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Press 1 to Talk - Does it help conversion?

kevinfrye

Sr. Refresher
Apr 7, 2009
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Kevin
We have just installed Press1toTalk at one of our locations for a 90 day test trial. Many of our ongoing efforts with our websites is to improve conversion. When I talk conversion, I am not just talking about taking the internet shopper and turning them into a lead, with this tool, we are looking to convert them to appointments with a rapid response.

If you are unfamiliar with the product, when you receive a lead online, the lead is forwarded to Press1toTalk (as well as your ILM/CRM tool), and Press1toTalk turns the lead into an instant "phone-pop". You can setup who receives the calls. When you get the call, you hear a computer read the name and vehicle of interest to you, and then asks if you would like to talk to them (and then it will automatically call the prospect). As I said, we have just started testing the product, and our goal is to use it to further improve our website conversion. Any feedback from others that are using this same vendor?
 
We tried a program like this through DealerOn years ago. I think the concept is very good, but we found our BDC was ready to call the customer 90% of the time quicker than the "phone-pop" actually rang into the BDC. If we didn't have such good people or were sending leads to sales agents, I'd probably be using this.

Sorry, I can't say anything about Press1toTalk - haven't looked into them.
 
I just checked out the website and watched their intro video (if appointments were that easy!) and it seems like a cool service, I look forward to hearing about your success with it Kevin. I would like to think our sales reps are chompin on the bit and answering the leads quicker then they come from the service. I tried their on site demo - it took a little over 3 min to get a call back.
 
We tried a program like this through DealerOn years ago. I think the concept is very good, but we found our BDC was ready to call the customer 90% of the time quicker than the "phone-pop" actually rang into the BDC. If we didn't have such good people or were sending leads to sales agents, I'd probably be using this.

Sorry, I can't say anything about Press1toTalk - haven't looked into them.

Ditto on that with Alex. I too used the DealerOn CallProspector, which would take the lead in ADF and convert the text to speech.

Whether or not this program works depends on your dealer and process. When I was at a single point store and was not in the office to arm the leads..I could hand the "hot phone" (which was a mobile phone that I had all the "Call Prospector" leads ringing to) to someone on my sales team (I didn't have a separate internet sales team). I had several sales people that loved it! Once they answered the lead on the Hot Phone they would then go into the CRM and claim the lead.

That was the only positive I could really account for.

When I was in the office or once I bought myself a blackberry there was no need for the product. All leads forwarded to my blackberry phone so I would highlight the number and hit dial.

Truth is..if a sales person wants to take or make a call they will do it! Even with a program like Call Prospector you still have the option of hitting the end call button and not answer the lead.

Granted, there might be a little more enticement there since the phone is already ringing but I found that after awhile the sales staff gets tired of listening to the text to speech, having to hit 1 to repeat the customer information 3 times to get it all. By that time you "hopefully" have the lead and you CRM and could have made the call.

Also...duplicate leads and what is considered a valid tracking time for a duplicate lead. My point, if you have a customer that sends in dup leads back to back and you have the round robin feature on (where it rings 1 phone and if it's not answered it rings another phone) your customer could get multiple calls from different sales people at the same time. It happens..not a lot but it happens. And is that really a bad thing? Maybe not.

There were several companies pushing this product about 2-3 years ago..they seem to have fizzled. That might say be something.

Like I said..give it a shot. It depends on your process and the set up of your internet sales department.

Keep us informed on how well it turns out for you Kevin!
 
I have to share that I believe this product might be a fix for our eLead CRM, as we can only text alert 1-2 people with their tool for a new lead, and several of our Internet Teams have 4+ people. This at least allows us to notify the folks on the team when a new lead comes in so that we can respond immediately.
 
Especially when the CRM provider's stock answer to "do you have this?" is "no, but for a large group like you, we will create it" so as to get you to say yes and contract with their tool....

That is actually a good thing if they deliver on the promises. Some vendors have no R&D budget and won't make any changes to their software. So it is good that they are willing to work with you. I would highly suggest picking a vendor that you feel will work with you and build a strong relationship with them.

I am in charge of our development team and we spend a large amount of our time developing enhancements for current and new customers. I am traveling all the way to Florida next week just to meet with a large new customer about some special enhancements to our product. Our products are molded by customer requests. I love working with our customers to improve the products. :heart:

I would just suggest making sure they can deliver on the promises and perhaps wait until you see the work completed. Make it say in the contract they will deliver the changes within so many days. Hold their feet to the fire.

For example, one of our customers was told by two very large CRM vendors (I will be nice and not name names) over and over that they would add NADA integration to their system and they never did... so the dealer group signed up with us and we added it for them.
 
Hello…A little late on this post, but I have been out of the office for a few weeks.

All these points made are great and valid. However, selling cars always comes down to 2 things - people and process.

If you already have a process in place that allows/makes your salespeople contact (and I mean CALL) the customer in less than 5 min, you are way ahead of the game. However, no matter what is said, we have always found a dealers response time lacking, and a major source of bottleneck in the internet department. We all know that your chances of making an appointment increases dramatically the faster you get in touch with your customer.

IMO - we don’t sell cars over the internet or phone, we make appointments - that should be your sales/BDC's main focus when talking to the customer.

A recent report based on the Arizona DMA from Chevrolet showed the dealer response time at an average of 6 hours! (This is already adjusted for business hours) - With only 4 out of the 45 responding in less than 1 hour. This is in a highly competitive major metro market - I can probably assume the same for nationwide stats. Clearly we have a long way to go for training our salespeople.

I had several sales people that loved it! Once they answered the lead on the Hot Phone they would then go into the CRM and claim the lead.
It is amazing how much action and excitement a phone ringing into a Internet/BDC creates. A few stores have the "self assign" model, which I personally like. Salesperson takes the call and then self assigns lead. Makes sure all leads are handled in a timely fashion. Even if not using a product like ours, I think self assign works great.

That is actually a good thing if they deliver on the promises. Some vendors have no R&D budget and won't make any changes to their software. So it is good that they are willing to work with you. I would highly suggest picking a vendor that you feel will work with you and build a strong relationship with them.
I agree with Matt's comments. Finding a CRM vendor that is committed to a relationship, rather than a monthly check, and follows through on commitments.

Products like Press1toTalk and others out there give you a competitive edge. Take every increase in call/appointment/show/sell that you can get, just make sure the uptick is a valid ROI and worth the cost. And, that it augments your current process.

Have one last comment - Inspect what you expect! - Have you secret shopped yourself (and other competing dealers) lately? Hardest thing to do is find a phone number to leave them to see how they handle the call. I have a solution (doing a press release tomorrow so you guys are getting it first) I can give you a local phone number that will ring wherever you want it to (cell, home, etc). Number is good for about 3-4 weeks. Will allow you to secret shop yourself and other dealers with a "throwaway" number. Just make sure you are answering your phone and/or change the VM message to a generic "I am not in right now, please leave a message"

If interested, I will give anyone on this board a number for FREE. Just send me an email with the area code you would like (I will try and get as close as possible), and the number you would like it to ring to, mention this post. I will email you back your "throwaway" number.

Email or call with any questions.

Drew Ament
Press1toTalk.com
Cell: 602-405-9630
Office: 1-(866)-553-1859 x100
dament @ press1totalk.com
 
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