Web Voice Synchronization Adds New Capabilities to Call Tracking

There has been a lot of buzz about a new technology called Web Voice Synchronization (WVS) which enables marketers to connect the activities of a company’s contact centre and website. But how does WVS compare with more traditional Call Tracking? And which is more suitable for your business?

Call Tracking is a tool used by businesses to measure the performance of their online advertising by assigning a unique number to each inbound caller responding to campaign offer. Key information about each inbound lead can be tracked and analyzed.

Web Voice Synchronization also assigns a unique phone number for each inbound caller and provides campaign analytics. The difference between the two technologies is that WVS fully integrates into the Contact Centre CTI, IVR, ACD, CSR and CRM in real time. From an operational perspective, WVS integrates the contact centre and website capabilities in order to enable real time collaboration between the caller and contact center agent using the caller’s web-browser.

To illustrate the difference between Call Tracking and Web Voice Synchronization, let’s use the real example of a travel agency that has a Contact Centre.

Let’s assume that the online customer uses a search term “Paris Honeymoon” and is directed to the travel agency via a Google AdWord. In both cases, a unique phone number will be made available to the customer during the course of her web session.

In the Call Tracking scenario, when a customer calls into the Contact Centre, the marketer will be provided with a full Analytics report that tracks data from the customer web session as well as the AdWords associated with the cost of the lead. This information is useful for campaign planning and tracking purposes.

In the WVS scenario, a full Analytics report is also provided to the marketer. What makes WVS different from Call Tracking is that the routing of the call via the Contact Centre ACD is based on the customer’s online behavior. For example, if a customer has a shopping basket with a sale value of £2,000, her call can be prioritized over another customer with a lower basket value. In addition, the agent answering the call will receive notification of the customer’s Google AdWord as well as other key information about her web session; products viewed, basket contents etc.

WVS empowers the agent to focus the call on customer’s areas of interest/needs, thereby lowering Average Handling Time. If the call does not end in a transaction, the agent can flag the customer’s browser for a re-marketing campaign.

If a marketer is looking for campaign-level Analytics to drive future investment, then both Call Routing and Web Voice Synchronization provide a solution. Call Tacking is easier to implement in Small and Medium businesses because there is little integration into a Contact Centre. Web Voice Synchronization is an Enterprise-wide solution that enable marketers to improve Contact Centre conversion/sell-through rates.

From a financial perspective, the cost of Call Tracking becomes expensive because there is a requirement to pay for the actual call usage. For Enterprise Contact Centre, this is typically not feasible and for this reason Call Tracking has not scaled to the Enterprise environment. The cost of WVS is based on the volume of web traffic and there is no charge for inbound caller minutes. This cost differentiator is an important consideration for Contact Centres with significant call volume.

The deployment and adoption of WVS is a strategic decision that impacts the sales process and business operations. Whether Call Tracking or Web Voice Synchronization is the right solution for your business depends on the role of the Contact Centre within the company’s omni-channel strategy.