It’s not a new problem. In fact, it’s been plaguing dealerships everywhere for as long as I’ve been kicking around the car business. And no matter how many times I call attention to it, I continue to see it happening in dealerships everywhere: Most deals that are blown and lost forever in a car dealership are lost because someone mishandled the initial phone call.
Keep in mind that effectively marketing a car dealership today costs most dealers upward of $500 a unit. Then there is the $300 or more some lead sources charge just to deliver a low-profit deal. But I’ll give it to dealers. They do measure closes and conversions to appointments. What they don’t do, however, is measure deals lost on the phone. How many potential customers call in and can’t get connected? How many are mishandled by a salesperson or the receptionist?
I don’t have the stats to back it up, but I believe today’s menu-answering options are blowing a lot of deals. That’s why the first thing I do at every dealership I work with is examine how complicated or confusing their phone system’s menu options are. My advice to dealers is to simplify the menu options and allow callers to press zero for a live operator at any point.
Read the whole article here on F&I and Showroom.
