Call Intelligence to Get the Most out of Your Business Phone Calls

Oleksandr Rohovnin

Data-Driven Copywriter

15 minute read

A lead’s phone number is a great asset on its own – you can reach out to them with your sales pitch or sell them if you’re selling calls. But what about more profound insights to maximize the value of the phone calls you handle? Would you like to know for sure the calls you buy or sell are what they seem to be – high-quality, perfectly matched, reasonably priced?

Call intelligence software can unlock all these insights, taking your call-reliant business to a whole new level. From fraud protection to spotting mistakes and lead distribution optimization, call intelligence can make a difference between a successful and an underperforming marketing campaign.

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With Phonexa, you’re taking a path to success. We offer one of the most comprehensive call intelligence software suites that synergizes your call and lead campaigns, all within our comprehensive performance marketing ecosystem.

Book a demo to explore how Phonexa can bolster your phone call campaigns.

But I might be getting ahead of myself. First, let’s explore call intelligence basics and why you need to screen inbound phone calls.

What Is Call Intelligence?

Call intelligence is an umbrella term for tracking and analyzing inbound and outbound call data that you collect before, during, and after the call. By using call intelligence software, you can automatically reject low-quality, irrelevant, and fraudulent calls while optimizing routing for calls that passed the initial screening and were accepted.

Call intelligence and call tracking are especially valuable in high-ticket niches, where error margins are minimal due to the higher lead generation costs and intense competition. 

For example, if you’re acquiring leads for your on-site crew, you’d be most interested in guaranteeing all of them are actually from one of the states where you operate and have provided a reachable physical address.

Read also: How Address Verification Can Help You Purchase the Leads You Need

Here are the industries where call intelligence is more important:

Whether you’re buying or selling phone calls, the right call intelligence software can help you continuously grow your ROI by becoming ever more accurate as you accumulate more data. What’s more, if you’re using Phonexa, you can leverage call insights when processing web leads and vice versa, including when leads switch touchpoints multiple times throughout their journey.

Read also: The Complete Guide to Pay-Per-Call Lead Generation

Call Intelligence: Smart-Tracking, Distributing, and Analyzing Inbound Business Calls

First things first: tracking inbound phone calls begins with assigning call tracking numbers to your campaigns – ideally, one phone number per traffic source, allowing you to differentiate between acquisition channels effectively.

At Phonexa, you can get call tracking numbers of the following types:

• Local phone numbers. Numbers with local prefixes, like (415) 555-0134, 020 7946 0019, etc., are best for hyper-local advertising campaigns and local service providers. Other things being equal, consumers tend to choose local businesses over international ones, so using local numbers in industries like solar makes perfect sense.

Read also: How Location-Based Call Tracking Works

• Toll-free phone numbers. Numbers with prefixes 800, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877, and 888 are best for national campaigns, so callers don’t have to pay for the call.
• Vanity phone numbers (local or toll-free). Numbers like 844-PHONEXA can help separate your company from the competition, increase direct dial rates, and reduce typos.

Read also: Phone Number Verification to Protect Your Business from Unwanted Calls

Local Generic vs. Toll-Free Generic vs. Local Vanity vs. Toll-Free Vanity Phone Numbers

Pro Tip: The Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) technology enables the display of a unique call tracking number to each visitor or traffic source, depending on your system configuration, allowing you to effectively differentiate between callers.

Both session-level DNI and source-level DNI are viable for certain marketing scenarios. For example, to ensure keyword-level attribution for PPC campaigns, you may need session-level DNI; on the other hand, for low-volume sources, you may limit yourself to source-level DNI.

But then again, if you’re running old-school advertising campaigns, like handing out flyers, or simply want to use only a single phone number per traffic source, you might use good-old static call tracking numbers to ensure you effectively differentiate between acquisition channels.

Read also: Phone Number Verification to Protect Your Business from Unwanted Calls

Call Tracking & Distribution

Once a consumer dials your number, your call tracking intelligence infrastructure captures the call and processes it based on where it is coming from, who is expected to call, and the data collected as the caller interacts with an IVR system or a live rep.

Pre-Screening Calls Before Buying or Selling Them

One of the biggest advantages of having a robust call intelligence software like Phonexa is that you can screen calls before buying them or submitting to an advertiser, courtesy of our iClear technology.

Depending on the required validation depth, you can use the following checks:

Once the pre-screening is completed, your call intelligence software accepts (or rejects) the call so it connects to your IVR or live operator.

