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CallRevu - any dealerships using this? Effective - yes / no?

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#31
I used this product when I worked for srisso (who responded to this post). I remember when I was the Internet Director at Teddy Nissan, we were CallRevu's top performing dealership. It was not for marketing or for advertising purposes (no vendor propaganda, only straight results).. We literally worked the system and monitored every little step. It is the great accountability that a dealership can have. We had the phones ringing off the hook, so the bill was $1500-2000 a month. So what? That investment of $1500-2000 per month saved at least 2-5 car deals per month. At $3000 a car, you bet I will make that investment to save my business from losing $3-15k per month. All we did was setup a criteria and follow it. I had to have my team hit the right benchmarks. It is amazing, how great the system works and how powerful the results are when you use the system. My owners were always on me with this program because they only expected greatness. We took this up and coming dealership to great heights. When I got there we were building it up. My last month at the store, we did 87 units out of the BDC. As I keep in touch with my old friend Steve Risso and hear about this great dealership. They are now doing over 100 units per month from that department. I know for a fact that CallRevu helped make these results happen. Read the article in Digital Dealer Magazine .

The worst thing that a dealership can do is not use this product. This is a game changer for accountability. This is one of my most favorite products in the automotive industry.

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me. Thanks.

Stan Sher
[email protected]
www.dealeretraining.com
www.naymz.com/stan_sher_2372084
 
#32
Not going to lie, this was sort of a problem for me too (shortcomings) along with other minor issues I am not going to get into (I left on great terms and remain friends with my previous employer). However, nothing better then when that alert comes in, within 30 seconds as the manager you are dialing the phone and correcting the situation by making the appointment or leaving the customer satisfied. This way when your owner yells loud from his office, "Stan, another alert, what is going on?", you come back with an answer of the outcome of the call and what the next steps are. The main dealer principal of my store was out of control on the craziness (I can't blame him because he made huge investments so I know how he felt). However, it made me a much better manager of a BDC. It gave me accountability, sales, and management skills I never thought I could have. Oh, it also made more money.

Stan Sher

http://www.dealeretraining.com
Stan Sher - Dealer eTraining
www.linkedin.com/in/stansher83
www.naymz.com/stan_sher_2372084
 
#33
Bringing this thread back. We recently implemented new phones at our dealer group and have had some issues adjusting to new technology so not only am I looking for accountability but also I want to ensure that my phones are working properly.

I am looking for more feedback on CallRevu, the product sounds awesome and I love the accountability it offers. However, I wanted some feedback from an expense stand point. My dad feels like we are just adding product after product to sell the same amount of cars and the same amount of net profit. I understand if it saves 2 deals or 3 deals or whatever it pays for itself and I easily see how it could, but that's easier said than done. Plus, $3/call can add up very quickly, especially when you conservatively get 250 calls/day. Even if we set a cap of $1,500-$2,000 we'd be out of reviewed calls in days.

Also, CallSource offers a very similar solution at a cheaper price. Any dealers using CallSource instead, thoughts?
 
#34
Bobby-- No matter the method you choose, there is so much value in objectively measuring what up to now has been the immeasurable, that to stay ahead of the curve and to serve your clients well, its a critical step. This process is not for every dealer however. To gain the benefit of this view of the performance of your dealership, one has to be willing to be objective...to look in the mirror and to be willing to accept what one sees. It is often not expected. This is a measurement that far surpasses what it is typically known for; the "Real Time Alert" to an issue....this is about knowing your Caller's Journey....every customer is a caller and every customer has a measurable experience that dictates their future interactions with you.

Did you know for instance that across the country, 24% of callers that ask for the sales department in dealerships never reach a sales agent? Would it surprise most dealers to find that half of the callers sent to Voice Mail elect to hang up instead of leave a message? That on almost half of the sales calls that do connect, the customer's contact information is never obtained? That only 23% of calls to sales departments result in an appointment set on that call? 35% of all calls to the website sales line ask for Service?

Regarding making the choice of strategic partners to mine this data for you, I recommend you get a presentation from each vendor in this arena now. Indeed Call Source is now monitoring, and has been a great ad tracking company for a long time. Callbright has recently entered the arena as well. There are significant differences in focus and it is important to understand all to choose the data that fits your initiatives. Regarding cost, when you do a comparison you will find different approaches, but all will be very close --- whether you pay for lines and minutes, or they are included, if there are fixed monthly fees etc are the various approaches to pricing "models".

I am hopeful you will get the feedback you are looking for on CallRevu--- we are happy to provide you the entire list of clients for you to seek reference on the service.

You should demand that your pricing can be set with "caps". Most dealers get about 4 calls for every vehicle sold- measured on ad tracking lines only-- hence if you do not limit you budget, your will spend about $1200 total for every 100 vehicles sold. If you choose to limit the budget, be sure to request the vendor to measure your tracked lines by call volume and propose a daily volume that will ensure you get every day of the month inside your budget. In very few cases is the call volume low enough to consider monitoring local lines---this can get very expensive very fast and leaves out an important measurement---what ad source is in play?

I am glad to see that you are considering bringing light to this huge part of our business. And I agree with your Dad---it often seems that we just keep adding new thing after new thing without an impact on volume or net. The process of measuring your performance will add sales and customers via the alert to things gone wrong---no doubt about that---but the real ROI is based on what you do with what you learn---once you shine a light into this formerly dark hole, the hard truth is you will see that your are not done yet, and there may be yet another focus and $pend required--training/BDC/telephony/hardware---exactly what we all went through when we began to measure our e-commerce!!
 
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#35
bpreston said:
I am looking for more feedback on CallRevu, the product sounds awesome and I love the accountability it offers. However, I wanted some feedback from an expense stand point. My dad feels like we are just adding product after product to sell the same amount of cars and the same amount of net profit. *
Click to expand...

The owner of a football team tells his GM to stop trying to improve the players. The owner says "all I see is we're spending more and more money and not winning any more games."

GM -vs- The Owner.
Who's right -and- what's wrong?

Both are right, but both are missing a possible cause of the failure. Here's my take.

Who's training the managers?

With all the new tools, we're totally focused on the sales reps performance. I'll ask, Who's scoring the managers performance? And, where are the management trainers?


We've got the cart before the horse.
IMO, for highest ROI, train your managers 1st. Train them in leadership skills, business skills and decision making. Teach them how to listen and train others. Teach them to hug the top 20%, turn over the bottom 20% and train those in the middle. Teach them goal setting, for themselves and their players. Show them how to strengthen the team by eliminating team killing players like the prima donnas, the bad attitudes, and the lazy. Teach them how to recruit talent and why they should recruit ("you can hire smart or work hard").


Lastly, the chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. If you don't have a buy-in from the top, to the managers, all the way to the sales staff, then it's gonna fail.
 
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#36
Thanks for your post Chip!

Great points Joe!! Any recommended trainers or training materials for this??

I run weekly sales trainings for the Internet Sales Reps at our 7 stores and a separate one for our Internet Sales Managers, but nothing for our Sales Managers, Service Managers, GMs, etc. When you think about it, training the Managers would have by far the most impact. I am not at every dealership everyday to make sure that the processes that I am training on our followed day in and day out.
 
#38
Aaron-- We are happy to provide you an entire list of our customers for your research---note that Bobby Preston (in this string) is now a client---he may offer his thoughts for you as well. As I said last summer---no matter the service you choose, this measurement will make a valuable impact. For instance:
NeverReaches12221pm.jpg
 
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