Call Source Data

Call Data

Data from Call Source has been collected for nearly four months and we are beginning to see some trends:

• One such golden nugget is that Mondays and Thursdays have the highest number of calls. This means that you should staff accordingly.
• Another nugget is that through mid-October, there have been nearly 50% as many calls as there were for the preceding three months and October isn’t over yet. Call volume is increasing.
• I think it is easy to make the assumption that the increase in calls is a direct reflection of the emphasis that has been devoted to ad placement and directory submissions. It is also important to note that 89% of all calls came directly from landing pages. This means that traffic should be pushed to landing pages!
• Finally, 43% of all calls last less than 30 seconds, which implies that nearly half of all calls which are sent to voicemail, or do not get an immediate answer, hang up.

As our campaign continues, more relevant data will be collected and new treads may emerge.

Keep up the good work!

New Classified Site

As you recall, we are using the www.craigslist.org classified ad posting strategy. It works when franchisees keep their postings current. You need to repost these ads once or twice a week.

Our SEO Specialist has located another classified website to post key word ads on. This site is www.bajohn.com. When you visit this site you will see that there is not a lot of traffic on the site. Traffic is nice, but not all that important for our purposes, which is to secure a link to your landing page. Linking is EXTREMELY important. The more websites linking to your landing page, the higher you are going to rank organically. It is worth your time to post ads on these classified advertising websites.

I have posted the instructions on how to post on Bajohn.com in the FranConnect Library under CAMPA-Western Region/Google AdWord Info/bajohn posting ad.

This posting, along with the other classified ad postings, will increase your organic search results.

Customer Reviews

A great way to boost your search engine ranking is to post customer reviews and ratings. Most major directories provide a place for customers to write a review or post a rating for a business. It is a good idea to ask customers who have had a great experience with your business, to share their experience through posting a review.

Posted reviews from customers not only provide potential clients with insight on what type of great service you provid, but they also increase your SEO rankings. A great place to get reviews posted is on Google Maps.

Test this out. Do a search for: Shoe Stores, New York, NY (a competitive arena) on Google Maps. The first 28 pages of business listings on Google Maps are packed with business reviews. It is interesting to note that you have to scroll down through a couple hundred ads before a business without a review is listed. Obviously, locations without reviews are at the end of the listings which validates the concept that reviews help SEO rankings.

Please don’t have your employees rate your business, because search engines are much too smart for blatant abuse. It is best to obtain your reviews and ratings honestly.

Now when a client asks, “How can I thank you?” you know what your answer should be!

Be Everywhere

Another place for your business to be seen is in Google 411. Google provides a service called Google 411 to all businesses that have a Google Business Listing and other business. Customers simply call 1-800-GOOG-411 and give the city,state, and type of business that they want to find. Call-in customers are connected with the business of their choice.

This is just another reason to create a polished Google Business Listing. This feature creates one more avenue for you to reach your customers.

To ensure you have a quality Google Business Listing and are listed on Google’s 411 service, follow these steps:

*In order to get familiar with this service, try it out by dialing 1-800-466-4411 (1-800-GOOG-411) and ask for your business.

*Try multiple searches under different key words (Drug Testing, DNA, etc) and see if you are on the service. You should be listed under the most frequently searched and popular categories.

*Go to Google Maps and search for your business; make sure you are making the most of the options there.

*If you don't come up in the Google Business Listings or Google’s 411 service, you may wish to develop a strategy to get listed and ranked.

*Also, check out the Google Video about this video option at Google 411. Including a video on your website is an easy way to increase your ranking on Google’s Business Listing Service.

You need to take advantage of these free programs offered to you. Your competitors are!

FAQs

Q: Is it possible to create a knowledge bank for training, product knowledge, procedures and best practices?

A: In a prior life, I created such a resource for franchisees to use. The knowledge bank was rich in every aspect of managing and growing a franchise. Over three thousand different topics, procedures, training information and best practices were posted online for franchisees to use. This made tackling problems very easy.

In most cases, when a question came up, no new research had to be done, since someone else had already crossed that bridge. The path to solving these problems was already laid out and easy to follow. In the worst case scenario, a specific issue may be slightly different, and additional research had to be done. Generally, in these situations, there was ample information in the answer to cut the research time by 50%-80%. This tool was a competitive advantage.

