Most businesses have periods of increased demand. Depending on the business demand can fluctuate from one season to the next, month to month or even down to minute by minute. Understanding and better yet being able to predict these fluctuations in demand can give you greater control over your business and ensures you maximize the effectiveness of these intense periods of business.
What causes these fluctuations in demand also varies, including external factors out of our control. However there are almost always consistent trends in demand and predictable influences that can either be controlled or planned for.
Marketing
Marketing is an obvious contributing factor to demand (well, at least that’s the goal!) and with the help of analytic tools like AVANSER and Google Analytics you should be able to get a feel for the direct impact of your marketing efforts. The first priority is to optimise the return on investment, but you should also consider the effect on the broader business. For example, if you’re driving leads into the business during a period that experiences increased demand from organic/ external factors, then you need to consider if you have the resources in place to deal with the additional pressure your marketing activity will create. Driving 100 leads into the business when you can only deal with 50 will deliver an unsatisfactory experience to potential customers.
Predictable Purchase Behaviour
Most categories, industries or businesses experience fairly predictable periods of increased demand – an obvious one would be ski resorts. Some may be less obvious but just as predictable if measured over time. For example we work closely with several banking/ finance and insurance businesses and they all experience higher call volumes on Monday and Tuesday.
Identifying these trends, knowing the impact of drivers like marketing and then planning your resources accordingly will ensure you’re in the best position to leverage leads and ultimately grow your business.
The Daily “Advanced Reports” (along with Hourly and Custom Range) can help you do exactly that, select your desired date range and view call trends broken down by day of the week. The report will identify not only how many (total) inbound calls by day but also identify the status of those calls (Answered / Unanswered). Using this information over time will deliver a very accurate picture of demand throughout the week and give you the ability to plan your resources accordingly.
To learn more about this report, contact your Account Manager for a full demonstration.
Image courtesy of bplanet at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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