Sweet Taste of Success -- 800 Number Call Routing Arrangement Allows Franchise to Kick Off National Ad Campaign

A unique 800 number call routing setup from Response Marketing Group is allowing a national franchise group, Cookies By Design - Cookies Bouquet, to run national advertising campaigns for the first time.

When the headquarters of Cookies by Design-Cookies Bouquet®, a franchise specializing in decorated cookie gift arrangements, learned of the success that one of their individual franchisees had with Response Marketing Group and a vanity 800 number, bigger and better things soon followed.

Cookies by Design-Cookies Bouquet (www.cookiesbydesign.com), with locations in 217 cities in 43 states, always desired to run national co-op advertising on behalf of individual franchise owners, but lacked a reliable and cost-effective way to direct sales leads to the individual stores.

Phil Shunk, the franchises Director of Information Technology, extensively researched telecommunications options, rejecting many proposed solutions because telecommunications providers could not accommodate the organizations billing or call routing requirements. A solution needed to incorporate the ability to bill and provide call tracking reports to over 200 individual franchisees, a commitment few carriers could accommodate.

Response Marketing Group proposed a simple and cost effective solution to the franchises needs while utilizing an existing toll free number. The franchise asked their independent owner-operators to voluntarily sign up for the service for a low monthly rate of less than $20/month per location. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with over 90% of franchise owners electing to participate, an adoption rate Shunk characterized as 'unprecedented.

Cookies by Design-Cookies Bouquet is now able to run national co-op advertising programs. The first national print ad containing the number appeared in a February People magazine, just in time for Valentines Day, and was backed up by national radio advertising, and resulted in over 2000 calls being routed to the individual stores.

We had three very demanding requirements" Shunk said, First, to be able to route calls to over 200 locations. Second, our provider had to be willing and able to directly bill our individual locations. Third, our franchisees are small business people. The solution had to be affordable. Response Marketing Group has met all three of these needs admirably, and were very pleased with the results to date."