jimreidvehicle 255 Posted December 5, 2013 This is the percentage of Car Dealers that DID NOT even bother themselves to follow up a car enquiry sent via e-mail, which was actually a Mystery Shop by one of the team at Car Dealer Magazines as part of their shortlisting to find out who was going to become Used Car Dealership of the Year 2013. Why am I telling you this, you may ask? The reason is, we won, Jim Reid Vehicle Sales won the Car Dealer Magazine's Used Car Dealership of the Year Award for (51-100cars stock) Yes we were shocked to win a National Award, but we were more shocked at the fact that only 70% of dealers actually called or even replied by email to what certainly looked like a genuine enquiry. That is a shocking fact especially considering that someone within the dealership thought their sales team was at least good enough to get a nomination, shocking! So what causes this? Mismanaged? Lack of motivation? "Too busy !"? On the day in question I was actually on the sales floor myself, as my sales manager was taking a well earned holiday and my salesman had his day off! So you could say I mismanaged the sales floor but still managed to get back to that sales enquiry quicker and more professionally than any of the other nominations. I just find it amazing, what are your thoughts, does this come as a surprise to you? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gavin@Rousdon 137 Posted December 6, 2013 I'm not suprised but without seen the email enquiry that was sent it's hard to comment. Let be honest, how many email enquires are solid genuine enquires? 50% maybe. It's no excuse as every enquiry should be handled as 'red hot' but it's easy to become cynical when so many email leads turn out to be time wasters. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted December 6, 2013 I was part of the team who mystery shopped the nominees for the Used Car Awards. We were surprised by the number of dealers who didn't come back to us. On the flip side, some of the salespeople who came back to us were brilliant and a credit to their dealerships. Why wouldn't you respond to an email? Not all the people who step on to the forecourt are genuine buyers either...are we ignoring them too? How do we know if a lead is genuine until we qualify it. I'm certainly not going to name any names, but the exercise does show us that training of staff is so important. Even the most senior of staff can do with some refresher training every once in a while. we can always do better. To finish, let me reiterate how impressed we were with the vast majority of the nominated dealers...........some of you have some great staff who are doing you proud. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
umesh 336 Posted December 6, 2013 Every enquiry should be treated the same email, tweet, phone or forecourt ..As we know they're not all genuine but a courtesy reply/call back doesn't cost anything..after all these 'potential customers' have taken the time to make contact be sometime at 2.00am in the morning after a few drinks and wishing they could buy the car ..and reality next morning of not knowing anything about it!. Personally not sure if training / systems etc is the answer - is it simply 'wanting to do the job' ? Nice to hear some real professionals out there ! Excellent ! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
James Baggott 227 Posted December 7, 2013 This is fascinating. We were adamant that if were to hand out awards then we needed to be 100 percent confident they were doing the job correctly. The team worked hard on enquiries and we started them all via email - with 90 per cent of buyers now researching their next car purchase online before anything else why would we chose anything other method? Next year we may call and email. Or perhaps tweet instead. We needed to be confident that these dealers were doing exactly what they said and it's surprising that some who said they were brilliant in their nominations didn't even bother to reply. Morale or the story? Always answer a lead professionally. Yes some may be time wasters but some mag genuinely want to buy a car. And some May be the Car Dealer team calling to see if you're worthy of winning one of our awards... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stubbo 1 Posted December 7, 2013 I think our industry is still a few years behind when it comes to handling this type of enquiry. There are still too many people at dealership level that don't see the importance of how this type of enquiry is dealt with. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
James Baggott 227 Posted December 8, 2013 I met one dealer group a year or so ago and they had employed a salesperson purely to deal with email enquiries. They were having it away. I think dealers forget that people email for a reason. The last thing these people want is a phone call as a reply (unless they've stated that). It's more likely they've emailed because they're sat at their desk at work and are browsing your site when they shouldn't be - hence an email reply makes them look like they're working. Or they're sat in front of the TV in the evening and hoping to get the information back that they want so they can read it at their leisure. It's like people who reply to text messages with a phone call. Ask any teenager and they'll tell you that's their pet hate. It's actually one of mine. People type stuff out instead of calling for a reason - their reason - so it's best to reply in the same manner. And those that don't bother replying at all? Well, as I said above, chances are they're losing a potential sale. For every dealer that doesn't take email enquiries seriously there's several who do, as our Used Car Award winners will testify... 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
umesh 336 Posted December 9, 2013 James - spot on with method of reply, many who email me - leave their phone number off - for a reason ! they only want email reply! Interesting point about having a dedicated person handling the email/twitter enquiry ,had a case earlier this year tried to book a Mini in for a service still on TLC Pack but getting close to end of the term, Rang Mini dealer left message, no response, rand next day - ,no reply - sent email via their web site - no reply - 3 days lost and getting very frustrated ! On to twitter directed to the dealer - no response - another dealer contacted me - car booked in for ...2 days later the original dealer calls me responding to my email 'how can I help?' I explained the full story of what had happened - he said unfortunately the service reception don't get the leads for their department and go to general enquiries/receptionist - as and when they 'feel' like it - its passed on to him! He totally agreed that it was very poor but his hands were tied - however did give me his direct number to call him next time as he wanted my business ! Now for a main franchised dealer not to have the correct system in place I feel is not acceptable - that should go direct to the correct dept/person. And the way he was telling me I'm sure the sales enquiries go through the same process ...could be a long wait if you want to buy a car too! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
James Baggott 227 Posted December 9, 2013 Shocking story. I bet the MD of that group doesn't realise either... What's interesting is that all of our enquiries were made following the same format and the way they were dealt with so differently was incredible. I wonder whether any if it will sink in when we come round to judge next year's Used Car Awards? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SimonSpidersnet 4 Posted December 10, 2013 Hi everybody! Great forum CDM, looking forward to some interesting debates and topics direct from the networks! We had a great time at the Awards last week, and this stat shocked us the most! We are forever hearing from our dealers that they are "quiet" but on hearing this info it seems they're inbox's need to be better monitored! More positively.....Great to see 70% did respond! I can remember once when I was selling new Mazda's, I managed to sell a mystery shopper a new car after the event, from dealing with them so well during the mystery shop! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian 15 Posted December 13, 2013 I've mentioned this elsewhere, but it's simply doing the job right. Answer politely, clearly and keep an open dialogue. Congratulations on your award, you must be chuffed! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
