Lead Notifications by Text, Email and Sound

A lead that nobody notices for forty minutes is a lead somebody else is already talking to. Notifications are the part of the CRM that makes sure a person knows, on the channel they will actually see.

Lead notifications put a new lead, a customer's text reply, an inbound call, a new email or a signed worksheet in front of the person who owns it, by text message, by email, by a sound in the browser and by an on-screen toast, within seconds of the event and on the channel that person has turned on. That is the feature. It sounds small until you count how many deals at a dealership are lost between the moment a lead arrives and the moment somebody reads it.

The LeadLocate CRM treats a notification as a property of the user rather than a property of the lead source. A rep decides, or a manager decides for them, which events reach their phone and which ones only chime on the desktop. A store decides which addresses and numbers receive the company wide copy. The lead itself does not care; it fires the events, and the preferences decide who hears them. The CRM missed lead alerts page covers the thinking behind thresholds and escalation. This page is the product side: what the switches are called and what each one does.

A salesperson is on the lot at 10:40 with a customer looking at a used crossover. Her phone buzzes once. It is a text from the store's CRM number: a new lead has come in on the inbound feed and it is assigned to her, with the customer's name, what they asked about and a quick link. She does not open it yet; she finishes the walkaround. At 10:52 she is back at her desk, taps the link on her phone, and the lead opens in the LeadLocate mobile app with the number ready to dial. She calls, gets a voicemail, sends a text from the same screen, and moves on.

At 11:15 the desktop chimes with the Text Message Sound and a toast slides in at the corner of the screen: the customer replied. Her phone buzzes again with a Text Reply Alert, because that conversation belongs to her and she has that toggle on. The BDC manager, who has New Lead Alerts on but Text Reply Alerts off, heard the first event and not the second, which is exactly the split he wanted. Nobody refreshed an inbox, nobody asked who had the lead, and the customer got a call inside twelve minutes of asking. The car sales follow up templates page has the words for that first call and text; notifications are what make sure it happens while the customer is still holding their phone.

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Open a user under User Management and there is a Notifications block with two groups. The first is Text Notifications, the alerts that go to the user's own cell phone as a text. New Lead Alerts sends a text whenever a new lead comes in and is assigned to that user, including trade in form submissions and campaign signups. Text Reply Alerts sends a text whenever a customer replies by text to a conversation that belongs to that user, with a quick link to open it. Call Alerts and Email Alerts do the same for inbound calls and new emails. Worksheet Signature Alerts sends a text the moment a customer signs a worksheet on the user's deal, with the deal number and the signature reference code, which is the alert finance managers turn on first.

The second group is Notification Sounds, the audible cues in the browser: New Lead Sound, Text Message Sound, Email Sound, Team Chat Sound, Deal Tracker Sound and System Message Sound. Each is its own toggle, so a rep who wants to hear a new lead but not every Team Chat message can have exactly that. On-screen toasts accompany the sounds, so a muted desk still sees the event. A user can also set their own preferences under Account Settings, where the Alert Settings read in plain language: Notify me when I get a NEW LEAD, a NEW TEXT, a NEW CALL, a NEW EMAIL.

Per-user alerts cover the person who owns the lead. The store also needs a copy that does not depend on any one person, and that is what notify numbers and notify emails are for. Under Edit Notify Numbers a Master Administrator lists the cell numbers that receive a text on every new lead, and the notify email addresses receive the email copy. A general manager who wants to see every lead land, a BDC shared inbox, or an owner who checks from home each go on that list without being assigned anything.

The Lead Feeds Manager adds one more layer. Each feed, whether it is our inbound lead feed, a custom source feed from the store's website or a default feed, has an SMS Notify setting of its own, so the used car manager can be texted on used inventory inquiries and the finance desk on credit application leads, while neither is bothered by the other. Combined with round robin assignment, the result is that a lead arrives, is assigned to the next rep in rotation, texts that rep, texts the notify list, emails the notify addresses, chimes on every desktop with the sound on, and shows a toast. All of it in the same few seconds, none of it configured per lead.

The system most stores actually run is a lead email to a shared inbox, a manager who forwards it, and a rep who checks email when they remember to. Every step in that chain is a delay, and the delays add up to the forty minute gap in which an online shopper, who submitted the same request to two other stores, has already been called by one of them. The fix stores usually buy is a separate alerting tool bolted onto the CRM, with its own login and its own monthly bill, that texts a rep a link to a system they then have to sign into.

