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Thanks to recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, dealers can now use customer data to improve the car sales process. AI gives dealers key insights into individual customer interests to better personalize the buying experience and to build a larger sales funnel. But because AI is relatively new to automotive retail, there is much to learn from other retail industries that have been successfully using this technology for several years.  

In this white paper, you’ll learn how retailers in a variety of industries are using AI to:  

• Personalize product offerings  
• Uncover buying signals  
• Improve customer satisfaction  
• Streamline the shopping and buying process  

Learn how your dealership could drive better results with AI.

Are you asking your staff and vendors the right questions about CRMs?

If you’re in the market (or even thinking about being in the market) for a new dealership CRM, you know there are lots of factors to consider. But understanding and evaluating all those factors is easier said than done. In the Key CRM Considerations guide, you’ll learn strategies for CRM evaluation that help ensure you find the tool that is right for your business.

The guide covers the importance of knowing your customers, your providers, and yourself when choosing a CRM, covering key considerations including: 

• Technology requirements and integrations 
• Process compatibility 
• Data and insights 
• Service and support

Get the guide to learn how to research the right CRM for your dealership.

With all of the unique challenges your dealership might be facing today, from reduced staff, to selling by appointment only, to being without a cleanup department, it can be really difficult to manage each day in the dealership and prioritize what is most important. 

With a few ideas, reports, and best practices gathered from the VinSolutions team and dealerships across the country, however, you can quickly identify and act upon your top opportunities. By prioritizing customers, responding appropriately, and optimizing your data for future success, you can spend time taking action that actually matters to your business – now and in the near future.  

Who are the #1 customers right now?  

One of the most productive tasks you can do for your sales team is to identify which leads are top priority right now. While fresh internet leads and those customers who have visited the showroom are certainly important, consider prioritizing a different group of customers: those who are responding to you.  

Customers who are actively engaging with you are much more likely to be ready to buy, so you must make sure you’re not letting these customers slip through the cracks. But if you’re working with a reduced staff, you might be missing valuable text messages and emails being sent to salespeople that aren’t working right now. It is important that you have a plan to monitor for these easy-to-miss messages.  

In VinSolutions Connect CRM, there is a report that will enable you to quickly and easily do just that. The Unanswered Email and Text Replies report automatically delivers you a list of unanswered communications, which you can prioritize based on the date the communication was received. In this report, you’ll also be able to see the age of the lead, which can help you quickly sort out who is most likely to be ready to buy based on how long ago they made their last purchase.  

Your goal should be to keep this report clean – to get this list to zero every day or maybe multiple times a day. If your customers are contacting you, they are likely contacting your competitors as well, so it is critical that you get back to them quickly. Set times for yourself to review this report daily, whether in the morning, in the evening before you go home or multiples times throughout the day. You can also schedule the report to be automatically delivered to staff you designate at times you designate. If you need help getting that set up, contact your Performance Manager.   

How should I respond to shoppers?  

With more and more of your customers shopping online, complimentary coffee and popcorn in your showroom are no longer the best ways to show your appreciation. That means that the way you respond to inquiries from customers is more important than ever.  

Even so, many dealers still default to cookie cutter responses to leads, such as, “Hi, my name is Kevin. When can you come in?” If your customer asked you if a vehicle had heated seats and remote start, they probably aren’t going to be very satisfied with that reply.  

You still need to win the race to respond to customers; speed is critical. But you can’t sacrifice speed for quality. Always take the time to read the lead and answer customers’ questions. Ignoring your customer’s questions doesn’t exactly send the message that you care. And on top of that, you’re wasting the precious advertising dollars you spent bringing those leads if you’re not going to respond in a way that a customer expects.  

What can I do now to set my dealership up for future success?  

Understandably, many customers want to wait to make a purchase until they can come into your dealership for a more traditional buying experience. It is important to give those customers confidence they are priority.  

