The client:

Auto Trader Group is the UK and Ireland’s largest digital automotive marketplace. Auto Trader sits at the heart of the UK’s vehicle buying process and its primary activity is to help vehicle retailers compete effectively on the marketplace in order to sell more vehicles, faster.

The marketplace brings together the largest and most engaged consumer audience. Auto Trader has more than 90% prompted brand awareness and attracts circa 60 million monthly cross platform visits each month, with abut 70% of visits coming through mobile devices. The marketplace also has the largest pool of vehicle sellers (listing more than 430,000 cars each day).

The challenge:

With more than 80% of UK automotive retailers advertising on the site, Auto Trader strives to demonstrate to sellers that it is a trusted place to advertise and sell their vehicle, and that’s where the data generated by IOVOX is invaluable.

The solution:

IOVOX provides Auto Trader with its call tracking solution for vehicle retailers, Auto Trader Calls. Provisioned as part of its advertising offering free of charge to sellers, Auto Trader Calls uses trackable phone numbers provided by IOVOX that allow vehicle retailers to see for themselves where calls are coming from and exactly how many leads are being generated by Auto Trader.

Auto Trader itself uses the IOVOX data to gauge how much response it is generating for sellers. If an advertisement is not generating many calls, this can be quickly identified and the account management team can contact the customer far more quickly. The data generated by IOVOX can then be used to inform the account management team’s strategy, as it works with the seller increase the number of leads. On top of this, the data gives Auto Trader better insight into exactly how its products and services are performing to guide and refine its own business strategy.

Kelly Jessop, product lead at Auto Trader, said: “IOVOX gives us far faster turnaround on identifying any problems or answering any questions a seller may have, with insight we simply wouldn’t have without them.

“The IOVOX team is fully engaged in helping us day-to-day, and very proactive in pushing us to be creative in the realms of lead management and call tracking, which means we are providing our customers with the very best service out there.”

An important factor for Auto Trader was the provision of trackable mobile numbers. Having analysed its total number of calls and text messages, Auto Trader has discovered that 16% of enquiries now come through SMS. In order to adapt to this growing customer trend of wanting to make an enquiry through text messaging on the go, Auto Trader uses IOVOX’s trackable mobile numbers to ensure that its vehicle retailers are capitalising on this customer group.

“IOVOX is very flexible in taking their proposition and amending it to our needs,” said Kelly. “On top of its great data features, we advise all of our private sellers to use it because it helps to protect their numbers from scammers and nuisance customers. It’s a solution we emphasise to prospective customers, and is something that has helped us to develop a trusted relationship.”

The result:

Over the IOVOX adoption period, Auto Trader’s Trust Pilot rating increased dramatically from 6.7 to 9.3 based on 13, 000 reviews, clearly demonstrating the call tracking solution’s role in fostering openness and trust with sellers.

“At Auto Trader we are constantly looking for initiatives to further the protection and trust between buyers and sellers,” said Kelly. “The transition to becoming fully digital was a major aspect of this for us. At Auto Trader we always look for partners who match up to the way we operate internally, and it was clear that IOVOX’s product was a perfect fit for us in bringing this digital mission to a whole new level with call data.”