Ford Retail’s dealers in the north of England have signed up to ResponseTrack from Experian to make sure dealer staff don't miss any customer calls.

Developed specifically for motor dealers, ResponseTrack allows dealers to apply dedicated telephone numbers to every marketing campaign and capture every resulting call into their businesses, in order to measure how effective it is.

Mike Osborne, head of purchasing for Ford Retail Group, said: "As a group, our marketing spend is substantial, so being able to measure exactly which campaigns are working and focusing our marketing spend on those that do has proven to be valuable.

"The most valuable aspect of the service for us has been the missed call e-mail alert, which is instant and not only gives us the caller’s full telephone number, but also the campaign they were calling in response to. We have been able to call customers back before they even think about picking the phone up to another dealer.

"When customers call a dealership, they’ve already carried out research into what they want and have therefore moved half way towards actually buying the car, so the ability to track and follow up upon missed calls is a key beneficial feature of this product."

ResponseTrack includes two key features:

An e-mail alert with the customer’s full telephone number and details of the campaign the call is related to is sent within minutes of a call being missed, enabling them to respond to every campaign response call, even those callers who got an engaged tone, improving conversion rates and increasing sales.

Dealers have the opportunity to use dedicated local telephone numbers – a feature that appeals to a wider range of customers and increases the chances of a telephone enquiry.

Kirk Fletcher, managing director of Experian’s Automotive division, said: "The feedback we have had from Ford Retail has been extremely positive and highlights how much dealers can benefit from tracking their activities and incoming calls.

"The average dealer misses around 20% of all its incoming customer calls every month and, with each call costing them around £12 to generate in the first place, it can become a costly loss."