New Auto Industry Study: 28% of Consumers Who Call a Dealership Will Purchase a Vehicle

Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX),
a leading provider of call analytics that drive, measure, and convert
callers into customers, today released a new
report analyzing how call-handling impacts purchasing decisions at
car dealerships. After analyzing more than 300,000 inbound phone calls
to dealers through Marchex’s speech analytics software, research found
that agents that answer inbound sales calls have a significant influence
on how likely a caller is to book an appointment or come to a dealership.

Findings include:

• At least 28 percent of auto buyers who make a call will purchase a
  vehicle. Phone calls remain an important touch point in the path
  to purchase for consumers. Dealers need to prioritize inbound calls as
  a valuable part of the customer journey.
• Nearly six out of every 10 inbound calls (57%) to the sales
  department specifically, have intent to purchase. Dealers who
  understand the importance of inbound phone calls and how to optimize
  them are closing more deals.
• Sales calls convert to a purchase an average of four times the rate
  of email. Buyers still value human interaction in the path to
  purchase. While many consumers who call an auto dealership have
  already conducted online research, and moved beyond email
  communication, car shoppers who pick up the phone to call have a
  higher intent to purchase.
• There is a strong correlation between high-performing salespeople
  and customers who make appointments. Salespeople who manage
  inbound calls have a direct, statistically meaningful, impact on how
  likely a caller is to come to a dealership and make a purchase. In
  fact, top performing salespeople are 12 percent more likely to set an
  appointment over the phone, compared to the lowest performing agents.

“With mobile adoption, consumers can research online and click-to-call
car dealers in real-time, showing a high intent to purchase. It’s clear
that phone calls not only matter to businesses, but are a viable revenue
source for brands - especially within the auto industry,” said Matt
Muilenburg, head of automotive at Marchex. “To make the most of these
inbound leads, for both sales and service, dealerships need to be able
to identify callers with intent to purchase and ensure employees know
how to manage those calls.”

According to Dealer.com,
phone calls are on the rise to auto dealerships, but many are still not
able to close the loop to convert those callers into customers. As the
leading provider of call intelligence to auto OEMs, Marchex solutions
enable some of the largest brands in the automotive industry to have
visibility into call trends, call handling challenges, and to identify
caller intent and maximize the potential of inbound phone calls.

In fact, dealers and OEMs have run mystery shopping initiatives for
decades to try and measure the success of agent performance. However, by
applying AI-based algorithms, mystery shopping has evolved into
real-time measurement of actual sales conversations. Unlike traditional
mystery shopping that measures just the dealership, automated
measurement allows businesses to also measure the intent of the shopper.

For this study, the Marchex Institute utilized Marchex’s speech
analytics to analyze more than 307,000 calls to over 650 dealerships
across the U.S. in 2018. Results from the study illustrate the
importance of phone calls in the customer path to purchase and how
service agents play a critical role in helping increase sales and
revenue via proper management of inbound calls. Visit the Marchex
blog or view the complete
report to learn more.

About Marchex

Marchex is a leading provider of call analytics that drive, measure, and
convert callers into customers. The company understands that the best
customers are those who call a company – they convert faster, buy more,
and churn less. Marchex provides solutions that help companies drive
more calls, understand what happens on those calls, and convert more of
those callers into customers. Marchex’s actionable intelligence
strengthens the connection between companies and their customers,
bridging the physical and digital world, to help brands maximize their
marketing investments and operating efficiencies to acquire the best
customers.

Please visit the Marchex blog or
@marchex on Twitter (Twitter.com/Marchex) to learn more.

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