Plugging 800# Leaks - Affiliate Phone Tracking Options

[Linda Buquet]

Affiliates, sometimes you come across a merchant you really want to work with that has a big 800# commission leak. You contact them and it turns out they didn't realize the problem the way an affiliate sees it - as potential lost sales. They see the light and want to do the right thing, just aren't sure how.

Where do you send them to get a clear overview & possible solutions? I've blogged several times about leaks & phone tracking to try to educate merchants. There are lots of forum posts about it. Almost everything I can find is more about why affiliates get upset about it (rightly so). I can't really find what I could call a guide for merchants about how to fix the problem, til now.

Linda Bustos over at the Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog just wrote a really good article with the some great suggestions. The info is geared specifically toward merchants, to help them understand the various options for handling phone tracking and plugging that leak.

Tracking Affiliate Orders For Telephone Sales "A major tick-off for affiliate marketers is merchants who prominently display a toll-free number on their websites or banner ads. If a customer decides to pick up the phone to place the order – the affiliate is not credited with the sale unless proper telephone tracking is used. This is called “leakage.”

Some merchants only show the toll-free number on the contact page or in the checkout process itself, nevertheless it’s a leakage opportunity.

High ticket items and B2B supply or software purchases are often completed over the phone, meaning hard working affiliate partners lose their commissions. Good affiliate programs should be ensure that commissions will be paid where commissions are due.

But how can you effectively track telephone conversions driven by affiliate marketers?" Get the answers, read the rest.

Any merchants out there, that haven't figured out this essential element for setting yourself apart by showing how affiliate-centric your program is - I hope this helps!

Affiliates - bookmark this post for future reference, as it's bound to come in handy some day.

Again, I have other really good resources about buried in other blogs I've written about affliate leaks and phone tracking.

If you know of any other good solutions to the phone tracking issue or find any other good articles or resources for merchants, please comment below.

[elephantgroup]

In our vertical (digital home services like satellite, cable, security), we can't afford NOT to provide accurate sales tracking from phone calls as such a large percentage of our sales occur over the phone.

The most simplistic form -- where a general toll-free number is used and then the customer has to provide the affiliate ID for the sale to be tracked correctly is horrific -- and anyone willing to leave the tracking of their sale to (1) the customer and (2) the phone representative -- neither of which has ANY vested interest in making sure the correct ID is entered into the system is BEGGING the merchant to not pay them for sales generated.

Our first step forward was implementing dedicated toll-free numbers to affiliates, which showed the rep the Promo code to enter, eliminating ONE fail point.

Our second step forward was implementing a system that AUTOMATICALLY forced the promo code into the order system without the rep having to manually enter the data. Reps can't even change the promo code if they want to now.

And for our third step? We will be ELIMINATING general affiliate toll-frees and EVERY affiliate will have a DEDICATED toll-free.

And then? Well, in the coming weeks, we're releasing subID tracking on dedicated toll-frees ... yup, yup.... so an affiliate will be able to have several toll-frees to use that will all map back to their primary account but will carry a secondard ID so they can track different campaigns from their side ...

Progress is a beautiful thing ...

[Linda Buquet]

Wow Gregory you guys really have it covered.

You brought up something I wanted to bring up but didn't have a chance to - the HUMAN element of phone tracking. Even once you get the code working next the phone #, (if you do it that way) the rep has to ask, and/or the customer has to offer the aff ID. Not only that, but then someone has to collect all the sale/affiliate id data and at some point manually enter into the tracking solution/network. With one company I implemented phone tracking on, the tech part was pretty easy but the human part was a mess and as an outsourced manager I could not be there onsight in the phone room cracking the whip to be sure affiliate ids were input - it was a constant battle and I wasn't the boss. Very frustrating.

So what you're doing really helps take the human part out of the pic and make the whole thing much more automatic. I must say though that for the "average" merchant who only has an "average" commitment to the affiliate channel, that may be more cost/time/effort than they are willing to devote. Which is part of what makes affiliate-centered programs like yours stand out from the pack.

[elephantgroup]

My biggest complaint with having the reps involved in any marketing/tracking responsibility is that it SHOULDN'T be their responsibility -- their ONLY responsibility, their ONLY focus should be on taking care of that consumer and CLOSING THAT SALE! Anything else takes them away from their focus and impacts their effectiveness as sales people.

PS: With all the systems we have in place we STILL do daily reconciliations & data scrubs, etc. and are always looking at ways to improve the system to ensure affiliates get paid for all of their efforts.