That's not a chink in the armor is it John? Just kidding! Actually I did already mystery shop you and will be putting the data together after lunch.
Let's get back to the auto responder. I saw yours and it was one of the better ones I've seen. My only question; if in the auto responder you make a statement saying you're going to call in a few minutes, what happens if the person does not call in a few minutes? This could potentially happen if somebody was out sick with the swine flu or perhaps they were just busy with something else. So in my opinion I would not want to send that auto responder out unless I was absolutely certain I could make that phone call. For a dealer using an Internet BDC, that would be easier to accomplish, but for a dealership using sales people off the showroom floor, you're opening yourself up for some disappointed customers when you don't call them as per the expectation.
If the dedicated BDC department is handling the lead right as it comes in, why not just manually send that e-mail. This way you're assured the person sending it will in fact follow-up with the customer. I did get one of these auto responders from your Toyota BDC rep, but no phone call has arrived and it's been an hour.
Please don't go alert your BDC, let's see what transpires. I am going to give it another hour before I start compiling the mystery shop report. As I finished writing this she just called.
It’s good that she called, but her original e-mail said a few minutes. Hopefully you can now understand where I am coming from with my comments in the original article.
As always, I welcome your feedback.
