Case Study: Automotive
Converting 80% of SMS contacts to leads for auto shopping website
Supporting nearly 16,000 dealerships
At a Glance
- Automotive research and shopping website
- Concierge services, including chat and text
- Delivery from Peoria, Illinois
- 70 FTEs
- Serving 15,700 dealers
- Open 24/7
Business challenges
The auto shopping website needed to build its national database of paid subscription dealers. These dealers needed digital customer care support, via web and SMS solutions, to serve as tier I of lead gathering for appointment set-ups.
The solution
From the start of the partnership HGS was engaged to deploy chat and SMS solutions to manage initial customer contacts, answer questions, provide vehicle education, and refer customers to dealers. HGS researched and recruited for the right agent profile for this solution: tech-savvy agents, who are screened for their multi-tasking ability. With an extensive background deploying HGS TEXT and HGS CHAT for clients, HGS created an optimized digital solution at a concurrency of six contacts or three SMS and three web chat contacts per agent 24×7. This solution enables customers to start, stop, and continue their conversations without losing the history and context of the interaction.
The HGS team lost no time adjusting our solution to exceed client lead collection and scalability expectations. Within the first month, HGS Business Excellence focus led the team to analyze non-lead contacts to categorize and group; identifying root cause and implementing solutions to drive lead conversion. This included analysis and identification in problems that resulted in non-lead generation—principally customers gathering auto background before disclosing contact information. Consequently, HGS immediately structured and implemented agent scripting aims to immediately collect contact information from customers, for a more optimal lead referral to client.
Digital solutions to scale with client, contain costs
- How we do it
HGS’s agile execution and fast expansion of contacts for the client has resulted in increasing responsibility for an ever-expanding dealer database. HGS provided significant dealer support increase from 500 dealers to, by spring 2018, 15,700 dealers in the client network. The client credits HGS’s digital chat-SMS platform delivery, concurrency, and excellence focus. - Business result
With HGS’s digital solution support, the client now has access to leads from nearly 16,000 dealers. With the six contact concurrency for HGS agents (up to three web chat and three SMS at a time), the client is achieving cost containment as a result of chat and text efficiencies.
Increased dealer leads
- How we do it
Within a month of HGS’s program launch, our team conducted lead monitoring and troubleshooting to assess the principal issue with lead abandonment: scripting. HGS implemented a new script to ensure conversations that capture contact information at the outset of each interaction—before pricing or vehicle information is confirmed. Agents began starting calls by collecting the relevant lead specifics to share with the client.HGS next grouped contacts into different areas of assessment, including issues such as “Agent Errors,” and “Abandoned Chat.” HGS adjusted agent recruitment and training to better represent agent profiles and skills to handle the multitasking and lead generation required of this role. Today’s agent screening now captures skills beyond keyboard speed, such as technical aptitude and authoring chat and SMS messages to represent colloquial but professional tone. This ensures agents can deliver high customer and client satisfaction, and our winning 80% contact-to-lead performance.
- Business result
The HGS team has hit the ground running for this client, delivering 80% of SMS contacts for lead conversion. With the right team members in place to manage the multitasking skillset required, each agent supports six SMS customer engagements concurrently, on a 24×7 basis. The team manages an impressive contact volume, at 2,800 chats per day
Enhanced speed of leads to dealers
- How we do it
HGS’s digital solution delivery collects the right information, fast, and sends this to the client’s dealer network, in real time. HGS credits this service excellence to recruiting, staffing, and a robust employee engagement program. With a more technical agent profile, HGS provides the training to incentivize further skills development. And stringent quality monitoring ensures agents achieve this crucial speed of contact delivery performance. - Business result
Prior to HGS’s support, the client’s in house lead management resulted in slow response times leading to dealer dissatisfaction. Our 80% SMS contact-to-lead performance is delivered with real-time, immediate communication to dealers. HGS agent attrition for this program is low, at 32%.
Results
HGS extended hours, increased engagement, and improved IT knowledge base capabilities in just six months
15,700
dealerships
were supported by the end of this engagement
20
second
SMS response time
80%
of SMS contacts converted to leads
The way forward
HGS continues to consistently scale this client’s dealer network. HGS has managed chat and SMS to maximize responsiveness, generate more leads, and relieve dealers of tier I responses. The client is now appreciating HGS as a value-added addition to their suite of benefits for dealers to renew paid memberships. The future is bright for this partnership.
