iovox Releases Global Research Report Highlighting Covid-19 Impact on Business Call Trends Across Multiple Countries and Sectors
iovox, a global leader in call tracking solutions, recently released a comprehensive study on business call trends in Italy, France, Belgium and the United Kingdom across seven sectors including classifieds, directories, real estate, automotive, financial services, utilities and hospitality.
Titled “Bored Browsers or Motivated Buyers? The Phone Call Tells the Story”, the research highlights potentially misleading false positives when executives evaluate web traffic as the singular indicator of economic activity when in fact, the phone call is often a better signal of buyer intent.
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Phone Calls as Leading Indicators
BrightLocal research indicates 60% of consumers prefer to contact a business by phone after finding them online and Forrester Consulting claims phone-based inquiries convert 30% faster than other forms of lead flow.
“Quite often we see businesses mistakenly rely only on web data as an indicator of when sales might pick up, yet the data clearly shows phone calls, for many types of purchases, are a better predictor of new revenue,” said Ryan Gallagher, co-founder and CEO of iovox. “The report we’ve developed shows important call trends in many of the sectors we serve, and the encouraging news is the recovery is clearly underway.”
Report Coincides with Upcoming Global Online Marketplaces Summit
The report was prepared in connection with iovox’s sponsorship of the virtual edition of the Global Online Marketplaces Summit, to be held on June 17, 2020. The conference will be attended by leading marketplaces around the world including, Axel Springer, Adventia, bein’ici, eBay, Groupe SeLoger, Google, OLX, Mercado Libre, Leboncoin, Idealista, and REA Group among many others.
The full iovox research report can be downloaded here. Highlights include:
- Mixed Call Performance throughout Europe – Of the countries studied, Italy was the hardest hit in call volume impact, dipping to 12% of its pre-lockdown level with Belgium being among the most resilient, even during the peak lockdown phase. As easing has been implemented, all countries are marching towards pre-lockdown levels of call traffic.
- Calls (and sales) Being Missed – Not only did the research highlight a 30% increase in calls going to voicemail during lockdown, but calls that were “ringing out”, meaning no voice mail or no live answer, were up approximately 166%, resulting in lost opportunities.
- Many Sectors Returning to Normal – Of the sectors studied, property, classifieds, auto and finance have rebounded above their lockdown levels with directories and utilities not far behind. With the global impact on travel, it is no surprise that the hospitality sector was the most severely impacted and continues to operate below lockdown levels.
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