CallFire

by Kimberly Kohatsu

Those of us who use Google AdWords love reports, statistics, and metrics. We like knowing who’s clicking our ads, when, where, and even synthesize all that information in order to discern why.

With the introduction of AdWords Phone Extensions (recently renamed Call Extensions), we got to see another metric: how many calls online ads were driving. And for PPC marketers, that’s an irresistable temptation.

Unfortunately, Call Extensions also cause a lot of confusion. And while I don’t claim to be impartial, there’s a few things you should be aware of when configuring your AdWords campaigns:

1) You can use any phone number in your Google AdWords phone extensions. However, these phone extensions only appear on searches from mobile devices with full internet browsers, such as an iPhone or Android. The only way to guarantee your phone number appears in an ad (on mobile, laptop, and desktop devices) is to include it in the ad copy, but including your number in the copy will not make the phone number clickable (like in #2):

2) If an ad displays a call extension on a mobile device, the mobile searcher can click the phone number and immediately call your business. This is known as click-to-call. Standard cost-per-click (CPC) applies. So if you’re paying $1.05 for a click to your landing page, you would also pay $1.05 for a click to your phone number. You can also enable the call-only format, so that there is no landing page option, only a calling option.

3) If you use the Google offering of Call Metrics (at this time, only some US AdWords advertisers have this enabled in their accounts), Google will assign you a Google phone number. Your ads will display the Google phone number, but forward to your business phone number. Google warns that ‘custom phone numbers used with call metrics are a property of Google and may be discontinued or reassigned as needed.‘ But, if you use your own phone number (such as a CallFire phone number), the displayed number and the direct-dial number will be the same.

4) If a person sees the Google phone number but doesn’t use click-to-call, and instead dials the phone number by hand, you will be charged $1 per call. This was a change Google introduced last month.

5) At this time, call metrics through Google offers the following statistics: total calls, received calls, missed calls, average call duration, total call duration, call start and end time, and caller area code. Call metrics through CallFire offers all these statistics, plus a geographic distribution map with real-time view, the ability to tag phone numbers for easier management, and the ability to record and download all incoming calls. You can also configure a CallFire Hosted IVR to make a Google Analytics call every time someone dials your number. In the IVR Designer, click to “Advanced” and you’ll see a tag for “Analytics.” This way your CallFire phone number can interface with the sophistication of Google Analytics, which offers much more information than the current Google Call Metrics offering.

Still confused? I don’t blame you. Leave your questions in the comments. You can also refer to my previous blog post with video, Linking Your Call Tracking Number to Google AdWords.

Update, 7/29/11: Google recently sent this to all AdWords advertisers’ inboxes:

If you currently have a phone number in your ad text or have plans to start adding your phone number in an ad, this is an important notice that in the coming weeks, we will be launching a new enhancement to AdWords ads that will impact charges on clicks to these numbers.

To help our mobile users connect more easily with advertisers, all non-clickable phone numbers displayed in AdWords ad text will be automatically converted into a Click-to-call number. Currently when advertisers enter a phone number directly into their ad text instead of using Call Extensions, the phone number is not clickable and will not generate a call. This can be a frustrating experience for mobile users who attempt to initiate a call to this phone number.

The new Click-to-call enhancement ensures that all phone numbers shown in AdWords ads are clickable and allows users to easily place calls from their mobile device. If your ad text includes a phone number, you will begin to receive clicks and calls on this number once the enhancement is enabled in your account. As with phone calls placed via a Call Extension, you will be charged for clicks on your phone number that result in a call.

Please note that AdWords policy does not allow for phone numbers to be inserted into ad headlines. As with all Click-to-call ads, advertisers will be charged when a user either clicks on the headline or the phone number listed in the ad. Please see below for additional information regarding this change.

Which phone number shows?

If you are currently using both Call Extensions and a phone number in your ad creative, only the newly clickable phone number in your ad creative will show. This is designed to help reduce user confusion from seeing two potentially different numbers. If you would like your Call Extension number to display, simply delete all phone numbers from your existing ad text by following these steps. You’ll also receive an additional line of ad text displaying your phone number if the Call Extension is used.

Measuring results

You’ll be able to review how many calls you receive on the clickable phone number listed in your ad text for each campaign, ad group, keyword and ad on the “Campaigns” tab in your AdWords account. Just select the “Click-type” option under the “Segment” drop down and view your report. Please note that since these are not calls generated from a Call Extension, they will not be reported in the Extensions tab reports.

