The Times They Are A-Changin Or Are They?

I am currently consulting for a cutting-edge company called Optimy, which specializes in connecting auto shoppers to dealers in real-time. Having recently relocated back to the mainland from Hawaii, I am in the market for two new vehicles. Despite my extensive 27 years of experience in the automotive industry, I am no longer working for a major OEM. As a result, I can now gain insight into the auto-shopping process from the perspective of a customer.

I've observed that most dealers I've been working with fail to effectively engage with potential customers. Despite my clear intention to make a purchase and their desire to make a sale, the communication process is severely lacking. From overlooking the comments on their lead forms to using poor grammar and misspellings in their responses, the initial stages of the customer journey are far from promising.

During my time at a major OEM in 2011, my primary responsibilities included lead production, lead distribution, and lead management. Back then, the speed of response was paramount, and it remains just as crucial today. However, the importance of connecting with online shoppers right before and after they submit their inquiries has only grown. When shopping online, the need to connect with someone immediately is undeniable. Once I leave the dealer's site, I move on with my life. It's up to the dealer to pursue me through phone, email, or SMS.

According to Cox Automotive's study, most BDC/Internet Sales associates spend a significant 76% of their time trying to engage in meaningful conversations while only dedicating 24% of their time to actual selling. Optimy has the potential to revolutionize this pattern, offering a beacon of hope in the current landscape.

Here is a quick excerpt from the Havard Business Review that still stands true today and is particularly relevant to our current market conditions:

Nonetheless, our research indicates that many firms are too slow to follow up on these leads. We audited 2,241 U.S. companies, measuring how long each took to respond to a web-generated test lead. Although 37% responded to their lead within an hour, and 16% responded within one to 24 hours, 24% took more than 24 hours—and 23% of the companies never responded at all. The average response time among companies that responded within 30 days was 42 hours.

These results are especially shocking given how quickly online leads go cold—a phenomenon we explored in a separate study, which involved 1.25 million sales leads received by 29 B2C and 13 B2B companies in the U.S. Firms that tried to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving a query were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead (which we defined as having a meaningful conversation with a key decision maker) as those that tried to contact the customer even an hour later—and more than 60 times as likely as companies that waited 24 hours or longer.

Automotive dealers are making big investments in order to obtain customer queries from the Internet, and they should be responding at Internet speed. Are you confident that your company effectively handles potential customers’ online queries? Think hard. Our research shows that most auto dealers are not responding nearly fast enough.