Shoppers don't keep store hours
Plenty of RV shopping happens after work, late at night and on the days the store is closed. A customer who sends a lead from RV Trader or your website at 9 pm is as interested as one who sends it at 10 am. The difference is that nobody is there to call them.
What happens in the next few minutes still matters. If the customer hears nothing, they keep shopping, and by morning they may have sent the same question to two other dealers.
What the customer should hear tonight
- A reply right away. It tells the customer their message reached a real dealership, not a form that goes nowhere.
- The truth: you're closed. Customers can tell an automatic reply that pretends to be a salesperson. Say the store is closed.
- When you'll reach out, by day and part of day. "Our team will reach out Monday morning" is a promise you can keep. A clock time is one you can miss if the first salesperson in is already with a customer.
What should happen when you open
The leads that came in overnight are the warmest leads in the building when the doors open, and the easiest to lose under the day's new ones.
- Call them first. Before the morning's new leads pile on, call every customer who wrote in after hours.
- Keep the promise you made. If the reply said "Monday morning", the call happens Monday morning.
- Know how many there were. A manager should be able to see at a glance how many leads came in after hours and whether each one got a call.
How DealerPulse handles after-hours leads
While your store is open, Instant Call puts a salesperson from your store on the phone with new leads. After hours, DealerPulse replies right away, says the store is closed and when your team will reach out, by day and part of day, like "Monday morning". It works from each store's own hours. After-hours replies are included in every DealerPulse CRM package, and text replies follow your store's quiet hours.
In the morning, the Leads page's Today tab runs from the store's last close to its next close, so overnight leads are right there with a line saying how many came in after hours. Those leads also carry an "After hours" tag everywhere else they show up.
After-hours leads, answered.
Should an RV dealership reply to leads after hours?
Yes, right away. Tell the customer the store is closed and when your team will reach out, then make that call first thing when the store opens.
Should the after-hours reply give a time?
Give a day and part of day, like "Monday morning", rather than a clock time. It's a promise the team can keep even on a busy morning.
What does DealerPulse do with a lead that comes in after hours?
Instant Call runs while your store is open. After hours, DealerPulse replies right away and says when your team will reach out, and the lead is waiting on the Leads page when the store opens. After-hours replies are included in every DealerPulse CRM package.
See how it works on your own units and lead sources.
See DealerPulse in action