Overview
Every day more consumers choose to look online for services and products. As a result, the lead markets have grown up domestically and internationally and many companies rely on Internet leads as an important source of customers.
Unfortunately, prior to LimeLock™, the value of leads generated on the Internet by third party lead generating web sites have often been under question. One main reason for this is the consumers' fear of fraudulent activity. The most widely known example of this is companies sending illegal spam or using consumers' private contact information for marketing purposes vaguely related to the business requested by the consumers via the lead.
To protect themselves consumers have employed different solutions ranging from creating special spam e-mail accounts that later can be abandoned to inputting fake phones numbers. The end result with any of these is a low relevance of the lead to the advertisers.
LimeLock™ is now here to offer a valid solution for the consumers by allowing them to safely submit contact information. Our patent pending technology is offered directly through lead companies. This effectively allows them to fight lead fraud, resulting in direct benefit for the companies that receive their LimeLock™-anonymized leads.
How does it work
Leads anonymized by LimeLock™ are leads with e-mails and phone numbers replaced with our anonymized aliases. For example, e-mails will look like xxxxxxxxxx@anon.limelock.com. The client phone number is a completely new number assigned to replace the real one for at least 60 days. When your sales person e-mails the anonymized e-mail alias, our system will relay the message directly to the consumer's real e-mail address. The same process happens when calling the anonymized phone number - the call is redirected to the real number, and your salesperson would feel no difference in the speed of connection or quality of the conversation.
Other than those two simple changes, you will feel no difference in the quality of your communication with the consumers. The only real change you will feel is the fact that customers are more confident in the safety of your communication and are no longer irritated by fraudulent, spam-filled communication from your competitors.
Fighting lead fraud
"Lead fraud" is a well known problem in the lead market. This unfortunate occurrence is based on the fact that information contained in consumer leads can be easily duplicated and then resold to unauthorized third parties. For example, it is not a secret that unethical sales people, frustrated from low commissions or booking rates, seek to profit "on the side" by illegally reselling those leads to other companies whom otherwise would have no access to the consumer information.
Another example of lead fraud is the case when companies who legitimately buy the lead misuse the information by pretending to represent different companies and contact the consumer several times through different communication channels. This case is often coupled with overwhelming the consumer with an endless flow of automated e-mails and phone calls.
All of the above mentioned activity significantly reduces the chances of legitimate and responsible lead buyers to convert leads to customers. This reduces the value of all leads for the consumers, the lead companies, and the legitimate lead buyers. The only party benefiting from lead fraud are those who commit the fraud.
The core of the LimeLock™ process is the fact that communication with the customers can be regulated and legitimized. Lead companies can now monitor traffic without getting into the content of the communication. This content stays private between the consumer and the service provider. With LimeLock™ the lead company can finally identify and take action if any fraudulent activity is present. LimeLock™ provides the lead companies with tools to prevent fraudulent communication before it reaches the consumers, while still recording it in order to take action against the offenders.
We know you'll be satisfied to watch your booking rates rise after your leads are anonymized, regulated, and the fraudulent competition is removed.
Concerns
New technology such as LimeLock™ might create many questions and concerns, especially among the companies that rely on leads as an important source of income. We will try to address the most important concerns right here:
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Anonymized data is a threat to our business because we loose the real link to the consumer.
The link is never lost and is actually strengthened. As you will soon discover, anonymized leads are very real and there will be people on the other end of the line waiting for you to call, e-mail, and leave messages. -
Consumers get control over how we can reach them and can disconnect at any time.
This is only partially true. First, we restrict the users to 24 hours before they can cancel their aliases. Users are notified about this restriction before they choose to anonymize their data (unless the anonymization is automatic). This is done in order to prevent fraudulent submissions and abuse of our system. In addition, statistically it is shown that users seldom use that option. -
Our business is in danger because lead companies become "Big Brothers" and they can force us to do business their way
Lead companies serve the interests of both the consumers and the lead buyers. As such, they are interested in maintaining high booking rates for lead buyers with strong business ethics. If your company falls under this category then it is safe to assume that any action taken by a lead company to regulate communication exchange will only benefit your company. -
How can we be sure you do not read our e-mails or listen to our conversations with the customers?
Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy have sections dedicated to the issue of our accessibility to private information, such as the content of e-mail and phone communication between the lead buyers and the users. We respect this privacy and consider such exchange a trade secret of the company involved in the conversation. However, it is important to understand that we do collect some data, such as time and duration of phone conversations, and e-mail specific data such as the subject of the e-mail (for spam control). This information is shared with the lead company for purposes described above.
For more questions about LimeLock™ please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page.
