Don’t Lose Out on Leads, Keep Your Digital Dealership Open 24/7!

Imagine if Amazon shut its website to shoppers at 6pm every day just like many UK dealerships do. “Sorry guys and girls, the working day is now over, please log-on again at 9am sharp, when we’ll be back open for business!’

It’s completely unthinkable that a company would do that today, isn’t it? Amazon would lose out on so much money, it’d be commercial suicide, surely?

Consumers expect to be able to surf the internet and buy things 24/7, a culture of immediacy and an ‘I want it now’ attitude has taken over and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.

Why Dealers Must Adapt to the Demands of Modern Retailing

So then, why do many car dealers still adhere to such rigid business practices when other industries adapted many years ago? The answer, in a word, is: inertia.

That is until recently, when a large segment of early adopters from Click Dealer’s client base took a strategic step into the future of automotive retailing, by starting to sell vehicles online through ClickEngage ™ and the results, even in a short space of time, are already incredibly encouraging for the industry.

Click Dealer has seen the efficiency of recording leads for its dealers increase drastically because of the cutting-edge automation available in ClickEngage™, as well as helping dealers to easily identify the best performing advertising channels through advanced lead source tracking technology.

The average wait time before consumers search for another vehicle is just 60 minutes, which means that dealers need to find a way to get back to their leads promptly or risk losing them altogether. With ClickEngage™, portal and website enquiries drop straight into the system meaning no double data entry. These enquiries are then automatically replied to, sending the consumer an SMS or email link so consumers can build their own deal.

Answering Leads Promptly is Vital

With peak dealer website traffic being between 6-9pm in the evening, it’s little wonder that based on industry averages 64% of lead enquiries are lost due to a lack of contact, as well as the fact that a dealer’s average response time to enquiries is a huge six hours. So far with ClickEngage™ dealers, 34.6% of all enquiries have been processed out of hours, without this technology these leads could have been lost.

It’s also worth noting, that on average Click Dealer has increased customer enquiries by 14.7% for dealers signed up to ClickEngage™ and that is without the backing of paid channels at present. It’s simple really, if you’re open for business longer, you’re more than likely to increase your enquiries and if you process leads out of hours, then chances are you’ll improve conversion.

The Landscape is Shifting and Dealers Must Evolve

Since November 2017, a staggering 100% of online reservation payments made through ClickEngage™ have resulted in a complete sale, this indicates that consumers are ready and willing to part with their hard-earned cash online, to secure their vehicle of choice.

The current landscape of the industry is shifting and even some franchised dealers are now looking to used vehicles to maintain profitability, competition is fierce and ClickEngage™ could prove a vital asset, in the ever more fearsome battle with competitors.

Whether you’re an independent or franchised dealer, if you’re retailing used vehicles ClickEngage™ provides a fully integrated, low risk and cost effective method for dealers to sell vehicles online.

For more information or to book a free demo of ClickEngage™ get in touch with The Clickers today via marketing@clickdealer.co.uk, 01782  478220 or via our contact page.