Using Google Voice to Track & Manage Website Leads
If you have an offline business, your website probably functions as a means to attract new customers to your door. But how do you know if your website is actually achieving this? You can easily track total website traffic with free services like Google Analytics and the new Google LBC Reporting Dashboard, but tracking which visitors turn into actual customers is a is a harder number to obtain.
Well, a free service by Google can help you do this…and so much more! Google Voice allows you get a new, free local phone number that you can then use to route calls to your business, cell or home phone numbers—or all of them simultaneously! And since all calls and texts are logged, if you post your Google Voice number on your website, you can see exactly how many phone calls your website generates. Plus, Google Voice comes with a “Call Me” widget that you can imbed on your website, and if people click it and enter their phone number, the service connects you with your potential customer instantly.
But the ability to uniquely track new customers is only a fraction of its capableness. Small businesses on a tight budget can put this feature to use as a form of departmental call routing. If you use a Google Voice number for the sales department, for example, and have it ring on the desk phones of all of the people in the department, you can get a timely and efficient response to your customers.
Another handy feature is voicemail transcription. When a Google Voice number receives a new voicemail, it can transcribe the audio and email or text it to you. Moreover, you can configure Google Voice to distribute voicemails to a group of emails, ensuring that all of the members of a particular department will receive the voicemail.
Having the voicemails sent through email reduces the likelihood of it being overlooked or forgotten, and distributing the message to a specified group improves response efficiency, which leads to significantly higher customer satisfaction.
And finally, the Google Voice app (also free) means that you have everything you need on the go.
