Are you offering virtual appointments to your customers?

With the news of a second lockdown, many businesses are continuing to find ways to adapt how they offer their services to customers so that they can continue trading throughout the pandemic. Many car manufacturers and dealer groups have evolved to be able to offer virtual appointments for customers who are interested in a vehicle, but can’t visit a dealer due to being closed for lockdown.

Talking to one of the UK’s largest dealer groups about the introduction of virtual appointments they strongly believe that this won’t be a short-lived initiative during the pandemic, but something that they will continue to offer to their customers who would prefer to have a video conversation before deciding if they want to visit the dealer in person.

According to a recent article by V12Data; ‘When asked about newer car buying alternatives, 54% said they would “love” being able to sell or buy a car from home and 42% were fine buying a car without a test drive, as long as there was some form of guarantee.’

The first lockdown forced many businesses to look at the way they communicate with each other and their customers, which saw the rise of video calls through platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. There is no reason why the automotive industry can’t keep up with this virtual trend and offer a video communication method to their customers. The only challenge is how you monitor how well these virtual appointments are carried out by your sales teams.

At My View Research we offer Virtual Mystery Shopping that can capture the whole process from making the virtual appointment, through to the virtual appointment experience. An example of the areas that can be assessed during this interaction are as follows:

· Telephone virtual appointment booking call

· Virtual appointment invite and video call instructions

· Customer qualification

· Vehicle presentation

· Test drive – Was the customer offered a test drive for another time?

· Finance presentation

· Closing the sale

· Virtual appointment quality

· NPS, CES & CSAT

· Follow-up

Talk to one of our Research Consultants today to find out how we can create a bespoke, cost effective Virtual Mystery Shopping programme for your business.