Auto dealerships have made nice strides in responding quickly to buyer inquiries on their web sites, based on a brand new examine from consulting agency Pied Piper Management Co.
“What everyone has learned is that responding quickly to customer inquiries translates to higher web lead close rates,” Pied Piper CEO Fran O’Hagan informed Automotive News. “What that means is that out of every 10 people who contact a dealership through the website, more of those 10 will end up purchasing if the dealership is good at responding to them.”
Fifteen of the 17 dealership teams surveyed scored larger than the business common, based on the examine. O’Hagan mentioned the highest performing seller teams have been 3 times extra seemingly to reply to web site prospects inside half-hour vs. the standard auto seller.
Ken Garff Automotive Group in Utah made the most important enchancment. The firm’s common rating jumped to 74 out of 100 this 12 months, good for fourth place. Last 12 months, Garff scored a 48 and completed final.
Napleton Automotive Group was tops total with an 83 common rating, up 9 factors from a 12 months in the past. Penske Automotive Group and Herb Chambers Automotive Group tied for second place with a rating of 76.
Sam Jarvie, vp of gross sales and finance and insurance coverage operations at Ken Garff, mentioned the corporate took final 12 months’s poor ranking critically, utilizing its “We hear you” tagline as inspiration to enact adjustments.
“We deployed mystery shoppers, trainers and store personnel to create better, faster and more thoughtful responses to our customers,” Jarvie informed Automotive News. “It is imperative that we give our customers the best experience possible to stay competitive in an extremely competitive industry.”
Pied Piper performed its annual examine by submitting “mystery-shopper customer inquiries” to the web sites of 1,614 dealerships representing 17 dealership teams. The agency requested a selected query a couple of car in stock and offered a buyer title, e-mail tackle and native phone quantity. After that, Pied Piper evaluated dealership e-mail, phone and textual content message responses via the following 24 hours.
Dealership group response to web site inquiries elevated six factors 12 months over 12 months with an total common rating of 65 out of 100, based on the 2023 Pied Piper PSI Internet Lead Effectiveness examine. The total auto business common grew three factors, to 58 from 55. Pied Piper recognized will increase in how typically salespeople despatched textual content messages to reply buyer questions and emails to attempt to arrange an appointment. More salespeople are also sending emails that encourage prospects to behave rapidly, the examine discovered.
Other noteworthy outcomes: AutoNation scored 66, gaining 8 factors from final 12 months. Sonic Automotive earned a 65 common rating, up 7 factors 12 months over 12 months.
Source: www.autonews.com