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Edmunds Carcode

Is anyone the Edmunds Carcode service for texting on their mobile sites? I'm curious to hear what results anyone is getting with this.

I've been on it since January. It's free so that's the only reason. Half of the leads I get are for service, so thats a little annoying. Other than that we haven't had the best success with it. Usually people offering ridiculous prices for vehicles, you text back and forth about it trying to educated them through the buying process. A lot of underage prospects as well. If they ever start charging for it, I doubt I'll renew
 
I've been on it since January. It's free so that's the only reason. Half of the leads I get are for service, so thats a little annoying. Other than that we haven't had the best success with it. Usually people offering ridiculous prices for vehicles, you text back and forth about it trying to educated them through the buying process. A lot of underage prospects as well. If they ever start charging for it, I doubt I'll renew

@sryan thats interesting feedback. Did you have the feature installed on your dealer website or were you just using it on your Edmunds.com listings?

I didn't even consider consumers/shoppers/browsers interacting with the chat tool in that manor (lowball offers, childish responses, etc) but obviously totally possible. However, speaking with many other dealers utilizing a text option are experiencing some positive results. Some of the more impressive results include originating text lead to show into the 70+% range.

I have a few dealers trying out different first responses to leads that include a question like "would it be okay to text you the information on this particular vehicle?"

Service leads? Sounds like an opportunity to capitalize on to me!!
 
@sryan thats interesting feedback. Did you have the feature installed on your dealer website or were you just using it on your Edmunds.com listings?

I didn't even consider consumers/shoppers/browsers interacting with the chat tool in that manor (lowball offers, childish responses, etc) but obviously totally possible. However, speaking with many other dealers utilizing a text option are experiencing some positive results. Some of the more impressive results include originating text lead to show into the 70+% range.

I have a few dealers trying out different first responses to leads that include a question like "would it be okay to text you the information on this particular vehicle?"

Service leads? Sounds like an opportunity to capitalize on to me!!

It's just on our dealer mobile website. Here are the last few text logs we had:

1.) Asking the price of a shelby GT500. customer is unresponsive
2.) Customer asking if he can bum a cigarette from us (not joking)
3.) 428 beacon w/ a trade with CAC, buried $6-7k
4.) Someone offering $17k for a used Impala listed for $23,988. Trying to educate buyer, they keep sending me cars with bad carfaxs for $19k and want us to go $2k lower than that
5.) Customer asking about a price of an oil change for his 2010 ZR1
6.) What time can customer pick up his car in service until
 
I expanded on this a bit in a different thread, but here's some numbers on texting. I would highly advise to also ensure the text function is on all pages, I know carcode was once link based. I believe now it's javascript similar to mine, which should allow you to add this across all pages (including desktop roughly 30% of text messages originate from desktop):

We've done studies across most major OEMs and found a very interesting break out that I'm happy to share (Just a few) - Text Volume via OEM:

CJD: Roughly 2% of mobile traffic prefer to text ( majority subprime / preowned buckets)
Of the 2% - 10% were service related questions

Hyundai: Roughly 1% of mobile traffic prefer to text (new sales buckets)
Of the 1% - 8% were desktop users
With inventory syndication (overlays) - Craigslist only we found a 200% increase in volume of text messages
Of the 1% - 10% were service related questions

Toyota: Roughly 2% of mobile traffic prefer to text (new sales / service buckets)
Of the 1.4% - 35% were desktop users
With inventory syndication (overlays) - Craigslist only we found a 300% increase in volume of text messages
Of the 1.4% - 34% were service scheduling / service status related

Mercedes: Roughly 1% of mobile traffic prefer to text (new sales buckets)
Of the 1% - 20% were desktop users
Of the 1% - 33% were service appointment requests
Of the 1% - over 30% close to sale and 20% booked a service

@Jeff Kershner You're right on the shows, we're seeing a very high amount of not just show rates, but close rates (dependent on franchise). @sryan is correct in the low ball offers, we're finding for mid to low end franchises or any dealership that stocks heavy used there's an influx of subprime customers texting, but I don't see that as a negative as long as you can serve the customer. Hope this helps!
 
It's just on our dealer mobile website. Here are the last few text logs we had:

1.) Asking the price of a shelby GT500. customer is unresponsive
2.) Customer asking if he can bum a cigarette from us (not joking)
3.) 428 beacon w/ a trade with CAC, buried $6-7k
4.) Someone offering $17k for a used Impala listed for $23,988. Trying to educate buyer, they keep sending me cars with bad carfaxs for $19k and want us to go $2k lower than that
5.) Customer asking about a price of an oil change for his 2010 ZR1
6.) What time can customer pick up his car in service until


But isn't this the case for everything that we do at the car dealership?

I don't know how many different website designs I've done over the years and whether you have a phone number for sales and different for service doesn't matter, a ton of phone calls go to the bigger number or to the one on top.

Customers don't read directions to what you want them to do, they interact with your website however they like.

We can fight about this but we can't win; we will not change customer behavior. We can cancel Carcode (or similar tools) but we are just rescinding the communication opportunities customers have.

I always see annoying emails/phone calls/chats/etc with ridiculous offers. Txt and chat systems tend to be the target of these complains because they are easier to use and anonymous (no cell or email to track). But that is something on itself: Customers are more willing to engage us via those.