Using Caller-State Data for Lead Attribution

While measuring sales and service revenue by marketing campaign may reveal which campaigns are yielding positive ROIs and which are not, this approach doesn’t reveal why the campaigns are performing the way they are.

Many variables at the various customer touchpoints impact campaigns. The critical data dealers need in order to drive successful campaigns will be revealed in the callers’ questions and comments.

Before the call is even made, Dynamic Number Insertion widgets are tracking website visitors back to their referral source like a paid search phrase like “Subaru+Ascent+Chicago.”

The way the caller asks for a department demonstrates the caller’s status. For example, if they say, “Joe in sales, please,” you know that’s a current customer. If the caller says, “Hi, I’m calling with some questions about preordering the new Subaru Ascent,” it’s likely they have never called your store before. Both are sales opportunities and marketing can use this feedback to better optimize its paid search strategy. It’s not the what, it’s the why.

“The data contained in call recordings tells us why a customer searched on a specific keyword phrase,” said Miran Maric, vice president, chief marketing officer of Asbury Auto Group. “Previous to having caller-stated data, we were limited to only what customers were searching.”

Dealers can shift their digital strategy off of what car owners are searching for to why car owners are searching. This shift is changing search strategy. Today, marketers can drive specific calls, conquest opportunities versus current customers and sales versus service opportunities.

The majority of caller questions will be regarding vehicle availability, options and pricing. If sales is not prepared to answer these questions or not properly trained to find answers while the caller stays engaged on the phone, the chances of the sales cycle continuing diminishes.

The average dealer sets 36 percent of inbound sales calls to an appointment when they answer all of the caller’s questions. Dealers that must perform discovery and call a customer back set only 21 percent of those initial inbound sales calls to an appointment. This feedback is essential in order to better educate customers in the marketing message itself and to better communicate and train dealership staff on how to answer key questions.

Customers tell us everything we need to know to optimize marketing campaigns for success. We just need to listen. 

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