Recommendations for featuring a phone number

You can simply leave your phone number in your ad text and benefit from this change which will automatically make your phone numbers clickable and enable users to call you. However, to get the most value from click-to-call, we recommend that you remove your phone number from your ad creative and create a Call Extension with your phone number directly. This has several benefits. With a manually created Call Extension your number will appear as an additional line of ad text which frees up space in your ad creative for other promotion. In addition, when you create a Call Extension, your phone number appears on a separate line in the ad, and you’re able to take advantage of other powerful enhancements such as Vanity Numbers, Call-only and Call Metrics reporting.

by Kimberly Kohatsu

Today, CallFire released a new feature which enables you to search for phone numbers not only by area code, but by local rate center, otherwise known as local exchange. For anyone unfamiliar with this industry term, the exchange is basically the first three digits in a phone number after the area code. A rate center is a determined geographic area used by local exchange carriers to set rate boundaries for billing and issuing phone numbers. Typically, a call within a rate center is a local call, while a call from one rate center to another may be considered long distance.

For this reason, CallFire clients have requested the ability to search available phone numbers, not only by area code, but by area code and local exchange. And now they can.

Simply log in to your CallFire admin account, and under “Numbers” choose “Buy Toll-Free or Local.”

You’ll notice a new button that says “Search for numbers local to…” When you hit that button, you’ll see this:

You can then input not only a requested area code, but a local exchange. For example:

It should be noted that you may see results that do not match the digits you inputted. For example, when I inputted 310 area code with 468 exchange, I was served a list of 424 area code phone numbers with the 999 exchange.

This simply means that these phone numbers are, in fact, within the same local rate center as the one you requested. If you want the exact digits, simply hit “Show more numbers” to see if there are any more numbers available that more closely match the numbers you inputted. In this case, there are.

For more information on CallFire phone numbers, please visit this previous post: Exactly how do CallFire phone numbers work?

by Kimberly Kohatsu

We get a lot of questions around how our local and toll-free phone numbers work. Hopefully this post helps to answer them.

Billing

A local phone number costs $1 per month, and a toll-free number costs $2 per month. When you buy a phone number from us, you have that number for a three-month commitment, so your initial cost will be $3 for local and $6 for toll-free. The CallFire system defaults to auto-renew the phone number once your commitment is over; however, should you wish to discontinue the phone number, you can do so by clicking on the phone number in your “My Numbers” (also called “Inbound Numbers”) page, and unchecking the box that says “Auto Renew number.”

Minutes used on your CallFire phone number are billed at 5¢ per minute, rounded up to the nearest minute.

Activation

When you first purchase a phone number, its status will initially read “Activating.” This process can take anywhere from just a few minutes up to 24 hours. While the number is activating, your phone number is not yet ready to accept calls. When the number is active and ready, the status of that number will be blank, and you should receive an email notification telling you the number has been activated.

Forwarding

When you buy a phone number from CallFire, it’s what’s known as a virtual phone number. This means that you’ll need an existing phone number, such as your office phone or your cell phone, for calls to forward to. You will set up call forwarding by clicking on “Configure Number” in your “My Numbers” page. In the box that says “Forward:,” type in your 10-digit existing phone number where you want the calls to go.

Recording Feature and Whisper Feature

If you check on “Record Call,” all incoming calls to your CallFire number will be recorded at no extra cost. You can listen to or download your recordings by visiting your Call Details Page.

If you check “Include Whisper” on your number, this means you can play a short message before the call is connected. This is helpful if you have several CallFire phone numbers that forward to the same place. Let’s say you’re a lawyer, and one of your ads with CallFire phone number 1 is focused on speeding tickets, but another ad with CallFire phone number 2 is focused on DUI cases. You could set a whisper so that you’ll know which ad the person calling is responding to.

To set up a whisper, simply type in a message. Our text-to-speech engine will read this to you before you greet the caller.

Like call recording, the whisper feature is also free of charge.

Tags

You’ll notice that on your “My Numbers” page, it says, “Click to Add Tags.”

Like a whisper, a tag will help you keep your numbers straight. So let’s use the previous lawyer example. If this phone number was on the ad regarding speeding tickets, you’d probably want to tag it with “Speeding Tickets,” like so:

This will make your calling reports much easier to understand.

Start Receiving Calls

When you’re all set up and want to start publishing your new CallFire phone number, don’t forget to configure your number to start receiving calls! To do so, simply check the box to the left of the phone number and click on Start Receiving Calls. Similarly, if you want to stop incoming calls, hit “Stop Receiving Calls.” The status of your phone number will change to either “Running” or “Stopped,” respectively.

