Tracking Phone Numbers for Every Lead Source

When every ad prints the same number, every call looks the same. LeadLocate CRM gives each source its own line and files the call on the lead, so the store knows what rang and why.

A tracking phone number is a real phone line that belongs to the dealership and is printed in exactly one place. Because it appears only on the store's website, or only on one listing site, or only on a mailer, every call to it can be traced back to that source without asking the caller how they heard about the store. In LeadLocate CRM the number is more than a counter. A call to it rings the store's Forward Calls To list, is recorded, is logged on the Calls page with the caller's name looked up from the caller ID, and lands on the lead's timeline if the caller is already a lead or becomes one.

The first tracking number is provisioned when the dealership's account is created, so a brand new store has a working line the day it signs up. Additional numbers, one per source, are provisioned the same way and synced to the rest of the platform: to SecureWebX, so the phone on an apply link matches the phone on the ad, and to the phone service that answers them. A store never types a number into three systems and hopes they agree.

The dealership call tracking software page covers the buying question of call tracking in general, and the CRM with dealership lead attribution page covers why attribution belongs in the CRM. This page is the product side: what a tracking number does in LeadLocate CRM, where the calls show up, and how a store uses it on a normal month.

A dealer principal is paying for four things that are supposed to ring the phone: the store's website, a third party listing site, a monthly mailer to a nearby ZIP, and a landing page built for a tax season sale. Each one carries a different LeadLocate tracking number. On the first of the month he opens the Calls page and looks at inbound calls by the number dialed. The listing site produced eleven calls. The mailer produced two, both from people asking to be taken off the list. The landing page produced nineteen, and eight of those callers are now leads with appointments on the shared calendar.

That is a budget conversation with numbers in it rather than opinions. The mailer gets cut. The landing page gets a second version for a different model. Nobody had to ask a single customer how they heard about the store, and nobody had to believe a vendor's own report of how well its listings performed.

The same page settles a different argument on the fifteenth. A salesperson insists the website never sends real calls. The manager filters to the website's number, plays three recordings from the last week, and one of them is a shopper asking for the salesperson by name. The website sends calls. The salesperson lets them ring.

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Tracking numbers are managed alongside the rest of the phone setup on IVR Settings, reached through Account Settings under Billing and Admin, where the Forward Calls To list decides which phones ring when any of them is dialed. The store's main tracking number is also the caller ID a customer sees when a salesperson calls out from the softphone, so a callback arrives on a tracked line rather than a personal cell.

The calls themselves live on the Calls page in the main menu. Each row shows the direction, the number dialed, the caller ID with the name looked up on the inbound side, who answered, the duration, the status and the recording, with a transcript one click away. The same call sits on the lead's timeline in order with the texts, pictures and emails around it, because the communications log holds every channel in one list. On the LeadLocate mobile app, Call Logs is the phone version of the Calls page, and an inbound call on a tracking number rings the rep's phone with an alert screen that shows the caller's name.

Source also reaches the lead itself. Lead Feeds Manager is where the store defines per source feeds for the leads it receives, and a call from a source number arrives with that context, so a lead created from a phone call is not an orphan with an unknown origin. The Lead Feeds Manager page covers the feed side of that.

Call tracking is a whole industry, and it is sold separately from the CRM by design: a vendor provisions numbers, bills per number and per minute, and hands the store a dashboard that shows which numbers rang. The recording lives in that dashboard. The lead lives in the CRM. To connect a call to a customer, somebody exports one and imports it into the other, and most stores stop doing that within a quarter. The automotive lead source dashboard page describes what a store actually wants from that data, and it is not a second dashboard.

In LeadLocate the tracking number is a feature of the CRM. The number, the forwarding, the recording, the caller ID lookup, the log and the lead are one record, and the source is visible on the Calls page without a report being built. There is no per number subscription and no per minute charge to reconcile against a lead count. A store comparing costs can set its call tracking invoice beside the pricing page, where CRM Only starts at $199 a month and carries tracking numbers like every other plan.

