Last month we looked at the percentage of Internet customers in the major metro areas that actually get contacted by a dealer.  Obviously, contacting prospects is the most critical step for dealers to close Internet sales. Remarkably, however, many dealers are still not following up with their Internet leads.  In Kevin Root’s workshop at NADA, he suggested the easiest way for dealers to double sales: contact your customers! As Root mentioned, according to J.D. Power and Associates, on average dealers contact their Internet prospects only half the time, or roughly 54%!  If sales is the ultimate numbers game, it’s a wonder why so many dealers don't increase their odds by consistently following up with every Internet prospect.   

This month we took a look at dealer contact rates again, however, this time we looked at contact rates by vehicle franchise.  Lexus dealers, famous for their best-in-class customer service, ranked the highest - at 80% contact rates.  Other luxury brands, like Acura and Mercedes-Benz also ranked highly, along with Honda.