How Phone Calls Are the Lifeline for Your Appointments

From the initial phone call to the final sale, you need to keep the lines of communication open with the prospects at your dealership. Since phone calls are an important part of getting leads in the door, here are some things you can do to increase your appointment sets.

Call Prospective Leads

This may seem like a no-brainer, but when online visitors fill out an inquiry form, you need to act quickly. The odds of contacting (and securing) leads decreases by more than 10 times after the first hour, so the sooner you can call back your prospects, the better.

Sales reps often waste valuable time sorting through their email to find leads who have inquired about their services. An easier (and faster) solution that will help you increase lead conversions is to immediately be connected with leads the moment they submit a form. There's a call tracking provider out there who can help you set this service up at your dealership. (Spoiler alert: It's us.)

Remind Customers of Appointments

Once you've contacted your lead and scheduled an appointment with them, you may think your work is complete. However, according to HookLogic, only 50 percent of customers show up for appointments. What gives? Is it something you said? In all honesty, it's probably not personal. Prospects contact at least 3.7 dealerships during their shopping process, so mixing up (or just plain forgetting) an appointment is quite common.

The good news is a follow-up call can help remind your customers of their appointments.

During the follow-up call, it's important to accommodate any scheduling changes that need to be made. This will prevent a no-show from your customer and demonstrate your dealership's exceptional customer service. If you can't find time in your busy day to contact each customer by phone, try sending prerecorded custom messages as friendly appointment reminders.

Manage Your Meetings

Now that you've successfully reined in all of these leads, you might have a full day of appointments ahead of you. But if you've overbooked your schedule, you might be in trouble.

To make sure you have enough time to thoroughly meet your prospects' needs, look over your CRM notes. (Some leads may require more time than others.) This will allow you to better prepare for each appointment, build rapport with the customer and give leads an overall better car buying experience.

Increasing appointment sets is vital to your dealership's success, and it all starts with active communication. To create that "WOW" factor for customers during appointments, check out these customer service tips.