Auto-Responders

[jimmuntz]

Great Idea! By putting your dealership's url in every e-mail message you help build the dealership's brand. One of your goals should be to magnify the dealership and its services and minimize the brand recognition of the referral service.

Careful- If your web site does not answer the needs of the Internet car shopper, your url could do more damage than good.

Still - great strategy!

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Jim Muntz
Publisher WD&S Publishing
jimmuntz@dealersedge.com
Phone 800-321-5312
FAX 800-314-4770

[dodge1]

Wow, the forum is really getting some great results! Sorry I have not been posting lately, just never seem to get the time.

To put my two cents in I would like to say that I do not use the auto-responders, I use a pager connected to my email address. Allthough I use a template to address the first time email contact, I have left it so I can answer any specific questions from the client. However, I can certainly see the effectiveness of autoresponders.

I do however have one question for the group. Has anyone found a decent email management program that can also double as a sales contact manager i.e. automatically schedule (not autorespond) your next contact date, sort types of email (autoweb, carpoint etc..) and do other basics tasks automatically. I would certainly appreciate your input on the question.

Pat Evans
Haddad Dodge/Kia

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[This message has been edited by dodge1 (edited 09-02-99).]

[R. Insell]

Pat,

I have been looking for a service that targets specifically at the auto industry and Autoweb.com recently has come out with a product that targets our field, it can be found at SalesEnhancer.com I am not sure of the specifics that you are looking for but it definately wouldn't hurt to talk to someone about it. I hope this helps you and anyone else out there looking for additional help.

[This message has been edited by R. Insell (edited 09-03-99).]

[Patti Schnecke]

I have the scoop regarding SalesEnhancer!

It was developed as a management tool for automotive Internet sales.

It has so many features including an auto-responder. It is a web based program so you can access it from anywhere.

For the sales staff it allows you to keep track of the new and pending customers for example, when you log-on it will give you a list of all new customers, appointments you have for the day, follow-up calls that need to be made and any other status you may want to include. You will eliminate duplicate purchase requests (you know as well as I do that Internet customers use several services). You will be able to access reports to track you closing ratio by month, service or sales person. It has an optional interface to your in-house accounting system (Reynold & Reynolds / ADP), so all sold deals can be cross-referenced to the Internet department and showroom traffic.

For management and owners, you can assess true ROI and closing percentage of your Internet services, review the status of any customer at any time and generate reports for the week/month/year/per sales person/per service.........

I have more information if anyone is interested.

Patti

[g-man]

Hi there..

Regarding Sales Enhancer

I just got off the phone from my friendly Autoweb.com representative who tried to upsell me the salesenhancer. The cost is variable depending on the relationship you have with them.

I think salesenhancer is the ultimate turn-key solution to lead-management. Whether the lead comes in person, or via e-mail, sales enhancer can help. The costs however, throw my decision into the negative. Instead of purchasing it outright, a monthly fee is fixed onto it, making it an investment for serious dealers only.

Other options include using an OpenSource program to run on your in-house Linux webserver, or perhaps hiring a programmer on a project-basis to customize an access database.

Otherwise, you are going to have to learn how to use sales enhancer which could end up costing manpower, and much more than you bargain for. Just be sure to count the costs before building!

g-man
Pflueger Honda
www.hondahawaii.com

[Bobby Zarr]

Autoresponders work great IF they are encompassed in a total solution of follow up. Most customers can recognize an auto-responder generator message AND expect a "Live" response to follow in a reasonable amount of time. Tools such as integrated email pagers, like NetAlert, and web-based customer management solutions like iNTOUCH enable not only auto-response, but managed-response. There is a huge difference in the results.

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[G.Machado]

Wow!!!

I am so impressed by all the opinions that you have posted, I know both Mr. Mushro and Patti and I have spoken to them on the phone about this topic before.

Please allow me to share a few issues and perhaps at the risk of covering some old ground we should point out a few things.

Auto Responders are a plus for several reasons:
**They work 24/7 365 days a year.
**It allows you to deliver a clear message in real time, or darn close.
**If the letter is formatted correctly it can save you a lot of work.
**They sets up the persona that you would like to project to you customers.
**It keeps the ISC from having to be chained to a desk and allows you to better leverage your time.

There is not one element that you can add to you current selling situation that will more
dramatically improve your closing ratio than immediate response. I don't care if your reply is personal or automated nothing impresses a prospect more. If you can't get back to them in real time then perhaps you should look into auto responders.

However, like all good things there are a few draw backs that we need to address. I like Eudora and recommend it for all of my clients the 4.2 Version is only $49.99 and offers a $10.00 mail in rebate. Unlike Outlook, it is simple to configure to preform a variety of task including: Auto Print, Forwarding, Labeling & Auto Responding. One other key feature is Eudora will allow you to manage numerous email addresses and multiple personalities like: F&I, Used Car Manger, GSM or the Dealer(Great for a Thank You email). One other feature is that you can develop an entire library of templates and auto responders for almost any occasion like a weekend or a day off. Eudora can be used with an ISDN,DSL connection or a dial up, and can be configured to check for purchase request as often as you need I prefer every 10-12 min..

True,it will not send a reply to all of the major lead providers (YET) but it is my
understanding that many of the companies are looking into changing the format. The key is that the email address of the sender has to appear in the header for it to work. There are however other ways that this can be set up to work by implementing the use of a "Net Search Pager" this allows you to get your mail any where you might be unfortunately, they don't work everywhere.

One of the problems that I see in most dealerships that I visit that the Dealer's own web page can't use an auto responders because the web developer has used MS "Front Page" to create the purchase aplication and this will not allow the Cgi bin to create a purchase request with the senders address in the header format. It also limits the number of search engines that will accept their page.

There are a few pit falls to auto responders that need to also be addressed and that is
the content of the message: It should not sound like a TV or Radio Commercial. Avoid the old cliches that project that image, remember the vast majority of Internet Customers are trying to avoid that process.

One last warning...the auto responder is only the start of the journey to selling a car. We know that the people that are writing you prefer communicate by email so this is a great first step. But, you can not expect the car to sell itself a timely phone call or follow up email is critical in order to
proceed.

If you have questions about any if the details regarding my comments please let me know. I have friends all over the country who have done a great job of selling cars on the web and I can refer them to you so that they can help you get a no-charge evaluation of your current process and perhaps help you move your game to the next level.

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Good Luck,

G.Machado
GMACGroup.com
machado@dealertools.com
phone: (888)908-0888
e-fax: (888)421-2892

[This message has been edited by G.Machado (edited 11-18-1999).]

[dansmith]

Eudora Pro works very well. We set it up to poll every 20 minutes (and reset it to 300 minutes at nights and on weekends). It therefore gets messages within 20 minutes, and replies on the next 20 minute cycle. The filtering can be utilized to send out a very personalized reply. The only thing it can't do is "mail merge" a name into the reply, and ,to the best of my knowledge, it has to attach a copy of the original message - which can look kind of cheezy when it is the results of an on-line form.