Dealership Texting Delivers Conversational Commerce

[CarlAutofusion]

We have a texting solution that allows consumers to text you and the dealer answers the texts using email.

Here are some numbers across our texting platform when comparing year-over-year numbers:

• March 2020: -28%
• April 2020: 10%
• May 2020: 80%
• June 2020: 71%
• July 2020: 63%

aside from March and April when many dealers were closed or only partially open, it looks like the pandemic increased texts to dealerships.

 

[Dan Sayer (blog)]

We have a texting solution that allows consumers to text you and the dealer answers the texts using email.

Here are some numbers across our texting platform when comparing year-over-year numbers:

• March 2020: -28%
• April 2020: 10%
• May 2020: 80%
• June 2020: 71%
• July 2020: 63%

aside from March and April when many dealers were closed or only partially open, it looks like the pandemic increased texts to dealerships.

@CarlAutofusion I literally have no idea what you are talking about ^^^ Can you give some context to "dealer answers the texts using email" as well as what -28% means in comparison to 63%? Thanks.

 

[Ryan Everson]

I don't think solely texting is going to improve a dealership's closing rate or lead response time; a good balance of both communicating via text, email or phone is good.

I respectfully disagree. Communicating via text is the absolute best way to initially reach a customer and will greatly improve a dealership's closing ratio. Nowadays, customers are trained to ignore calls from phone numbers they don't recognize and emails from dealership CRM's are often sent straight to spam. Texting is the #1 way to ensure that a customer gets and reads our communication.

texting is where it's at

 

[CarlAutofusion]

Hello Dan Sayer, we have a widget that resides on the dealer website that allows consumers to fill out a form to start a text conversation. The form goes to the dealer as an email and when the dealer responds to the email, it strips out any previous conversations and texts the consumer back.

The percentages are the increase and decrease of consumers submitting the text requests through our widget when compared to the same month for the prior year. For example, in March 2020, there was a 28% decrease in the amount of text requests that came in when compared to March 2019.

I was hoping to show that during the covid lockdowns, the number of consumers that want to communicate via text has increased.

Thanks,

 

[CarlAutofusion]

We have a texting solution that allows consumers to text you and the dealer answers the texts using email.

Here are some numbers across our texting platform when comparing year-over-year numbers:

• March 2020: -28%
• April 2020: 10%
• May 2020: 80%
• June 2020: 71%
• July 2020: 63%

aside from March and April when many dealers were closed or only partially open, it looks like the pandemic increased texts to dealerships.

 

[Dan Sayer]

We have a texting solution that allows consumers to text you and the dealer answers the texts using email.

Here are some numbers across our texting platform when comparing year-over-year numbers:

• March 2020: -28%
• April 2020: 10%
• May 2020: 80%
• June 2020: 71%
• July 2020: 63%

aside from March and April when many dealers were closed or only partially open, it looks like the pandemic increased texts to dealerships.

@CarlAutofusion I literally have no idea what you are talking about ^^^ Can you give some context to "dealer answers the texts using email" as well as what -28% means in comparison to 63%? Thanks.

 

[CarlAutofusion]

Hello Dan Sayer, we have a widget that resides on the dealer website that allows consumers to fill out a form to start a text conversation. The form goes to the dealer as an email and when the dealer responds to the email, it strips out any previous conversations and texts the consumer back.

The percentages are the increase and decrease of consumers submitting the text requests through our widget when compared to the same month for the prior year. For example, in March 2020, there was a 28% decrease in the amount of text requests that came in when compared to March 2019.

I was hoping to show that during the covid lockdowns, the number of consumers that want to communicate via text has increased.

Thanks,

 

[Dan Sayer (blog)]

Hello Dan Sayer, we have a widget that resides on the dealer website that allows consumers to fill out a form to start a text conversation. The form goes to the dealer as an email and when the dealer responds to the email, it strips out any previous conversations and texts the consumer back.

The percentages are the increase and decrease of consumers submitting the text requests through our widget when compared to the same month for the prior year. For example, in March 2020, there was a 28% decrease in the amount of text requests that came in when compared to March 2019.

I was hoping to show that during the covid lockdowns, the number of consumers that want to communicate via text has increased.

Thanks,

Ah, I got ya. Curious as to why the widget would be a Text to Email exchange? Seems like it would inherently take something that was meant for speed and slow it down? Not that any tool creating a handoff between a shopper's phone and a sales person's phone is fast. I suppose we've created a mess of text pathways ourselves with no perfect handoff:

1. Form Fill on sites from CTA for "Confirm Availability" etc have a "Prefer Text" option. Our sales team reply SMS via Vin's tool or MMS via Snapcell which also has Vin integration. They both rely on sales person getting push notifications from the Vin or Snapcell applications on their phone. Downside is customer sees two different numbers if the conversation switches from SMS to MMS.

2. Chat/Text via CarNow on the websites is a hosted chat/text and really just in how the hosted conversation is delivered on the shopper's device; chat box or text client.

3. Direct to sales person phone. This happens a lot since we have our sales team cell numbers on their cards and email sigs. Usually this is an exchange that happens post sale or repeat sale. Yes, I would like it to be in a system that logs to the CRM but not going to die on the hill if customer initiated the text conversation to the sales person's personal device.

 

[Dan Sayer]

Hello Dan Sayer, we have a widget that resides on the dealer website that allows consumers to fill out a form to start a text conversation. The form goes to the dealer as an email and when the dealer responds to the email, it strips out any previous conversations and texts the consumer back.

The percentages are the increase and decrease of consumers submitting the text requests through our widget when compared to the same month for the prior year. For example, in March 2020, there was a 28% decrease in the amount of text requests that came in when compared to March 2019.

I was hoping to show that during the covid lockdowns, the number of consumers that want to communicate via text has increased.

Thanks,

Ah, I got ya. Curious as to why the widget would be a Text to Email exchange? Seems like it would inherently take something that was meant for speed and slow it down? Not that any tool creating a handoff between a shopper's phone and a sales person's phone is fast. I suppose we've created a mess of text pathways ourselves with no perfect handoff:

1. Form Fill on sites from CTA for "Confirm Availability" etc have a "Prefer Text" option. Our sales team reply SMS via Vin's tool or MMS via Snapcell which also has Vin integration. They both rely on sales person getting push notifications from the Vin or Snapcell applications on their phone. Downside is customer sees two different numbers if the conversation switches from SMS to MMS.

2. Chat/Text via CarNow on the websites is a hosted chat/text and really just in how the hosted conversation is delivered on the shopper's device; chat box or text client.

3. Direct to sales person phone. This happens a lot since we have our sales team cell numbers on their cards and email sigs. Usually this is an exchange that happens post sale or repeat sale. Yes, I would like it to be in a system that logs to the CRM but not going to die on the hill if customer initiated the text conversation to the sales person's personal device.

 

[Jim K]

I respectfully disagree. Communicating via text is the absolute best way to initially reach a customer and will greatly improve a dealership's closing ratio. Nowadays, customers are trained to ignore calls from phone numbers they don't recognize and emails from dealership CRM's are often sent straight to spam. Texting is the #1 way to ensure that a customer gets and reads our communication.

Agree @Ryan Everson. Receiving a text message provokes all kinds of emotional and psychological reactions. Its like an itch and extremely satisfying when you scratch it. And it's well documented that an 'unread' text notification drives people crazy. They have to read it fast - and clear that notification. Studies also show people get a little bummed out when the txt conversation ends. Its like eating a single peanut. Who can eat only one peanut?!!

SMS is definitely the fastest way to engage.