Taking inventory of your dealer advertising tracking phone numbers.

[Mitch]

Umer said:

"Hmm... why not have all calls from AutoTrader, Cars.com, Ebay Local go to your number with Whoscalling and have whoscalling send it over to you... that would give you all stats under Whoscalling and then when you have to change the number you just make the change at whoscalling."

- Vendors like Autotrader and Cars.com currently do not allow you to replace their 800 number with yours, save for the vehicle comment area. Maybe they'll come up with a better system in the future, but right now they want to be able to track data on their end, and allowing dealers to use their own 800 number minimizes the amount of data they can collect. Also, if you're not aware, you can't forward an 800 to another 800, so you couldn't ask Autotrader to send their calls to your WhosCalling promo number.

Jeff said:
"For instance; AutoTrader gives you a phone number that displays under your dealer name in the vehicle details page. This is not the same number I use in the body of the description."

- Jeff, are you aware that the 800 numbers WhosCalling provides you are frequently not national numbers? They often work only for your immediate area codes. This means that if someone in Iowa sees your car on Autotrader and calls the Whoscalling# in your description instead of the assigned Autotrader#, they might not get through... or even worse, they'll get a dealer on their side of the country who's on board with WhosCalling. You should check your WhosCalling backend and call your rep to make sure the numbers you use are national... otherwise you may be losing a couple leads.

 

[umer.autojini]

Mitch the ideas is to not replace the 800 number... but just have that 800 number ring at another number... (simply call forwarding) which they allow. AT and Cars.com can still track it... and I think Cars.com uses Juniper Network for their toll free numbers so it is SIP/IAX based and it can defiantly be forwarded to any number.

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www.destinationcrm.com

Jeff, I think the issue you will run into is figuring out where the call originated from but that can be controlled by having multiple numbers under the middle tier service providers. The quality should not go down.

 

[umer.autojini]

I might be wrong on the cars.com juniper networks... it might be Shortel Inc. As there parent company (Classified Ventures, LLC) signed a deal with Shoretel.

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Jeff,

I've never trusted external vendors' numbers because I can't hold them to my own standards. When I'm not the one taking the calls I have to change tracking avenues around. Our ad agency provides us with a call tracking system, so I negotiate with new vendors to have our own phone numbers placed.

"I never thought about forwarding all of my numbers (even if they are a callbight number) to 1 system/vendor like whoscalling."

Just call your vendors and tell them you don't want to use their numbers anymore. Give them your own. I had to tell Autotrader that we would cancel if they wouldn't let us use our own. I also asked them what they were afraid of? If their call tracking was accurate, nothing should change - right? Their reluctance really inspired my confidence in them. I've had no issues with any other companies.

 

[Joe Pistell]

ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE...

1st, Here's the Job Summary:
-A Single Web Task
-Done on a Regular Basis
-From Multiple Sites

BEST CASE SOLUTION:
-Open 1 Browser
-Click a Button
-Browser automatically goes to your phone sites
-Keys in passwords to all sites
-Auto-Drills into your selected reports page
Multiple Sites... One Click... Done.

HOW?
FireFox browser and a plug-in.

Plug in:

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addons.mozilla.org

hope this helps,
Joe

 

[Timm Cuzzo]

Jeff,
I agree with Alex. I would recommend telling your vendors that you want to use your number and they will.

I worked for Who's Calling and as a Internet Director, You need to make sure you are using national numbers especially with Who's Calling, so you do not lose calls and then assign one to each vendor so you can track the call volume. They will use them if you request them to.

I feel that the vendors use their own tracking numbers simple to be able to say "look you have this many calls this month, we are doing our job!!"

Good Luck
Timm

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Thanks for your comments Timm and for bringing this posting back into light. I have since then found that you can indeed get your own numbers on most of these sites. You sometimes have you throw up a little ruckus to get it done, but they eventually give in. Ebay local was the only source I couldn't get to cooperate, they HAD to have their number on there.

Jeff