Currently, in FranConnect under the Support Tab, you will find FAQs. I have been posting questions online for the month. Every time a question is raised on a particular topic that I feel is relevant for the group, I create a Q: Question and then a corresponding A: Answer and post it in the FAQ section of FranConnect. Currently there are ten categories:

1. Advertising: Ad Words
2. Advertising: Yellow Pages
3. Background Screening Services
4. CAMPA
5. DOT Testing
6. Drug Pak
7. Insurance
8. Legal Issues
9. Operations
10. Real Estate

There are currently 41 questions posted in these categories.

This is only a start.

Ideally, everyone in the system would submit questions and answers for posting. When someone has to do research on a specific topic, it usually does not take long to create a question and share how the issue was resolved and incorporate this information into the form of an FAQ outlining the resources used and the main issues to be aware of. Over time, the collaborative effort of the group will create an enormously powerful resource for everyone to draw upon. This is just one more tool we have as a group of like-minded entrepreneurs, working together to dominate the competition.

Networking Pays Off

ACCUDIAGNOSTICS SACRAMENTO HONORED BY THE ASIAN PACIFIC CHAMBER

Member of the Week: Carol & Jeff Hastings from AccuDiagnostics

AccuDiagnostics helps provide Drug-Free environments for Companies, Schools, and Government Agencies such as Sacramento's Police and Fire Departments. Their services include Same Day Drug, Alcohol, and Background Screening. Medical offerings include physicals, innoculations, and TB Tests. LiveScan service is also available.

The Chamber has helped us with introductions to key members of the Sacramento Government and business community that are helping us build our business. Their territories cover the range from Davis up to Nevada City.

Carol and Jeff also provide FREE seminars on Drug Abuse, its costs to employers, and how to implement a Drug-Free Workplace Policy. Many employers don't realize that:

• 75% of Drug Abusers are Full-Time Employees
• Employee Drug Abusers are involved in 50% of all Worker's Comp Claims
• They are 4 Times more likely to steal from their employers or co-workers
• Their medical claims are 300% higher
• They use 3 Times more Sick Day benefits
  

If you have questions about AccuDiagnostics, please call (916)739-1718.

PR and Networking is like small streams that feed tribuataries which eventually become the "Mississippi River" of business.

Great Job!

Following Up On Missed Calls

You are at your desk, on the phone with a client, when a customer walks in the front door. To make sure you’re not rude to the client you are talking to on the phone, you spin your chair around in the opposite direction and continue with your call. The customer in your lobby waits for a few minutes and then leaves. You just lost a future client because you ignored him or her.

Of course, you wouldn’t really turn your back on a customer who walked in the front door - would you? If you aren’t making it a practice to follow up with customer calls on your Call Source Reports, that is exactly what you are doing – ignoring them. A phone call is a red flag that someone is looking for help!

Every day you receive two Call Source Reports. You should make it a practice to follow up with each call on these reports. Creating and utilizing a tracking log is helpful in systematizing this process.

If you can’t make contact with a missed caller or you want to know what type of caller phoned in, you may wish to use these FREE reverse lookup tactics.

Perform a Google, MSN, or Yahoo Search on a phone number:

1. Select the number that you missed, right click on it, and copy it to your clipboard.

2. Go to Google and paste the number from your clipboard into Google’s search bar.

3. If the number appears in the results, you can usually get an idea if the number belongs to a residential or business customer who called your Call Source phone number. You may find the call was from a salesperson or other vendor who you can call back when you have time.

4. If no search results are found, try changing the way the number is displayed in the search bar. Try all of the following formats. Quotations bring up EXACT results.

“925-555-5555”, “(925) 555-5555”, (925) 555-5555, or 925-555-5555

Trying every possible combination may help, depending on how the number is listed on the Internet.

5. If the number is a business, you may decide to call them or make a personal sales call. Showing up in person goes a long way in proving that you want their business.

Each franchise location has two virtual phone numbers; one on the landing page and another in each Key Words AdWord description. We are tracking each of the types of calls – which is a subject for another time.

You have worked hard for those phone calls; don’t allow a lack of follow-up result in wasting these potential leads.