Where do your phone ups go?

[Jeff Kershner]

working in a dealership is not a democracy! Sometimes you need to make tough decisions and not everyone is going to be okay with those decisions. The people who normally quit are the ones who we'd probably get rid of anyways. I want those people working for my competitor.

Amen to that Jerry. Stellar advise!

Having incompetent sales people answer your phones is costing you sales every day.

 

[Walt Kustra]

Great thread....lots of great suggestions guys and obviously there is more than one way to skin a cat. We do have a phone up system in place in our dealer group that is kind of unique and seems to be working for us. We have separate phone lines for the floor and internet sales staff. Depending on where the customer sees the ad that prompted them to call will determine which office it rings into, weather that be the floor or our dedicated internet department. We have had formal inbound call training for floor and internet staff to be sure we gather all the appropriate information from these leads such as source, phone number, email etc. Its much harder to track on the floor, but with the help of dealer.com and imagiclab our net leads are recorded and very well documented. We can retrieve recorded inbound calls from dealer.com and outbound calls made from imagiclab. By separating floor and internet leads this way everyone seems happy. The net guys are getting the calls from the net leads and the sales floor recieves calls from their previous customers (weather they call in or are handed down from the net dept when they show up as a previous sale in imagic), newspaper and tv ads. By doing this we feel each prospect is matched up with a salesperson or sales manager that is best suited to deal with their unique inquiries and everyone is getting their fair share of calls. There is no worries about there not being someone there to field the call ever as we have six floor sales people and five dedicated net people available to answer the phones at all times.

 

[DrewAment]

Drew, Your suggestion is a good one, however it's got it's flaws

Thanks for pointing those out...next time I will take notes.

Like all suggestions, it won't fit into all processes and dealerships. All suggestions have their flaws based on the situation presented.

 

[Aereus]

I have seen good success with a Receptionist handling the initial phone call, but using a call tracking source to record all calls. Then there is an "up" system for the salespeople. You get one shot for a very limited time to pick up the call. After that it goes to the next person. To minimize hold time, if not one picks up in a specified time, it goes out as a general call. We only allowed "certified" phone salespeople to be "up" for phone calls. Similar to the web leads, we only allowed those who demonstrated the tools to do the job right. In any case the receptionist kept a tally of calls and they were entered into the database each day.

 

[AutoArchitech]

Most of the time when you ask to talk to a salesperson the operator says "new or used". Have the operator ask "new, used, or internet" instead. You will be amazed how much that helps the phone calls go to the right people. Simple, but it works.

 

[CFrentzen]

I'm not sure I would have any idea what that option ("Internet") means as a customer calling in.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

I'm not sure I would have any idea what that option ("Internet") means as a customer calling in.

I listen to about a thousand sales calls a month and I probably hear people asking for the Internet department about 5-10% of the time. That's without being prompted.

 

[Gerald]

That is exactly what happened which is why I am now searching for a new solution. Since the internet does all of the work on the site...shouldn't they get the phone up?

Great question. As the Internet Director, I was compensated on ALL Internet sales- be they emailed leads or phone ups. I wanted the best on the phone so whomever was available and trained, I used on the phone. Your dealer needs to be on board with this. I had one dealer only want to pay on people we emailed and got in. I explained to him my job is to get people so excited about a vehicle they don't email or call- they drive in. Phone calls are next, and then email.

In other words, if you are responsible for all Internet generated leads and sales, you should be compensated accordingly. If you don't have enough people to handle all the calls, you may need to add some to handle the load.

This also provided a great motivator for follow up work plans. If we caught someone checking off on everything, no phones. No appointments, no phones. You get the idea.

 

[ajholland]

Great question. As the Internet Director, I was compensated on ALL Internet sales- be they emailed leads or phone ups. I wanted the best on the phone so whomever was available and trained, I used on the phone. Your dealer needs to be on board with this. I had one dealer only want to pay on people we emailed and got in. I explained to him my job is to get people so excited about a vehicle they don't email or call- they drive in. Phone calls are next, and then email.

In other words, if you are responsible for all Internet generated leads and sales, you should be compensated accordingly. If you don't have enough people to handle all the calls, you may need to add some to handle the load.

This also provided a great motivator for follow up work plans. If we caught someone checking off on everything, no phones. No appointments, no phones. You get the idea.

I luckily didn't have to fight that battle...they are crediting me with any email, phone-up, and even word of mouth from the sales managers. If they say it came from the internet it goes up on my board.