If we’ve said it once, we’ve probably mentioned it a hundred times - dealership response time is the single most important metric to pay attention to when aspiring to increase conversion rate.
Finally (after much analysis), we’re now able to openly discuss just how relevant response time is in improving overall sales volumes.
Thanks to a ridiculous amount of data digging and many a late night spent in spreadsheets; we have finally now begun to obtain an even better understanding of how a dealers sales chances will alter depending on how quickly their sales teams spend in responding to an inquiry.
In order to do this; we analyzed the conversion rates of hundreds of dealers and cross compared the data with average dealership response time metrics measured across the entire year. We further segmented this data by brand (as conversion rates vary depending on vehicle makes) and then calculated averages across the entire data set for dealers based on several response time groupings:-
Group A: 1 Hour or Less
Group B: 3 Hours or Less
Group C: 6 Hours or Less
Group D: 12 Hours or Less
Group E: 24 Hours or Less
Group F: 36 Hours or Less
Group G: 48 Hours or Less
Group H: 72 Hours or Less
Group I: 140 Hours or Less.
Our initial findings indicated that dealers responding in 6 hours or less were on average achieving a 40% improvement in conversion rate. From this data we were able to put together a table that indicated the difference in conversion rate and how more likely dealers were to improve conversion rate if they decreased their response time.
From the table above we can see some key examples of how sales probability improves as dealer response time quickens. For example (see the cell shaded green) dealers responding in 1 hour or less were 48% more likely to close a sale compared to dealers responding in 24 hours or less. Even dealers with relatively quick response times of three hours or less (which is an AutoDeal standard to receive our quick dealership reply badge) could improve their sales chances by 37% if they reduced response time to under an hour.
While the probability of sales success does increase incrementally (in most cases), it would appear that significant impacts can not be realized until a dealer improves their response time to six hours or less. As such, six hours would appear to be the ideal initial response time for dealers to be aim towards if they’re currently unsatisfied with their sales results.
Naturally several anomalies did exist within the data, caused by slower responding dealers who managed to equal or exceed conversion rates versus their faster responding counterparts (see cells shaded purple). This could be due to increased efforts in various other factors such as re-marketing, sales endurance, price point and communication quality; which we’ve yet been able to measure the full extent of value of (watch this space).
For now, one thing remains clear: analyzing your sales team response time may be one of the more accurate way to forecast your online sales results.
As with all data, these figures are constantly moving based on the activities and success of sales teams; as such we’ll continue to inform partners with updates to data as and when significant changes occur.