Reporting

Once you start receiving calls to your phone number, you’ll be able to access your Call Detail Records. These records include helpful details such as:

• A map pinpointing where your calls are coming from
• The phone numbers of people who called
• Average talk time
• Timestamp of when each call started, and each call’s duration
• How many calls were transferred (or forwarded to your existing phone number)
• Billing Summary
• Each page is also exportable into CSV, PDF, Excel, or XML

Any more questions about Call Tracking or CallFire phone numbers? Feel free to post them in the comments.

Sometimes we at CallFire speak our own language. Hopefully this article acts as a Rosetta stone for all your calling needs.

Admin/Admin Login – An admin (administrator) is the CallFire account holder. The admin login is where you create and manage all your campaigns, whether they be Voice Broadcast, Cloud Call Center, IVR, buying phone numbers, or SMS.

Agent/Agent Login – An agent is solely for Cloud Call Center campaigns. An agent is a person actively making the outbound calls. You’ll use the agent login to begin dialing on a campaign that was already created by the admin user.

Agent Barge – Agent barge is a quality control measure that allows an admin to barge, or listen in on, calls as they’re being made by the agents.

Agent ID – The agent ID is a number assigned by CallFire each time an agent begins dialing through the Cloud Call Center. Once the agent inputs the correct agent ID, the agent pop-up window with the campaign script will appear, and the system will begin dialing.

Analytics Tag – This advanced IVR function sends a page-view that will be factored in to Google Analytics.

Answering Machine Detection (AMD) – The AMD capability will determine whether the call has been answered by a live person, or by a machine. When AMD is enabled, you can program your campaign to treat live answers and answering machines differently, such as hanging up and moving on the next call or leaving a message.

API – Application Programming Interface. This is coder speak for our software code that allows a developer to integrate other software into CallFire, or to build custom software.

API Key – This is a code that grants a developer access to the CallFire API. You can find your unique API key in your account settings.

Autodialer – The autodialer is what makes the Cloud Call Center so powerful. It does the dialing for you, so there’s no dialing by hand.

Autoresponder/Auto-reply – An autoresponder is a text message that is sent automatically in response to an incoming text.

Call Ratio – This is the ratio of numbers dialed at a time to a single agent. For instance, a 1:1 ratio means that each agent’s autodialer is only dialing one number at a time. A 2:1 ratio means that the autodialer is dialing two numbers at a time, and will connect the agent to the first live answer. A higher calling ratio helps get through a list more efficiently; it decreases time between calls and ups the possibility of connecting to live leads.

Call Transfer – A call transfer is the ability for an agent to forward a call to a supervisor or other party. All he/she has to do is input the 10-digit phone number into the agent interface and the call will be routed accordingly.

CPM – Calls per Minute. This is the rate at which Voice Broadcast calls go out. By default, broadcasts are processed at 50 calls per minute, but this can be adjusted in your campaign dashboard.

CRM – Customer Relationship Management. You can integrate your CallFire campaigns with certain CRM providers, such as SalesForce, using our API.

DID Number – Direct Inward Dial Number. DID Number is basically an industry term for a phone number.

DNC - Do Not Call. There are two different DNC lists: the Federal Do Not Call List, against which you should scrub your list prior to uploading your contacts. Then you also have an internal CallFire DNC list, which allows people you call to unsubscribe from future calls.

DTMF – Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency, also known as touch-tone. DTMF assigns a different touchtone to each key on the telephone keypad, so it can distinguish one keypad input from another.

Get Tag – This IVR command calls any URL or http request from your IVR.

Google Talk Tag - This IVR command will automatically initiate an instant message to your Google account.

Goto Tag – This tells your IVR to go to a certain part of your phone tree. For instance, you might have a sound file that reads, “Press 4 to repeat the options.” Upon pressing 4, the Goto tag would repeat the part of your IVR that you had already programmed.

Goto XML Tag – This advanced IVR command calls the specified URL and executes the returned CallFire XML.

Hangup Tag – The hangup tag tells your IVR to hang up and end the call.

Hosted IVR – A hosted IVR is a phone menu that does not require any hardware or special equipment, such as an on-premises PBX (private branch exchange). It’s hosted because it’s housed in the cloud.

If Tag – This advanced IVR command evaluates a javascript expression and reacts accordingly whether the expression is true or false.

Inbound – A call initiated from someone else, coming in to your line.

IVR - Interactive Voice Response. An IVR is essentially a phone menu, or a phone tree. It’s programmed to react to keypad inputs.

Keyword – For an SMS campaign, a keyword is the word that is texted. For instance, when the Red Cross says, “Text JAPAN to 50555,” JAPAN is the keyword, and 50555 is the short code. Keywords will be available on CallFire SMS campaigns beginning summer 2011.

Key Press – This command tells your IVR what to do once a digit on the telephone keypad is pressed.

