Irvine, Calif.—Autobytel recently announced the launch of its new Rapid Response program to help dealers manage and communicate with their online customer leads. According to the company, this is the first initiative of their Keep in Touch services, which are geared to assist the company’s dealers.

Rapid Response automatically places phone calls to Autobytel member dealers, notifying them each time an Autobytel customer requests a price quote during normal business hours.

The program also offers a “hunt” feature that allows dealers to prioritize up to three of their contact numbers for Autobytel to try when a purchase request for their dealership comes in. Once the dealer is contacted, a “whisper” feature provides the customer’s name, their site source and the make/model/year of the vehicle they selected.

Participating dealers receive an online interface that provides detailed back-end reporting on their call activity.

During the program’s beta testing process, which involved 165 dealers, customer contact rates improved an average of 50 percent among the dealers who provided direct contact numbers and who consistently opted to connect with Autobytel customers.