What Is a Walk In?

The oldest kind of lead there is, still the best closing customer at most stores, and the one most likely to go unrecorded.

A walk in is someone who arrives unannounced. No form, no phone call, no appointment, just a person on the lot looking at a vehicle. The floor word for the same thing is a fresh up, and an up is any customer a salesperson takes, whether they arrived cold or by appointment.

Three neighbouring terms keep the vocabulary straight. An appointment is expected and has a name attached before the customer arrives. A be back is a shopper returning for a second visit after leaving without buying. An internet lead made contact online first and may later arrive in person, at which point they are an appointment rather than a walk in. All of them are in the automotive sales glossary.

Most stores run a rotation, spoken or written, so that walk ins are shared fairly. Salespeople take turns in order, and whoever is next greets the next arrival. Some floors use a physical board, some a list at the reception desk, some a manager calling names. The rules around it are local and firmly held: what happens if the customer asks for a specific person, what happens when a rep is with another customer, whether a previous customer returning belongs to the original salesperson, and how a turnover to a manager or second closer is handled.

The reason it matters beyond fairness is coverage. A rotation nobody maintains produces the lot where four salespeople are inside and a customer walks the front row for eleven minutes before anyone says hello. Almost every store that measures its greeting time finds it longer than it believed.

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No. Every dealership takes walk ins during business hours, and no store turns away a customer for arriving without notice. That is worth saying plainly, because the question gets asked a great deal.

An appointment is still better for the shopper. Calling or booking online first means the vehicle is confirmed to still be on the lot and not out on another test drive, it can be pulled up front and cleaned, a salesperson is expecting you rather than finishing with someone else, and a trade appraisal can be ready when you arrive. A shopper who books through a store's online scheduling link usually spends less time waiting and more time driving.

Because most of them do not buy that day, and an unrecorded visitor is a name nobody can call tomorrow. Illustrative example: a store takes twenty walk ins in a week and sells five of them on the spot. The other fifteen leave. If ten were never recorded beyond a first name on a scrap of paper, the store just paid for the advertising that brought them and kept nothing.

Recording a walk in takes under a minute and gives the store a name, a number, the vehicle they looked at, the trade they arrived in and the reason they left. That record is what a follow up process runs on, what a manager reviews on Monday, and what proves which advertising is actually filling the lot. It also answers the lead source question accurately, since a customer who drove over because of a mailer is not really a walk in at all.

The salesperson creates the lead from a phone while standing next to the customer, in the LeadLocate mobile app, rather than from memory at the end of a shift. A driver license scan fills the customer record without typing, a VIN scan on the trade captures the vehicle they arrived in, and inventory is in the same app so the unit being looked at is attached to the record. In-Store Now flags the customer as physically on the lot, so the desk and the managers can see who is in the building and who is working them, and the same flag turns the visit into part of the lead's history instead of a name on a whiteboard. From there the walk in is worked like any other lead: desked on the spot, sent a recap, and picked up by a follow up process if they leave without buying.

What is a fresh up?

Floor slang for a customer who has just arrived and has not been greeted or worked by anyone yet. It is the same person a manager would call a walk in.

Can you walk into a car dealership without an appointment?

Yes. Every store takes walk ins during business hours. Booking first only means the vehicle is confirmed available, pulled up and ready, and a salesperson is expecting you.

Is a walk in better than an internet lead?

A walk in is already in front of the vehicle, so the visit closes at a higher rate. An internet lead reaches far more shoppers. Stores that do well run both, and record both the same way.

Should a walk in be entered in the CRM?

Always, on the spot. Most walk ins do not buy that day, and the ones who were never recorded cannot be followed up, counted or attributed to the advertising that brought them.

A specialist shows the phone app the way a salesperson uses it: scan the license, attach the unit, flag the visit, set the follow up.

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