Telephone response monitoring... more stats!

So, last week I received an email from a company offering a 60 day free trial of telephone response monitoring. Obviously, the free part caught my attention as it's something i've been thinking about trying for a while. The idea behind this came from a question I had of "I wonder how many people call us after having viewed the website?". As the numbers on the site will only be used on the site and nowhere else, we can reasonably say that that is the number of web generated phone calls we receive! So, i've bitten the bullet and signed up, the trial covers two phone numbers that can be masked with an 0844 number, luckily we have two admissions numbers to use.

As of Tuesday the numbers have been changed on the site to reflect the new 0844 numbers and the final change over will be happening tomorrow with the course listing numbers being changed. So far, the reporting looks good with an indication of what network people are on, how long the call lasts and how long it takes to be answered! Clever stuff but the part we're most interested in is the geographic location which will help to feed into the comms planning for our local campaigns.

The wonders of modern technology, plus, it's very low cost to continue with so we can look at adding unique numbers to campaigns well!

UPDATE: Just to address a comment that was left about the use of 0844 numbers and call charges. All 0844 numbers can charge different rates per minute dependant on the following three digits (BT Info here). The numbers we are using cost 4.9p per minute from a landline and are included in BT minute allowances. Also, they are now included in mobile contract minutes with O2 and we are expecting the other mobile providers to follow suit with that inclusion.