Why do DoneDeal and Carzone enquiries go cold, and what can a dealer do about it?
Portal enquiries go cold for three ordinary reasons: the first reply comes hours after the buyer has moved on, the enquiry sits in a shared email inbox where nobody owns it, and nobody follows up after the first answer. None of these is a DoneDeal or Carzone problem — the portals deliver the enquiry; what happens next is the dealership's process. Fixing it means getting every portal enquiry into one place attached to the car, replying within minutes at any hour, and following up until the buyer books, buys or opts out.
Reason one: the buyer has moved on
A buyer browsing DoneDeal at 9 pm sends three or four enquiries in ten minutes. The dealer who answers first, with the car still available and a concrete next step, is usually the one who gets the viewing. An answer the next morning competes with dealers who replied last night. This is the single biggest cause of "the lead was rubbish" — it was not; it was answered late.
Reason two: the enquiry is nobody's
Portal enquiries typically arrive as emails into a shared inbox. Everyone can see them; nobody is responsible for them. The ones that get answered are the ones somebody happened to open. The fix is ownership: each enquiry is assigned, visible with its car, and has a status — new, contacted, viewing booked, sold, lost — so that "did anyone reply to that Golf?" has an answer without asking around.
Reason three: one answer, then silence
Most dealerships answer the first question. Far fewer send the second message when the buyer goes quiet, or the third. Yet a quiet buyer is often still buying — from whoever stays in touch. Consistent follow-up on WhatsApp and email, stopping the moment the buyer opts out, is where the recovered sales are.
What to check this week
- Take last week's portal enquiries. For each: when did it arrive, when was the first reply, who owns it now, and when was the last message? The gaps will be obvious.
- Check whether portal emails are landing somewhere with an owner, or in an inbox everyone ignores.
- Check whether anyone follows up after the first reply, and whether that depends on one person remembering.
- Check whether a sold car is still advertised — buyers enquiring about a car that is gone is a bad first impression and wasted attention.
How 10X Dealership handles portal enquiries
Enquiries from DoneDeal, Carzone, the dealer website and social media are collected into one pipeline and attached to the vehicle. The first reply and the follow-up run automatically on WhatsApp and email, including outside showroom hours, until the customer books, buys or opts out. Each enquiry has an owner and a status, and sold vehicles are removed from the storefront so that nobody enquires about a car that has already gone. The system is implemented with the dealership by our team and is available for €697 per month with no long-term contract.
Related questions
Do DoneDeal and Carzone integrate directly with 10X Dealership?
Enquiries from the portals arrive as emails, and the system reads those into the pipeline and attaches them to the vehicle. Stock publication to portals is handled per portal and reviewed during implementation.
Is the same true for Autotrader in the UK?
The pattern is the same: enquiries arrive from the portal, and what happens in the first hour and the following week is the dealership's process. 10X Dealership works for dealers in the UK as well as Ireland.
What if my team is too small to follow up everything?
That is exactly the case for automating the repetitive part. The system handles first replies and follow-up; a small team then spends its time on the customers who are ready to talk.
