New PLADOOGLE Study Details How Automotive Dealers Respond to Online Inquiries

    COEUR D'ALENE, ID, January 05, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- PLADOOGLE, LLC recently published a study detailing how well America's new car dealers respond to online inquiries from consumers; and how sufficiently they follow up over the first thirty days.

Online automotive consumer inquiries, or e-leads, have been around since the mid-1990s, though many new car dealers have been slow to maximize this important channel. While nearly all dealers continue to grow their spending in digital media, most have accomplished relatively little when it comes to maximizing the fruits of those digital dollars - namely effectively following up with e-leads, phone calls and online chat inquiries.

What's worse is that it's not from a lack of spending on e-lead management. The same dealers who spend lavishly on digital marketing also tend not to skimp on manpower, training or tools when it comes to leveraging the online channel in an attempt to grow their dealership's sales, revenue and market share.

"As we approach the unofficial twentieth anniversary of the automotive e-lead, we felt it was time to see how far internet sales follow-up had come in the last two decades," stated Steve Stauning, Founder, PLADOOGLE, LLC. "And despite the millions spent on great tools and training, we continue to be surprised by the dismal state of follow-up processes in many dealerships."

Case in point: For the automotive mystery shop study (http://pladoogle.com/mystery-shops/), PLADOOGLE submitted online price quote requests for new vehicles via the websites of 425 dealers. Of the 406 dealers who fashioned a response, over one-third (139) made no attempt to call the prospect, despite the presence of a working phone number in the original online inquiry. Beyond those dealers that made no calls, another 96 made only one call over the thirty days following the e-lead submission.

"It should alarm every dealership manager and owner in America to learn that fifty-eight percent of the teams in our study made one or fewer call attempts," added Stauning. "Given that twenty-six percent of dealers made five or more calls, those fifty-eight percent put themselves at a terrible competitive disadvantage."

To read more about the current state of e-lead follow-up today, download a copy of the PLADOOGLE white paper Online Automotive Leads: How Well Do Dealers Respond? by visiting: http://pladoogle.com/mystery-shops/

About PLADOOGLE, LLC
PLADOOGLE, LLC, headquartered in beautiful Coeur d'Alene, Idaho is a new breed of ecommerce solutions firm with a sole aim of optimizing of our clients' online business. Through goal-focused products and services, we help our clients maximize new technology, create and formalize processes, and deliver turnkey innovations that drive traffic, boost conversions and increase online revenue. PLADOOGLE provides both universal and client-tailored solutions that drive proven results for any online business. For more information, contact us at http://pladoogle.com/contact/.

About PLADOOGLE Founder Steve Stauning
Beyond his duties at PLADOOGLE, Steve Stauning serves on the Board of Directors for Dealers United, eCARNOMICS and ApolloVu. Prior to his involvement with pladoogle and his board assignments, Stauning served in various automotive ecommerce leadership roles, including as the Asbury Automotive Group's (NYSE: ABG) director of ecommerce, the director of the Web Solutions division of the Reynolds & Reynolds Company, and as general manager for Dealer Web Services at Dominion's Dealer Specialties. He is also an extremely popular speaker, writer and trainer. For more information about Stauning or to utilize his free video training, visit http://stevestauning.com/.

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