. Call analytics platform vendors are expanding their connections with social media, Google, Bing, analytics tools and affiliate marketers to achieve this goal. Many vendors offer APIs that allow third-party data to be imported and exported from advertising and marketing systems. These APIs might or may not be available as part of the base price.

Call analytics software platforms offer many benefits

Analytics and call tracking software play an important role in closing the gap between offline and online channels. This allows for more efficient marketing resources allocation and better sales staff effectiveness. These are just a few of the many benefits that an enterprise call analytics platform can bring to your business:

• Multichannel attribution improved. Call analytics use DNI to track inbound phone calls to their source. This establishes the connection between callers and online search, display or social campaigns. For greater accuracy, the data can be fed to attribution models.
• A more comprehensive view of customers. Using call analytics data in conjunction with CRM and marketing automation and tag management gives the enterprise a better view of prospects and customers, allowing for more personalized marketing.
• Optimized Marketing Campaigns. To identify the most lucrative sources, inbound calls can be tracked back to the source of their marketing at the keyword, campaign, or channel level. The campaign can then be optimized so that it focuses on the messages or sources that are most effective.
• Better marketing resource allocation. Knowing which keywords, ads and pages are most successful leads to better marketing and media spending decisions.
• Improved productivity of sales staff. Tools like IVR and intelligent phone routing route high-value leads to the right people or places to close more sales. Inefficiencies can also be identified by call analytics that can help boost key metrics like lost opportunities.
• Improve sales performance. Call Analytics platforms record and analyze inbound phone calls to determine which agents and sales techniques are most successful. If necessary, training can be provided to help improve the results. Agents can use Whisper messages to tailor their approach based on customer information.

MarTech.