Missing Leads? Tech Aids Can Help

One of the most frustrating parts of small businesses is the knowledge that it’s nearly impossible to catch every lead. Anything from missing a phone call or an opportunity for easy sharing, to not catching what could be lucrative deals – or worse, losing business to a competitor – can have you scrambling for better customer service solutions.

Unfortunately, you can’t constantly be on the phone or online 24/7, so you’ll need a little help. That’s where tech aids, who can help turn your small business into a lead generating machine, enter the picture. Avoid missing lucrative deals and customer service opportunities by turning to net services and tech solutions to help you catch every lead that comes through.

Social Networking

Don’t discount social networking sites as a way to generate and find leads using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to help gauge interest. By having social media accounts and hashtags created specifically for your brand and business, you can easily track leads based on potential customers talking about your goods and services. These accounts also make it easy to share information from your page. By posting about specific offers and discounts on Facebook, you can encourage fans to share the news with their friends, and to enter in contests and giveaways. Then you can contact those friends-of-friends who seem the most interested in what you have to offer, helping you to collect leads along the way.

Web Follow-up

When users visit your website, there’s a way to garner leads more efficiently than tracking down IP addresses. By giving users the chance to sign up to receive future offers or a weekly newsletter, you can easily track which website visitors are the most likely to seek out information from you in the future, which could be a huge boon for lead generation and follow-up. The efficiency of this method rests in your hands, since you’ll need to be responsible for following up and actually sending future offers and newsletters to keep potential customers in the loop.

Search Widgets

Tailoring your feedback and follow-up to exactly what users were looking for creates an instant relationship between you and your lead, as does adding search widgets to your website. By planting a search widget on your page, you’ll receive the information that a user was searching for and can then offer that information for better customer service. For a real estate office that posts MLS listings on their website, this widget can tell you exactly what type of home a visitor is looking for. Using an email address, you can send over other suggested listings to make sure that the user comes back to your site again and has a better chance of actually using your service, thanks to the stellar attention given.

Answer Phone and Live Chat Services

Whether a visit your website or a call to your office, it’s frustrating to lose a lead simply because you weren’t at work. One possible remedy for this situation is to install an automated phone answering service, which is a system that forwards your calls automatically to a representative if you’re out of the office or otherwise unavailable. This representative handles the customer inquiry based on your guidelines, ensuring that you’re able to provide 24 hour customer service to your clients.  By having a live person on the other end, a customer is much less likely to hang up and try a competitor, so it’s a great way to filter calls and make sure you follow up on every possible lead that comes through your office.

Losing leads may seem like par for the course when it comes to business, but the most effective businessperson knows that every lead could be the next big one. Having strong customer service in place can help you catch – and keep – more leads overall.

Marianne S. Ross is a business and finance blogger writing on behalf of The Hot Office. You can reach her by email at mariannesross@gmail.com.