‘UK’s quickest car dealer’ responds to customers in a minute

The ‘UK’s quickest car dealer’ benefits from increased customer conversions thanks to an average response time of just one minute and nine seconds, it has been claimed.

The positive impact of rapid responses to customer leads has been analysed by iTrackLEADS, which found that the average car retailer responds in 50 minutes.

However, the fastest response times saw 10% of enquiries converted to test drives and 84% of test drives turning into sales, while slower responses saw a test drive conversion rate of 6% and 82% of test drives making sales.

The iTrackLEADS data also showed that up to 78% of sales go to the retailer that responds quickest.

Adrian Favill, director of iTrackLEADS, said: “Our technology makes it easy for sales teams to respond quickly to enquiries at any time of day or night. As the data shows, it can make a real difference to the customer experience and, ultimately, sales.

“While some dealers are distributing the responsibility to responding to leads across a sales team, others are putting in place dedicated online response centres. There is no right or wrong answer, but it is clear that a focus on getting it right at the start of the sales process will pay dividends.”

iTrackLEADS was launched in early 2020 and has grown quickly through the pandemic as dealers sought more efficient ways to handle digital enquiries.

The cloud-based platform helps users to aggregate all website enquiries and distribute them to sales teams.

'Always on' lead management

Car buyers are expected to head back to the showrooms this week after a quiet period over the festive break, and there is no time like the present to embrace incoming leads.

Back in November Buyacar data showed that ‘Blue Mondays’ should not be a feature of the car retail sector according to BuyaCar data which suggests the start of the week is the peak period for customer enquiries.

Analysis from the online used car supermarket showed that a reliably 'hot' window of activity among visitors choosing a car, placing a deposit and applying for finance existed at around 8pm to 9pm every Monday.

Speaking in an interview for the December edition of AM, meanwhile, Luscombe Motors managing director, Robin Luscombe, highlighted the challenges posed by an always on retail sector where evenings had become prime time for customer enquiries.

Commenting on the need for digital-savvy sales staff, he said: “The switched-on sales staff, the greedy ones if you like, will be sat responding to customer enquiries while they are sat watching Coronation Street on a night.

“I do it myself. Most of us are on Facebook or Twitter when we’re sat at home, so it’s not a huge leap to quickly email a customer back.

“The reality is that those walking into the dealership on a Monday morning and asking where all the email enquiries are from over the weekend will find that there aren’t any because they’ve all been dealt with.”