Dealership adjusts as traffic changes course, from Automotive News.
Expanded Web and phone teams stay on top of leads
It used to be that whenever a customer called AutoNation Honda Roseville, the call reverberated around the dealership for anyone to answer, regardless of their specialty.
“Once the call made it past the switchboard, it was a free-for-all,” said Ron Ardissone, market president for AutoNation’s Western region. “Calls were being spread among all our associates, whether they were on the floor or at a computer handling our Internet leads. Anyone could have picked it up.”
Internet leads weren’t handled much more efficiently or urgently. The dealership, about 20 miles northeast of Sacramento, Calif., had seven associates in charge of about 1,000 Internet leads a month. But because an associate could effectively handle about 85 to 100 e-leads a month on average, hundreds of those inquiries were going unanswered.
It was no way to staff a dealership, said Ardissone: “When everyone’s responsible, no one’s responsible.”