Email IS Your Biggest Loss of Business

[Alex Snyder]

We've always known about our phone answering problems, but I rarely hear anyone talk about what we're saying to customers via email.

Did you know that you can measure all sorts of things around email to discover who is doing it well and who isn't? My favorite is to look at the number of emails sent against the number of emails a customer replied to.

For example: Joey sends 800 emails in a month and only 100 customers reply to him ...100 ÷ 800 = 12.5%.  When I see this number at a percentage less than 35% I start reading emails.

And what do I find when I start reading the emails that aren't being replied to?

Everything from people putting FU (more seasoned sales people believe this means "Follow Up") in the subject to "we don't provide prices over email." I even see messages where sales agents tell customers the dealership's advertisements are a joke. And the vast majority of the emails I read do not answer the customer's questions.
Email is where you are losing the most opportunities. Maybe as much as half.

There are two main email lessons to teach your staff:

1. Email needs to benefit the consumer (and all communication for that matter).  Happily answer their questions and provide a path for them to follow.
   
2. Consistency.  You're not having one on one communication with another person; you're a representative of the dealership.  They're not going to be friends with you after the sale.  If you say something wrong they'll turn on you in a second.  Be sure that your message is consistent with the one the dealership is saying, and never berate it.

Managers, please start measuring the difference between the number of emails sent to the number of emails your staff is receiving.  And then read the emails being sent from those individuals under the 35% mark.

I predict that most dealers are under a 20% email response average from their customers. That means that up to 80% of what you're sending might be telling a customer to buy their next car somewhere else.

Whats your dealers email response average? 

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

It sounds like Ron Henson at DrivingSales and I are having the same epiphanies at the same time.  Ron is specifically looking at Internet lead responses and I'm talking about any email from the whole dealership.  However, they do go hand in hand.  Read Ron's article:  http://www.drivingsales.com/blogs/ronhenson68/2013/02/15/internet-lead-response-inspect-expect

 

[Jeff Kershner]

"I predict that most dealers are under a 20% email response average from their customers" 

Alex, I bet it's must less than this for most dealers.
It's amazing what dealers continue to send to consumers, and then expect a response. 

I dedicated a portion of my presentation around this exact subject at the last DSES.
From the first initial response to the weekly automated responses being sent out from the CRM - they're total crap. 

I mystery shopped several dealers throughout the Maryland area several months ago to help prepare for my session at DSES. To this day I'm still receiving emails (automated) from 2 of the dealers. Not once have I been sent a relevant message nor one with a vehicle or inventory - the most effective and relative content a dealer posses. 

I wrote an article years ago around AIUA - attention, interest, urgency and action - 4 elements that need to be included in your email before you send. Years later, it's still very relevant. 

So YES - dealers are loosing opportunities each day with the crap they respond to customers with. And here we are still talking about it. 

Funny fact - I attended a workshop well over 10 years ago. I can't recall who held the workshop but I specifically remember the trainer at the time was recommending that dealers respond to their email with a simple message... 

"Thanks for contacting us at ABC Motors. We're so busy here with customers taking advantage of our huge sale we have little time to respond to email inquires. 

 For immediate assistance, please call our sales department at --- or stop by the dealership at --- . 

 Hope to see you at the dealership soon. 

 --Sig line--" 

I often wonder - maybe he was onto something.

 

[joe.webb]

Hey Alex - we have a lot of data on this subject and are even putting together a whitepaper on our findings.With thousands of leads reviewed, we are seeing that 18% of customers are responding back to anything automated.  The primary reason for this is the lack of worthy marketing messages included in outbound emails.  Internet salespeople simply don't attempt to engage customers with quality content.  Instead, the majority of outbound emails say something insanely bland like "Still interested...", "Have you bought yet?", "Still in the market?" or "Haven't heard from you in two weeks".  Dealer personnel need to start thinking of the buying triggers associated with their customers' purchase decisions and create more intuitive email templates.
 
Contact made is the most important factor so the fact that just over 1% of customer respond back to the typical 1-minute auto-responder proves that dealers aren't using every single contact point to begin a conversation.  We've seen some data from a CRM company that shows roughly 25% of their emails are read at all.  That is a phenomenally low rate so we need to improve our understanding of subject lines and spam filters if we want to reach more eyeballs.  It also shows the power of follow-up calls and quality note-taking.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

A = Action. NEVER send an email to a potential customer without asking a question. The question NEEDS to be your last in the body of your response. The purpose of  your first response is to gain a response back.

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Thanks Joe and Jeff.  We can all definitely agree there is a long road ahead.
 
Since I posted this a few Internet Managers have reached out to me directly.  It sounds like they do see where things severely fall down within email communications coming from sales agents and managers.  They've been looking for ways to approach these individuals, and all I can say to that is:  people like to know how to improve.  Help them understand that customers don't all appreciate a lot of lol's, ttyl's and things like that (also a big problem).  Customers just want their questions answered in a timely manner.  Feel free to use this article as an ice-breaker toward your own coaching.

 

[Kevin McKillop (blog)]

@dealerrefresh Huge one right there Jeff and emphasize, it needs to be ONE action.

 

[Ford Lincoln Mazda]

Fantastic Article!  Just wondering if there is a CRM out there that can measure this. Email responses are just as important as lead closing ratios. 
Troy
Internet Sales Director

 

[JanisWilliamsShowers]

I'll look at this now. Thanks

 

[joe.webb]

@GaryYeomansFord - Hello Troy, While there isn't a CRM that measures the quality of responses, there is a tool out there that can help.  Ideally, the BDC Manager or Internet Director can do it, but we know no one has the time. Check out this interview Jeff did about our TaskTeacher tool that measures the thoroughness of the follow-up. DealerKnows Introduces TaskTeacher – DealerRefresh