#RefreshFriday Diving Deeper into Texting & Phone Systems | JD Higginbotham of Vonage

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Jeff Kershner

Jeff Kershner

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#1

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9wXgBzkt5E


If you don't know @JDHigginbotham , you haven't been in the DealerRefresh forums lately. J.D. has become a staple in explaining texting regulations, phone systems, and some deep technical stuff regarding communicating with customers.

Although he has told us he can't dive too deeply into something top secret, we are going to pull as much out of him as possible as it relates to a hole in the dealership's phone system that few of us are aware of.

If you are in the business of communicating with customers, you'll want to tune-in for what J.D. has to say.


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#2
Good convo/insight --

I also have 2 comments to expand a couple made on the show:

1 - No one is listening to ALL these calls. And, I support my statement during the show yesterday... randomly listening to 10 calls a day was probably one of the best things you can do. You will find patterns and problems == voicemail abandons, 22 transfers to talk to someone, little Billy not asking for appointment, etc etc.

2 - If you are a person that values call recording, pay attention to legislation in Congress that is attempting to do away with automatic recorded phone calls - even for announced calls ("the following call may be recorded" ...). They are attacking this from 2 angles == consumer privacy //and// workplace surveillance. The workplace surveillance angle is basically saying "we don't like you holding your employees accountable".
 
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#4
JDHigginbotham said:
Thank you for your participation, Drew. Great points.

1. What is your sentiment on the experience/capability you have with where you listen to calls today? What platform do you use to listen to them? What is missing?
Click to expand...

My overall opinion:

All the call recording.tracking companies do the basic function of listening to calls all the same. I don't know of a "perfect" system. I personally believe that a lot of the "scoring" systems need to be able to be personalized based on the dealer needs.

We are "over alerting" our managers with emails/texts/popups, etc. I had one desk manager tell me that she received WAY TOO MANY "alerts" to keep on top of them all during her day. Over ~140 emails and ~50 texts a day to filter through according to her.

The person that performs badly on the phone consistently will do so day after day. IMO = Spending a scheduled ~15-20 min listening to 10 random calls a day will tell you the same thing as filtering through and wasting time trying to keep up with all the alerts, dashboards, logins, etc etc.

On a side note: I have looked at most, if not all of the systems. CarWars, CallRevu, Marchex -- etc etc etc. The incentive structure on those programs and keeping the dealership signed up are dependent on sending alerts, and saying you are doing a bad job == scare tactics. Just look at a recent OEM change with their call tracking provider causing fail call rates to go UP. Was that change made because we got to good on the phones? Fail rates were down? Needed proof that we needed them? Yes, a little conspiracist.
 
#5
@DrewAment Noted on the reality of alerts, scoring, etc.

What if we took a route of focusing on just capturing the data for better attribution to original source (past just initial inbound), call summaries for follow up and agent assist during the live call?

To your note on personalized scoring, I'd be curious about how to narrow down the dealer's needs.
 
#6
@Alex Snyder you had a good layup at 36:00 that I understand now better than I did live.

Scenario: AI is trying to set an appointment, but the customer is engaging about a trade number...at least a range.

It sounds like you were suggesting a TO. Either a human takes over via SMS or a invitation to call is presented.

Flow...

1. AI bot in SMS thread is giving info based on data, but customer wants more confidence before scheduling
2. @DrewAment's favorite alert pops up not for just a call review but instead a "live one"
3. Desk manager can either take over in the SMS thread or ask to call the customer to talk

Bonus Points: Customer is willing to do a video call to show the car virtually.

Benefits

1. Customer gets their questions answered and drives further down the funnel...Instead of taking a market number for kicks and never scheduling.

2. Dealership takes control of the conversation in a crucial part of the journey
 
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