Automotive dealerships may be missing out on valuable sales leads due to a poor response rate to e-mail customer inquiries, with the majority of such inquiries being ignored or poorly handled, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2001 Dealer E-Mail Responsiveness Study(SM) released Dec. 12.

The study reviews dealer e-mail response rates to customer inquiries, as well as timeliness and quality of responses.

While results vary greatly among dealerships, the study shows that on average, only 42 percent of sales inquiries e-mailed to dealers received a response. Even when dealers did respond, only 17 percent included all the information requested.

The study shows that vehicle service inquiries received similar treatment, with only 44 percent receiving a reply, and only 12.5 percent including all the information requested.

"As automotive Internet users turn to the Internet to gather and research vehicle information during the shopping process, many find their way to a dealer," said Dennis Galbraith, senior research manager at J.D. Power and Associates. "If the sales staff is slow to respond to e-mail inquiries or do so haphazardly, there is a good chance their efforts will result in very few sales to these customers. To compound matters, a majority of dealer responses contain spelling or grammatical errors, and many are unprofessional and/or cryptic, undoubtedly creating a poor impression that does little to foster a relationship with the shopper."

Responding to e-mail is a new challenge for many salespeople. However, with 62 percent of all new-vehicle buyers going online for automotive information while shopping for their vehicle, e-mailing dealers is a natural evolution in the new-vehicle shopping process.

"As vehicle shoppers change, dealers must be ready to change as well," said Galbraith. "When one considers that 30 percent of automotive Internet users who submit online requests for quotes will purchase from one of the dealers they e-mail, and yet fewer than one in five leads are responded to with complete information, the number of missed opportunities is huge."

The response times for dealers providing complete information to e-mailed requests vary dramatically among dealerships. The average response time for dealers providing complete pricing information is 18.8 hours, and response time for online vehicle service requests is 15.8 hours. On average, non-luxury dealer franchises had faster response times than do their luxury dealer counterparts for both sales requests (18.7 versus 19.8 hours) and vehicle service requests (15.7 versus 17.3 hours).

The 2001 Dealer E-Mail Responsiveness Study was conducted via e-mail mystery shoppers with 4,400 automobile franchisees selected on a random basis. More than 8,000 e-mail inquiries were sent to dealers requesting vehicle sales and service information.

About J.D. Power and Associates

Headquartered in Agoura Hills, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information services firm operating in business sectors including market research, forecasting, consulting, training and customer satisfaction.

The firm’s quality and satisfaction measurements are based on actual responses from millions of consumers annually.

J.D. Power and Associates can be accessed through the Internet at www.jdpa.com.