Email IS Your Biggest Loss of Business

It sounds like Ron Henson at DrivingSales and I are having the same epiphanies at the same time.  Ron is specifically looking at Internet lead responses and I'm talking about any email from the whole dealership.  However, they do go hand in hand.  Read Ron's article:  http://www.drivingsales.com/blogs/ronhenson68/2013/02/15/internet-lead-response-inspect-expect

"I predict that most dealers are under a 20% email response average from their customers" 

Alex, I bet it's must less than this for most dealers.
It's amazing what dealers continue to send to consumers, and then expect a response. 

I dedicated a portion of my presentation around this exact subject at the last DSES.
From the first initial response to the weekly automated responses being sent out from the CRM - they're total crap. 

I mystery shopped several dealers throughout the Maryland area several months ago to help prepare for my session at DSES. To this day I'm still receiving emails (automated) from 2 of the dealers. Not once have I been sent a relevant message nor one with a vehicle or inventory - the most effective and relative content a dealer posses. 

I wrote an article years ago around AIUA - attention, interest, urgency and action - 4 elements that need to be included in your email before you send. Years later, it's still very relevant. 

So YES - dealers are loosing opportunities each day with the crap they respond to customers with. And here we are still talking about it. 

Funny fact - I attended a workshop well over 10 years ago. I can't recall who held the workshop but I specifically remember the trainer at the time was recommending that dealers respond to their email with a simple message... 

"Thanks for contacting us at ABC Motors. We're so busy here with customers taking advantage of our huge sale we have little time to respond to email inquires. 

 For immediate assistance, please call our sales department at --- or stop by the dealership at --- . 

 Hope to see you at the dealership soon. 

 --Sig line--" 

I often wonder - maybe he was onto something.

Hey Alex - we have a lot of data on this subject and are even putting together a whitepaper on our findings.With thousands of leads reviewed, we are seeing that 18% of customers are responding back to anything automated.  The primary reason for this is the lack of worthy marketing messages included in outbound emails.  Internet salespeople simply don't attempt to engage customers with quality content.  Instead, the majority of outbound emails say something insanely bland like "Still interested...", "Have you bought yet?", "Still in the market?" or "Haven't heard from you in two weeks".  Dealer personnel need to start thinking of the buying triggers associated with their customers' purchase decisions and create more intuitive email templates.
 
Contact made is the most important factor so the fact that just over 1% of customer respond back to the typical 1-minute auto-responder proves that dealers aren't using every single contact point to begin a conversation.  We've seen some data from a CRM company that shows roughly 25% of their emails are read at all.  That is a phenomenally low rate so we need to improve our understanding of subject lines and spam filters if we want to reach more eyeballs.  It also shows the power of follow-up calls and quality note-taking.

A = Action. NEVER send an email to a potential customer without asking a question. The question NEEDS to be your last in the body of your response. The purpose of  your first response is to gain a response back.

Thanks Joe and Jeff.  We can all definitely agree there is a long road ahead.
 
Since I posted this a few Internet Managers have reached out to me directly.  It sounds like they do see where things severely fall down within email communications coming from sales agents and managers.  They've been looking for ways to approach these individuals, and all I can say to that is:  people like to know how to improve.  Help them understand that customers don't all appreciate a lot of lol's, ttyl's and things like that (also a big problem).  Customers just want their questions answered in a timely manner.  Feel free to use this article as an ice-breaker toward your own coaching.

@dealerrefresh Huge one right there Jeff and emphasize, it needs to be ONE action.

Fantastic Article!  Just wondering if there is a CRM out there that can measure this. Email responses are just as important as lead closing ratios. 
Troy
Internet Sales Director

I'll look at this now. Thanks

@GaryYeomansFord - Hello Troy, While there isn't a CRM that measures the quality of responses, there is a tool out there that can help.  Ideally, the BDC Manager or Internet Director can do it, but we know no one has the time. Check out this interview Jeff did about our TaskTeacher tool that measures the thoroughness of the follow-up. http://www.dealerrefresh.com/dealerknows-task-teacher-introduction-interview/

So the real issue is how do we implement email standards and consistently audit performance to hold our team members accountable?
 
The keys are standards, consistency and accountability - and I know of very few dealers who are willing or able to invest the resources necessary to achieve these goals.

@Joe Webb  @GaryYeomansFord Joe - you looked at a CRM that helps to show which person needs some email coaching during DMSC