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Email Versus Phone

May 15, 2010
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First Name
Ryan
I have been an Internet Director for several years now, and over time our process for handling new car internet leads has changed. My current belief is that it's best to respond to email leads via email, and try to build two way communication via email, before reaching out via the telephone. I was wondering if anyone can share their current new car internet lead process.

Thanks,
Ryan
 
I have been an Internet Director for several years now, and over time our process for handling new car internet leads has changed. My current belief is that it's best to respond to email leads via email, and try to build two way communication via email, before reaching out via the telephone. I was wondering if anyone can share their current new car internet lead process.

Thanks,
Ryan

Why wouldn't you pick up the phone and call? I bet your competitors send an autoresponse then call the client. The first person to set the appointment wins. It's all about urgency.

In my experience, people who are just phishing for quotes will either put an invalid phone number or put in the comments line that they don't want to be called.
 
I always encourage the call.

Feel free to send and email first asking if it would be ok to call..but then call.

You have 10 minutes to get that customer on the phone. Be professional, work on your Ninja Phone skills and set the appointment. Take the customer out of the market.

The quicker and more professional you are on the phone the more appointments you will set. Don't even question it.

Matt is right - hardcore price shoppers will bogus the number.

Most CRM's have a bad inbox delivery rate. Why risk it?

2 immediate attempts on the phone, then go back to some effective email responses. Remember you inventory is your assets.
 
I put myself in the customer's "shoes". If I'm online seriously looking for a new TV, wouldnt that be great if someone would contact me within a few minutes and answer all my questions. I find although some people submit leads, it's their spouse or someone else in the family's e-mail, and maybe the person inquiring isnt computer savy. There are too many variables to rely on e-mail. Also, as stated, who knows if it's going into the SPAM/Junk folder. I send an autoresponse stating I will be calling in a few moments. I have found that if I can call within 5 minutes there's a HUGE increase in conversion. The 1-hour response time is a factory thing. 5 minutes is my goal as the customer is looking at all the inventories online. If I get pushback, which happens occasionally, I just state that I like to call to confirm their inquiry and to let the customer know I had sent an e-mail. It's amazing how many people submit an inquiry on a new car, but were looking for a used vehicle. I just had someone today submit an inquiry on a 2009 Expedition but was looking at a Hummer??? Go figure. If I didnt call I would have used my time to look up a Expedition.

Hope that helps.
 
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When I first set up a customer response contact form (I'm dating myself) back in 1999 I added a checkbox to give the preferred method of response. Email or Phone. It was a two edged sword. those that checked phone were around 15% and the rest checked email (you could check both if you wished). Giving that option meant that if I called those who checked only email, then they could and did sometimes wonder why I called. The reverse was, that we got more leads by giving the choice, and the percentage of bad emails was less. I agree with Joe, that a fast phone response is best, even if you just call to let them know that you have responded via email, and if someone really does not want a call, they will give a bogus number.
 
What I find interesting is that my family has our land line and we all have cell phones. Someone could leave a message on our home phone and we will not get that message for 24 to 48hrs. Call our cell and we get the voicemail.

If a customer doesn't want to be called, most of the time they will say so.
 
Must call! I had this debate with one of my old internet managers. The problem is the response on email leads gets worse every day. Have you put yourself through the process of buying online? I did it with my last car just to see what our buyers go through. Half the time on 3rd party sites you are lead to believe you will receive a price when you enter your info. Customers won't put their real info in if they don't want to be called or emailed. On email leads without phone numbers, i would email 1 time and then add them to our newsletters. If I didn't hear back from that one response I was out.

Remember we do this everyday they don't. The process becomes easy to us but buyers don't experience it very often. Try to customize your message for the site they sent the lead in from. This was very effective for us.

I am curious.....what email are you sending them? Are you including price on the email? I was never a big fan of offering price via email. My guys would call and confirm info and car and then send quote.

Always call! Just my thoughts for the day. Have a good one.
 
Call call call.
Customers will tell you if they prefer to be contacted only via email. If they've provided you with a legit phone number at some point they were interested in your product. It's your duty to get them in before their interest fades and the next shiny quarter comes along. It's not as bad, but close to someone coming into your dealership, waiting around for a sales person, then leaving because they weren't taken care of.

Every car has an equal competitor at an equivalent price at an equivalent dealer with similar programs. The only thing you can do to seperate yourself is to have the fastest response time with the best responses. Get them in the door!