9:02 am, August 26, 2011
A QUARTER of buyers prefer to make their first contact with a dealer by email and by phone, new research reveals.
Motors.co.uk also found that while 25 per cent of car buyers preferred the email and phone contact, 75 per cent of car buyers preferred visiting the dealer’s showroom.
The research, which was conducted among 1,000 car buyers also reveals that more than half of car buyers do their vehicle research between 7-11pm and make ‘out of hours’ vehicle enquiries by telephone and email.
However, the research reveals that dealers are not responding to email and telephone messages, as nearly a quarter of car buyers who have made contact by telephone and/or email and have received no response back from the dealer.
Dealers in Wales are the worst for responding to email enquiries shows the research, with 39 per cent of car buyers claiming not to have heard back after sending an email to a dealer, while dealers in the east Midlands come out top, with only 10 per cent of car buyers complaining that they have failed to receive a response from an email.
When it comes to answering to telephone enquiries, dealers in greater London are the poorest with 33 per cent of car buyers saying that they have left a telephone message and received no call back.
In contrast, dealers in the South East are the best in the UK for handling phone messages, with only 16 per cent of car buyers failing to have a telephone message answered.
Phill Jones, commercial director at Motors.co.uk said: ‘This new research is good news for dealers as showroom visits are still a high priority for car buyers, despite the decline in footfall over the last few years.
‘While many car buyers do much of their research online before buying a car, they are clearly using different routes to reach dealers. This does mean that if dealers want to track the success of their advertising, they need to be monitoring response across phone, email and footfall.
‘However the bad news is that some dealers are losing out on potential sales by failing to respond to enquiries by email and telephone. It is clear is that car buying patterns are changing and for a proportion of car buyers who source their next car online, email or a phone call are the first ways in which they want to engage with dealers.
‘In these current tough trading conditions, it is vital that dealers have the systems and workforce in place to track, record and respond to any enquiring in a timely manner. This will enable them to optimise every potential lead and help them improve sales.’