Important: All phone call checks with iClear can be performed synchronously or asynchronously, allowing you to choose whether to pause or not pause call acquisition until the caller’s phone number is verified.

Book a demo to learn more about iClear from Phonexa professionals.

IVR & AI Call Agents

Depending on how your IVR is configured, the call may start with a customized, brand-on greeting that instantly presents your brand and sets the right tone of conversation. Even if the caller doesn’t proceed with the purchase in the end, a customized greeting gives you a higher chance of remaining in the caller’s mind for longer and, therefore, a higher engagement potential.

Depending on how advanced your IVR is and how it is configured, the caller may have the following communication options:

• Keypad input (Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency, or DTMF) – the caller presses keys on their phone keypad, like “Press 1 for Sales, 2 for Support”
• Speech input – the caller speaks to an IVR just like they speak to a human agent. The IVR, however, must be advanced to recognize the full context of the conversation.
• Hybrid input – the caller can choose between keypad input and speech. Hybrid input might be the best one to offer because of its convenience for callers (for example, callers can switch to keypad input when in public places or to speech input when on the go).

Likewise, an IVR system can support SMS communication, offer a callback option, and add an extra protection layer by asking to confirm keypad input with voice and vice versa. With Phonexa’s IVR, you can do all of that for the best convenience of your callers.

Even a standard IVR system can scale your business by qualifying callers and resolving a part of calls independently, but it’s getting even better when your IVR is equipped with AI call agents that take customer interactions to the next level.

Phonexa’s AI Call Agents can manage inbound phone calls almost just as well as human operators do, issuing contextualized, industry-specific responses.

No less importantly, since AI Call Agents simulate human conversation, callers feel just as natural as speaking to a knowledgeable agent, which translates into higher closure and satisfaction rates. 

Here are some specific features of AI Call Agents:

Read also: How To Grow ROI on Sales Calls with AI Call Agents

How Phonexa Eliminates Call Queues

It’s no secret that call queues kill sales, with some customers abandoning the call right in the middle of the queue, and the vibe evaporates the longer the queue lasts. This is why Phonexa’s IVR and AI Call Agents are designed to either resolve the call on the spot – for example, with simpler requests like subscription renewal – or redirect the caller to an immediately available operator.

The best part is that you can set any call distribution logic within our call intelligence ecosystem, routing the acquired inbound calls to the best-fitting operator not only based on availability but also on location, skills, historical performance, workload, and other relevant factors.

For example, if you’re offering solar installation services in several states, your top priority should likely be connecting callers to reps who are specifically trained to handle calls from these states, like a caller from State A should go to a rep from State A.

Read also: Solar Lead Generation Guide: How To Get High-Intent Solar Leads

If, however, the best-matching representative cannot take the call, then the second-level criteria, such as the historical performance of other representatives with calls from state A, can become a factor in getting the most value out of the call.

Here are some popular call routing strategies you can employ:

Call Analytics

Finally, upon the completion of the call (whether it’s converted into a sale or bounced), the analytics part of Phonexa’s call intelligence software suite kicks in to put all collected call data into perspective.

Here’s what Phonexa’s call analytics help you achieve:

• Identify trends and blind spots by comparing data sets
• Evaluate the publisher or call source quality
• Uncover underrepresented traffic sources and untapped revenue streams

Last but not least, you can choose to record phone calls, having access to all previous conversations. And if you want to be even more cost-effective, you can choose to record a random percentage of accepted calls or only record calls that meet certain criteria.

How To Buy and Sell Phone Calls with Phonexa

Whether you’re buying or selling calls, you’d like to do it within a flexible ecosystem that can factor in multiple campaign needs and business objectives. For example, selling leads in high-ticket industries may not be the same as selling aged or cheap leads – and you need a system that maximizes revenues in all possible scenarios.

Read also: Lead Bidding: In-Depth Technology Guide [+ Best Lead Bidding Software]

Speaking of which, Phonexa supports five lead flows for the most popular buy and sell scenarios, such as when you want to maximize earnings, reduce connection time, or ensure the right advertiser gets the right lead at the right time without sacrificing your revenues.

Here are the five call flows that you can use when buying or selling calls with Phonexa:

#1. Data collected by IVR

A standard call qualification practice involves a caller communicating with an IVR system that asks relevant questions and then, based on the collected data – ZIP code, product interest, etc. – connects the caller to the best-fitting businesses that submit their bids based on the received data.

