Conversational AI company Conversica has announced new findings from its annual study that may help dealers improve their service department results, according to a news release.
Their 2017 Sales Effectiveness Report on Lead Follow-Up in the Automotive Industry reveals that sales departments are doing well in this regard, but the service department is something of a “weak link.” The study looks at how well dealerships are implementing the “4 Ps” (promptness, personalization, persistence and performance) when they follow up with a lead.
“Our annual report offers a snapshot of how dealerships are handling leads today and how real-world execution compares with best-practice research,” said David Marod, Automotive Industry General Manager at Conversica. “The auto industry continues to perform well at lead follow-up, but our research reveals that service departments are not performing as well as sales departments. Given how critical service departments are to long-term customer retention, dealerships would be wise to make all of the four key lead follow-up practices a priority,” he added.
The report reveals that 20 per cent of the service departments examined in the study failed to respond to a direct, specific inbound inquiry. A mere 10 per cent ended up responding, and they did so with eight or more attempts. The study also shows that 68 per cent of service departments gave up after one or two attempts, and only 6 percent scored an overall “A” grade.
In comparison, 30 per cent of sales departments received an overall “A” grade, which is considered to be the highest grade for any industry surveyed by far, according to the news release.
