While many dealers are working hard to drum up business this fall, lead generation seems to be one of the hot topics as we head through some of the slower months.
It may seem like a daunting task, but there are some simple solutions to make it easier for customers to find your business and keep revenue flowing.
No More Cold Calling
Not only is cold calling a grind, it’s also slowly becoming a less important tool. Throughout the pandemic, customers are looking for faster and easier ways to communicate with businesses.
Customers are switching to texting, and cold calls are going largely unanswered. While you may still get some business from calls, customers are more likely to respond to your texts. Our research found 98% of all text messages are opened, and 95% are read within three minutes.
Adopt a Plan
So now that you are getting more texts, the next step is to get a plan in place to take in and organize all those leads.
The easiest solution is to join a texting platform that will allow you to keep and respond to leads quickly. Kenect’s platform even allows you to use your existing business phone line, not your personal line, for all your texting communication with customers.
With a platform in place, you can setup automated text messaging so when someone contacts you, there will always be a response. This way, the customer knows you are monitoring their needs, and someone is available to contact them.
Make sure there is someone in charge of gathering and organizing these leads. When someone texts you for more information, where does it go? What are they asking for? Who is responding to the customer?
Also, create an easy system for potential customers to ask questions about a certain product. Kenect offers dealers the option to add a button on their website, which allows customers to click it, and the request will go straight to the dealership for a response.
Since the pandemic started, we have seen a 260% increase in inbound texting leads when a button is added to a dealership’s website, and this trend only seems to be going up as the months go by.
Response Times for Leads
Now that you are getting more leads, make sure you are responding to them in a timely manner.
According to our research, on 73% of all leads get a response from dealerships. That leaves out a lot of potential customers.
The data showed that 15% of all leads wait over 24 hours to get a reply.
This rate is not just during after-hours. We found that the average customer lead would wait MORE THAN AN HOUR to be responded to at any time.
During business hours, that wait time was about a half an hour, and after-hours that wait time was more than three and a half hours.
Make sure you are responding to leads anytime they come in. One of the easiest ways to do this is to setup automated replies.
When a lead comes in, it will get a response automatically, which will give your dealership time to have someone respond more in-depth. It also shows the customer that you are monitoring leads, and it will keep them from going someplace else.
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