Incoming Call Source Logs

During the course of a typical work day, you and your lab techs are pushed and pulled in many different directions. Sometimes this creates the situation where it is hard to focus on seemingly insignificant details in your operation that actually can make a big difference in your sales revenue and in understanding the effectiveness of your marketing dollars. One of the most overlooked routine front line functions is how incoming phone calls are answered and logged (if at all).

Keeping a Call Source Log next to each office telephone is one of those simple things that will yield big results over the course of a year. In fact, I would venture to say that there are few things more important than knowing how incoming phone calls are handled and where these calls are coming from.

If, as a group, we are serious about differentiating ourselves from our competitors, it all starts with how each incoming call is answered. Each time the phone rings, it should be answered professionally and rarely forwarded to voice mail – the Call Source Report will tell you how many times calls are going to voice mail. After each call, the source of the call and other important information needs to be logged into the Call Source Log.

This process should not be time consuming and simply involves jotting down the phone number, the caller’s name, their company (if a B2B call), and a few notes about the call. You will find that this log will be invaluable in the future as you begin to analyze your marketing.

If you have not figured it out yet, you know how passionate I am about accumulating data. Just look at the data we are currently gathering in our Google marketing campaign. We WILL have the data to make informed business decisions in the future and will NOT be shooting in the dark. Success is always found in the details. Without the data, we will not have information to make smart decisions - which generally results in stupid decisions.

Not only will maintaining the Call Source Log data help provide each customer with better service (for follow up calls), it will differentiate our service level and set expectations with our new customers. You will also be able to reconcile the Call Source Log with your Call Source Report and track the calls you are receiving. This allows you to begin to understand which ads are working and what type of business you are receiving for the SEO and Ad Word campaign.

Although this may seem insignificant, this simple procedure will increase the effectiveness of your business and give you and your staff a much better feel for the sourcing of your business.

Our mission is to out-execute our competitors at EVERY level. We are well on our way to doing this. Our ability to crush our competitors in the future gets better as we execute on the little things. The Call Source Log is one killer application. I can tell you that your competitors are clueless in this area.