Live Answer – A person who answers the phone, as opposed to an answering machine.

Long Code – A 10-digit phone number that can send and receive texts.

MachineSkip - This feature detects answering machines, and filters them out of your Cloud Call Center campaigns. When it detects an answering machine, it will automatically leave a pre-recorded message, so your agent doesn’t have to do a thing. The MachineSkip feature is available on the Standard- and Pro-level campaigns.

Max Transfer Rate – The maximum number of transfers your Voice Broadcast campaign will allow at any given time; when the maximum is reached, the broadcasts will pause until your campaign returns below the maximum.

Outbound – A call initiated by you to one of your contacts.

Passcode – The campaign passcode is the password that the admin assigns to access a Cloud Call Center campaign.

Phonebook – A phonebook is a contact phone list maintained in your CallFire account. Watch this video to learn more about working with phonebooks.

Play Tag – This IVR command plays an assigned sound file or performs text-to-speech.

Press-1 Transfer – During a Voice Broadcast, if a press-1 transfer is enabled, the called person can press 1 and be connected to your business. You can also assign a different keypress to transfer your calls, but the capability is generally referred to as “press-1″ anyway.

Press Menu – This IVR command prompts the caller with several options, for instance, “Press 1 for our address, Press 2 to speak to someone in Sales.” You’ll need at least one “Play” menu to present these options.

Power Dialer – The Power Dialer is what makes CallFire’s Voice Broadcasting capability so powerful. It has the ability to dial thousands of numbers, all at once.

Record Tag – This IVR command records the remainder of the call, or will begin recording with a beep and stop by pressing pound (#). When you record a message using CallFire’s Voice Recording Utility, our IVR is using the Record Tag, in conjunction with the advanced Stash and Get tags. You can see a video demonstration of the Record Tag here.

SAN Number - Subscription Account Number. Telemarketers may need to obtain a SAN from the Federal Trade Commission in order to call consumers legally. Click here to find out how to get a SAN.

SetVar Tag – (Set Variable) This advanced IVR command creates a variable which can be used later.

Short Code – A 5- or 6-digit number that can send and receive texts.

SmartDrop – During a Cloud Call Center campaign, the agent can press the SmartDrop button on the interface, and it will leave a pre-recorded message for the answering machine. The agent does not have to wait for the beep or speak into the voicemail; this allows the agent to move on to the next call.

SMS - Short Message Service. An SMS is a text message.

Stash Tag – This advanced IVR tag stores the varname (variable name) and value in the call details report in your CallFire account. See a video demonstration of the Stash tag here and here.

Subset Campaign - A subset campaign duplicates all the settings of an original campaign, but applies it to just part of a phonebook. For instance, you might want to run a subset campaign to call back the portion of your contact list who did not receive your original message. This video will show you how to set up a subset campaign.

Tag - A tag can refer to an IVR command, such as a play tag or a record tag, but when used by itself, it generally means what’s found on the “My Numbers” page. Tags can be useful to help you keep your phone numbers straight. For instance, if you put one phone number on a magazine ad, and a different phone number on your website, you may want to tag each respective number “magazine” and “website.”

Text-to-Speech (TTS) - The text-to-speech engine allows you to program voice prompts on the fly. For instance, if you wanted your IVR to read an individual’s account number, you would use CallFire’s text-to-speech capability.

Transfer Tag – This IVR command connects the active call to a specified phone number. For instance, a political campaign might use a transfer tag to connect the call to a voter’s congressional office.

Voice Broadcast- Voice Broadcast is a type of CallFire campaign that allows you to send a pre-recorded phone message to your contacts. Learn more about Voice Broadcast here.

VoIP - Voice Over Internet Protocol. VoIP is a kind of technology that allows calls to be connected over the internet. However, CallFire VoIP should not be confused with residential VoIP such as Skype or Vonage; we offer an enterprise-level, redundant, fiber-based platform for better reliability and call quality.

Whisper – A whisper is a short message that will be played before an incoming call is connected. This can help you better serve your incoming calls. For instance, if you have one phone number assigned for real estate properties for sale, and one phone number assigned for people who want to sell their real estate, you can set a whisper that will tell you “This call is regarding properties for sale,” before you greet the caller. You can enable the Whisper feature on your “My Numbers” page in your CallFire account.

White Label Program – CallFire’s White Label Program allows approved vendors to re-sell CallFire products using their own branding. An improved version of the White Label Program will be unveiled in late 2011.

by Kimberly Kohatsu

A number of customers have asked how they can use their CallFire phone numbers together with their Google AdWords campaigns. In the video below, I explain two ways to incorporate your call tracking phone numbers. The first is Phone Extensions, which you can read more about here. The second is simply adding the phone number to the Google ad text. Keep in mind if you choose to use a Phone Extension and you enable the “call-only” format, clicking on your ad will not bring the user to your mobile landing page; it will only give them the option to call your business.

