Digital Dealer - April 2018 - 42

DD24

COMMUNICATIONS

APRIL 21-23, 2015 * TAMPA, FL

FEATURED
SPEAKER
APRIL 21-23 * TAMPA,
FL
By Sean V. Bradley, CSP
Founder & President,
Dealer Synergy

A Mystery Shop for a Major
National OEM (Part 2)
Last month, I
introduced Part 1 of a
two-part article series on a
national Mystery Shop
that Dealer Synergy
conducted for a major
OEM. We shopped
dealerships across the
country and evaluated
them on communication
KPIs. Part 1 focused on
KPIs for phone calls and
emails. This article reveals
the rest of the metrics:
texting, chat, social, and
video. (Note: Each
dealership that was
mystery shopped was
done so twice on different
days, by different mystery
shop agents to ensure
everyone was given a fair
opportunity to showcase
their true standings.)
TEXT

45% of dealers did
NOT have a texting feature on their website. Of
the dealers that did, 40%
ranked higher than the
National Average in text
performance. (National
Average Score is 40%.)
Mystery-Shop Scores:
 30% of texts scored
between 78% and 86%
 50% of texts scored
between 48% & 59%
OBSERVATIONS

 All of the dealerships
requested a response to
opt-in, and they also gave
the option to opt-out or
unsubscribe at any time
 Quick response time
when texting
42

APRIL 2018

 All but one dealership
sent a link to the VDP
 80% attempted to
follow up via phone
 Most did not have a
clear process or strategy
 The majority of the
dealerships used an outside company that did not
have the ability to instantly

in their chat score than the
National Average score
(which is 36%). The score
was largely based on chat
content. (10% of dealers
with chat features did
not have a rep available
during both mystery shop
chats.)
 Mystery-Shop Scores

YOUR DEALERSHIP NEEDS TO BE
ABLE TO GET THE PROSPECT THE
INFORMATION THEIR LOOKING FOR AS
SOON AS IT IS REQUESTED, AND THE
FASTER THE BETTER.
speak with someone at
the dealership

ranged from 23% to 91%
OBSERVATIONS

96% of text messages
get read--that is a staggering statistic, and yet many
dealers still do not have
texting capabilities or a
strategy in place! I think all
dealerships should have
the ability for prospects
and clients to be able to
text them directly from
their website. But texting
without a strategy or
process in place can be
counterproductive so just
as dealers have a CRM
with a library of email templates, there needs to be
a library of text message
templates with an escalation protocol.

 Better-performing dealers differentiated themselves by either providing
a customized video or with
the rep's ability to speak
with a sales specialist
 Almost all chats had
personalized and fast responses, link sharing, and
non-vague questions
 The majority of chats
did not include a clear
process, identification of
urgency/expectations,
trade availability, value/
differentiation discussion,
spelling checks
 Most chat reps were
offsite with limited information to answer questions

20% of dealers did
NOT have a chat feature.
45% of dealers that did
utilize chat, ranked higher

Chat should be used to
predominantly try to escalate to a BETTER form of
communication like on the

OPINION

CHAT

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

OPINION

phone or video conference
(i.e. Apple Facetime or
Skype) so you can sell
the appointment (which is
easier to do via phone than
chat). If the prospect is
adamant to use chat simply
to ask questions and does
not want to escalate to a
different form of communication, I am NOT saying to
ignore this and try anyway.
Chat requires a clear
strategy and a process
conducive to that strategy.
There should be chat templates/scripts mapped out
to streamline this process.
Your dealership needs to
be able to get the prospect the information their
looking for as soon as it is
requested, and the faster
the better.
The majority of dealers
we mystery shopped used
managed chat (a third-party company handled the
chat from offsite) and as
a result, they did not have
the information needed onhand to answer questions
from prospective buyers.
In fact, only one dealership
was able to answer the
prospect's question in real
time by transferring to a
salesperson. Every other
chat mystery shop ended
with the chat rep saying
that they did NOT have that
information available but
they would get someone
to call them back asap.
Not being able to provide
information at the time it is
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