The top tips for franchisees to increase their "speed to lead" in 2023

The average business takes 47 hours to respond to a lead - even though research from Harvard Business Review reveals that five minutes is the optimum time. And with 50% of consumers ultimately working with the company that responds first, the time you take to qualify a new inbound lead could be the difference between new revenue and a lost sale. Tim Morris - a distinguished franchise professional and customer service expert and now MD of inbound comms specialist, Cymphony - gives his three top tips for franchisees to increase their lead conversions. 

When running your franchise business, you can be forgiven for struggling to find time to make calls and email prospects straight away. However, your lead follow-up time, or as I like to call it, ‘speed to lead’, greatly increases your chances of converting a prospect into a new customer. Speed to lead is not a complicated concept. It is all about how much time passes between an enquiry – a potential customer – coming into your business, be it by phone, email, contact form or social media, and the moment you or your team responds. You could be reading this and feel confident that your speed-to-lead time is where it needs to be. However, you could also be one of the many franchisees reading this knowing it is an area that lacks consistency and control. 

1. Respond to (all) your inbound enquiries! 

Inbound enquiries are the lifeblood of most businesses, so answering them in less than five minutes is essential. However, this does not always happen, for many reasons, from holidays and sickness to operational constraints. Some companies do not have dedicated sales staff, and enquiries are handled by whoever happens to be there at that time – regardless of their training or expertise. Many franchises, especially one-person-operators, simply do not have the time to dedicate to lead handling because they are busy ‘doing the job’. 

For franchise businesses that cannot afford a dedicated team to answer calls and messages, one way to overcome these issues is by implementing organisational changes and the right tech to significantly reduce the instances of missed opportunities. A voicemail assistant can improve your customer service by helping you stay on top of your voice messages and the many time-consuming tasks associated with running your business. The downside is some people will not bother leaving a voicemail. You could also try call forwarding. This will automatically send a phone call from an unanswered, idle desk phone to your mobile. 

2. Offer a 24/7 omnichannel customer service 

The term “omnichannel” may be relatively new, but the concept behind it is not. Essentially, it is all about delivering an immediate and seamless customer service experience on the channel of your customer’s choice. By offering an omnichannel experience, franchisees can respond to prospects instantly and create a positive impression on potential customers. As well as this, because you are providing a seamless and consistent customer experience across all channels, you can build trust and loyalty with your customers, which will increase the likelihood of them choosing your franchise over competitors and result in higher lead conversion rates.

To provide a great 24/7 omnichannel service, I suggest implementing chat functions with inbound communication assistants to help you provide around-the-clock support to customers. You could, of course, use AI and chatbots for this. However, these are impersonal and often leave customers frustrated. If you decide against outsourcing, offer a range of self-service options, such as a knowledge base or FAQ section on your website. This way, customers can simply find answers to their questions on their own, which will reduce the volume of enquiries your chat handler receives and enable them to focus on more complex requests.

Remember, though, because there are numerous channels available for prospects to reach you on, and with lead conversion relying heavily on your team responding within five minutes, a late answer on a social media platform, email or text can be as bad as no answer at all. So, once a lead comes into your system and your team is notified, you should have procedures in place to follow up on the same channel – and fast.

3. Use live chat to be proactive and reach a prospect at source

Not only is live chat by far the most popular way for someone to contact your business, it is also a great tool to increase your lead follow up. Installing live chat technology onto your website is a great way to convert people into enquiries and prompt them into becoming warm leads. Previously, businesses had to wait for clients to phone or fill in online forms. Nowadays, your team can proactively reach out to customers that visit your website. Having a trained, proactive live chat operator to message your website visitors can massively boost engagement with your business. In fact, 76% of people interact with live chat once it has engaged with an automatic greeting.

Using live chat also enables you to take preliminary information about the customer ahead of time, ask specific questions to better prepare for appointments, reassure them if needed, and book introductory meetings. This means your client is happy because they received a quick answer and will be far more likely to use your services. 

Have you considered outsourcing? 

If you and your team are struggling to reach out to leads within five minutes of them submitting an enquiry or you simply do not have the staff to operate an around-the-clock service, I recommend using an inbound communication service. This will enable you to have your website and email leads handled instantly and ensure you make that valuable first and quick connection with a potential customer. Because this service is 24/7, it ensures that you are responding to leads around the clock, putting your business on the front foot when it comes to speed to lead and greatly increasing your chance of converting prospects into customers. Responding to a lead within five minutes results in contact potential being 10 times higher than if the lead was waiting 10 minutes.

To find out more, please visit: https://cymphony.co.uk/

About the author

Tim Morris is a distinguished franchise professional with decades of experience across sales, customer care, operations and compliance. From leading the expansion of an international franchise brand to heading up the support functions of both national and international franchisors, Tim has been instrumental in the growth of hundreds of franchisees. His proven success record comes with a passion for 360 business development, and his unique perspective empowers franchisors and franchisees alike to get the very best from their partnership.