Digital Dealer
Online Customer Service: Do You Take Your Internet Customers Seriously?
By John Holt
CNW Marketing/Research recently released the results of a two-year study on the effectiveness of the Internet as an automotive shopping tool. The report consists of the responses of 1.1 million people, 219,000 of whom are described as "heavy Web users."
Results show that approximately 41 percent of shoppers looking to purchase a new vehicle sent an e-mail inquiry to a car dealer requesting information but only 20 percent received a reply.
What does this mean to you? It means that too many dealerships who claim to be open for business "online" aren't. The e-mail inquiries in the study above were sent by shoppers seriously looking at purchasing a car, and they never heard from the dealerships they were considering doing business with.
These Internet customers aren't just "surfing" for entertainment or research. Today's online shoppers are Web-savvy consumers who have grown to expect results when they contact a business on the Internet.
We'll never know in dollar terms how much was at stake in not getting back to these prospective customers. But what we do know is that the dealerships that establish a system of answering e-mails in a prompt and timely manner will be the ones to win over the Internet shopper.
Answering e-mail is like answering the phone. One dealership I know of has a team of Internet sales people dedicated to shoppers using the Web. Each sales person has a pager and when an e-mail comes in, they are notified within seconds. Reply time is about 10 minutes. That's impressive. And I can confidently say that the prospective customer getting a reply back from the dealership within 10 minutes is much more likely to do business with that dealership than the ones that never responded.
Think Doing Business on The Internet And Via e-mail Is Too Impersonal?
The same CNW Marketing/Research study held seven new-vehicle focus groups across the country and found that 43 percent of the participants felt buying a car online was "too impersonal".
Surprising? It shouldn't be. Buying a car is a big financial decision for people. And most people want to purchase a car from someone they trust. Someone they can go back to if there's a problem. And someone they want to give their future business to and refer others to.
It's up to you to show your customers that your online program isn't "too impersonal". All it takes to establish that relationship is providing good customer service, just like you provide to your traditional shoppers that walk into your dealership. And go.
John Holt, co-CEO of the Cobalt Group is the nationŐs largest provider of Internet marketing solutions to automotive dealerships, currently serving more than 6,500 dealers nationwide. jholt@dealeronline.com
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