You can do this by creating a special list of customers to contact when the dust settles. In the Customer Notes section of the Customer Dashboard in Connect CRM, you can label customers with tags (such as #priority) that you can quickly search. You can also make these notes using the Connect Mobile app.  

To get to your list of labeled customers, simply type the phrase you’re using to label customers in the Customer Notes field of the Advanced Search in the Customers menu. From there, you can select all the customers you’ve tagged as a priority and create tasks for a phone call or email right in the CRM – all with just a few clicks.  

You can then title the tasks in a way that lets your staff know the word track to use. You can even build a phone template, that includes a full script specific to the tag you’ve applied – whether it includes messaging about incentives, new delivery options or new hours. This is something else your Performance Manager can help you with if you need more ideas.  

For more information and to learn more about the Urgent Active Leads report, watch our on-demand webinar, Key CRM Actions to Maximize Current Leads.

For more information and to learn more about a new report, Urgent Active Leads,watchouron-demandwebinar,Key CRM Actions to Maximize Current Leads.

Watch Now

It’s time to go all-in. Have you been dabbling in creating a digital experience for your customer? Many dealers have. Your customer has been telling you for a while, they prefer digital interaction with the ability to self-serve. Your timeline to deliver that experience has been accelerated.  

Depending on where you are in the digital transformation, you may need to expand utilization of the tools you already have in place, or you may need to understand what is available to your dealership. In a recent Dealer Forward, Tully Williams, director of parts and service with the Niello Company shared, “In this digital age everybody has been using digital tools, but now it’s more important than ever to ask what can our software can do for us and maximize every opportunity.”  

Here’s a guide to providing a digital experience that gives your customer the opportunity to choose self-service throughout the service journey with Xtime.  

Scheduling an Appointment 

Back to the fundamentals. If you aren’t offering online scheduling and opening up your settings so your prospects and customer get the most choices, you need to make this priority number one. This is where digital interaction begins, and where your customers can see you’re providing them the opportunity to connect with you in a self-service manner, in which 67 percent prefer over speaking to a person. 

Make sure as soon as a visitor arrives at your website they see messaging that tells them you are open for business. It sounds simple, but it is so important. Let’s say you are craving your favorite dish from your go-to local restaurant today, what is the first thing you are going to do? Check their website to see if they are open. If they don’t say anything about their curbside pickup or delivery options, it’s not likely you’re going to pick up the phone and check.  

With Schedule, Xtime’s automotive scheduling software, give your customer the ability to book their own appointment, viewing all available options, including services they should consider based on vehicle mileage, service history, and previously declined services.  

Welcome Your Customer 

Prior to social distancing, the way your advisor welcomed the customer provided the backdrop to the entire service visit. Your advisor prepared to greet a customer by name armed with all the service history and previously declined services using Xtime Engage, and now you need to lean into the self-service feature in that product: Self Check-In.  

With 54 percent of your customers delaying service due to concern about contact with people outside of their homes, Self Check-In can help you alleviate the anxiety of face-to-face interaction with your employees or other customers. When they arrive, instead of coming inside or being greeted at their car, your customer can use their mobile device to initiate the check-in process for their service appointment and sign for services.  

Once your customer has safely deposited their keys, your advisor is then free to safely complete a walk-around without contact with your customer. When the customer initiates check-in on their mobile device, it provides efficiency and social distancing for your advisors too.  

Self Check-In requires no additional hardware to purchase and is available for no additional charge with Xtime Engage. 

Your Customer Still Wants to Watch Service Progress 

With less in-person interaction, you may need to up communication frequency to provide visibility and promote trust. Thankfully, this isn’t on your advisor to pick up the phone with every update. With Service Tracker, an add-on feature in Xtime Inspect, your customer can see real-time status updates.  

Service Tracker is a way to digitize the service experience, and let your customer self-serve their status updates. After check-in, your customer will receive a text message with a link to access Service Tracker. The link can also be found in any email they receive during the service visit. It’s an amazing tool to enhance the service experience, as well as free up your advisors from phone calls.   

