Electronic Retailer - November 2011 - 43

BY SCOTT RICHARDS

Use the Science of Number Chunking to Get More Calls
CHANNEL CROSSING: TELESERVICES
At the end of every DRTV commercial, a second voice, usually distinct from the primary announcer, comes on in the last few seconds exhorting the viewer with the cadence of an auctioneer, “Call one eight hundred…” followed by the rest of the toll free number (TFN). That’s the “tag” announcer – usually an employee of your dub house – who does the read for each TFN at the backend of your spot. What may seem like a cog in the wheel can actually have a profound effect on response. The reason is that how those numbers are grouped together and announced can, remarkably enough, increase your response by 20 percent or more. Here’s the why and how. Cognitive neuroscience has long held that humans can only retain three or four bits of information in their short-term memory. It has to do with something called “chunking theory” first developed in 1954 by Dr. George Miller of Princeton University. Miller proved that as a coping mechanism, humans compartmentalize information together into groups or “chunks.” Furthermore, in the case of Americans, the average memory loop lasts for only about two seconds according to research cited by Malcolm Gladwell in his bestselling book Outliers. Enter the TFN, which is composed of 10 digits and has the formidable task of trying to achieve memorability amid an onslaught of consumer distraction and information overload. This explains why it is so critical that direct marketers have a TFN that can be easily chunked. It begins with the prefix, which should always be eight hundred (800) in direct marketing campaigns, especially in short-form DRTV and radio. Why? Because 800 is synonymous in the minds of consumers with the term “toll-free.” Like Pavlov’s dogs drooling at the ring of a bell, consumers hear “toll-free” and automatically dial eight-zero-zero. How do we know? At Dial800, we maintain a bank of 50,000 (800) numbers and every month we get tens of thousands of misdials from callers who have failed to call the 866, 877 and 888 versions of the number that was advertised. Instead callers go on autopilot and dial 800, the only toll-free prefix that existed for 20 years before the others were introduced. The next key is to have a number where the remaining seven digits can easily be chunked together. Here are some categories/examples: Step and Repeat Double Ten Series with a Backend Date Ten/Thousand Series Ten/Ten Hundred 800-230-2302 800-330-1991 800-780-3000 800-90-90-600 As you begin to examine these numbers, you can appreciate how easily they are chunked together and therefore easy for consumers to recall. For example, the first number 800-230-2302, should be read, “(800)… Two-Thirty … Two-Thirty … Two”. It contains three chunks. However, having easily chunk-able numbers is only half the battle. How they are read by the voice over announcer is equally vital to success. That’s why you cannot leave it to the dub house technician who doubles as a tag announcer to decide how the numbers are read – the reads actually have to be very deliberately scripted, just like the rest of your message! Here is a powerful example: the number 800-2000544 would most likely be read as “call eight hundred, two hundred, zero five forty-four” – that’s arguably five chunks. However, move the dash one digit to the right as follows, 800-2000-544 and suddenly it reads, “call eight hundred, two thousand, five forty-four”. Now you’ve reduced the chunks from five to four! Here’s another side-by-side visual illustration: 800-909-0600 vs. 800-90-90-600 Which version is easier for you to remember? One simple move of the dash to the left and you achieve a profound difference. Given the obvious answer then, doesn’t it also make sense for your TFNs to be graphically portrayed on screen so that the dashes reflect the announcer’s read and are chunked to make it as simple as possible for the consumer to recall? In A/B split tests where random digit TFNs went head-to-head against memorable numbers, the latter produced a 20 percent to 69 percent higher inbound response rate against similar media. You work overtime to perfect your creative, offer and media, and now you have one more lever you can pull to increase response. In this case, it is a mnemonic device in the form of a memorable toll-free number chunked and read by the announcer, as well as depicted graphically on screen, so that it easy for your consumers to remember, call and buy. Scott Richards is CEO of Dial 800, specialists in marketing optimization. Dial 800’s tool suite includes RapidRecall, the industry’s largest bank of numerically memorable 800 numbers. He can be reached at 1 (800)DIAL-800 or at scott.richards@Dial800.com.

November 2011 | electronicRETAILER

Electronic Retailer - November 2011

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