What a tracking number does not replace is the store's main published number, which can stay on whatever system reception uses. Tracking numbers go where shoppers are: ads, listings, landing pages, mailers, business cards from Design Studio, and the salesperson websites the CRM builds. The main line can stay exactly as it is.

A tracking number turns the phone into a record. Every inbound call carries the number dialed, the caller ID, the time, who answered and the recording, stored against the lead the store's managers control. When a customer says nobody called back, the log shows whether anyone did. When a customer says a payment was promised, the recording shows what was said. Recording laws vary by state, and a store should set its announcement policy accordingly; the call recording and transcription page covers that in detail.

Outbound is the other side. Because the tracking number is the caller ID on calls placed from the softphone, callbacks return to a tracked line and get logged, which is how a store proves it returned a call. Before a number is dialed, the DNC Blacklist holds the store's own list of numbers never to contact, with a live do not call lookup and a two way inbound spam block, so a caller who asked to be removed stays removed. The do not call scrub and blacklist page walks through it.

Response time is a compliance question of a different kind: the promise a store makes to itself. Because inbound calls on tracking numbers are logged with a time stamp and the callback is logged with another, the gap between them is visible. The CRM lead response tracking page covers how a store manages that number.

There is nothing to turn on for the first number. It is provisioned when the account is created, forwarding to the store's own users is set up with it, and it is synced to SecureWebX and the phone service before the welcome email arrives. The store puts that number on its website and the calls start landing on the Calls page.

For each additional source, ask for a number and it is provisioned and synced the same way, attached to the store's account and answered by the same Forward Calls To list, or by its own menu through the IVR call flow builder if the store wants sales and service callers handled differently. Anything beyond that, a specific area code for a market for example, is available on request, and our team puts it in production for your dealership. The pre-recorded live demo shows an inbound call on a tracking number landing on a lead.

A tracking number is the front door of the phone stack, so pair it with everything behind the door. Call forwarding and ring lists decide which phones ring when the number is dialed. The virtual receptionist answers it when nobody can, and the IVR call flow builder gives a number its own menu. Caller ID lookup is what puts a name on the inbound call before anyone answers.

On the outbound side, the VoIP softphone is what shows the tracking number as the caller ID, and Lead Pages is where a landing page gets its own number printed on it. The all features page shows where tracking numbers sit among everything else in the platform.

Every vendor has downtime, and a store should know what that looks like before it happens. Tracking numbers are provisioned on the phone service, not on the CRM's web pages, so an interruption on the CRM does not take the numbers out of service. A customer who dials the number on the store's ad still rings the phones on the Forward Calls To list, and a salesperson still answers on their cell. What pauses is the Calls page and the lead timeline until the CRM is back; calls that happened during the interruption are stored on the phone side and reconciled then. The numbers are the store's, printed on its ads, and they keep working. If you need a person during an interruption, the contact page reaches one.

How many tracking numbers can a store have?

One per source the store wants to measure. The first is provisioned with the account; additional numbers are provisioned and synced on request for each website, listing, mailer or landing page. A store that wants a number in a specific area code can ask for that too.

Do tracking numbers show up in SecureWebX?

Yes. The store's tracking number syncs into SecureWebX, so the phone a customer sees on an apply link or a disclosure matches the phone on the ad and rings the same forwarding list.

What does the customer see when a salesperson calls them?

The store's tracking number, by default, so a callback returns to a tracked and logged line. A rep can verify their office or cell number and show that instead if the store prefers.

Does a call to a tracking number create a lead?

If the caller ID matches a lead the store already has, the call lands on that lead's timeline. Otherwise the call is logged with the caller's name looked up from the caller ID, and the rep who answers creates the lead from it, with the source visible on the call.

Can I see calls by source without building a report?

Yes. The Calls page shows the number dialed on every inbound row, so filtering to one tracking number is filtering to one source. Reports add call volume and activity by user on top of that.

What does it cost?

Tracking numbers are part of every LeadLocate plan, including CRM Only from $199 a month, with no per number subscription or per minute charge. The pricing page lists the plans.

Tracking phone numbers are included in every LeadLocate plan, month to month, with the first one provisioned the day your account is created. See an inbound call land on a lead in the pre-recorded demo.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.