Today we announced that PowerSports Network (PSN) will integrate our IM/Chat solution with their website platform which is used by 3,000+ motorcycle, boat and RV dealers. This is an exciting opportunity for us as a company – a chance to bring the same strong ROI we’ve delivered in the automotive sector to an entirely new sector. PSN is a clear market leader and we’re honored to be working with them.
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Automotive Internet Traffic Update
Yago Paramo, head of Paramo Group Inc. (one of our business partners), writes a monthly e-newsletter that is chock full of good stuff (including some comedy!) for automotive internet sales managers. Yago’s business serves only the state of Washington, but if you work around auto retail I suggest subscribing regardless of where you are located geographically.
In this month’s edition Yago has an article entitled “Internet Traffic: Where Are We?”. In it he posits “you can almost spot an upward trend in traffic on every single one of [the third party automotive websites] however the number of leads actually is dropping down. Why is that?”
Read the full article, then ask yourself what investments you’ve made to ensure that the visitors being channeled from 3rd party sties to your dealership’s website don’t remain invisible. As Yago points out, visitgors are less and less likely to fill out a form or call you, so what are you doing to capture them?
Check out our new product tour that includes downloadable dealer testimonials – there you will find some suggestions for how you should be answering this key question.
ALERT! - Lead Notification
Last week JDPower & Associates released a report concerning online vehicle buying services. The excerpt below contained some very interesting statistics that caught my attention.
The study also finds that the average number of online lead providers that dealers subscribe to has increased steadily in recent years—from 5.6 in 2006 to 6.8 in 2008. In addition, approximately one-half (53%) of dealers report subscribing to a lead notification program, which instantaneously alerts dealers to an incoming lead via cell phone voice or text messages. Dealers who subscribe to lead notification programs tend to have high levels of satisfaction with the services. Approximately two-thirds of subscribing dealers “completely agree” that lead notification programs work well and believe that they are worth participating in.
“As both new- and used-vehicle sales decline, it is now more important than ever for dealers to cast as wide a net as possible toward the limited supply of vehicle shoppers, which is one reason why dealers are increasing their use of online lead providers in the hopes of generating more traffic and sales for their dealerships,” said Osborn. “Also, dealers use vehicle lead notification systems to try to differentiate themselves from their competitors through faster lead response times. In this highly competitive industry, creating even a slight edge over other dealers is critical during a period of slow sales.”
Regarding lead notification programs, the 53% number seemed quite high to me. I suppose it’s possible that many dealers claimed to have such programs simply because they buy leads from Dealix or Autobytel, both of whom provide lead notification as a built-in feature. Taking those dealers out of the equation, and focusing on only those dealers that have deployed a lead notification system of their own, I suspect the number is closer to 10% based on our experience.
As our current customers already know, lead notification is an important part of the ContactAtOnce! service today, capable of helping dealers reduce form lead and phone lead response times from hours to minutes. Look for us to announce an expanded lead notification feature set in the near future. If you are a dealer and you haven’t yet invested in a lead notification system, what are you waiting for?