CallSource manages over 8 million calls to dealerships every month and analyzed nearly 2,500 calls to determine how auto dealers can convert more service calls into appointments

Westlake Village, CA – April 7, 2015 - CallSource, the U.S. leader in call management, tracking, and training, conducted research into best practices for successful service appointment setting, winning the company one of four finalist slots at DrivingSales Presidents Club’s Most Valuable Insight competition.

The research, presented last week at the New York event, analyzed data across 2,464 phone calls and identified six key behaviors that, when successfully performed, were crucial in increasing service call-to-appointment ratios. The study also examined the frequency with which call handlers performed these six key behaviors.

Six of the surprisingly simple steps to increase appointments for Fixed Ops include:

1. Asking caller “How May I Help You?” – An essential element of an effective greeting, but was only asked 64% of the time on the analyzed calls.
2. Establishing if caller is a prior customer – Recognizing valuable repeat customers is good for business and saves time on the call yet this only occurred 62% of the time.
3. Identifying vehicle that needs service – Crucial in maintaining control of the call and guiding it toward an appointment yet only 69% of the time did call handlers do this.
4. Obtaining caller’s full name – Getting the customer’s first name helps build rapport while the last name is important for accurate record keeping but this only happened on 66% of calls studied.
5. Asking about additional questions/concerns – Not only does this show the caller that the call handler cares, it’s an effective way to identify potential upsell opportunities, but only 6% of the calls studied included this critical step.
6. Determine caller’s timeframe for service needs – This is the best way to get callers to commit to an appointment but only 65% of call handlers did this on calls analyzed.

“We were surprised that in nearly 30% of the calls, these key, obvious actions were not implemented by service department call handlers,” said Andrew Price, President of CallSource Automotive. This study is a wakeup call for dealers into the state of automotive service department call handling and we hope this insight will be used by dealers to immediately improve their call-to-appointment ratios.”

CallSource invented call tracking and has tracked more than one billion calls to date. Today, with state-of-the-art call management innovations, the company qualifies incoming leads for dealers, works to improve phone skills and, crucially, helps them recover and reduce missed opportunities. According to research^[1], on average, 20% of incoming service calls are mishandled at the dealership, usually resulting in the customer taking their business to a competing store. CallSource provides dealerships with the tools they need to retain that business.

About CallSource

For over 25 years, CallSource’s award-winning solutions have helped businesses track, analyze and improve incoming call performance. In addition to tracking over one billion calls since inception, CallSource delivers marketing insight, including cost-per-lead analysis and sales conversion percentages, training and coaching solutions to improve phone skills, and tools that enable businesses to recapture mishandled calls. Based in Westlake Village, Calif., CallSource recently received a patent for its Sales Profit Management (SPM) system, which combines the actionable data of its call analytics, performance analysis, advisory services, and online training/coaching from seasoned sales professionals. CallSource serves multiple industries including automotive, home services and healthcare, as well as numerous franchise businesses. Visit callsource.com.

Media Relations: 

Melanie Webber, mWEBB Communications, (949) 307-1723, melanie@mwebbcom.com 

Cassandra Cavanah, mWEBB Communications, (818) 397-4630, cassandra@mwebbcom.com