#2. Data is pinged before the call, with the caller’s phone number

Sharing the caller’s phone number before the call is sold may seem risky at first glance, but it provides better transparency and increases revenues because advertisers can pre-score leads more accurately.

#3. Data is pinged before the call, without the caller’s phone number

Pinging some of the caller’s data without their phone number is one of the safest lead flows, as it protects both the affiliate and the caller. The acquisition accuracy might be slightly lower, though, because the buyer cannot verify the caller’s phone number.

Read also: Ping Post Calls 2.0: Live Transfer Calls Will Never Be The Same

#4. Call with applications and no bidding

Routing leads to predetermined advertisers is the simplest and arguably the safest lead generation or acquisition strategy, as both sides know exactly what to expect, including the price for the leads they buy and the absence of competition.

#5. Pinging based on agent availability

In high-ticket and urgent industries, it might make sense to only sell phone calls to businesses that have operators available to handle the call. In practice, this flow boils down to sending the caller’s info to buyers with available agents and selling the lead to the highest bidder.

How To Expand Your Call Business with Predictive Modeling

Not only does Phonexa’s call intelligence infrastructure allow you to track, distribute, and analyze calls in real-time and post-call, but it also enables data-driven campaign forecasts in case you want to expand into new platforms, audiences, or markets. The best thing is that the more phone call data you accumulate, the more accurate predictive modeling software works.

Read also: Predictive Call Analytics: Unlock Data for Better Business Decisions

In practice, predictive modeling boils down to running multiple simulations of campaigns with different variables until the success recipe is found. For example, for advertising campaigns, you can simulate ad placement and targeting to determine what works best. And then you can bring the best campaigns to life with much less risk.

Ensuring the Highest Quality of Phone Calls for Your Business

At the end of the day, while a call intelligence automation system can automate routines, increase routing accuracy, and even handle some calls without transferring them to agents, you – the system manager – are still the mastermind behind it.

Read also: How to Train Customer Care to Handle Angry Phone Calls

You are the one configuring your call architecture and making strategic changes to reach peak performance, including deciding on how much live agents should be involved with each category of calls.

Every Call Intelligence Tool You Need Under One Roof

Phonexa’s cornerstone product for phone calls, Call Logic, includes everything you need to generate or acquire phone calls, including a customizable IVR system, AI Call Agents, and call tracking, distribution, and analytics software. All tools work in sync, so you can use collected data across campaigns and systems, including the web lead-phone call connection.

For outbound calls, you can add one more infrastructure layer – a Cloud PBX system that ensures 24/7 availability of your business and allows you to make outgoing calls and score agent performance. Again, you’re getting a fully coordinated system where all tools align.

Take a product tour to see how Call Logic synergizes with other Phonexa products.

Your All-in-One Call Intelligence Software Suite that Also Handles Web Lead Campaigns

Whether you’re buying or selling phone calls or web leads, Phonexa’s all-in-one performance marketing ecosystem can make your business more efficient by automating most of your routines, including email, social media, and affiliate campaigns.

You get it all covered under one roof without having to juggle between systems and reports. And we’re still growing! Recently, we’ve added AI Call Agents to our ground-breaking product for inbound phone calls, Call Logic – check it out if you haven’t seen it yet.

Here’s more about Phonexa and how we can revolutionize your performance marketing:

Get Phonexa’s performance marketing software suite at a single price:

Book a demo to learn more about Phonexa.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is call intelligence?

Call intelligence is an overarching term that refers to insights gained from the calls you handle, such as who is calling, their location, purchase intent, and any other information your software can collect and analyze in real-time and post-call. For example, a caller who has specified state A on the lead generation form, yet is actually calling from state B, may raise suspicion and be rejected or flagged.

What data can a call intelligence software collect?

Call intelligence software can screen the caller’s identity, demographics, intent, and industry-related background, such as their criminal or bankruptcy records. Based on this information, you can set up an effective call distribution algorithm that connects the right callers with the right sales representatives.

What is the best call intelligence software?

Phonexa is one of the best call intelligence software suites, especially for large-scale companies that process hundreds of thousands of calls daily. With Phonexa, you get an all-in-one performance marketing ecosystem that helps automate inbound and outbound call campaigns and synergize them with web lead acquisition and other marketing avenues you’re in.

How much is call intelligence software?

Visit our pricing page to view the cost of your call intelligence software suite. Note, however, that the actual costs depend on the scale, depth, and features you’re using.