What percentage of Internet inquiries actually result in a sale? Your boss should have that figure at his/her fingertips. If it’s single digits, then I’m thinking your energies are better spent on the lot with real customers. Every Sunday you see people kicking tires on lots with no immediate intent to purchase. The Internet is like Sunday tire kickers.
It’s pretty small. As of today approx. 2%. Based on all leads. It’s not a problem answering during business hours. But I like to hunt, play golf, fish....heck I have a lot of hobbies and not near enough time. I work from 8a.m till 7p.m and that’s not enough? Now I have to carry my(pd by me) phone with me and answer inquiry’s on the golf course, lake, deer stand, Christmas, New Years.......And not get paid one dime for it?
I don't know it is set up, so I can't offer advise on using it to your best advantage. A 2% return is very poor return and suggests an ineffective website.
I once worked as a "closer" for a famous dealership (made $1200 in '87) for a week. I quickly decided I should not waste my life working for jerks.
If management really insists on this, maybe you could suggest that for after hours, one person be “on-call” to handle the Internet requests after hours.
I work in IT as a salaried network administrator, where there is no such thing as “my own time.” A couple of weeks ago, at 11:30pm, a couple of application servers went nuts and sent out 138,000 error messages by email to the developers, effectively shutting down our email system. I received a call and had to delete the error messages from the email servers’ queues. Thank goodness for remote access!
A normal work week for me is 60-70 hours, and besides the normal 10hr x 5 day work week, we have to perform maintenance between 10:30pm & 6am weekdays, or between 8pm Saturday & 6am Monday mornings. And if something critical goes REALLY wrong, well, I’ve had more 36+ hour work days than I care to remember over the years (I’ve been in IT since 1986.)
However, we rotate off-hour end user support coverage within the department (in fact, this is my week “in the barrel.”) One guy is on 24 hour call from Monday through Sunday, spread around between 5 guys.
Mark
I hear ya. The internet has created an ‘expectation’ among customers that business operates 24/7/365. I know that pretty early on I was taking a laptop on vacation with me so that I could keep tabs on things — my boss expected it. Then smartphones & tablets proliferated. Good News, I don’t necessarily have to carry a PC; Bad News, now my boss & customers can reach me even when I’m out of the country. And now he expects it.