Lead generation via SMS

Quite simply The Car Buyers buy cars. They've put in place a smart business model and set of tools which make the process particularly easy for customers.

We recently spoke to Robbie Calcutt from The Car Buyers to get some insight on the business (past and present), its use of mobile messaging, its geographically disbursed network and Australia-wide customer base

The Car Buyers operations concept originated from a small car dealership some 7 years ago and business operations, in its current form and strategy commenced 2 years ago. "Our business model has done some changing since first being developed and with the competition in this market exploding, it's crucial for our business to stay steps ahead," said Robbie. "The Car Dealers first integrated SMS as part of the business some 5 years ago - mainly for lead generation and follow-up. "Today we still do both those things and now additionally use SMS alerts for a geographically separated national sales team."

"An integral part of who we are and how we market is our Dedicated Number. 1300 Car Buyers is our advertised customer contact number and as a large number of leads come through this channel, it's important to make sure it hums along nicely".

Detailing the various aspects and benefits of using SMS campaigns, Robbie outlined some of the main reasons the business use SMS as a tool to grow and further enhance their business and service offering. "SMS has enabled us to attract finance leads, embark on mass communication, engage and reactivate our customers and keep our database up to date in using the opt in and out facility. Further, demonstrating that SMS can play a big part in building good protocols and process, our management console only allows you to label a lead as 'lost' by sending a SMS first." Robbie said.