Complete the Service Visit Online 

You’re connecting all of the service dots with a digital experience for your customer. Keep it going. With the Enhanced Multi-Media add-on to Inspect, you can send your customer video and pictures to help them decide on additional service recommendations, and they can approve them right from their phone.    

When it’s time to close out, they’ll be able to self-serve by paying from their mobile device as well. Send a link using Payment that allows your customer to click and pay safely and in a secure fashion.  

Xtime Payment is included at no additional cost to all dealers with Xtime Engage.   

Summary 

As your partner in providing the right approach to meet your customer’s preferences — self-service and digital — we want to help you complete the digital transformation. With tools that allow your customer to interact digitally, safely, and on their own terms, you’ll build consumer confidence and a superior customer experience.  

Visit our Business Continuity Hub for more tools and resources. 

We live in a digital-first world — and it’s no longer optional. You need to drive revenue. To do that today, you have to provide a safe, online experience for your customers and employees and completely reimagine your customer’s journey by providing self-service capabilities.  

Self-Service Preference

Put your customer hat on for a moment. You’ve grown accustomed to checking into flights on your phone, getting carry-out food or groceries delivered with a couple of clicks, and even ordering up a ride through an app. If you had to talk to someone each time you needed one of these services, would you still find them just as convenient?  

For the majority of us, the answer is no. In a recent survey, 67 percent confessed preference of self-service over speaking to a live representative. Let’s walk through the options you have to let your fixed ops customer self-serve. 

Scheduling an Appointment

Get it right from the get-go. Self-service should start before your customer arrives at your service department. Appointment booking is your opportunity to make a great first impression. 

Whether through your email and text marketing efforts or social media, make sure to provide a link that directs your customer to your website to schedule their appointment. 

Beyond the ability to book online, really think about the experience your customer needs for proper self-service. They will want choices, including multiple dates and time options. Also consider the information your customer needs to properly care for their vehicle. Provide their service history and any previously declined services alongside recommendations based on their vehicle’s mileage. 

Self Check-In

Part of the self-service appeal is the no-wait factor. When you couple that with the general anxiety your customer may have right now about coming into contact with others outside of their safe space — 54 percent delaying service for this reason — providing the opportunity to check-in for their service appointment from their own mobile device makes complete sense. 

Give your customer the ability to initiate check-in on their phone when they arrive and create a safe process and instructions for dropping off their keys. With this level of self service in place, your customer is not waiting for their advisor, and they can feel confident in their safety when the interaction at your dealership is with their own phone.

Track Service Progress

Your customer may prefer to take things into their own hands, but they still want to hear updates from you during the service visit. Luckily, this can be done digitally and even through self-service. You can use texting and email to send updates, but you may also consider using a tool that allows your customer to see where their car is throughout the service visit. Choose a service that gives your customer the ability to click and check progress as they like while their car is in your shop. 

Online Approvals and Payment

The goal is a seamless service experience that weaves in self-service options for your customer without ever feeling disconnected from the in-shop experience. With that in mind, you want to send the multipoint inspection and any ASRs through links in emails or texts. This way your customer can see what your tech sees through photos or video to help them make a decision. 

Once they’ve signed off, digitally, and service is complete, you can ask them to submit payment in a similar fashion. For your part, make sure it’s communicated to your customer that the online payment is secure. Not only have you provided the ability for them to connect with you in the self-service manner they prefer, you will have proven your determination to reduce in-person interaction and commitment to keeping your customer and your employees safe.

Summary

The majority of people today prefer self-service. Bring this ability to your dealership to show you care about the safety of your employees and customers as well as the desire your customer has to act in their own time and way. The new service visit journey means blurring the lines between online and in-store for your customers by giving them the opportunity to self-serve. 

