Typically when a customer completes a lead form, the email is delivered to the email associated with the location record. If the email address associated with the location is wrong or un-monitored, the customer may never receive a response. Knowing that a lead has been acknowledged is key to ensuring customers receive a prompt reply. Lead acknowledgement is offered in Enterprise plans.
Enabling this type of lead tracking can populate a dashboard like the below.
To accomplish this acknowledgement tracking, the body of the lead email, including the lead contact information is withheld from the initial email to the location contact. It is replaced by a link which, when clicked, reveals the lead details, allowing an opportunity to confirm receipt of the email. This is called a lead notification.
The lead notification includes a single call to action as shown below:
After clicking the button, the recipient will see the full message body:
The Leads dashboard also now indicates which leads have been acknowledged including the response time of the dealer on average and for this lead.
Configuring Lead Acknowledgement
Perform the following steps to enable Lead Acknowledgement
In your Interface settings, under the Lead Generation tab, set Send Lead Notification to Yes. You may need to click the "More Leads Features" button to expand the options group as shown below:
When the "Send Lead Notification" option is enabled, the system will no longer use the Lead Email Body Template to deliver the lead email. Instead, it will deliver an email based on the Lead Notification Template. This template includes the same dynamic template variables as the Lead Email Body Template, but also includes the %%READMORELINK%% placeholder. This gets replaced by a link to the page on your Website on which the Interface is installed. This allows the lead notification recipient to then view the full lead details in that branded context.
The Lead Frame URL is used to display the lead on your Website. This can be page on which the Interface is installed, or a lead-specific page. The MetaLocator installation code must be present on this page.
Update the Lead Notification Template if necessary. However, be sure to not disclose any lead details in the Lead Notification. The Lead Notification should only be a Call to Action, and possibly some encouragement to act quickly. The default template is recommended in most cases. The Lead Notification Template syntax follows our Twig template system.
How to Test Lead Notifications
We commonly recommend that you briefly create a test location using an obscure location so that you can experience the Lead Notifications first hand. You can unpublish this location to keep it handy for future tests. Go through the process by filling out the Lead Form as a prospective customer would and ensure it meets your expectations from end-to-end.
How to Measure the Effectiveness of Lead Notifications
When enabling Lead Notifications, you will begin to see:
Dealer Response Time
Lost Revenue
Ignored Leads
Top Performing Dealers
Least Performant Dealers
We strongly encourage that you do not begin acting on these figures immediately in order to establish a baseline measurement. Once at least 10 days has past (ideally 20-30 days), then action can be taken to start working to improve these metrics.
How to Improve the Metrics in the Lead Dashboard
Once a baseline measurement is established as described above, the first place to focus is reaching out to dealers with the Most Ignored Leads as shown in the MetaLocator Control Panel under Leads > Lead Dashboard (scroll down)
The dealers listed there are the primary drivers of ignored leads (and lost revenue). Click on the dealer name to display a list of leads that have (and have not) been acknowledged. The causes of unacknowledged leads vary, but at this stage, typically are technical; e.g. an invalid email, spam filter issue, or some deliverability problem.
Keeping abreast of your acknowledgement rate can be done by visiting this dashboard on a regular basis. The red line in the graph shows your 5-day moving average of lead acknowledgement. Keeping it above 90% is a great goal to have.