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Your CHAT follow-up process

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terrencegordon

terrencegordon

8 Pounder Veteran
Apr 20, 2009
83
12
First Name
Terrence
#1
Chat leads are HOT LEADS. What is your dealership doing to differentiate the follow-up process for chat vs. other lead sources (standard lead forms, phone calls)?

SCENARIO A: Jimmy Newtron has just spent 15 minutes chatting with your staff (or managed team) about the new Ford F-150 Raptor Crew Cab (a mean, mean truck BTW). He has provided his phone number AND email address. In fact, he is so hot on this truck he has scheduled an appointment via chat to come in tomorrow afternoon to test drive the car.

The chat lead then goes ADF-style to your CRM. Jimmy gets an auto-response 5 minutes later that says "Hello Jimmy. Thank you for your interest in Bob Bobbert's Ford....etc. etc. Someone will be in touch with you at our earliest convenience to help you with what you are looking for". Then he receives a phone call 4 hours later from a sales person (not the one he chatted with) to ask him what he's looking for.

Jimmy says, "WHAT"?:bkheart:

Do you have a better scenario?
 
#2
It should be the responsibility of your CRM system to recognize certain advertising/lead sources so that you have the responsibility to setup proper action plans for certain advertising/lead sources.

Your CRM doesn't have that capability.....shame on you for continuing to work with them :nono:
 
#3
terrencegordon said:
Chat leads are HOT LEADS. What is your dealership doing to differentiate the follow-up process for chat vs. other lead sources (standard lead forms, phone calls)?

SCENARIO A: Jimmy Newtron has just spent 15 minutes chatting with your staff (or managed team) about the new Ford F-150 Raptor Crew Cab (a mean, mean truck BTW). He has provided his phone number AND email address. In fact, he is so hot on this truck he has scheduled an appointment via chat to come in tomorrow afternoon to test drive the car.

The chat lead then goes ADF-style to your CRM. Jimmy gets an auto-response 5 minutes later that says "Hello Jimmy. Thank you for your interest in Bob Bobbert's Ford....etc. etc. Someone will be in touch with you at our earliest convenience to help you with what you are looking for". Then he receives a phone call 4 hours later from a sales person (not the one he chatted with) to ask him what he's looking for.

Jimmy says, "WHAT"?:bkheart:

Do you have a better scenario?
Click to expand...

I just built a lightning lead system that pings the cell phones of 45 sales reps when a lead hits CRM. Jerry Thibeau has been mystery shopping us for months and has seen it work. Lead response time went from 4 hours (on avg) to 4 minutes (WITH NO BDC!). Jerry T will verify the before and after results.

I am building this system to be a stand alone service. It won't be expensive and will be platform agnostic. I am open to royalty offers. PM me.
 
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#5
JoePistell said:
I just built a lightning lead system that pings the cell phones of 45 sales reps when a lead hits CRM.
Click to expand...

Joe, that's awesome in regards to response time, which is a huge factor. How does that solve the hand-off of the topic? IMO, the most vital component is making sure the communication stays consistent and doesn't appear to the customer that their valued time and potential business is going through the "automation machine".
 
#6
terrencegordon said:
Joe, that's awesome in regards to response time, which is a huge factor. How does that solve the hand-off of the topic? IMO, the most vital component is making sure the communication stays consistent and doesn't appear to the customer that their valued time and potential business is going through the "automation machine".
Click to expand...

No blind-automation-zombie calls Terrance, It's 100% human. Reps fight for the email up, fastest rep takes ownership of the lead, reads the email and calls.

From mystery shopping my competition, ALL DEALERS AVERAGE 4hours TO RESPOND TO AN EMAIL. Thats a huge opportunity! Phone ups have a BELL that rings until someone gets it. Email ups just sit there. I've created an app that turns the email up into a phone up.

I must admit, we're Used Car Monsters, we use technology to gain an edge where ever possible, but when it comes to sales sophistication, our organization is driven by "animal spirits" more so than being "fair and proper". If there is any phone number on the lead, we blow past the email reply and call. It ain't pretty, but it works (mostly because none of my competitors have called the shopper back yet!). Craig Belowski has met our 38 year old pres, he'll smile when he reads this ;-)
 
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#7
JoePistell said:
No blind-automation-zombie calls Terrance, It's 100% human. Reps fight for the email up, fastest rep takes ownership of the lead, reads the email and calls.

From mystery shopping my competition, ALL DEALERS AVERAGE 4hours TO RESPOND TO AN EMAIL. Thats a huge opportunity! Phone ups have a BELL that rings until someone gets it. Email ups just sit there. I've created an app that turns the email up into a phone up.

I must admit, we're Used Car Monsters, we use technology to gain an edge where ever possible, but when it comes to sales sophistication, our organization is driven by "animal spirits" more so than being "fair and proper". If there is any phone number on the lead, we blow past the email reply and call. It ain't pretty, but it works (mostly because none of my competitors have called the shopper back yet!). Craig Belowski has met our 38 year old pres, he'll smile when he reads this ;-)
Click to expand...

That's my kinda dealership!!! When I see chat leads come through with a phone and email my first thought would be to pick up the phone and call them (unless they asked email only). I still see dealers hiding behind the keyboard.
 
#9
JoePistell said:
I just built a lightning lead system that pings the cell phones of 45 sales reps when a lead hits CRM. Jerry Thibeau has been mystery shopping us for months and has seen it work. Lead response time went from 4 hours (on avg) to 4 minutes (WITH NO BDC!). Jerry T will verify the before and after results.
Click to expand...

I can vouch for this. We've been using our mystery shopping process to help Joe identify some issues that were taking place in his dealership. Good ole Uncle Joe not only fixed the problem, he's crushing response times. All of his leads are now replied to in under 5 minutes. And we're doing about 20 mystery shops a month for him. Oh and it's not just an auto responder, it's a phone call that's then followed up by a real e-mail.

There's a reason why they sell 500+ used cars a month and Joe just makes it easier and easier.

If I were working in a dealership today, I'd have Google alerts set up that alerted me anytime Joe Pistell typed "boo" on the Internet. Joe, you're a true asset to the community and we're all better off with you here. You've personally have helped me improve my business and I will always be indebted to you for that.

Thanks for all that you do Joe!
 
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