The legacy of communications is one of the most profound dimensions of technology in any period of history. Since its development, its coverage continues to increase – from within a small area, until it conquered all geographical barriers and interconnected lines from all over the world. It passed through different stages of development in its connections and technology – from physical lines to fiber optic cables, analog signal transmission to digital transmission, POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) to mobile handsets. Communications technology has really gone a long way in all aspects.
The PSTN
The Public Switched Telephone Network or PSTN is the culmination of all the interconnections of local telephone systems all over the world, in regional, national and international levels. It has established its coverage after so many years through the adoption of the markets of all countries of the Plain Old Telephone System or POTS as a standard way of communicating with each other.
Part of the PSTN is the establishment of infrastructures in various levels and methods of communication. In its early stages of development, it makes use of copper wires, as well as a need for an operator to “switch” and interconnect calls through a physical facility. It is later evolved to an operator-less network that makes use of automatic switching techniques through telephone number coding based on location. Throughout the decades, it remained to be a fixed system based on interconnected hardware facilities, but now deploys wireless way of communicating with longer distances because it is expensive to interconnect using physical wires.
Wireless, microwave, cellular and satellite communications are all part of the broad network of PSTN, enabling the access of the public in a more practical way to communicate with each other.
PSTN and Business
The use of the telephone systems has become part of the daily routine of people. From simple communications with family, to business transactions, it already became a norm and the default way to initiate communication. In the business aspect, it enabled more trade to take place and businesses began to flourish. During the course of time, the telephone system became the gateway and primary communication channel between the business and its clients.
The sales and marketing department of any company utilizes the telephone services the most. Telephone communications have become an integral part of their strategic planning. It is mainly used to contact prospective clients and leads, as well as a hotline for inquiries. Several marketing efforts are being deployed, such as print ads, radio and television commercials, web advertising, etc. The company phone number is always present in these media campaigns. As the company accepts inbound calls about inquiries, there is no way for them to know which campaign led the clients to call their number. It is an open ended loop, a guess work, and the sales and marketing team will have no idea if they are utilizing the company’s resources efficiently, or not. There is a need for a tool or system to be able to have a full perspective of all the marketing operations, both in the their own perspective and the buyer’s perspective, using the existing telephone system, to realize if marketing efforts are effective or not.
The Rise of Call Tracking Softwares
The idea of call tracking arose out of the need for a systematic way of evidence based marketing. It is a way of tracking and measuring the telephone usage and metrics, then converting the results into a measurable gauge of marketing strategy effectiveness.
The data returned by call tracking are both statistical and analytical, and both are useful information to make improvements on marketing strategies and campaigns, and to also see which works well.
A call tracking software is a platform based business tool that effectively tracks and gathers useful data from telephone calls and turn it into a beneficial information about marketing performance and effectiveness. It makes use of conversion tracking methods, that is, using call behavior patterns and turn it into metrics for a more in depth analysis.
It is more difficult to track the performance of traditional media sources like billboards, print ads, tv and radio commercials. With a phone call tracking software, the tracking is automatically done within a few minutes of call conversation. Data gathered are in different forms like call duration, geographical location, call frequency, associated media as source of inquiry.
Call Tracking in PSTN
A call tracking software doesn’t require sophisticated hardware set up in order to operate. All the configurations and tweaks are made within the software itself. Call tracking software works by first, assigning virtual phone numbers, can be local or toll-free, on each marketing media/collateral that will be used/distributed. This is different from the actual purchase of phone lines from traditional phone line vendors that are more elaborate and more expensive. When a customer calls the number, the system automatically recognizes the assigned number, and will then classify the succeeding calls and return results stating which marketing strategy is effective or not. Calls are also categorized through other call or caller information like location, call duration, etc.
The VoIP Technology
Traditionally, a call tracking software requires a physical call facility, which is a telephone system, and “hook to it” to be able to implement its call tracking functions. The existence of legacy phone systems poses no problem with this set up. However, emerging businesses and start ups now utilize web based methods more than legacy systems. The innovations on the internet, and its widespread popularity among a majority of clients and customers all over the world, greatly impacted the way a sales call tracking software works.
VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol, or colloquially, Internet Telephony, is a technology of sending voice signals, which is analog in nature, over the internet. This can be done by up converting the signal into digital packets of data to become digital signals, and be able to “flow” through a special transmission line. Upon reaching the receiver end, it is down converted again into voice signal and be heard by the other line. The technology lies in the signal processing which makes use of a faster and more efficient network.
VoIP also makes efficient use of bandwidth data, which serves as the pathway of signals to be transmitted. To visualize this pathway, imagine a hollow wire with a certain diameter. The area inside the hollow wire is the pathway that is limited by its dimension. Now imagine the voice signal as a ball that will pass through this pathway. In order for it to pass through properly, the diameter of the ball should be less than or the same in diameter with the hollow wire. Smaller balls can pass faster than equally sized or bigger balls. In the same way, an analog signal is a “bigger ball” than digital signals. In PSTN, the required bandwidth is typically 64 kbps (in both directions) in order to be transmitted. On the other hand, because of compression technologies, a digital signal, or VoIP in our case, only requires 10 kbps of bandwidth (in both directions), for it to be transmitted.
How Call Tracking Is Being Integrated With VoIP Systems
VoIP systems were further developed as the rise of the internet continues. The addition of web based marketing options gave a new dimension in call tracking softwares. Now it has more options for marketing strategies to be implemented, and an overwhelming number of people are now using mobile technology. According to a research conducted by Infonetics Research in 2014 about the impact of VoIP in terms of market revenues, there is an increase in market revenues brought about by the advancing of the use of VoIP in the business sector. The overall positive impact of the technology echoes on the marketing arm as well.
So, how does call tracking system work within VoIP?
Call tracking software integrates the keyword search and optimization, or SEO within the VoIP system. It is like a system of “tagging” specific sets of keywords, associate it with your website so when a user types the keyword, chances are that one of the results will yield your website. With SEO, you should create as many number of keyword combinations and sets as possible, most especially if your business is catering to many clients and a range of services. Each keyword set is again will be also associated with a unique phone number, so when the user clicks the site, the information of the session will start to be recorded. The VoIP system is integrated on the inquiry page via a button that, when clicked, will easily connect you to their customer service associate that is dedicated for online queries. The information is continuously recorded, as in POTS, until the session ends. All information pertaining to web sessions, including the keyword set that is used to land on the website, and other caller information gathered from the online inquiry is now consolidated and stored in the company cloud. Pooling all data will yield results over which keyword combination is most effective in finding the website, and when combined with other data from calls made through the POTS, will make an effective visual and analytic reporting over the effectiveness or disadvantages of each marketing medium used.
To land, call tracking had ultimately survived the transition period of legacy systems into internet telephony. Call tracking softwares have evolved as well, and is still a vital tool used to measure the effectiveness of a marketing tool or strategy. The results obtained, and after intelligent ad thorough analysis, will significantly help the sales and marketing of any company implement improvements within their system. It also aids in closing the gap between inbound calls and customer queries via the telephone system by optimizing its services to effectively communicate with prospective clients and leads, upon learning their specific needs, through the feedback information given by the call tracking software. The market is an ever growing place for vendors and clients alike, and there are many available call tracking softwares you can choose from. For a more detailed look on the call tracking software market, see this list of the top call tracking softwares and call tracking software reviews.
John Tovar
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