Anticipates Reduction in Direct Marketing Costs

WHO
A department-style discount chain with over 250 stores in 30 states and annual sales over $1 billion. Primarily selling women’s, men’s and children’s brand-name clothing from casual to formal wear, an in-store boutique area,  as well as shoes, jewelry, and some home goods.

THE SITUATION
The store uses frequent mailings, newspaper and glossy magazine ads, as well as email notifications to alert loyal shoppers to new lines, discounts, and private sales.  They used phone broadcasts prior to September 1, 2009 to inform shoppers of promotions as well.   Once the new FTC regulations on automated calls went into effect, they were looking for a way to send calls in compliance with the law, and build their permission database at the same time.

THE CAMPAIGN
The retailer ran several coordinated promotions to gain phone opt-in permission over the course of a few months.  Emails were sent offering a one-click phone opt-in and the website offered shoppers several ways to receive sale notifications, including voice.  Finally they ran a contest offering a $10,000 shopping spree to people who went online and registered to win.  The registration form offered the option to receive occasional notifications of seasonal sales and promotions, and registrants could choose either email or phone options – giving the retailer the written/electronic opt-in permission they needed.

THE RESULTS
78,000 loyal shoppers chose to receive phone notifications and willingly offered either home or cell numbers to be alerted about seasonal sales and promotions.   The retailer has resumed their phone campaigns, which historically resulted in less than ½ % opt-out rate per call.  They will add in-store signage promoting phone notifications thru a text opt-in option.

Frequent Communication Drives Improved Collections for Lender

WHO
MM Finance, also known as Midwest Check Cashing or www.getezmoney.com is a growing payday lending institution with 44 locations in 6 states and over 150 employees. They offer payday advances, short-term loans, and other financial services.

THE SITUATION
Midwest Check Cashing had a large volume of calls they needed to complete on a daily basis that were being made manually.  Each day, agents would call past-due clients to remind them of their account status, and then log that information into a database.  The challenge was time-consuming and the list of calls was at risk of growing out of control.  Past-due borrowers could only be reached manually once, or at most, twice a week, and the data input seemed to always lag behind.  Management had no way to verify that all the calls were being made.   Midwest CC sought a solution to improve productivity, collections, and reporting.

THE CAMPAIGN
Vontoo worked with Midwest Check Cashing to integrate the export of the daily call lists to Vontoo’s web-based call broadcasting system.  Thousands of calls are then sent every day from the Vontoo system with one of two messages from Midwest.   Reporting is then transmitted back to Midwest on every call and they can track calls delivered live, messages left on an answering machine, and undeliverable messages.

THE RESULTS
Where a past-due borrower might have heard from Midwest Check Cashing on a weekly basis in the past, the overdue account is now notified on a daily basis.  Midwest witnessed a marked improvement almost immediately and state that their collections numbers are better than last year.  With tracking results on every call, reporting is easy, extensive, and problem accounts are identified more quickly.

“People sometimes don’t address their account until they are contacted.  With our old system, they would not be notified as often and our past-due clients would forget about us.  We hear ‘I wasn’t going to call you until you called.’  Because we are able to contact them more frequently, they tend to deal with us ahead of their other debtors.  This is going to be a game-changer for us.”

Greg Wittmeier, General Manager
MM Finance/www.getezmoney.com

Client: The Great Frame Up
Industry: Retail
Goal: Credit Use and Sales

Turning New Clients’ into Repeat Customers
Jerry Leath: The Great Frame Up

If you’ve already won a client’s trust, it ought to be relatively easy to sell him or her more stuff. Alas, in practice, the repeat sell can be tricky.

• How do you re-approach a client who already has written one big check?
• When is the best time to do so?

While timely e-mails might work, a simple phone call is often more effective. Not that you can call all your customers, but now, for the first time, smaller businesses can afford to send automated phone messages to targeted clients. With these products (which cost about 10 cents a call), a salesperson or business owner calls a toll-free number and records a brief message with a sales pitch. The message is uploaded to the Internet and broadcast using a voice over Internet protocol system to anywhere from a dozen to thousand?

Jerry Leath, owner of a Great Frame Up franchise in Douglasville, Georgia, had dozens of customers with unused store credits, credits they appeared to have forgotten about. Leath used Vontoo to turn those credits into a sales opportunity. He logged on to vontoo.com and recorded a single voice message reminding customers about their store credits. Vontoo simultaneously sent Leath’s message to 90 customers he had pulled from his store database.

As a result of the reminder, a dozen customers came in with framing work, plunking down between $2,000 and $3,000 collectively. Although they all had coupons, most of them upgraded to higher-quality frames or molding, allowing Leath to maintain his margins. Total cost out of pocket to Leath was $9, or 10 cents a call, the flat rate that Vontoo charges for all calls under a minute. Says Leath: “If I had sent out a mailing, maybe two or three people would have come in!”

Client: hhgregg
Industry: Retail
Goal: Increase revenue and event participation

hhgregg turns Black Friday green with Vontoo campaign
Successful voice marketing campaign leads to profitable sales for appliance and electronics retailer

ABOUT hhgregg
Founded in 1955, with 109 stores in nine states across the Midwest and Southern states, hhgregg is one of the country’s leading appliance and electronics retailers.

THE SITUATION
As the economic downturn started causing dozens of national retailers to close their doors late summer of 2008, Gregg Throgmartin, Senior Vice President of Store Operations, began looking for ways to significantly improve the company’s marketing efforts in a cost-efficient manner.

