One of the buzz words of 2015 for marketing specialists of all levels was the word “call tracking”. This technology allows to increase at times the number of targeted hits from advertising without increasing the advertising budget. And it is quite logical that it has also become fashionable to conduct and post research on such systems.



In this case, I most often met custom-made articles that are easily identifiable even by a not very well-prepared reader. Another option is superficial studies on the example of fictional cases (a spherical site in a vacuum with an attendance of N people per day and a session time of M minutes) for which the cost was estimated and / or several parameters not directly related to the reality.



Unfortunately, I have not yet encountered a qualitative independent study. Although he take it so do, by golly.

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I want to express my thoughts on the topic of how qualitative research can look. Who knows, maybe someone will call such a large-scale project to carry out.

“Who are the judges?”: About users

Conditionally divide the users of the system into 3 categories:

1. Newbies
   
   These are those who have heard about call tracking and understand how fashionable it is and what needs to be implemented. But their technical base is lame, and they don’t want to pull it up, because they have been looking for the “do it all good” button all my life. The main thing for them is to get beautiful reports and a simple interface. More subtle points they are not interested.
2. Advanced users.
   
   They delve into the service and ask the right questions. Find out the principles of pricing and why the prices of different market players are different. Understand the differences between price and value.
3. The experts.
   
   This is the guru of analysts and their inner circle. They dig very deep. And, at times, they know the product better than the product developers themselves. It is easy to tell all the disadvantages of each of the systems and give specific recommendations on how to fix them.

Actually, the article (and the study) for users of category 2 and above. But it will also be interesting for readers from category 1 to wonder whether there is such a button at all in the analytics of appeals:

General moments

Call Tracking is a complex product. He has a lot of pitfalls . And each player in this market has its own "chip", which is not always easy to see.



Therefore, the necessary stages of qualitative research are:

1. Involvement in the study of a technically competent expert.
   
   It's not just about a good understanding of the algorithms, but also about expertise in Internet marketing. Since call tracking is, first of all, an analytics tool.
2. Deep immersion in the algorithms and technology of each service.
   
   And this implies, at a minimum, the presence of a specialist certificate in those systems where there is certification.
3. Discussion of the research methodology with representatives of each of the systems under study (otherwise, again, the research risks not being unbiased).

The study itself should also be conducted on the example of a real case. In order to solve specific problems, and not just write a report. In general, research for the sake of research should inspire more suspicion than trust. It's like drinking good brandy to get drunk is a waste of resources.



Well, what is important to explore, except for the price and quality of the work of sellers?

Accuracy

What is the cornerstone of any analytical tool? That's right, the accuracy of the data that can be obtained with it. After all, I will make some decisions based on these data: cut budgets, look for the guilty, award those who are not involved.



In my understanding, the accuracy of the call tracking system is how many calls are correctly connected with the visitor (here it is, of course, a dynamic call tracking, with statics everything is clear).



The parameter that shows how many calls are associated with visitors in general is the REQUIREMENT, not the accuracy. Even if someone tries to substitute these concepts, do not believe.



To assess the accuracy should be a technique. Understandable to any potential user. At the same time, the statements “we know this because we have a lot of experience”, etc. - this is not a technique, but an attempt to hang noodles on kindly provided ears. Reference to big names, for which everything works well, is also an attempt to change the subject. The technique is either there and it is understandable, or it is not.



And, besides, this technique should be scalable and more on that below.

Scalability

If Vasya from the company “Disorder and vacillation” receives with your service 100% correct data (which is already strange for an analytical service), for me the world may not be that great.



I want to know the accuracy with which I will receive the data! Those. if the system has a methodology for assessing accuracy, then I should be able to apply this technique to my site and get a forecast based on it, and not on average in the industry / market / solar system hospital . After all, each of us is unique. Not to mention our sites.

Broken phone

I remember one of my first phones was the Nokia3310. And it was the only phone, in the reliability of which I was sure.



