CarGurus SMS Availability Pilot

[DrewAment]

I like pilots and thinking outside the box, but who at CG thought this was a good idea? How often are feeds not updated? Any other comments? Seems like busy work that is unneeded.

 

[kelseyv]

This seems like… not the move.
Most of the dealers I work with want the lead either way- even if the exact vehicle isn’t available, there’s usually a similar one they can pivot to.

Feels like this adds friction on the front end without much real upside, especially if it risks delaying or losing a hot shopper. Curious if anyone sees a different angle on it?

 

[Ryan Everson]

who at CG thought this was a good idea?

Someone who has never worked at a car dealership.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Yeah, not sure if this makes sense. I can understand wanting to improve the quality of a lead on a specific vehicle BUT you lose the opportunity to qualify and make alternative suggestions.

Wonder if there's a statistic on the percentage of used car buyers (submitting leads) willing to consider alternatives?

 

[Tallcool1]

Personally, I believe that Car Gurus needs to work on holding their dealers accountable rather than work arounds that won't work.

Car Dealers have done a really good job of "gaming the system" with Car Gurus. It all started with the slimy pricing strategy where the price is 15,000 but to get that price you have to buy the (name the product or condition here) whatever. That gave those dealerships a tremendous advantage.

Now many dealers are simply leaving their vehicles on the 3rd Party Marketplaces after they are sold. It isn't accidental. They know that the more vehicles they have listed, the more action they will get.

So implementing this Text Message strategy won't help them because these dealerships will just reply "Yes" without even looking. Everyone in the store will be trained to handle this. No matter what the response will be "I'm sorry, that car was literally just sold. Customer had been looking at it if 2 days and just blew in and got it".

Car Gurus is likely getting frequent shopper feedback about getting to the dealership and the vehicle being sold.

 

[BillVaughnKMC]

I'm not going to lie... I never thought about dealers purposely leaving vehicles online as switch vehicles. Wow.

 

[Rob]

So when the average dealer does not respond within an hour - because let's be honest, that's going to happen - they just get the lead an hour late?

If only there were studies that show what a comically slow response time does to close rates...