THE BENEFITS OF DEALER LOCATOR MARKETING APPLICATIONS

THE BENEFITS OF DEALER LOCATOR MARKETING APPLICATIONS
provided by 800 Adept, Inc.^®

800 Adept^®, Inc. is a leader in the enhanced toll-free services industry. Our principal business is developing and managing toll-free based dealer and product locator systems for a wide range of customers and applications.

Our patented SmartGEO^® call routing geocodes over 140 million residential and business telephone numbers with latitude and longitude coordinates and compares them against our customer’s coordinates to determine the nearest location.

Our services include:

Application call flow design
SmartGEO^®
Call routing
Application reporting
Location database management
Area code / NPA–NXX change management
Custom services (such as geographic call origination mapping)

Why Use a Toll-Free Dealer Locator?
A toll-free locator is 1-800(or 8XX) based service that can be used to connect callers to their nearest or predetermined location. The dealer locator can be a simple dial and connect service, or it can be configured with custom greetings, marketing announcements, multi-level menus for special call routing, time of day/day of week routing, voice mail, and automatic fax back.

Cleaner advertisement appearance:
Multiple addresses and phone numbers clutter ad space. This allows for focusing on the region served, not on the physical address of each site.

Eliminates Yellow Page cutoff headaches:
Publish the number once, and additional sites can be added at anytime creating immediate calls for new sites and an ongoing return on investment from past advertising expense.

Monthly call reports:
These reports show site answering performance detailing answered calls vs. unanswered by reason: busy, ring no answer, after hours or caller hang up. Times of day/day of week call reports are very useful to determine staffing levels.

Radio and TV

For multi-site companies that advertise on TV and Radio, using a store locator number in these spots is an efficient and effective means of communicating contact and location information without using up valuable airtime. A toll-free locator number eliminates the need to "localize" national spots with local information trailers – the practice of adding local information at the end of a national spot. This allows a single spot to be used nationally which lowers production costs, builds repetition and allows more of the spot to be used for attention grabbing features and benefits. Use of a toll-free vanity number in Radio and TV advertising in conjunction with the locator service is doubly important. It is virtually impossible to remember local phone numbers in radio and TV advertisements. Vanity numbers create attention and provide the audience with an easy way to recall your number when needed. Phone number recall is important if your message is awareness building and not a call to action for direct marketing purposes, where the impetus is a 30-minute window after the spot airs.

Direct Mail & Print Advertising

Store locators can be used in national, regional or local direct mail campaigns to help communicate store location and drive initial customer contact. Print ads in newspapers, magazines, flyers and coupons can also benefit from use of toll-free locator systems. The locator systems saves real estate on the mail piece or print ad that can be better used for attention grabbing benefit/promotional information and/or reduce the size of the piece or advertisement further minimizing costs. Using the same contact information on all direct mail pieces keeps the batch rate high and lowers the per piece cost. Likewise, using the same contact information in print ads keeps customization to a minimum thus lowering costs and expediting production. In addition, toll-free vanity number use in print materials can increase the response rate and response duration because of its memorable nature.

Yellow Page Applications

If Yellow Page advertising is an important source of new business, then it is imperative to have new locations listed as quickly as possible, but unfortunately books are only published once a year. Publishing the store locator number in Yellow Page ads will immediately drive calls to new locations as soon as they are open for business. While printed on cheap news print paper, Yellow Page advertising is not cheap. Use of the locator number in yellow page ads could help reduce space requirements, provide a cleaner ad appearance, or unique marketing edge, all of which are highly desired in directory marketing.

Note: 800 Adept has a strategic alliance with TMP Worldwide, the nation’s largest national yellow page directory placement agency to provide our multi-site clients with access to quality yellow page management.

Web Page

Most multi-site companies have web based locator systems on their web sites. However, according to the FCC, over 94% of US households have telephones while less than 50% of homes have internet access and less than 50% of the US workforce has internet access at work. Providing a dual contact option – web/telephone- is a valid concept to provide target customers with the information they need to reach you under any contact environment. Many companies are now converting their vanity locator numbers into URL address to reach their web site. This concept takes advantage of the "brand equity" that develops in vanity numbers and leverages it to drive visitors to web sites. In addition, it unifies the contact message where the toll-free number supports the URL and vise versa.

Specialty-Advertising

Mugs, pens, note pads, refrigerator magnets, etc, distributed for commercial or retail marketing efforts can be emblazoned with a central toll-free locator number. Using the number on such items helps build top-of-mind awareness and makes efficient use of the limited space available. Using a single number on all materials will also help lower the cost of these items by enabling large batch runs.

Sinage

Dealer locator numbers can be incorporated into exterior store signs, exterior promotional signs such as billboards, yard signs, vehicle markings, banner signs, and interior promotional signs. Use of locator numbers on signage is an effective and efficient means of communicating contact and location information while minimizing space requirements. In addition, use of a common number allows larger production runs minimizing per sign costs.

Referral Marketing and Word-of-Mouth Marketing

For many businesses, referral marketing is an important source of new business. Referral marketing is based on developing relationships with others business or marketers who have an existing relationship with potential clients, i.e. using a realtor to refer clients to a home inspection business. A close cousin to referral marketing is word of mouth marketing, which tends to be driven by satisfied customers sharing company names with their friends, family, coworkers and acquaintances. The key to both referral and word-of mouth marketing is to have the referred communicate both company name and contact information. A toll-free vanity locator number can make this a much easier process by linking the company name and contact information together. "Need a widget Bob? Call Widgets, Inc. at 1-877 4 Widget, they have great widgets!" Using a locator number for referral marketing delivers the contact information when the recipient is at their peak level of interest leading to incremental sales and revenue.

Message On Hold

A store locator number can be used as a promotional segment on message on-hold scripts playing at the corporate and local offices or as a common contact theme across all segments. Some companies create catchy lyrics or musical pieces around their toll-free numbers to fit the company image.

Use of locator numbers on MOH helps increase repetition and reinforces other marketing messages where the locator number may be used.

Note: 800 Adept, Inc. has a strategic alliance with Telephonetics to provide our multi-site clients with access to a high quality, national message on-hold provider.

Customer Service & Product Support

If customer service or product support is offered through decentralized network of providers, i.e. appliance maintenance, a toll-free locator number can be printed in product literature or affixed to the product for customer access when needed. If there is a preferred provider of such service, use of central locator number can help build awareness and use of the preferred provider by making access to the preferred provider the path of least resistance.

National Accounts

Providing national accounts with a central toll-free locator number can provide such accounts with an easy means of communicating local sales offices where the products or services sold under the program can be obtained or local representation can be reached. For example, ABC Sign Company has account with a national realty agency for "For Sale" signs. ABC Company could provide the client with a central store locator number to distribute and promote to all offices to help build and encourage compliance with the program.

Note: It is possible to use multiple toll-free numbers to "front-end’ the store locator service. Some of our clients use the multiple number strategy to provide response rate information and activity reporting across different programs or marketing media. There is no additional charge for multiple numbers providing the system performs the same other than the number.