5 Insights We Learned From Analyzing 60 Million Phone Conversations

It’s easy to assume that digital commerce has rendered calls to businesses irrelevant. Yet for many companies, especially those with high-value products and services, phone conversations remain critical conversion points where revenue is won or lost.

Invoca's Call Conversion Industry Benchmarks Report analyzed over 60 million phone calls from January to December 2024. The findings reveal surprising insights about how businesses across industries are handling this crucial customer touchpoint.

Whether you're a CMO looking to maximize ROI, a sales leader working to boost conversion rates, or a CX professional working to improve customer experiences, these insights provide the benchmarks you need to measure your performance against peers and competitors. 

Let's explore the five most important revelations from this massive dataset and what they mean for your business.

Insight 1: 61% of Callers to Businesses Speak with a Person

It may seem like a startling statistic that 39% of callers to businesses never speak to a human. However, it’s not all doom and gloom because this statistic comes with a caveat — in certain situations, callers can get their needs met without speaking to a person. 

For example, they may be able to check business hours or cancel an appointment through an IVR system. It’s key for businesses to understand which inquiries can be handled by automated systems and which require a human touch.  

What’s most important to consider is how your call answer rate compares to these industry benchmarks and your business’s expectations. In the report, we break the metrics down across nine industries. If your call answer rate is significantly lower than the benchmarks for your industry, it indicates a missed opportunity stemming from process or staffing inefficiencies in the contact center or business locations that answer the calls.

Check out the full report to see how your metrics compare to your peers and get tactics to drive improvements.

Insight 2: 35% of Calls from Digital Marketing Are Leads

It’s critical for digital marketing leaders to track their cost per lead. However, many teams fail to accurately calculate this figure because they don’t factor in the phone call conversions their campaigns drive. 

Failing to track call leads adds up fast — our data found that 35% of calls from digital marketing are leads across industries. Teams that track their phone call lead rate can measure their full return on ad spend and make smarter optimization decisions to improve it.

Lead rates vary across industries, so check out the full report to see how you stack up against your peers.  

Insight 3: 37% of Digital Marketing Phone Leads Convert on the Call

Calls are a hugely important conversion point for your highest-value leads. Across industries, 37% of phone leads convert during the call. If your conversion rate falls below this benchmark, take a look at your phone call experience — you’ll likely find fixable issues, such as unwieldy IVRs or improper call routing. When you correct these problems, you ensure your marketing dollars translate to revenue and loyal customers.

Conversion rates may be higher or lower for your industry, so check out the full report to see how you compare and get fresh tactics to improve your call conversion rate.

Insight 4: Contact Center Managers Score 28% of Phone Calls as “Excellent”

Just answering the call isn’t enough — your contact center agents need to wow prospects with great experiences. If they don’t, your brand will lose both immediate conversions and long-term customer relationships — our research found that 76% of consumers will stop doing business with a brand after just one bad experience.

According to our research, contact center managers score 28% of calls as "excellent.” Investing in agent coaching and development, as well as AI quality management tools will help you beat the benchmarks and outperform the competition. Check out the full report to get industry-specific benchmarks and learn more about how you can improve your call handling quality.

Insight 5: 35% of Agents Ask Leads to Buy or Book Appointments 

Our study found that 35% of contact center agents actually ask for the sale. No matter how informative or friendly a conversation is, failing to directly ask for the sale can leave revenue on the table. When agents hesitate or skip the close, it can signal uncertainty to the customer and increase the risk that they’ll leave without taking action. 

Brands need to empower agents with the training, tools, and confidence to confidently close, because if you don’t ask, the answer is always “no.”

How Invoca Improves Phone Call Experiences

These insights highlight critical challenges that businesses face in maximizing revenue from phone calls. Invoca's AI-powered revenue execution platform directly addresses these issues by connecting the entire customer journey from digital marketing to phone conversation to conversion.

Close the loop on marketing effectiveness

By connecting online marketing activities to offline phone conversions, Invoca helps marketers:

• Attribute conversions back to specific campaigns, keywords, and channels
• Optimize ad spend based on true ROAS, including phone conversions
• Collaborate with contact center teams to improve phone lead handling

The result is a closed-loop system where marketing and contact center teams can collaborate to move the needle on their most important shared metric — revenue growth.

Create smoother online-to-offline experiences

Invoca's PreSense technology enables businesses to capture and utilize valuable insights about callers before the conversation begins. This allows companies to:

• Identify which marketing source drove the call
• Understand the caller's online behavior prior to calling
• Pass this context to agents to enable more personalized conversations

Combined with intelligent routing capabilities, PreSense ensures calls are directed to the most appropriate agent or location based on the caller's needs and intent, significantly improving conversion rates.

See how it works in the short video below:

Improve contact center performance

For contact center managers, Invoca's automated quality management analyzes 100% of calls — not just a small sample — providing comprehensive insights into:

• Agent performance metrics across key behaviors
• Script adherence and objection handling effectiveness
• Opportunities for targeted coaching and training

Unlike traditional quality management approaches that review only a small fraction of calls, Invoca's AI-powered system ensures no critical conversations fall through the cracks. This enables managers to identify specific coaching opportunities and systematically improve conversion rates across their entire team.

Download the Full Report to Get Industry-Specific Data

Want to see how you stack up against the competition? Download the Call Conversion Benchmarks Report for your industry:

• Automotive Industry Benchmarks
• Business Services Industry Benchmarks
• Consumer Services Industry Benchmarks
• Financial Services Industry Benchmarks
• Healthcare Industry Benchmarks
• Home Services Industry Benchmarks
• Senior Care Industry Benchmarks
• Telecommunications Industry Benchmarks
• Travel and Hospitality Industry Benchmarks