The ABCs of Lead Tracking for Better Customer Relationships

by Richard Rutigliano, PriMedia, Inc.

Congratulations! You’ve gotten a new business lead. Maybe it is from the new owner of one of your long-term homes responding to your “welcome to the neighborhood” postcard. Maybe it is someone who found you via a Google search, an ad on Instagram, or an email marketing campaign.

Now what?

When that lead came in, was it immediately routed to the appropriate company rep, with specifics on the nature of the inquiry and best times and ways to reach the prospect? And was the lead entered into a central CRM (customer relationship management) database enabling you to track its progress? If yes, great, but if not, you’re probably losing a lot of potential revenue. Whether it’s a loyal 10-year customer ready to upgrade his/her 26-year-old boiler or someone new who has found you online wanting a fuel delivery, the nature and timing of your response are absolutely essential for short- and long-term success.

Let’s look at some numbers. As reported in the Gray, Gray & Gray 2024 Industry Survey Report (see page 24 in this issue), most energy companies keep customers for longer than five years. A customer who averages 800 gallons of fuel a year and purchases a service agreement each year is going to bring in more than $16,000 over those five years, if not more. Furthermore, as it costs 5 to 7 times more to acquire a new customer than to keep one, and current customers are more likely to purchase or use your company for other services, that $16,000 value expands as they utilize your HVAC, plumbing, or other services.

Clearly, it is worth investing in a system that will make it easier to not only capture new customers but also manage sales opportunities with current customers.

Lead Management IS Customer Relationship Management

The idea that lead management is customer relationship management makes perfect sense. If your mindset is such that each prospect is viewed as your newest potential customer, while at the same time recognizing that your existing customer base is potentially your most prolific source of new business opportunities (e.g. equipment sales and referrals), managing them in the same way and in one centralized system is key, a system where your sales team has all relevant information and customer data at their fingertips in the office and out in the field.

When deciding on what lead management system to utilize, work with your sales and IT teams to develop a wish list. Here are some features you will want to consider for your lead tracking software, from A to Z:

Accessibility: Your lead tracking system should work on any device that has a web browser, full stop. Your sales team needs to be able to access it on the road, from their smartphones, laptops, or tablets, and your office team needs to get in easily on their desktops. Look for a web-based system that does not require you to install custom software or use dedicated devices.

API: The system should have an API so that it can work alongside other lead management and customer relationship management systems. You may be adding this system on top of existing software: both programs need to play nice and share data.

Back-end Compatibility: If you already have a third-party Customer Relationship Management system, will the new lead tracking software be able to pull through existing customer information? Access to your enterprise software will connect your sales professionals, marketers, and business development representatives with information from your customer base without moving through multiple interfaces. This will speed up entering new leads for old customers and make it easier for reps sitting with clients to review their account and service history.

Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): CI/CD has become a popular term in technical fields for integrating and deploying safely. While many CI/CD methodologies use automation tools, other developers (PriMedia, for example), can scale the software to meet whatever a business needs. As more liquid fuel retailers expand into or acquire industry-adjacent businesses, such as HVAC, solar, home security, plumbing, and pest control, your lead tracking software should be able to evolve accordingly.

Dashboard: What information is displayed when a user opens up the platform? How clear are their next steps, and how easy is it for them to find and open current leads? You should be looking for a system that presents the most relevant information when the user logs in: urgent leads that must have action today, updates, date reminders, last 7-days of activity, new leads.

Ease of Use: Using the system should be intuitive. If you struggle to complete the most basic of tasks, such as entering data or pulling reports, you will never be able to utilize the software to its full extent.

Fields: Do the fields offered in the lead tracking system match your company’s business model? If you are looking at a generic, out-of-the-box tracking system, you might find that you need to twist your operations to fit their programs. A system developed for home heating providers will already have the fields you need, and should offer the customization you need.