Built in notifications remove both the chain and the bolt-on. The text arrives from the CRM number the rep already knows, the link opens the lead directly, and the reply happens in the same thread. There is nothing to integrate and nothing extra to pay; notifications are part of every plan on the pricing page, including CRM Only. The cost of the alternative is not the tool. It is the lead that sat.

A notification is a text message, and a text message to a staff member's personal phone is still a text message. Two things keep that clean. First, every alert type is an opt in toggle per user, on or off, so a rep who does not want the store texting their phone at 9 p.m. turns Text Reply Alerts off and keeps the desktop sound. Nobody is enrolled in anything they did not choose, and a manager can see each user's settings on their user record. Second, the notification path honors opt outs. A notify number that replies with a stop keyword is blocked from further alerts on that channel, the same way a customer's number is, so the store's own alerting never becomes a compliance exception.

On the customer side, notifications only ever describe the event to the rep. The consumer's information stays in the lead record and the encrypted Customer Profile; the alert carries a name, what they asked about and a link, not a dump of the record into a text. And every event that triggers an alert is also written to the communications log on the lead, so a manager asking who was told about this lead and when has an answer that is not a rep's memory.

New Lead Alerts and the notification sounds are on for every new user by default, so a store that does nothing already gets the important one. To tune it, a Master Administrator opens User Management, edits the user, and sets the Text Notifications and Notification Sounds toggles; a user can adjust their own under Account Settings. Store wide numbers go under Edit Notify Numbers. Per feed SMS Notify lives in the Lead Feeds Manager. On the phone, the LeadLocate mobile app carries the same alerts and adds an inbound call alert screen, so a rep sees who is calling the tracking number before they answer. None of it needs a training session; the labels say what they do.

If the CRM is briefly unreachable, the texts and emails already sent are on the rep's phone and in the notify inboxes, with the customer's name and what they asked about, so the follow up call can still be made from the phone in the rep's hand. The tracking numbers are yours and keep ringing, and a rep can keep working from the alerts already on their phone until the inbox is back. If anything needs a person, the contact page reaches one.

Notifications tell a rep something happened. Three neighbors decide what happens next. Round robin lead assignment decides who gets the alert, so a new lead is never notified to everyone and owned by no one. Automated Templates send the customer an immediate reply on the feed the lead came in on, so the rep's alert is about a conversation that has already started rather than a cold form. And the Workspace, with its reminders, to-dos and snooze, catches the lead the rep meant to call back after lunch, which is the second most common way a lead goes quiet.

For the store wide picture, Reports on the dock show response activity by user, and In-Store Now flags who is physically on the lot, which is useful when deciding who should hold New Lead Alerts on a Saturday. The full map is on the all features page.

How is a salesperson notified when a new lead comes in?

By a text to their cell phone if New Lead Alerts is on for their user, by a New Lead Sound and an on-screen toast in the browser, by the same alert in the LeadLocate mobile app, and by an email and text to the store's notify addresses and numbers. The text includes the customer's name, what they asked about and a link that opens the lead.

Can each user choose which alerts they get?

Yes. Under User Management each user has Text Notifications (New Lead Alerts, Text Reply Alerts, Call Alerts, Email Alerts, Worksheet Signature Alerts) and Notification Sounds (New Lead, Text Message, Email, Team Chat, Deal Tracker, System Message), each a separate toggle. Users can also adjust their own under Account Settings.

Can a manager be copied on every lead without being assigned leads?

Yes. Edit Notify Numbers holds the cell numbers that receive a text on every new lead, and the notify email addresses receive the email copy, independent of assignment. Each feed in the Lead Feeds Manager also has its own SMS Notify setting.

Do the alerts work on the phone app?

Yes. The LeadLocate mobile app carries the same alerts, opens the lead from the link, and adds an inbound call alert screen so a rep sees who is calling the store's tracking number before answering.

Are text alerts to staff a compliance risk?

Every alert type is opt in per user, so nobody is enrolled without choosing, and a notify number that replies with a stop keyword is blocked from further alerts on that channel. The alert carries the customer's name and a link, not the full record; the record stays in the encrypted Customer Profile.

Is there an extra charge for notifications?

No. Text, email, sound and toast notifications are part of every LeadLocate plan, including CRM Only from $199 a month. Plans are listed on the pricing page.

Text, email, sound and toast alerts are on from the first day, per user, on every plan. See them fire in the pre-recorded demo or start month to month.

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