New York-based PX Launches 'Speed to Lead' Call Center Sales Lead Tracking Technology

While inbound call centers are invariably a function of customer service, blended and outbound call centers are more a function of sales. In many instances, inbound call center agents are trained to upsell and cross-sell customers who call in or reach out through other channels, so it’s sometimes hard to see where customer support ends and sales begin.

For call centers engaged in selling, it’s not enough to measure the typical call center metrics such as average handle time (AHT) and first-call resolution. Sales metrics also apply, but they may not be the same metrics that apply in the sales department. Increasingly, call centers that sell are measuring something called “lead to call tracking,” which allows call center management to measure the actual time of response from the instant a customer submits a form (or other contact) and the time it takes the call center to begin the outreach process.

New York City-based customer acquisition solutions provider PX recently announced the launch of its Lead to Call Tracking module, which it’s calling “the first true measure of speed-to-lead and its impact on lead conversion.” The company cites research that that the odds of making contact with a new lead are extremely high if a representative calls back within the first five minutes after the customer submits a query, and that contact rates drop by 100x from five minutes to 30 minutes. Other studies have found that calling a consumer lead within the first minute of their outreach can increase conversion by as much as 391 percent. Waiting beyond that first minute cuts the impact by more than half, and conversion rates decrease further.

“Speed to lead has long been an accepted principle in our industry, but our clients continue to be frustrated by their inability to see exactly how fast they were calling, even when they knew it was such a key to success,” said Frans van Hulle, co-founder and CEO of PX, in a statement. “This now gives our clients the true measure, directly from the precise moment a lead is created to the moment the dialer begins. Combine that precision with an ability to benchmark against peers in the industry, and this a very powerful tool to improve effectiveness.”

The solution also enables companies to benchmark their lead to call tracking data both internally and against industry standards to see how they perform in true response time.

Edited by Maurice Nagle