Passive Aggressive car dealer email made me laugh today.

[yagoparamo]

@JoePistell

Sorry. I should have explained better.

Didn't mean it towards you, not even towards @dvMail, but just how the car business gets negatively judged for no reason. I do believe there is a lack of respect in our society for all of us, vendors and non vendors, every time you say "I'm in the car business" to someone that is not.

 

[Chris Cachor]

but just how the car business gets negatively judged for no reason.

There are justified reasons, but I think the issue is much more complex than that. It's moving in the right direction, though.

 

[GrantG]

I might as well throw my 0.02 into the ring. In reading this thread I've quickly noticed that nobody has mentioned shopper behavior. As someone who spent 14 years in retail and now works on the vendor side I think I see things a bit differently now.

There are three themes that can be taken from this:

1) How the dealership interacts with customer based on questions asked of them by a shopper.
If this is a standard template that is being sent out based on action plan triggers, what other templates are being used to NOT answer shopper questions/concerns earlier in the process. Dealers have a small window to make a real impression with quality contact in order to earn the right to sell this car.

2) The power of Millennial's money?
This is a very real question that needs to be addressed at dealer levels to ensure that our model continues to evolve the way shoppers demand.


3) Be careful of what you say as you never know where it will end up.
This salesperson likely has no idea that his email has been distributed on the internet. This goes to show that social media is a powerful tool used by shoppers to seek validation of their decision to purchase (or not) and to possibly complain about the way they were treated while trying to extract the best "deal" possible. Dealers need to be focused the ramifications of poor training, bad messaging and the impact it can have on reputation and possible business. No doubt this shopper told his friends, family, and co-workers about his experience.

Now that I've said my peace I do have just one more thought. Let someone else sell this car as it is unlikely that this shopper is willing to build a positive relationship with the dealership and likely represents no future revenue stream other than warranty repair....that's a whole different topic for another day.

 

[Jeff Rushing]

This is just an email template. Usually sent out about day 6 after a customer has been completely unresponsive to all calls and emails.

 

[GrantG]

I'm curious how many dealerships still live on templates like this to engage customers? At my store this would have never gone out as we didn't believe shaming customers into contacting us would net a positive result.

 

[MikeHaeg]

View attachment 2374

It may have been removed since it include the sales person and dealers contact info. If I get the chance, I'll blur out and repost. Until then, here it is.

Passive aggressive? I don't get that from this email. Slight frustration due to the fact of not hearing back from the consumer - probably.

Maybe slight frustration, maybe a shameless sales tactic. It does feel like it could have been worded a little better but I don't think there is much wrong with it.

It's not much different in the vendor world. The goal is to continue the conversation.

Check out Hubspot's 6 Breakup Emails to Make Response Rates Soar.

Hint: They work.

 

[Alex Snyder]

p.s. notice there are 2 camps in this thread.

#1). I've never sold cars for a living.
#2). I sold cars for a living.

If you're a vendor and #2 is not on your resume, be cautious of your shopper-based conclusions.

Great advice :thumbup:

Two of my most-responded-to templates ever made my bones hurt because they were so dumb and desperate like this. But they worked. The biggest thing I learned from living in camp 2, most of my life, is that people's mental state changes drastically when working with a car dealer.

 

[Chris Cachor]

The biggest thing I learned from living in camp 2, most of my life, is that people's mental state changes drastically when working with a car dealer.

Alex, can you elaborate on that? Guard is up? Trust?

 

[Alex Snyder]

Alex, can you elaborate on that? Guard is up? Trust?

Consumers have an extreme range of emotions from the supreme excitement of getting new wheels to the pure stress of having to pay for it. Then you throw their feeling about car dealers on top of that... yeah, customers become fucking

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Consumers have an extreme range of emotions from the supreme excitement of getting new wheels to the pure stress of having to pay for it. Then you throw their feeling about car dealers on top of that... yeah, customers become fucking

And this is exactly why so many car shopper surveys are so inaccurate. @Alex Snyder we've had this discussion may times over the years.