If you add the phone number to your ad text, you probably also want to include a phone number on your landing page. This way, if someone clicks on your ad and then wants to call your business, they can.

Questions? Fire away in the comments section.

by Jeff Spisak

Call forwarding: you love it. So much so you’ve bought a forwarding number from CallFire: 555.123.4567. Now you want to use it, so you have it set up to forward to your business number, let’s say that is 444.123.4567. Everyone knows that you can add identifying tags to this on the My Numbers page, but what about the campaign dashboard? When you navigate to that page, all you see are the two numbers sans tags, as in our example below.  Can’t we make that more readable?

Yes, we can! It’s sort of round about, but it does work. Simply click the red stop button to halt the campaign for a minute.

Once the campaign stops and moves to the lower section of your dashboard, the pencil icon magically appears. Click it.

Enter the new campaign name (we’re using Denver) and click Set.

Click the green start arrow to restart your campaign.

And voilà!

Now instead of having to review campaign 555.123.4567 => 444.123.4567, it instead displays as campaign Denver. And that’s all she wrote!

by Kimberly Kohatsu

Not everyone realizes that there is a recently unveiled toll-free area code, 855, available.

An 855 phone number works exactly like any 800 number (800, 877, 866, 888). The benefit, however, is because these numbers are brand new, you can be assured no other business has ever owned or used this number in the past. Your business won’t get any calls intended for a previous owner, which can sometimes happen when numbers get recycled.

Ready to try one? CallFire makes it easy. Toll-free numbers cost only $2/month. The initial charge of $6 will cover your first three months with that number, and after that, we bill your number on a month-to-month basis. So, if your marketing campaign ends and you no longer need that 855 number, you don’t have to keep paying for it. But, if you want to hold on to it, you certainly can, and it continues to be only $2 per month.

When people call in to your 855 number, you can send them through one of your CallFire IVR menus, or you can simply forward them to a number you already use. Calls are billed at 5 cents per minute, rounded up to the nearest minute.

1) To get started, sign up for a CallFire account. It’s free to sign up, and there are no minimums, no set-up fees, and no hidden charges.

2) Then, once you’re logged in, navigate to the Numbers tab up top, and select “Buy Toll-Free or Local.”

3) You’ll then see a list of available 855 numbers. Choose any of them, or if you need more, choose a whole bunch. Then hit the green button. If you’d rather have a local number, write the area code you’re interested in in the ( ) box and click “Find Area Code.” The process is the same.

4) Your new number will be ready right away, but a common mistake made is forgetting to enable your number. To do that, go to the “My Numbers” page and click Enable. You should see your campaign’s status will turn to “Running.”

Want DIDs in the Las Vegas area? CallFire’s pleased to announce new DIDs available in the Las Vegas, NV area. In addition to party-town Nevada, we have additional numbers available in the Northern California and Utah areas. Just login into your CallFire account, from the campaigns menu choose “create Inbound campaign” and follow the prompts to see the list of available DIDs.

CallFire announces a new Do-It-Yourself Lead Generation webinar for businesses interested in generating leads by using Power Dialing, Opt-in Voice Broadcast & intelligent Call Tracking to drive new business in the United States and Canada.

The DIY Lead Gen webinar series first aims to educate business owners and at-home sales agents on how to save money by using Cloud Call Centers and Cloud Telephony tools to quickly connect themselves to other businesses.  The second half of the seminar covers how to use opt-in Voice Broadcast notification and Call Tracking to communicate important messages to existing clients and track marketing efficacy of your campaigns.

Session 1:  How to use Cloud Call Centers and Power Dialing

* Preparing an Excel list of my business telephone phone numbers.
* Optimizing ROI by developing a thoughtful callback strategy.
* Monitoring other sales agents that work from home.

Session 2: How to use Voice Broadcast & Call Tracking for notification & lead gen.

* Preparing an Excel list of my customer phone numbers.
* Developing an effective recorded message for my voice broadcast campaign.
* Creating Call Tracking campaigns to track marketing efficacy & continued notification.

To attend CLICK HERE at 11AM PST 9/22/2009

Sign up for the CallFire Spark newsletter and learn about Cloud Telephony here.

The CallFire team will be manning booth # 319 at IT Expo West next Tuesday Sept 1 – Thursday Sept 3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Come by, talk to us, learn about our products, and get to know the team.  We will also have give-aways, so come by and see what we have!