Analyze This

Picture this: a potential customer browses several pages on your Website, enters her name for a free giveaway and leaves without buying anything. Do you have the capability and resources to follow up with that customer? If you’re using Firstwave’s eCRM solution with its new integrated Web behavior analysis tool you do, along with plenty of options about when and how to conduct that follow-up.

The program works by tracking every user who visits a company’s Website, including the pages they hit, how much time they spent on which pages, their flow through the site and specific products examined. When the customer enters his contact information, the analysis tool captures that information as well. It then creates a set of rules and, based on each customer’s browsing habits, predicts the likelihood of that browser to become a buyer. Hot leads are automatically funneled into the call list on a sales rep’s Firstwave eCRM system for immediate follow-up; someone who is lukewarm would generate an alert, allowing the sales rep to scan the browser’s information and then decide on the best course of action. For instance, if someone spent several minutes looking through toy selections appropriate for children under five, a rep could follow up with an email thanking that person for visiting the site and alerting him or her to special, limited-time offers on certain age-appropriate games. In short, the program enables salespeople to tailor follow-ups to each customer who provides some contact details.

Firstwave acquired the Web behavior analysis software when it acquired UK-based Sticky Web last year. It then integrated the technology with its own eCRM application and this year began re-marketing it as an integrated solution. The first customers to use the total solution went live with it in September.

While it’s too early to quantify results, Jeff Multz, Firstwave’s director of sales and marketing for the Americas, says users are reporting they can get in touch with more potential customers at a faster pace than they previously were able, and that their contact with those customers is much more targeted. In addition, they’re finding that their customers, enamored with the fact that companies are reaching out to them, aren’t as apt to purchase a competitor’s product, says Multz.