CallSource, a leader in automotive call tracking and analytics, released their first annual Inbound Phone Experience Study analyzing OEMs to determine how each brand’s inbound phone calls impact customer experience.
“For years, everyone has known there is a direct correlation between car shoppers’ dealership experience and their likelihood to purchase. The phone is a key element of customer satisfaction within a car buying journey. We wanted to use our data to find the right combination of behaviors that will have the quickest impact on customer experience for dealers and OEMs,” stated Pogo Parr, president of automotive.
In this study, CallSource focused on three key areas of the inbound phone call: answer rate, connectivity score and appointment set rate. CallSource identified these key areas as easy opportunities for dealers to immediately improve their customers’ phone experience. According to the study across all brands and categories, both luxury and mass-market, the average answer rate in dealerships is 95%, with only 83% of shoppers being connected to a live person in the correct department. The biggest dealership challenge is getting in-market shoppers to commit to a dealership visit, which only occurs 19% of the time.
“Awareness is key. By listening to and analyzing thousands of calls, it is obvious the phone process is broken in the dealership. With dealership visits declining as more shoppers research online, securing appointments to increase showroom visits is more important than ever. This study sheds light on the process of the phone that is broken within each brand and what OEMs and dealerships need to pay attention to, right now, to improve the overall consumer experience,” Parr said.
Other key findings from the study:
- Toyota and VW rank highest in phone experience in mass-market brands.
- Acura and Audi rank highest in phone experience for luxury brands. Luxury brands, in general, have the lowest phone experience scores.
- Kia (90.3%) & GM (88.5%) have the highest connectivity scores in the mass-market while Acura (87.2%) and Audi (86.7%) rank highest in the luxury category.
- Toyota (27.9%) and Hyundai (24.5%) set the most sales appointments in the mass-market category while Acura (27.3%) and Alfa Romeo (25.2%) rank highest in the luxury category.
How does your brand rank?
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