Visit our Business Continuity Hub for more tools and resources.

Sources: Nuance Enterprise 

Cox Automotive COVID-19 Consumer Impact Study

What is the right move to make at this moment? If you consider consumer sentiment in this time of social distancing, offering valet pickup and delivery service may be the step that makes sense. Darrel Ferguson, Xtime’s director of performance management, and some members of his team recently hosted a webinar, Be Safe Workshop: Valet Pickup & Delivery. They shared recent data along with best practices and how-tos for the valet feature in Schedule. Here’s a bit of what they discussed. 

The Data Tells the Story

The 2020 Cox Automotive COVID-19 Dealer Impact Study tells us there has been a 68 percent decline in vehicle sales and a 57 percent decline in service appointments. Service operations with some type of remote service option have not been hit quite as hard, with a 48 percent decline in appointments, but still a significant number. 

The top reasons customers delay service are social distancing and concern of contact with staff or people outside of their safe environment. Valet service could be your direct response to the concern over contact with your staff. 

While we know a vast majority of consumers say they’re delaying vehicle service because they just aren’t driving very much, 41 percent say they’d be willing to get their vehicle serviced if the dealership picks up the vehicle at their home, takes it in for service or maintenance, then delivers it back to their home. There is also interest in having a tech complete the service at their home according to 30 percent of the consumers surveyed.   

So, where’s the disconnect? It’s consumer awareness. Only 18 percent of consumers know there may be a valet option available to them. Let’s get valet in place for your dealership, then we need to make sure and tell your customers. 

Valet Set Up

Xtime’s valet functionality lives within the Schedule product and can be tailored to your valet capacities. There are steps you’ll want to take, like enabling valet appointments for each Make you service so all customers can select to have their vehicle picked up when scheduling online. You’ll also want to revisit your Rideshare Powered by Lyft spend caps. Some dealers are using Rideshare to take the valet to the customer and then the valet drives the customer’s car back to the dealership. It may be time to reevaluate what you’re willing to spend on Rideshare in order to get the customer’s car in the door —a lot has changed in the last 30 days. 

Find detailed, step-by-step valet set up instructions when you watch the full the webinar . 

Best Practices and Tips

We take some best practice cues from retailers that are putting customer experience first, like Amazon. As an industry we used to sell things based on price. Today convenience may trump price for many of your customers. 

Once such form of convenience is valet service. What we’ve found is that while many dealers may have already enabled this service, they may not have told customers it’s available. Get proactive in your marketing and communication. Take the time to explain what valet service is, otherwise, they may not know or understand. Talk about valet on your website and in your email and text marketing as well as social media. Don’t be afraid to create video and have digital dialogue with your audience about what you’re doing to keep them safe. And when you do, make sure to link the posts back to your online scheduler. 

Now, let’s talk about how to get in front of your audience that may have cancelled or no-showed in the past few weeks. You likely have a large pool from the start of social distancing until now. Calling them and talk about how you can help them get their service done safely with valet. 

Best practice conversations are happening now because you need every car and you need every dollar. Get on the phone every day to confirm appointments. If they’re considering cancelling, talk to them about valet. You can make servicing their vehicle convenient and safe. 

While you’re at it, contact customers with recalls. Selling service may be a challenge right now, but you may be able to find work that does not include customer pay. 

You may also find opportunities to get creative. We’ve talked with some dealerships that have their sales people and other sidelined employees acting as valets, picking up and delivering vehicles.  

Lastly, let’s remember this: coupons are not today’s answer. The reason people aren’t coming in is bigger than price. It’s their health and safety they are concerned with. Make sure to communicate what you’re doing with valet and beyond for your customers so they can feel good about making and keeping an appointment. 

The webinar, Be Safe Workshop: Valet Pickup & Delivery, included statistics, detailed valet set up instruction, and best practices beyond what we’ve catalogued here, not to mention some great Q&A and discussion. Watch the full webinar now.