Hello Joe,
A little while ago you spoke at our NADA 20 Group and mystery shopped our group on how we followed up with our internet leads. (Thank you for all you brought to our group by the way). I want to start having one of my managers mystery shop our own BDC team but don’t want to just look at what they’re doing with their first response. You had a bunch of things you were looking for over several days with how we handled leads, but I didn’t write them all down. While it seemed like it was a lot of work, especially for a whole 20 group, it was good to have someone from the outside show us all we needed to be doing (or were missing). Can you share with me all the things you were reviewing us on in your mystery shops? I’d appreciate it.
Thanks in advance,
James L.
_________________________________________________________
Hey James!
Thanks so much! It was a fun bunch – and yes, while I know no NADA 20 group has loved all the results of their mystery shops, I know how impactful it is to show the dealers what is really taking place. Like tea tree oil shampoo, when it tingles is when you know it’s working 🙂
As a reminder, I typically don’t like mystery shopping dealerships for one simple reason: it makes their team less productive to have to follow-up with a customer (fake shopper) with no propensity to purchase. That is just one of the reasons we created TaskTeacher, so we could instead examine how teams were handling real leads and calls inside the CRM, in real situations – and we look far more than that first response, as you know, but over the course of a week or more to ensure follow-up is happening (and the right follow-up as that). What we measure dealers on during our NADA 20 group mystery shops only scratches the surface with how granular we get with TaskTeacher, but nonetheless, the curriculum below we went over with all the stores a few months ago still highlights some primary aspects of quality follow up. Here is the criteria we were looking for in your group’s mystery shops…
1. Email timing: We measured and graded the timing of each of the first (up to) 5 emails we received from your stores
2. Auto-response: We reviewed and critiqued any initial auto-responders.
3. First outbound call: We recorded, reviewed the first outbound call (along with the timing after lead submission)
4. First text: Review of the first outbound text (if it existed in the CRM).
5. Answers: Did your team address and or answer the questions we asked, not just at lead submission, but if and when we engaged after?
6. Pricing: Over the course of the first 6 calls, if and when did you provide pricing or pricing scenarios on the vehicles we shopped.
7. Engaging questions: We evaluated if your teams were asking smart, engaging questions. (Not just the “still in the market?” driven waste of space, but conversation-advancing questions.
8. Alternative vehicles: Did the stores, at any point, attempt to open up consideration set or offer/talk about comparable vehicles to consider?
9. Value proposition: For NADA 20 groups, beyond the website audits we do that also incorporate this question, we look to see if any communication could be considered a value proposition or a benefit to the customer to choose your dealership.
10. Appointments: While we didn’t set appointments with your teams, as you know, (we’re not cruel), we evaluated what specific types of appointments were sought after, or, a better way to say it would be, how did they go for the appointment and what language did they use to make their invitation. Call me and I can remind you our appointment-setting methodologies.
11. Video: Going back to the biggest bell I ring, we were looking to see if your team utilized video in their communication with us. Whether it be a video walk-around, a personal video intro, or just a dealer-branded video. We wanted to see if video was being utilized.
There was some extra credit as well, that I always insert in at the end, but it changes by group so I can’t recall which I used for your NADA 20 group. In the end, I’m a big believer in inspecting what you expect – and many of the things we do at DealerKnows for our clients is built around that. Let me know if that answers your questions or if you want to chat about it on a quick call. Happy to connect.
Joe Webb
