Your Appointment Setting Agent Turns Set Appointments Into Shows
The Appointment Setting Agent in EngageSuite360 takes a sales appointment from set to shown: it confirms with the customer on the channel they prefer, reminds them the day before and the hour before, follows up when they do not arrive, and tracks show rate by lead source. The BDC manager who used to leave confirmation voicemails all afternoon, and the sales manager who could never say which lead providers produce buyers, both get their answer.
What it takes off your plate
Ask a BDC manager about the gap between appointments set and appointments shown. The agent sets an appointment for Saturday at eleven. On Friday someone calls to confirm and gets voicemail. Saturday comes, the salesperson has the vehicle pulled up and washed, and the customer never arrives. Nobody follows up that day because the showroom is busy, and by Monday the customer has bought somewhere else.
Show rates are tracked in a spreadsheet when someone remembers, and never by source. The store keeps paying for leads from a provider whose customers rarely show, because nobody can prove it. Meanwhile the BDC is measured on appointments set, so it keeps setting them, and the sales floor learns to stop trusting the appointment board. Salespeople wait around for customers who were never coming, and walk-in traffic gets less attention than it deserves.
What the Appointment Setting Agent does, step by step
The work is almost entirely communication, and it starts as soon as the appointment is set.
- Confirms on the customer's channel. Right after an appointment is set, the agent sends a confirmation by text, email or call, whichever the customer used or prefers, with the time, the salesperson's name, the vehicle and directions.
- Reminds before the visit. It sends a reminder the day before and again an hour before, and asks the customer to confirm or reschedule with a single reply.
- Handles changes. When a customer replies that they are running late or need another time, it offers new times, reschedules and tells the salesperson.
- Prepares the salesperson. On the morning of the appointment, it sends the salesperson the customer's history, the vehicle of interest, any trade details and whether the customer confirmed.
- Follows up no-shows. If the customer does not arrive, it sends a friendly message offering another time, and follows up again on the schedule your manager sets, with no pressure.
- Tracks show rate by source. Behind the messages, it records each appointment's lead source, set date, confirmation, show or no-show and outcome in DealerSocket or your CRM, and reports show rate by source and by salesperson.
How to work a no-show, and whether to change lead providers, are decisions for the BDC and sales managers.
Where the work is recorded
Every appointment the Appointment Setting Agent handles is written to the lead in EngageSuite360: the source, the confirmation messages, the customer's replies, the reminders, the show or no-show and what happened next. The salesperson's calendar shows confirmed and unconfirmed appointments at a glance.
The next morning, the sales manager opens one view: today's appointments and which are confirmed, yesterday's no-shows and their follow-up, and show rate by lead source for the month. When the lead provider's rep visits, the numbers come from the store's own records.
What your people do instead
Your salespeople greet the customers who arrive, take them on the test drive and listen. They know before the customer walks in whether the appointment was confirmed, what vehicle they asked about and whether a trade is involved, so the first conversation picks up where the last one left off. Your BDC agents work new leads instead of dialing confirmation calls into voicemail. Your sales manager spends the marketing budget on the sources that produce customers who show. Customers get a clear, courteous confirmation and an easy way to reschedule, which respects their time. The Appointment Setting Agent keeps the confirmations, reminders and tracking moving around them.
Appointments begin with the first reply to a shopper, described in Your Internet Lead Response Agent Answers Shoppers While You Sell, and show rate by source feeds the advertising decisions covered in Your Digital Advertising Agent Ties Ad Spend to Sold Vehicles.
One next step
EngageSuite360 is a CRM shaped for dealerships, with customers, fleet accounts, sales and leads built in, and the EngageSuite360 Appointment Setting Agent works on those same records. See EngageSuite360 for automotive and turn this weekend's appointments into customers in the showroom.
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