Bellingham, WA — AutoFerret.com announced that vehicle sales data analyzed during the month of January 2012 reveals that its Automated Virtual Assistant (AVA), offers proven ROI for auto dealerships. Eight random dealerships that use AVA allowed AutoFerret.com to access their data for the purpose of analyzing ROI. The average closing rate on leads contacted by AVA was 27.8%, compared with an industry average of 6-12%. Additionally, AutoFerret.com conducted a ReEngage Campaign with AVA over the course of the month, which resulted in an average 39.5 vehicles that were sold to old leads.
“We’ve always known AVA produced great results based on her lead engagement rates and the high retention rate from our dealers using AVA,” said Ben Brigham, President & CEO of AutoFerret.com. “This recent analysis confirms what we have long suspected, which is that AVA really does produce dramatic results for dealers.”
AVA is an artificial, “military grade” intelligence technology that carries on a conversation with leads over e-mail, engages them, validates their intent to purchase, sets up phone appointments for the sales staff and follows up to make sure no leads slip through the cracks. Potential customers believe they are exchanging emails with a customer service representative and don’t know that AVA is a virtual assistant.
Leads contacted during the time period of the analysis were a random mix of new and old leads from more than 50+ sources, including a dealer’s web site, independent lead providers and manufacturers. The eight dealerships that participated in the analysis were randomly chosen and of varying size, brand and market.
The analysis was divided into two parts: AVA working fresh leads in real-time, and AVA working old leads from the past six months. The average closing rate on fresh leads contacted by AVA was 27.8%, compared to an industry overall average closing rate of 6-12%. The store with the lowest closing rate was 21.9% and the store with the highest closing rate was 35.1%. The closing rates referred to are not AVA’s closing rate: AVA does not sell cars; she helps the dealership’s sales staff sell more cars.
The average number of vehicles sold during the one-month long AVA ReEngage Campaign was 39.5 vehicles. The store with the lowest count of vehicles sold to old leads showed 11 vehicles sold on 243 leads, and the store with the highest count of vehicles sold to customers sold 66 vehicles on 1811 old leads. The AVA ReEngage Campaign mines the dealership’s database for leads up to six months old. AVA then identifies the customers still in market, re-engages them and hands them off to the sales staff.
“This is found money for the dealerships as their Internet departments are often overwhelmed with today’s leads and more recent leads,” said Brigham. “It would be almost impossible and not very cost effective to have the sales staff reach out on a continual basis to every lead in the system up to six months old.”
Also it was found that of the total number of customers who purchased vehicles from these dealerships during the month of January, AVA had been in communication with 49.4% of them. Her involvement in approximately half of the stores’ business makes her a valuable asset to an Internet department’s sales staff. AVA never tires, takes a break or gets discouraged—she just continues to mine leads, contact fresh leads and notifies the sales staff when she sets appointments.
AVA is available directly from AutoFerret.com or through its partner reseller, AutoUSA Internet Sales Solutions.
About AutoFerret
AutoFerret.com is a fast-growing Internet technology company, founded in 2007 and based in Bellingham WA. AutoFerret develops cutting-edge web technologies, including inventory syndication tools, Facebook Apps and AVA. There are currently more than 3,000 automobile dealers across the United States, Canada, England, and Australia using one or more AutoFerret technologies. AutoFerret strives to maintain a highly successful and satisfied customer base by being agile, hyper-responsive, and creative in all aspects of their business. AutoFerret’s philosophy is to move quickly and decisively in response to customer feedback. For more information about AutoFerret.com, visitwww.AutoFerret.com or call Ben Brigham at (888) 633-7738.