Need to know: Call monitoring and mystery calls prove vital to classified departments

By Bob Davis

Over the past year or so, based on the needs of some of our newspaper clients, we have begun to provide quality monitoring and mystery caller services for classified advertising sales departments—with very positive results.

We have learned a great deal from the experience. In fact, I am thinking about writing a book entitled I Heard What Your Potential Advertisers Had To Say Yesterday. In the meantime, however, I’ll share some of what we have learned right here and now.

Present feedback positively.
At first we were resistant to start monitoring because feedback can feel like “Gotcha!” to the sales reps. Studies have found that stress among reps goes up during monitoring. They tend to shut down if the feedback is not delivered correctly, negating the potential benefits. Ultimately, however, we decided that as long as we present feedback in a positive way we will achieve desired results. Our solution has been to make sure 80 percent of the feedback is positive so that the reps are receptive to the 20 percent that specifies areas where they can improve performance.

Provide actionable feedback.
When reps hear about what they did well on the calls, they are more likely to repeat those behaviors. Where they need improvement, it is critical to give them specific actions to take. For example, make suggestions such as, “Decrease the number of set-aside ads by asking customers how important it is for them to sell the item or fill the position—this helps them see value in the ad.”

Deliver feedback in real time.
It just isn’t very effective to say, “Last month we listened to some of your calls, and this is what we think.” Giving feedback daily is much more meaningful because the reps remember the calls being discussed.

Score the calls objectively.
Before we monitor calls, we work with the client to develop questions that will allow objective scoring. We recommend questions like, “Did the sales rep assume the online buy and include it when quoting the price?” instead of more subjective ones like, “Was the sales rep polite?”

Boost sales revenue.
We have been able to benchmark key metrics with newspapers that want to participate and share their data to see where they stand compared with other newspapers. What’s more, our clients have benefited significantly from our approach to quality monitoring and mystery caller services because we have harvested highly valuable information. For every customer who calls in and doesn’t buy, we record the reason. We also document issues such as how often money comes up as an objection. The whole process gives newspapers the information needed to reinforce best practices, solve problems effectively and boost sales revenue dramatically.

Yet classified departments don’t always have needed resources in-house to do the job. Besides their own reps, many classified departments rely on outsource call centers to handle overflow calls, making monitoring and mystery callers even more important.

Now more than ever it is critical for newspapers to generate maximum revenue in ad sales. They need to know what’s happening on their classified sales calls. Outsourcing your call monitoring and mystery calls is an excellent way to verify whether or not your classified department is achieving all it can. And in our experience, what newspapers learn in the process provides a significant return on investment.