How to Handle a Schedule a Visit Request in Inventory Link

A shopper picked a car and picked a time. Here is how the request reaches you, what to say back, and how to get the appointment onto a calendar your floor can see.

1. Know what the shopper did

   They tapped Schedule a Visit under a specific vehicle, picked a day and a time, entered their name and number and tapped Send my request. The sheet told them Your request has been received. So they are expecting to hear from you, and they are expecting you to already know which car.

2. Get the alert

   Set your notification preferences in LeadLocate CRM so a new request reaches the right phone the moment it lands. A request that comes in at nine at night should be in front of somebody by the time the store opens, not discovered on Thursday.

3. Open the request

   In the dealer portal, go to Requests or the inbox and click Open the request. Read the vehicle, the day and time, the contact details and the note. The same request is on a lead in the CRM with that vehicle attached, and that is where you will do the actual work.

4. Check the car is on the lot

   Before you confirm anything, make sure the unit is physically where you think it is. A customer who drives out on a Saturday for a vehicle that went to auction on Thursday is a bad afternoon for everyone, and it is thirty seconds to check.

5. Reply with the vehicle and confirm the time

   Text back from the lead and insert the vehicle so the customer gets a card with the photo and the price, not a paragraph. Confirm the day and time in plain words, give them your name, and tell them where to park and who to ask for.

6. Put it on the calendar

   Set the appointment so it is on the shared team calendar and on the phone app the floor carries. An appointment nobody but the person who booked it can see is a promise riding on one memory.

7. Hand it off if it is not yours

   If the request should belong to somebody else, use Email this request to send it to them, then fix the assignment on the lead so the record follows the work. Round robin assignment takes care of that for you on the next one.

8. Confirm again the morning of

   One short text the morning of the visit, with the vehicle and the time in it, is the cheapest appointment insurance there is. Then mark the outcome on the lead when they show, so the store can see which pages are producing visits that turn up.

Know what happened on the customer's end, because it changes how you answer. The shopper was on one of your pages, a brand page, the dealer page, an inventory site the portal published, or your own website through the embeddable inventory widget. They tapped Schedule a Visit under a specific vehicle, a sheet rose from the bottom of their phone, they picked a day and a time, typed their name and number and tapped Send my request. The sheet answered Your request has been received. and they went to bed. Widget pages also carry a Visit our website link back to your store, so some of these shoppers have already been around your site once.

On your end you need two things ready. A sign in to the Inventory Link dealer portal, which opens from the My Inventory button on the dock at the bottom of LeadLocate CRM with single sign on, and notification preferences set in the CRM so a request reaches a phone rather than a screen nobody is watching. The lead notifications and alerts page covers who gets told and how.

Then treat it as what it is. This customer picked a car, picked a time and asked you to confirm. That is the cleanest contact a dealership gets all week.

The request in the dealer portal under Requests and in the inbox, with the vehicle on it, the day and time the shopper chose, their name, how they want to be reached and whatever they wrote in the note. The same request is in LeadLocate CRM as a lead carrying that vehicle, which is where the work actually happens: the reply, the appointment, the follow up and the record of all three.

Open it and you have everything you need to answer in one message. The unit with its decoded build and price, so you can confirm it is here, and the time, so you can confirm you will be here too. Nobody has to ask the customer which car they meant or what time they wanted, which is the failure mode of a generic website form that arrives as an email with neither.

The communications log on that lead then carries the whole conversation, every text, call and email in one place, so a manager or the person covering Saturday can read what was promised without asking anyone.

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Now, or as close to now as the hour allows. A shopper who picked a time is at the top of their buying cycle and is usually asking two or three stores the same question. The store that confirms first is the store they show up at, and a reply that comes back within minutes of a request is a different conversation from one that comes back the next afternoon. The respond to internet leads in five minutes page covers how stores set that up.

Answer with the car, not with an acknowledgement. Text them back from the lead with the vehicle inserted as a card, confirm the day and time in plain words, give them your name and tell them where to park. Then set the appointment on the calendar so the floor sees it, and confirm again the morning of. A visit request that nobody confirmed is a customer who assumed nothing was booked.

The request is in the portal but nobody was told. Notification preferences in the CRM decide who hears about a new lead and how. Set them, and put brand and inventory page leads on a routing rule so the request lands on a person rather than in a pile everybody assumes someone else is watching.

It went to the wrong person. Use Email this request to send it to whoever should own it right now, then fix the routing so the next one goes straight there. Round robin assignment handles that permanently.

The vehicle the customer picked just sold. Call rather than text, tell them straight away, and have two alternatives from your inventory ready before you dial. Check the unit is physically on the lot before you confirm anything, which is what In Store Now is for.

The phone number is wrong or the shopper never replies. Work the email on the request, and check the record for a second contact. A shopper who booked a time and then went quiet is usually still interested and is usually just busy; a short confirmation the morning of the appointment brings most of them back.

You cannot find the request again. It is on the lead in the CRM, permanently, with the vehicle attached. Search the leads list by the customer name or by the car, and the whole thread is there.

The product page for the sheet itself is Schedule a Visit requests, which covers where it appears and why every panel rises from the bottom on a phone. The pages it sits on are covered by brand offer pages and the inventory website builder.

The tools that turn one of these into a sold car have guides of their own in the LeadLocate Help Center: texting the customer back with the vehicle attached, scheduling the appointment so the floor can see it, and setting notification preferences so the next request reaches somebody in a minute rather than a morning. If your store wants the sheet to ask a question the standard version does not ask, that is available on request, and our team puts it in production for your dealership.

Where does a Schedule a Visit request arrive?

In the Inventory Link dealer portal under Requests and in the inbox, and in LeadLocate CRM as a lead with the vehicle the shopper chose attached. The addresses your store listed are emailed as well.

Does the request tell me which vehicle the customer wants?

Yes. The sheet sits under a specific vehicle, so the unit travels with the request, decoded build and price included. That is the difference between this and a generic website contact form.

What if the requested time does not work for the store?

Reply with two times that do, in the same text, with the vehicle attached. Giving a customer a choice of two is faster than asking them to pick again from scratch.

Can somebody else take the request over?

Yes. Email this request to the person who should own it and reassign the lead in the CRM so the record follows the work. Round robin assignment routes the next one automatically.

Visit requests arrive with the vehicle attached, land on a lead your team can work, and go on a calendar the whole floor can see. See it in the pre-recorded demo or start month to month.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.