Marchex Finds 4 out of 5 Mobile Calls Answered by Auto Dealers and Repair Shops Lead to Sales

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)– When employees at auto dealers and repair shops answer the phone, there is opportunity in nearly every conversation to make a sale, according to a data analysis released today by Marchex, Inc. (NAS: MCHX) .

Marchex, a leader in mobile performance advertising, found that consumers now place millions of calls to the auto industry directly through mobile ads. And once consumers connect to a representative over the phone, 79 percent want to buy.

“Our findings underscore how very important it is to be available, in person, to answer the phone when calls come in,” said John Busby, Vice President of the Marchex Institute, the research arm of Marchex. “The auto industry should think of these conversations as money on the table. Every voicemail can cost you.”

Analysts aggregated anonymous data points from more than 65,000 calls placed to auto dealers, repair shops and national call centers. The calls, driven through Marchex’s mobile advertising network, came from consumers engaging with mobile ads via mobile directories, apps, mobile banners and voice search.

Using Marchex Call Mining software, which scans for key words and phrases and voice tonalities, analysts assembled a portrait of consumer behavior and found:

• Consumers calling auto dealers are highly motivated, asking about inventory and booking test drives.
• Consumers who call from mobile ads tend to be younger than the general population.
• Men call more often than women.
• Smartphone callers tend to have higher income.

Mr. Busby will be speaking about these findings today at the Mobile Media Summit at Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica.

About Marchex

Marchex, Inc. delivers customer calls to businesses and analyzes those calls so companies can get the most out of their mobile advertising. Marchex supports its customers through a unique technology platform that has three primary components: (1) Call Analytics, which powers all of our advertising solutions, and allows partners to leverage data and insights that accurately measure the performance of mobile, online and offline call advertising; (2) Digital Call Marketplace, which …read more
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