The Marchex Blog

Improve Call Handling Performances and Outcomes

Automotive dealers who wish to refine their phone operations and increase revenue should register today to attend the second installment of our ongoing automotive webinar series, going live March 23rd at 10:30AM PT/1:30PM ET.  The webinar will feature industry experts Anne-Marie Anderson, Marchex Senior Automotive Market Analyst, and Chris Spensley, Marchex Senior Director of Automotive, who will provide an overview of how dealers can win over more inbound callers by using relevant customer data and improving call handling skills.  

The easy first step dealership teams can take to win over more customers is to improve the caller experience through better call handling methods. The best dealerships keep their failed call rate low by using a common set of strategies that significantly lower the likelihood of losing a potential customer: answer the phone before it has rung three times, replace IVR systems with a live representative, always take messages, and use warm transfers. By using methods that have been proven to keep callers engaged, dealers can expect to retain more leads and gain revenue. We covered this in Part 1 of the webinar series, the 3-Step Approach to Win Automotive Sales. Interested in learning more? Watch the previous webinar on demand. 

Another tried-and-true strategy dealers can use to boost sales is to make more data-informed decisions by adopting a conversation intelligence platform. Users can set a conversation intelligence tool to analyze voice and text communications with leads and existing customers in their funnel and automatically extract key details. This information can then be aggregated for display in the platform. Informative but often hidden information in these offline sources can be brought to light such as lead intent, caller intensity, and conversation outcomes. Dealers can use these details to make more informed decisions such as prioritizing their leads by intensity and taking note of why calls failed, refining their sales and marketing strategies.  

Finally, one more step that dealers should take to win callers over is to effectively coach their teams. All sales team members should be briefed and reminded of what is expected regarding caller conduct and should follow all call handling best practices outlined above. Using a conversation intelligence tool, dealers can also assess the performance of their employees, identify who needs coaching assistance, and use relevant data from their sales calls to give team members personalized feedback on how they can improve.  

Register to join us in our live webinar on March 23rd at 10:30AM PT/1:30PM ET to understand how you can boost agent performance and sales by improving the caller experience. Our expert hosts will dive into how refined call handling methods, the use of a conversation intelligence tool, and effective sales team coaching all can contribute to raising your dealership’s profile. To learn more about Engage, our auto-focused conversation intelligence platform, schedule a demo today.