Blackshaws

Published: September 2024

Interview with Will Blackshaw, Director at Blackshaws

Blackshaws is a family-owned franchise car dealership representing Suzuki, MG, KGM, and Isuzu across two sites in Northumberland. The retailer has a long heritage, dating back to 1919, and its mission is to offer the highest possible standards of service to its customers.

At the start of 2024, Blackshaws implemented our VoiceBox Sales solution, which includes a suite of messages designed to support prospects along their buying journey. Following the success of this integration, Blackshaws invested in VoiceBox Aftersales and VoiceBox Social to cover each stage of the ownership experience. With these solutions in place, Blackshaws are able to reach new audiences, convert leads and improve customer retention.

What prompted you to increase investment in digital marketing?

“In this industry, consumers have so much choice and will undoubtedly see many digital communications over various platforms every day. Therefore, it was important for us to establish a customer journey that was bespoke but easy to manage.

We want to stand out from competitors, but, importantly, our focus is on customer satisfaction. With a robust digital marketing strategy, we can achieve two objectives at once.”

What is the main advantage of investing in new digital marketing solutions?

“It always helps to have a fresh approach with a dedicated team who have real-life industry experience and the tech to back it up. From our early conversations with Marketing Delivery, we learnt that much more was possible with their platform than we anticipated, and they challenged us to improve our processes for the better to achieve optimal results.”

Was it difficult to implement a new system?

“Not at all; Marketing Delivery made the process an easy and enjoyable experience. Their VoiceBox software complements our existing processes and integrates directly with our DMS, Pinewood. We also have a dedicated account manager who is always on hand to answer any questions, review results, and host in-person training sessions with our wider teams.”

What happened after the system went live?

“Within just one week, we sold a car thanks to the solutions we’d put in place and Marketing Delivery’s ‘Lost Sales’ feature. Now, we have regular reviews and live access to our results thanks to their BrainBox reporting platform.”

What do your customers think?

“To be completely honest, I haven’t had any customer feedback thus far. However, I see that as a positive. The level of personalisation means customers don’t feel like they’re receiving an automated email, and they’re still able to reply directly to the sites if they have any questions.”