Replying Quickly To Incoming Messages.
Getting back to potential buyers as fast as possible can go without saying however it is good to remember that there is competition out there. Most of these buyers are messaging you and going right back out to the OfferUp app feed and looking for similar cars in your area, they are then messaging those sellers/dealers as well. So at any given time, you could have a buyer that reached out to you and reached out to 4 others in your area as well.
Think of it this way, a recent Google survey indicated that 54% list speed as one of the top purchasing criteria when making a purchase today.
Consider this, data gathered from the OfferUp dealer network shows that many dealers are underestimating the value of being responsive in chat. Dealers who respond to leads within two minutes enjoy high lead retention, however, dealers who take over an hour to respond lose 25% of their leads and the remaining leads’ response time drops drastically. Dealers that wait longer than 24 hours to respond will on average lose 77% of their leads.
Responding To Everyone (yes even those low ball offers)
Not only is speed important, but responding to all your incoming leads is equally important. Sales is a numbers game and every lead counts. If you are only replying to a fraction of the leads that are coming in then you are without a doubt leaving potential money on the table. With today's car shopper, many times when a user engages you with a question they are in peak buying mode. More often than not, they are looking to get answers to questions that they couldn't find on their own.
Now, we are stating the obvious when we say the more conversations you participate in the more opportunities you create for your dealership. We also know you will get buyers sending you low ball offers and it can get challenging, but we have to remember that these are potential leads still. Many buyers today are going to buy from you based on their experience interacting with you.
So what should do? There many ways to communicate with a low baller that could turn that around to a sale or at the very least an in-person appointment. Some buyers might need to be educated on the market. Some buyers this is their first time purchasing a car and are not familiar with the process. Some buyers might not have the money for the specific car they reached out to you about but they may be open to another make and model in their price range.
The point is you never know until you have that conversation with them, this is why you should reply to every lead that comes in. Give yourself the best shot you can be communicating with 100% of the inquiries, that way you will know you never left any potential sale behind.
Personalized Engaging Communication
Today's car shoppers want bespoke experiences and they expect you to cater your car shopping experience to them. A great way to separate yourself from the competition is making sure you are having personalized conversations with these customers. These are real people and they want to feel like they are being heard and their needs are being met. As someone who has interacted with dealerships, I have seen many times where a dealer will receive 3 very different messages from 3 different buyers but they will reply to every message with the same answer. Not very personalized now, is it?
The other thing we often see is that a dealer may only respond with one or two-word statements. This doesn't allow for the customer to have any reason to reply to you. Imagine being in person with this customer and you were to only reply with one or two-word statements. It would be pretty awkward and they probably would feel like you didn’t care if they were a customer or not. Natural conversation, especially in text form, does not always flow freely, it’s human nature if we are asked questions we tend to want to reply to them. So if you are the dealer asking your customers engaging questions I would say you have a leg up on the competition.
If you have any questions about the blog or want to learn more about how OfferUP can help your dealership, visit: www.offerup.com/autos.