Mystery Shopping: Take the Mystery Out of Lead Management

If you haven't considered a Mystery Shop of your online lead follow up system (both human and electronic), you should. You may cringe at the results, but considering your investment in generating those leads, you need to know what really happens to them.

What if you have leads coming in and nobody is responding to them? Wouldn't you be upset? It may surprise you to know that not only does it happen, but it happens at some of America's largest builders.

Even if your leads are getting a response of some kind, you need to assess the quality of that response. Often an unprofessional response is worse than no response at all. If this is the first contact a lead has with your company, what kind of image are you projecting?

Online Mystery Shopping helps you ensure that customers have a quality online experience with your company. It allows you to assess your strengths and weaknesses, effectively train your associates, raise the bar on your communication skills, and increase sales. It should never be used to single out a sales associate, which is why it's so important to do a full market area shop.

There are companies that specialize in online Mystery Shopping, such as LM Marketing Online (www.lmmarketingonline.com) located in Houston, who works nationwide with builders of all sizes. The cost to obtain a comprehensive report, across all your divisions and communities, is well worth it. This also applies to custom builders, remodelers, and trade partners - anyone who has a lead generation system that includes a “Contact Us” page on their website.

The cost for an online Mystery Shop report is generally per community, so it will vary according to your size. Always ask about volume discounts. The minimum you should receive in the report is:

• an Executive Summary (including response rates and times)
• a complete transcript of all correspondence
• an individual response analysis
• a copy of all materials sent either via email or U.S. mail.

The report may also include suggestions for improvement and recommended implementation of Best Practices.

In today's challenging market, it doesn't make sense to invest thousands of dollars in a website to promote your company, pay listing services such as Move.com or NewHomeSource, generate sales leads, and then essentially throw them away. Remember, customers shopping online are building a short list, and you want to be on it. Some buyers buy via a process of elimination.

Don't get eliminated.

Erik Cofield, CGA has leveraged technology and provided business management consulting for all sizes and types of builders, developers and Remodelers since 2000, including volume, multi-family and custom, to help them improve their business. He is the National Accounts Manager with BuildTopia (www.buildtopia.com), a widely used international construction management software company. He is the Houston Sales and Marketing Council 2008 Associate of the Year. He is an author, educator, consultant and speaker. He can be reached via ecofield@buildtopia.com.

Comments

[Perry]

That's why it's very important that besides tracking leads, one should also learn the science and art of lead distribution. The right leads should go the right sales agent, so to speak.

[Darin Dixon - Dialer]

Great concept. We have tried it manually ourselves and then finally automated a response audit for websites with web forms. Some of the response times are scary. Some companies were glad to here that their reps responded after 48 hours! When are companies going to learn that they need to respond almost immediately to these web leads? Thanks for adding to the solution.

[Allison Caldwell]

I'm surprised that more companies don't follow up on their leads in a timely manner. I have, myself, left contact information for a company in web design and not gotten a response at all, which was shocking. Aren't we all here to make money? I'd think having an examination of how leads are handled would be a priority for any online commercial presence.

[apartment mystery shopper]

I agree that this makes sense. Until companies realize that investing thousands of dollars in a website to promote their company, but then not understanding that the follow up is also important, more leads will get lost in the shuffle.