Barretts

Published: November 2023

Find out how Marketing Delivery helped Barretts:

✔️ Convert 273 Customers with Stock Alerts

✔️ Achieve an Average Open Rate of 77%

✔️ Re-engage 38 ‘Lost’ Leads

The Business

Barretts has been a family-owned and operated business for over 120 years, and today manages 9 sites across Ashford and Canterbury. It retails new and used vehicles to private and business customers from multiple brands, including Jaguar Land Rover, BMW, MINI and Honda.

The Challenge

Barretts found that a steady rise in volumes of online enquiries, made it harder to maintain quality and consistency in its customer communications. Its 9 sites operated on different dealer management solutions, and the shared system for sending automated emails involved a time-consuming setup, and success was not easy to measure.

Philip Stevens, Group Marketing Manager at Barretts comments…

Sound familiar? Read on to see how Marketing Delivery helped, or contact us to find out!

The Solution

In November 2022, Barretts trialled Marketing Delivery’s VoiceBox Sales solution at its four JLR sites, and quickly saw improvements in lead conversions and customer retention. Six months later, it deployed VoiceBox for Sales and Aftersales across the full group.

The new software keeps on top of the purchase cycle, ensuring customers are contacted at the right time and by automating communication at key touchpoints with personalised messages. Proactive communication re-engages leads that have been marked as lost but are still in the market for a new vehicle, while Stock Alerts keep prospective buyers aware of relevant changes to Barretts’ stock across the group.

Marketing Delivery tools also work to enhance communication with aftersales customers, contacting them at dealer-defined periods following purchase to remind them of upcoming service or MOT dates or to find out if they are now looking to change their car. Customisable templates with clickable links make the process of booking a service or vehicle valuation simple for the customer, encouraging interaction.

The system helps Barretts secure more Trustpilot reviews – proven to facilitate enquiries and sales conversions both in sales and aftersales – by automatically contacting customers who have visited the dealerships and pointing them to the Trustpilot website to leave their reviews.

The Outcome

In just four months, following the group-wide rollout of Marketing Delivery software in mid-April 2023, the system sent outbound communications to a defined batch of ‘lost’ leads, converting 38 into positive enquiries, 19 of which progressed to a sale.

Across the same four-month period, 273 customers placed an order within a week of receiving an automated Stock Alert email, 74 of which did so after clicking on the email to view a specific vehicle listing, demonstrating a willingness to engage with such communications.

Meanwhile, VoiceBox’s customised MOT and service reminder emails encouraged an average open rate of 77% and a high level of customer engagement. In response to the email prompt, 1,174 customers made a phone call to Barretts, while a further 110 requested a callback. Upsell opportunities from the email included 28 test drive requests and 66 vehicle valuation requests. 116 responded to the email to let Barretts know they were no longer the owner of the vehicle, which is automatically fed back to the Group, allowing them to detach the customer record and vehicle to ensure ongoing communication remains relevant.

Personalised and timely emails that simplified the customer review process increased the number of those leaving Trustpilot reviews. Enabling customers to leave a review directly from an email resulted in a five-fold increase in just four months, with 510 of its 569 reviewers leaving the maximum rating of five stars.

Stevens said: “The introduction of Marketing Delivery’s VoiceBox platform has prompted us to put more focus on capturing quality data and saving it within each customer record. Accuracy helps us achieve more with each interaction, helping us define who wants contact, how and when.

Automation has then removed much of the burden on both our sales and aftersales teams, freeing them up to focus on immediate revenue opportunities. Our senior team have welcomed the fresh insight this has provided into the business, as well as the contribution it will make to refining our comms strategy.”