Since Kin’s service was a high ticket item requiring a fair amount of consideration, phone sales quickly became a critical high-converting acquisition channel for the Kin team. Like most other businesses relying on phone sales, one of the main challenges Kin encountered was how to get prospective customers (who had visited Kin’s website and were considering its service) to speak with a Kin sales agent. The Kin team recognized two metrics that contributed to high on-call conversion rate.

First and foremost they needed to get the customer to answer the phone. However, this proved difficult even with prospects that were clearly high intent. Since Kin were calling from unknown phone numbers, the customer had noway of knowing that this number was actually a desired call from Kin.

No less important, data showed that it was key for the customer to be in the right mindset to listen and engage with Kin’s sales agent. Kin labeled this customer behavior as “Engaged Call Rate”, namely calls lasting 60 seconds or longer. An engaged customer who was in a healthy mindset of listening and engaging, was more likely to convert. However, even when customers did pick up Kin’s call from the unknown number, the uncertainty around who was calling and why kept them somewhat skeptical and “Engaged Call Rate” remained low.

The Kin team sought a way to increase brand credibility so as to get more customers to pick up the phone, as well as to reduce hesitation and increase on-call engagement rate.