The obsession with technology, particularly smartphones, has changed the world as we used to know it. Just look at the difference between the crowd in front of the Vatican from 2005 and now.

But, even with the focus on the phone increasing so dramatically, the automotive industry may be no better today than it was 10 years ago, and a lot of that is because there are dealers that are still not utilizing a call monitoring service! We know, we can't believe it either.

The cool part? The dealers utilizing our call monitoring solution sure have improved!

After finding some old presentations we’d created years ago, we had to do a double take at some of the older numbers! It’s been quite some time since we've seen our partner's missed opportunity numbers so high, that we thought we might have been reading it wrong. After the intial shock, we realized this is a good thing! We decided to run a little data test to see the difference that CallRevu dealers have created over the years. So, why not put the past against the present and truly deep-dive into the data from the beginning and now!

And what did we find? Dealers utilizing CallRevu’s services have gotten significantly better over time, and we have the data to prove it!

Connection Rate:

In our first 2 million call report starting in 2008, an average of 47.5% of all calls going into car dealerships did not reach the intended agent or department. We repeat, 47.5% of all calls, connected and asking for an agent or department, did not connect. We’re not saying that we’re mathematicians or anything...but that is almost half of all opportunities missed.

10 years later, that number has dropped to 27% of all calls not reaching the requested agent or department! (Warning: We’re about to toot our own horn) CallRevu has helped our partners answer 20% more of their calls in less than a decade.

Well, actually 20.5% more, but hey, who’s counting….

While that number is still not where we would want it to be as the goal is always perfection, we do have high hopes for the future based on the improvement thus far. With about ½ of the calls not connecting with the requested party then, CallRevu partners were able to drop that statistic to about ¼ of calls not connecting to the requested agent or department.

We just went from an F to a solid C.

Obtaining Contact Info:

Obtaining enough customer information to place in your CRM for follow-up is always an area of struggle. In fact, 8 in 10 calls aren’t properly entered into the CRM. We always suggest earning your customers’ information, rather than the, uh, not-so-much earned method of copying the number they are calling from off of the caller i.d. In fact, the caller i.d. is only accurate 42% of the time. What if they are calling from work, were calling from their friend’s cell phone, or from their family members’ house phone? By creating this relationship of earning the right to ask for contact information, you build a customer for life, ultimately increasing your chances of getting enough contact information for your CRM.

Over the past decade, tens of thousands of salespeople nationwide have been certified through CallRevu University and have learned how to earn, ask, and receive customer contact information, building better rapport, life-long relationships, and building the database in their CRM.

In the first 2 million call report, 46% of all calls in all departments did not gather enough contact information to load the prospect into the CRM. In 2016, that number improved to 37%. CallRevu has helped its partners retain 10% more of their phone ups in their CRM.

The Difference Makers:

While we may have been tooting our own horn before, the real difference makers are our partners. Those dealers who've come to the realization that more and more traffic is coming to them through the phone today, and have answered the wake-up call, are the ones driving the statistics you see here in this article.

Tracking and monitoring your phone calls is no longer the secret sauce. Knowing what happens after the phone rings is where the real value and ROI lies!

The key to market dominance is differentiating yourself from your competition. Now, 7 of the showroom ups of the past shop you online. Customers will call 6 dealers, but only visit 1.4! Making sure you're the one selected and not eliminated is the difference in surviving in this new digital information age. Make sure the pace of change in the industry doesn't exceed that of your business.

Take the first step to market domination by deciding that the caller's journey in your dealership is important. The next step is taking action and bringing vision to where you were once blind!

Here’s to continuing to fix the phones!