Everest: accurate data at the first touch
Everest's contact centre was losing enquiries to phone numbers typed wrongly on its own form.
Two checks
the number's format, then a match against a database of assigned UK phone numbers.
An optional correction
visitors could ignore the warning and submit the form. Everest chose that approach.
LeadScale added Engine code to Everest's enquiry form to check phone numbers as visitors entered them. It checked the format and matched the number against a database of assigned UK numbers. Visitors could correct a flagged number or submit anyway. Contact rates increased for Everest's contact centre.
Enquiries the contact centre could not follow up
For Everest's home improvement business, a phone number connected an online enquiry to a conversation about windows, doors or conservatories.
Its contact centre was finding numbers entered incorrectly on the enquiry form. Sales staff could not reach the people who had asked to hear from them, and correcting the details by hand took time.
Some visitors supplied incorrect details deliberately. Others simply made a mistake. The opportunity was to help those visitors while they were still on the form, before an incorrect number became a problem for the contact centre.
A check on the form itself
The two checks did different jobs. Format validation tested whether the value had the expected components of a UK phone number, such as a leading zero and the required digits. Verification matched the entered number against a database of assigned UK numbers. A number could therefore pass the format check and still fail the lookup.
This established more than format alone, but it did not establish that the number belonged to the visitor or that someone would answer it.
Page performance also mattered to Everest. It had invested in making its site load quickly, so the code was designed to be lightweight.
- Measure the problem. LeadScale used the Engine to analyse Everest's capture forms and identify submissions with faulty phone numbers.
- Add the check. Engine code on the enquiry form checked a number as the visitor entered it.
- Prompt a correction. If the number failed a check, a message and visual warning asked the visitor to correct it before submitting.
- Leave the choice. Everest allowed visitors to ignore the prompt and send the form anyway.
Helping the visitor correct the mistake
The check did not catch every wrong number. It caught most genuine errors, giving visitors a chance to correct them while completing the form.
Because Everest made the correction optional, some incorrect details still came through. The reported improvement was in contact rates: the existing contact centre staff could connect with more people who had enquired.
The case study reports £42 of incremental revenue for every £1 spent on the solution. The practical change behind the account was the prompt on the form, where a visitor could act on it, rather than leaving the contact centre to discover the error afterwards.
“We always knew that customers entered wrong numbers but never thought about prompting customers to put in the right number before leaving the form. This has helped us reach those customers who made a simple mistake and for those that we know don’t want to be called we leave them alone.”
Anthony Threlfall, Head of Marketing at Everest Home Improvements when the case study was published in 2024.
The technology behind the check
See lead validation for the checks available within a processing flow. See the LeadScale Engine for how capture, processing and delivery fit together. This case describes the phone-number checks used on Everest's form.
More case studies
47%of LinkedIn leads at manager level or above, up from 29%
Your campaigns convert, but the people responding do not fit
A CRM company, anonymised
You keep buying from the same few publishers
Losing enquiries to mistyped details?
Tell us where people submit their details and what prevents your team from following up.
Or request a free audit of leads from a recent programme.