GETTING STARTED
Initially, he created an opt-in feature on hhgregg’s website which allowed interested customers to sign up to receive voice message alerts for promotional offerings and discounts.

With no additional promotion besides placing this new “option” on the company’s website, people began instantly requesting to receive the hhgregg calls. Throgmartin was pleasantly surprised at how many people actually preferred to receive a voice message to alternative methods of communication.

Two days prior to Black Friday, Throgmartin sent a call to over 1200 of the requesting customers, featuring a personal invitation by him to take advantage of the special “doorbuster” items that would be on sale.

THE RESULTS
The result was total revenue generated of $63,690 directly correlated to the phone calls! After spending less on Vontoo than any other marketing initiative, the company recognized a ROI of a 72,300%!

“I had never implemented a calling campaign prior to this. But the Vontoo system was entirely intuitive and easy to use. And the reporting and tracking metrics Vontoo provides are a PHENOMENAL way to keep track of results. Of all the marketing vehicles we use at hhgregg, none provide more quantitative data than Vontoo.”
-Gregg Throgmartin, hhgregg
Senior Vice President of Store Operations

Client: Countryside Rentals
Industry: Rent-to-own
Goal: Increase revenue and store traffic

Countryside Rentals relies on voice technology to increase sales
Rent-to-own business leverages voice to connect with customers and remind them of promotions

ABOUT Countryside Rentals
Founded in 1985 and with twenty-three stores throughout southern Ohio and northern Kentucky, Countryside Rentals is a rent-to-own business specializing in furniture, appliances, computers, electronics and household goods.

THE SITUATION
Countryside was looking for a means of communicating reminders and alerts of special in-store promotions and sales events. Prior to discovering voice marketing, the company made customer calls manually, an extremely time-consuming process.

Michael Tissot, President of Countryside discovered Indianapolis-based Vontoo voice marketing and decided to give it a try to improve communications for reminders of special promotions.

THE CAMPAIGN
In March of 2009, Countryside implemented their first voice marketing campaign, promoting an extension of their “90 days same as cash’ to 120 days. The company sent out 40,000 calls, both to active and inactive customers and set a record sales increase from Feb to March!

Additionally, in April, the business mailed out reminder cards to customers about the upcoming Customer Appreciation Weekend. The company was then able to send out 14,000 Vontoo calls right before the event to act as an instant reminder of the special two-day event. Calling so many people manually would have cost the company countless hours and dollars. A Vontoo campaign costs cents per call.

Each Countryside store has the ability to use Vontoo whenever it needs a boost in store traffic – and they’re seeing the effects of these calls in their stores with increased sales.

THE RESULTS
Now, Countryside is able to send thousands of calls simultaneously, alerting its valued and loyal customers to upcoming promotions and reminding them of special events. Countryside especially benefits from the tracking metrics offered by voice marketing. Since the service automatically tracks which recipients have opted-out from receiving future messages, the business can be sure to send future calls only to those recipients who want them, which helps enhance customer relations.

Client: Buddy’s Home Furnishings
Industry: Rent-To-Own
Goal: Reduce accounts receivables

Buddy’s Home Furnishings uses Voice to Contact 70,000 Customers and Collect Unpaid Accounts Receivables

Like any successful retail business, customer service is a top priority for Buddy’s Home Furnishings, the largest independent rent to own company in the United States. Buddy’s Home Furnishings is a fast growing home furniture retailer with over 65 stores located throughout Florida, Arkansas and Kansas.

Salvatore Moccia, director of training and new development at Buddy’s, was in search of a new way to reach out to their tens of thousands of current customers regarding payment collection. Spending hours every week personally calling customers and mailing out past due letters was becoming an inefficient and time consuming means of collecting unpaid accounts receivable.

Moccia discovered Indianapolis-based Vontoo and immediately identified voice messaging as a communication tool from which the Buddy’s stores could benefit. As the world’s first on-demand, permission-based voice messaging provider, Vontoo allows users to quickly and easily send personalized voice messages to any landline or mobile phone in the United States or Canada.

Vontoo immediately impressed Moccia with its flexibility and willingness to work with Buddy’s specific needs. “Vontoo genuinely wanted to help and not just sell me the product,” said Moccia.

On the first day with Vontoo’s voice messaging system, Buddy’s sent collection calls for 20 of their 65 stores, with astounding results. Phones rang non-stop for an entire day, requiring Moccia to distribute responses to the local stores to handle the volume. Each week, Buddy’s experiences a 60% reduction in collections customers, in large part due to the voice messaging campaign.

While it’s premature for Moccia to calculate the exact amount of money Vontoo’s voice messaging system has helped Buddy’s save and collect, he notices voice messaging enables Buddy’s to save money on payroll. Before turning to Vontoo, each of the staff members responsible for collection calls was spending 24 hours a month calling customers directly.

“Instead of having two or three members of my staff spending six or more hours each week personally making calls to customers, I can send out the recordings electronically within minutes,” said Moccia. “This allows our staff to spend their time focusing on the customers who are typically harder to reach and require more attention and assistance.”

In addition to the time- and money-saving advantages, Vontoo’s tracking capabilities make it simple for companies to monitor the reach of each call.

“I am a huge fan of Vontoo’s tracking mechanisms,” said Moccia. “I love being able to see immediate results on my computer screen. The tracking capabilities allow me to see how many people are reached live, how many voicemails pick up and how long people listen to my calls.”

“Vontoo is incredibly easy to use and it all falls back on their great customer service,” says Moccia.