Don't Let This Happen to You!

[Jerry Thibeau]

I recently decided to procure a new 800 phone number for Phone Ninjas, one that could ring to all my sales reps. Upon going live we started getting a large volume of people calling wanting to make an appointment to have their car serviced. It appears the previous dealer who owned this number failed to remove it from the presence of the world wide web. See below:



Before you delete a number, be sure and check the web to make sure it's not floating around out there.

We have since changed numbers and now this number rings to nothing. I'll send Green Ford a link to this thread as a courtesy.

This is not the first time I have seen this happen. Don't let this happen to you!

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

And it gets even better. I get a thank you e-mail from the dealership and found it in my spam folder. So many dealers do not realize their e-mails to customers are going straight to spam. Dealers need to setup sample e-mail accounts and send themselves some e-mails on occasion to check for this common problem. It happens more than you can imagine.

If business is bad at your dealership, there's probably a good reason.

 

[GrantG]

So many dealers do not realize their e-mails to customers are going straight to spam. Dealers need to setup sample e-mail accounts and send themselves some e-mails on occasion to check for this common problem.

I am curious if technology will ever be able to notify sender if message is "filtered". I would think that the ISPs will never release this info as spam bots will be able to re-engineer the true spam messages to get through.

In the interim how about BCC a dummy account when sending messages to the customer. It could be as easy as emailxyz@yahoo/hotmail/outlook/gmail.com (etc).

Your thoughts?

 

[JoeyD]

Wow, they're right up the road from me. It's a shame they're missing all of that business!

 

[yagoparamo]

You should scout for your name every month and go to every site you pay for and:

Call yourself, email youself.

You can have one of the front desk people do this and quickly fill a monthly report.

 

[DrewAment]

1st point - we try and use numbers for our customers that have not had more than 3 calls in the last 90 days. That way the dealer (customer) will not have happen to them what happened to you... wrong number looking for something else. Big waste of time. Of which the point is....Make sure your call tracking/phone vendor has a way to filter unused numbers. Numbers get recycled .. it is the way it is. But lets not give a new customer a number that is published somewhere else and might be in use. If they can't or won't filter... a quick Google search of the number will in most cases let you know... Google all your call tracking numbers as the vendor gives them to you, AND every couple months to make sure they are published ONLY where you want.

2nd point - if you change call tracking companies, shouldn't you be able to take your numbers with you? Not only do some companies lock you into a long term contract, they won't let you take the numbers when/if you do leave them (for any reason). Make sure whatever company you use allows you to take the numbers with you when you cancel them. Keeps them honest, keeps them innovating, keeps them from making you nothing but a number ($$) to them!

On a side note.... we had a number that a customer was using (for over 6 months). One day they start getting calls asking for insurance quotes (ALOT of calls!). It appeared that a big green lizard insurance company had fat fingered the number in a printed mailer - AND, no one had ever called/checked the number before publishing. We helped the customer by making a phone IVR for them... (press 1 for, press 2 for). I called the insurance company... and assisted them in making sure their calls were routed correctly, and made a customer out of them too. 2nd point - always double and triple check yourself/agency/ad guy... etc - call the number BEFORE you start using it to make sure it is set-up correctly.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

In the interim how about BCC a dummy account when sending messages to the customer. It could be as easy as emailxyz@yahoo/hotmail/outlook/gmail.com (etc).

Your thoughts?

If you suspect your mail is not arriving. BCC a gmail account and then forward the message from there to your clients.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

1st point - we try and use numbers for our customers that have not had more than 3 calls in the last 90 days. That way the dealer (customer) will not have happen to them what happened to you... wrong number looking for something else. Big waste of time. Of which the point is....Make sure your call tracking/phone vendor has a way to filter unused numbers. Numbers get recycled .. it is the way it is. But lets not give a new customer a number that is published somewhere else and might be in use. If they can't or won't filter... a quick Google search of the number will in most cases let you know... Google all your call tracking numbers as the vendor gives them to you, AND every couple months to make sure they are published ONLY where you want.

Google your tracking numbers - great advice Drew. Some call tracking services allow you to provision the number yourself, this too would be a good time to Google the number. Won't always be full proof but a great step in preventing a mishap. Though one could argue, this shouldn't need to be prefer owned on the customer/dealer level.

Choosing A Dealership Call Tracking Service - 8 Questions to Ask! -- article for reference

 

[MikeHaeg]

1st point - we try and use numbers for our customers that have not had more than 3 calls in the last 90 days. That way the dealer (customer) will not have happen to them what happened to you... wrong number looking for something else. Big waste of time. Of which the point is....Make sure your call tracking/phone vendor has a way to filter unused numbers. Numbers get recycled .. it is the way it is. But lets not give a new customer a number that is published somewhere else and might be in use. If they can't or won't filter... a quick Google search of the number will in most cases let you know... Google all your call tracking numbers as the vendor gives them to you, AND every couple months to make sure they are published ONLY where you want.

2nd point - if you change call tracking companies, shouldn't you be able to take your numbers with you? Not only do some companies lock you into a long term contract, they won't let you take the numbers when/if you do leave them (for any reason). Make sure whatever company you use allows you to take the numbers with you when you cancel them. Keeps them honest, keeps them innovating, keeps them from making you nothing but a number ($$) to them!

On a side note.... we had a number that a customer was using (for over 6 months). One day they start getting calls asking for insurance quotes (ALOT of calls!). It appeared that a big green lizard insurance company had fat fingered the number in a printed mailer - AND, no one had ever called/checked the number before publishing. We helped the customer by making a phone IVR for them... (press 1 for, press 2 for). I called the insurance company... and assisted them in making sure their calls were routed correctly, and made a customer out of them too. 2nd point - always double and triple check yourself/agency/ad guy... etc - call the number BEFORE you start using it to make sure it is set-up correctly.

Drew,

From one call tracking vendor to another, this a great post. We go through a rigorous series of back end steps to ensure clean numbers. This includes our carrier incubating numbers, ourselves incubating numbers, and identifying if they are pinged during that time. To be fair, I would imagine every vendor does this in some capacity. Also to be fair, I'd point out that there are a lot of variables out of our (phone vendors) control. What matters though, as you highlight in your side note, is what can be done when things happen. Your story of the Big Green Lizard is initially out of your hands but ultimately an impact on the customer. Kudos to your efforts, we would expect similar efforts on our end to at least consult best options.

 

[yagoparamo]

Also to be fair, I'd point out that there are a lot of variables out of our (phone vendors) control.

Then there is the dealer that has 10 numbers but only wants one transfered but doesn't know which one for sure, and the dealer than cancels on the 30th expecting not to pay the next month (even though you have a 30 day notice) but wants the numbers transfered so you don't know if you should keep the numbers working or not, then there is the guy that doesn't fill the transfer paperwork and calls a month later screaming why things didn't get done, and then there is the guy that doesn't want to pay the $25 transfer fee even though you have to pay someone to work to get the transfer done for him, then there is the dealer that owns 3 months back and wants the numbers moved today, etc.

Not blaming the dealer, not blaming the phone service. Just agreeing with MH that things are not that simple (the vendor is the Devil because he didn't want to transfer the numbers).