HOUSTON -

When a customer leaves the showroom without buying, it’s the dealer’s job to find out why, and to re-engage him. A new product aims to help dealers do just that.

CAR-ResearchXRM this week announced the launch of Showroom WatchDog, a service it says can help auto dealers sell their unsold customers. 

Showroom WatchDog uses CAR-Research XRM’s U.S.-based call center to perform next-day phone interviews to determine why a dealership customer didn’t buy.

The service is CRM-agnostic, the company said, and available for use by auto dealerships using most major CRM systems.

Specifically, CAR Research XRM’s Call Center calls the unsold customer to learn the barriers to buying, such as payment, price, trade value and interaction with sales staff.

The service also aims to find out if the correct “Road to the Sale” processes were followed, including test drive and product presentation, and which specific ad source brought the customer into the dealership.

The data collected can help the dealership address these barriers to buying and re-engage the unsold customer for the sale, company officials said, improve processes to close more future showroom visits, and adjust monthly ad spend targets.

“The average closing ratio for dealers is somewhere around 18 to 20 percent; 80 percent are unsold customers,” said Patrick Kelly, CAR-Research president and chief operating officer.

“We know that a third of that unsold 80 percent will come back if proper follow-up is done, but to get that third back in you have to call all 80. Dealers don’t have the time to do that and the customer may be upset and not want to talk to them. However, they will talk to an independent research firm like us.

“Showroom WatchDog gets all the data for the dealership, enabling them to close these previously unsold customers,” Kelly said.

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