John Keohane, vice president of operations at Temecula Valley Buick GMC in southern California, has been in the car business since the late 2000’s. In 2019, his father-in-law purchased the store and asked John to be a part of it.
Since then, Reynolds is the only DMS the store has known; and they wouldn’t want it any other way. The more their dealership has utilized the Reynolds platform, the more they can’t imagine doing business without it.
Here’s why.
More Than a Chat Lead
Prior to switching to Reynolds to manage chat leads, they were simply checking a box to tell their OEM, “yes, we have chat”. They had chat because they had to, not necessarily because they wanted to.
Those incoming chat “leads” were ignored, largely because of the quality. Leads would come in looking like code and were hard to read. They were incomplete and missing information. For a salesperson, this was an obstacle, and they weren’t following up, understandably so.
But John places customer information on a high pedestal. It’s the Holy Grail to do business effectively, and he knew there was opportunity to get more quality touches in this area.
Today, what Temecula Valley Buick GMC gets through chat is more than just a lead. Their fully managed chat platform provides a human to human interaction, making it easy for customers to achieve what they came to do on their site. With this personalized approach, Temecula Valley Buick GMC is able to capture every needed piece of information on every customer; contact information is never missing. John saw very quickly that customers’ questions were being answered online, and they were capturing information more efficiently. This resulted in qualified leads increasing 5-6%.
“We get the customer’s name, number, the vehicle they were looking at, how far in the process they got. And then, we pick it up from there and sell the vehicle just like any other lead, but now we have more information about the customer.”
Another obstacle previously was the lack of integration with their CRM and the rigid sales structure their previous chat provider required. It was set up for a round robin approach. However, Temecula Valley Buick GMC’s sales team needs an environment where it’s simple to get the job done, so they follow a broadcast lead system where a lead is put out to sales and anyone can claim it.
With a broadcast system, “they get excited and they get after it.” Sales can grab leads from any device, at any time, even when they’re not on the floor. When the lead comes in, they immediately get to work because 1) they’re able to claim a lead on their terms, 2) the information captured online speeds up the process, and 3) it’s a seamless transition into the CRM and working the deal becomes easy.
Expanding Traditional Retail
Temecula Valley Buick GMC typically sees upwards of 1,300 incoming internet leads per month. 15% of them start through a virtual retail experience – a customer goes through the standard steps in a deal,
sometimes on their own, sometimes with assistance from the dealership, but in a remote environment.
The customer enters their information, reviews applicable rates and rebates, submits the credit application, enters their trade, calculates monthly payments, and even submits documentation – all from the comfort of wherever they are. These buyers may be starting their journey online, but that
doesn’t mean they end there. At Temecula Valley Buick GMC, “less than one percent of car deals sold are completed 100% online.”
If their online buying segment is so small, does it matter enough to focus on it? John thinks so.
“It helps us compete against the Carvana’s and CarMax’s of the world. We’re able to present the car, present down to the penny payments, and we’re able to do it quickly.” Customers complete as much of the buying process online as they want to, and if they choose, can finish in-store. Then the dealership seamlessly picks up the deal right where it left off, with more information than ever before, to get it closed.
John and his team have gone from simply checking a required box to really seeing the value. “Chat and virtual retail are now an asset, versus something we had to do before”.