What is it for? Call tracking, in addition to counting calls, also directly affects their number ( here there was an article on this topic ). Those. If you replace your old but working number on the site with a new but not working call tracking number, the number of calls will be less. The reverse situation is also possible: numbers from a higher-quality operator will help your potential customers dial up to you more often.



In the study it would be good to watch this moment more closely too. At a minimum, create a log of telephony problems: the date, a description of the situation, the timing and results of the solution. It's minimum.



And it is better, of course, to conduct a couple of stress tests of swing numbers. But this is another story and pulls on a separate study. Therefore, we restrict ourselves here to the log.

Service transparency

All systems that have something to hide are like McDonalds: like meat at the entrance, cutlet at the exit. And between these states there is something, which is why you can quickly get an extra ten kilograms of weight, shortness of breath and problems with rational thinking.



Therefore, exploring a system that will tell me where to reallocate my blood 50% of a wasted budget, I want:

• Have the opportunity to learn how each of the components of the system works.
  
  To understand how the algorithm works responds to my requests.
  
  Beautiful reports are, of course, good. But for that kind of money, I can draw more beautifully. So I would like to know where they come from and whether they can be trusted at all. And, ideally, to pick something up myself - after all, only my wife knows my business better than me. And then only its financial side.
• Quickly receive notifications when something breaks in the system.
  
  To understand how it will affect my business.
  
  It is sad to find out in two months that, it turns out that one third of the numbers does not work once a week.
• To be able to track how the problem is solved on the side of the service provider.
  
  What work is being done at any time. In order not to bite his nails in "naive ignorance", but quickly make a decision "how to live on."

The last item is closer to the customer service. I will talk about it a little later, and now I will try to work out a simple criterion for the value of the service. After all, the miser pays twice, but we do not need it.

Price / Accuracy Criterion (price per unit of accuracy)

According to Pareto's law, an increase in the accuracy of service at a level of more than 80% leads to a disproportionate increase in its price. Therefore, besides the accuracy indicator itself, it would be good to bear in mind one more simple criterion. I, without hesitation, took this: price per unit of accuracy (JET).



We take the price of the service (for example, 20,000 rubles) and divide by accuracy as a percentage (for example, 80%).



Total, JET = 20 000/80 = 250 rubles.



If, at a cost of 15,000 rubles. we get only 50% accuracy, then JET = 300 rubles.



Therefore, even if the cost of the service is lower, it’s premature to say that it is of better quality.



I came up with this criterion in 15 minutes. It doesn't have to be that way. Everything depends on the tasks and desire to understand this difficult world. The criterion, if you get to the point of absurdity, may be the number of phrases “we are the best” per unit time from the seller.

Customer service

And, of course, you should not forget - a quality provider of a vital business service (and the service through which my calls go is exactly this) should have several required points when working with clients:

1. More than 2 communication channels: telephone, mail, and something else (mobile phone personal manager, Skype, social networks, etc.). So that I can reach 100% of my dear colleagues in the case of a big bada boom. And bada-booms will definitely happen, because the more complex the system, the higher the probability of error. This is a law of nature, one cannot get away from it.
2. Clearly prescribed deadlines for handling requests from the client (for example, the response to the request by mail is up to 15 minutes, the call is instant, in ICQ once a year). There should be deadlines for feedback on the problems that I hand over to technical support (for example, for urgent applications - 15 minutes, for non-urgent requests - up to 2 hours, for offers to drink some coffee - a day). This approach removes the fear of the unknown and saves a lot of nerves.
3. The transparency of the process of solving problems (this was written above). Ideally, this is a ticket system directly in your personal account, where comments appear in real time as my tasks are resolved. This approach saves me from having to call and every 30 minutes to calmly explain my problem to the new employees of the company.

Actually, in short, that's all. Of course, the taste and color of all the markers are different and a universal solution for all tasks is unlikely to be found. But such an approach to research will at least allow us to identify the segment for which a particular instrument will be optimal.



Good luck with your research and only independent expertise!