Fix the Leaking Bucket and Increase Local Search Sales

The other day my friend and industry luminary, Dick Larkin posted on Facebook that his business is picking up. Calls to HomePage Directories’ 300 metered lines were double the volume from this time last year.

The term “metered lines” is a yellow pages throw back. We also use call tracking or call measurement, though I don’t really like any of these terms. The assumption is that the local search industry, including yellow pages is metering ROI to the advertiser.

Virtual Numbers (the term I use) can do so much more. Followers of FastCall411 know that I believe there is a significant opportunity for innovation in the “calls to local merchants” space.

For example: our IVR application, TryAnother, offers a call redirection to a 2nd seller if the first vendor is not available, or if the caller wants to keep shopping after the first call (we launched this at DEMO).

If the phone rings and the merchant does not answer, the lead was delivered but not received. And merchants only give credit for leads received. The bigger picture here is not just metering ROI to the advertiser, but metering and improving the experience to the consumer.

When a merchant doesn’t answer a consumer’s call they are falling short on their “quality of service”. I don’t need a Yelp review for that – if I can’t speak to the merchant, he can’t answer my questions. This customer service issue is a leaking bucket for online local services. FastCall411’s metered lines / call tracking / measurement / virtual numbers – whichever term we use - not only prove ROI, but improve the consumer experience by matching ready buyers dynamically with available sellers.

Further, FastCall411 identifies merchants who don’t answer their phones – your cold sales leads. We use Virtual Numbers to find and eliminate your cold leads so that we can focus your sales efforts on the warm pipeline.

FastCall411 is seizing this opportunity for innovation with Voice 2.0 applications that take phone calls initiated from mobile local search and classifieds to the next level with consumer reviews, merchant acquisition and much more.