Car Dealership Guy Podcast Why Most Dealers Fail at Lead Follow-Up—And How Tech Closes the Gap | Industry Spotlight
Apr 24, 2025
Yuriy Demidko, CIO at Fox Motor Group, and Matthew Muilenburg, CPO at Impel, dive into the challenges dealerships face with internet leads and the crucial role of AI in customer engagement. They discuss how slow response times can hurt sales and the importance of timely follow-ups. The duo highlights generative AI's potential to personalize customer interactions and improve lead management. They also emphasize the need for clean data and how technology can transform the customer experience, making it feel more like a concierge service.
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Challenge of Internet Lead Attention
- A major challenge dealers face is their sales staff prioritizing physical floor traffic over internet leads.
- This causes digital leads to receive insufficient attention, despite their growing importance.
Call Response Problem in Dealerships
- About 23% of dealership calls do not result in meaningful conversations, and 70% of missed ones concern service departments.
- Service departments commonly use ring-all phones, which increases dropped or unreturned calls.
Use AI for Lead Engagement
- Implement AI to ensure all digital leads receive empathetic and personalized engagement.
- Use AI to handle simple inquiries and only hand off serious buying signals to salespeople.