Google Workspace: If your company uses Google Workspace, Office 365, Microsoft Bookings, or other email and scheduling platforms, your new lead tracking system should be able to integrate with them and sync data and scheduling.

Help: Before you commit to any system, confirm their level of technical support. Can you call during business hours and get a response almost immediately, or do email and online request tickets disappear into a black hole?

Input: The lead input screen should be clean and easy to navigate. Whether a customer service rep is entering data during a phone call or the sales person is updating the lead after meeting with the customer, each field needs to be clearly marked with drop-down options where needed.

Integrated: Does the lead tracking system integrate with your enterprise software and other lead systems? You need to be able to retrieve current customer information for upgrades or other service projects.

Lead Forms: If your lead tracking system doesn’t automatically upload, process, and assign the leads that come in from web forms, it is defeating the process.

Jargon-less: You should not need a degree in computer programming to understand the support documents and training for your lead tracking software. Similarly, both the customer-facing and internal fields should be labeled in simple, everyday language.

Kinetic: The lead tracking system must be able to move with you – your growth, your technology, and your needs.

Limitless: Paying a separate license for each user quickly becomes cost prohibitive. Look for a system that is priced
according to the complexity of your customization, not the number of users.

Messaging: Admin should be able to determine who has received reports, alerts, and reminders on a granular level, with the messages being sent directly though the lead system and/or via email.

New=First: New leads should be the first thing a user sees when they open their dashboard.

Options: Before purchasing or licensing any lead tracking software, ensure that it offers customization options and that the developers have experience with the needs of liquid fuel retailers. A generic, off-the-shelf system may not include all the features your company needs.

Project Manager: Your lead system should integrate with your project manager, or offer a project manager module enhancement. With this, when a lead is successfully closed, it can be automatically added to the project manager, with all data stored in a centralized location.

Questions and Answers: You will want a system that comes with a robust support system: phone numbers and email addresses that are managed by humans and that provide more timely, helpful responses.

Real-time Results: If your system is not providing real time results, such as new lead alerts, updates on any lead assigned to the user, or team developments and comments, the lead can languish, leaving the customer disappointed. Your representatives need to be able to quickly review all updates and take necessary actions to keep the leads moving effectively.

REST Architecture: REpresentational State Transfer (REST) provides a simple and secure architecture for communication between different systems, ensuring that they can understand and communicate with each other effectively by following a unified structure. This allows the system to handle different types of data, such as email information, contact forms, and customer information, in a standardized manner, so that the software can seamlessly integrate with desktop and mobile applications.

Search: Your integrated lead tracking system should have an encompassing search feature. As leads are entered, it should search for existing customer data to speed up the input process as well as search for duplicate leads. Admins, managers, and sales representatives should be able to search the database as needed for leads by any datapoint: name, address, city, equipment, date and date range, price or price range, and much more.

Tracking: That’s what it is all about, tracking every step of the lead, making sure the customer is contacted in a timely manner, and following through until the lead becomes a project.

Urgency: The sense of urgency should be enhanced with the lead tracking, with visual reminders of the calls, appointments, and next steps from the dashboard.

Value: When you consider how much a single customer is worth, the value of an integrated lead tracking system is clear.

Web-based: With a web-based tracking system, the platform is available anywhere from any internet-enabled device.

eXpandable: Look for a lead tracking system that can be expanded with compatible software to complete your customer relationship management suite: account management; project management; online customer enrollment; price protection, service plan and budget enrollments, enhanced payment gateways, and more.

Your leads, your way: Generic, off the shelf systems are just that – generic. Your lead tracking program must adapt to your needs regarding field names, time limits, services, alerts, reporting, and user permissions.

Zenith: Where your sales will reach with the right lead tracking system!

Richard Rutigliano is President of PriMedia, Inc., an integrated marketing and communications firm specializing in the home energy sector. He can be reached at 516-222-2041 or rrutigliano@primediany.com.

Related Posts