A Streamlined CRM
LEADS
to Higher Profits
By Randy Southerland
Building long-term relationships with
customers is the goal of every dealer.
ELEAD1ONE has been turning that
desire into a tangible reality for more
than 30 years.
With corporate headquarters in Valdosta, Ga., and offices and personnel
around the country, ELEAD1ONE has defined itself as one of the most trusted
sources for customer relationship management software and solutions. Six of
the top 10 dealer groups have chosen ELEAD1ONE to manage their day-today CRM operations and retail processes. Its clients range from OEMs such as
Kia Motors, Hyundai Motor Co., and Ford Motor Co., of Canada to major
dealer groups such as Sonic Automotive, Lithia Motors and Asbury Automotive
Group.
ELEAD1ONE got its start in 1985 as Fresh Beginnings, Inc., a classic cookie
program providing customer-satisfaction fulfillment services to auto dealers.
In those days the company delivered hand baked cookies in custom designed
containers to automotive customers as one of the first survey efforts – predating
many of the industry leaders in this space.
“The difference was that we sent them to both sales and service customers
with a handwritten card from the store that went directly to their workplace,”
explained Bill Wittenmyer, partner. “When they opened it, their coworkers
would often ask ‘where did you get that?’ It was really the first form of customer
relationship management.”
The business grew rapidly as the company evolved to meet the changing needs
of auto dealers in a highly competitive economy. Two decades ago a new push
began to help dealers not only survey customers, but also help them sell more
vehicles and drive profits through service.
Its first call center was manned by six people and
located in space above a bank in Valdosta.
“That was the first step in that transition of
what we could do to help dealers make car deals,”
said Wittenmyer. “That’s when we started to do
follow-up and live calls. That led to appointment
generation, which has grown exponentially over
the years.”
The call center expanded rapidly to cover nearly
every aspect of automotive retail. With more than
800 live call specialists and world-class phone
scripts utilized for every business opportunity,
ELEAD1ONE phone agents perform more than
59 million live calls to auto customers every year.
These calls include inbound sales and service
appointments and overflow call handling, along
with outbound campaigns for showroom, phone
and internet custom followup, lead generation and
appointment setting. The
company handles database
mining
and
long-term
customer follow-up, as well.
says Wittenmyer. “They’re looking for one vendor
that offers the best product suite, helping them
streamline operations, sell more cars and achieve
higher profits.”
The less time that sales personnel, who are often
impatient or lack attention to detail, have to spend
dealing with multiple screens, the more they have
to devote to their real job – talking to customers
and moving them through the sales process.
“It has to be streamlined and quick and have
all the data and the knowledge available at your
fingertips without having to go to many places to
find it,” he explains. “That’s the biggest change.
Dealers are much more equipped now to handle
consumers. A few years ago, and certainly during
my retail career, most salespeople were ill equipped
to handle the customer. The customer had more
The
company’s
success has stemmed from its
ability to persuade dealers to
entrust its customer calls to a
third party. “For dealers, the
ringing phone is a central
element to sales success, and
turning those calls over to
someone else can be a tough
decision to make,” says
Wittenmyer.
The reality of auto sales
is that, while showroom
salespeople are great in
person, they often don’t do a
very good job in facilitating the process on the
phone, according to Wittenmyer. The company
cites data that says 80 percent of customer-todealership contact is made by phone, but only 7.8
percent lead to actual appointments. In addition,
4.2 percent of those calls go unanswered. With
most car shoppers visiting an average of 1.4
showrooms before purchasing, not responding
quickly and accurately means lost sales.
As more dealers have realized that telephone
selling is not their true strength, the company
has experienced some of its largest growth in
outsourcing of inbound calls.
“Our dealers are really looking for a solution
to take over the inbound part – the service first
and then the sales calls second,” says Wittenmyer.
“They are starting to realize that need.”
The company’s success is also based
on its ability to listen and respond to dealers’
perceptions of their own needs. The desire for
accessible and actionable reporting of data led
directly to ELEAD1ONE’s development of its
CRM software solution. Dealers not only wanted
to be able to enter customer data into the system,
but they also wanted to be able to see results in
real time.
“They want a one-source solution – one that
can handle all of their needs without having to
log into multiple systems or use multiple tools,”
information at their fingertips than we did. We
were unprepared, and yet we did it every day and
they bought a car every three years.”
Streamlining the sales process had
the effect of not only making dealer employees
happier, but customers as well. “We know that
if the buying experience is streamlined and
shortened in time, the customers will pay more
money because it’s a better experience for them,”
he says.
ELEAD1ONEs wide range of CRM solutions
has extended into social media – one of the fastestgrowing areas of consumer engagement. In today’s
market, consumers are searching for information
through the web and making buying decisions
based on social media. How well dealers are able
to engage in this arena is vital to attracting buyers
to showrooms, but it must be done right to avoid
turning customers off.
“It needs to be relevant, it needs to be in real time
and time-sensitive,” says Wittenmyer. “Your CRM
must be dialed into your social media so that you
can push messages out, whether it be a special
sales promotion or an event at the dealership.”
Mobile applications such as ELEAD Mobile
Desking have freed customers from the limitations
of desktop computing.
From its beginning, the business has
been family-owned, and now operates under the
name Data Software Services L.L.C. Significant
investment in technical development, upgrading
of the contact center and expansion of the
account-management teams has helped mold
the
substantial
operation that exists
presently.
Today
there are more than
one hundred toplevel programmers
working
in
its
Florida office on
developing
and
expanding its CRM
and mobile tools.
B e i n g
independently
owned is an asset
for clients. It means
decisions can be
made faster and
with fewer layers
of
bureaucracy.
“Our dealers can
literally get one of
the owners on the
phone,” according to Wittenmyer.
ELEAD1ONE’s success can be measured
in its expanding client list that includes the leading
dealers and OEMs in the country. It’s evident in
its changing product menu and a workforce that
has grown to more than a thousand people across
the country.
“You have to be at the top of your game and
constantly evolving,” said Wittenmyer. “You have
to be competitive, but that doesn’t just mean
being price-competitive. You have to be valuecompetitive. You have to be able to bring true
value to the table. Dealers recognize that; they will
pay more, just as their consumers will, as long as
they’re getting the support and results they need.
That’s the most important thing.” CBT