Vehicle owners understand the need for scheduled maintenance and regular check-ups. And most of them appreciate the emails they receive from your service department reminding them that it’s time for a visit. Just like a car, your DMS is a complicated piece of technology. And maintaining efficiency is crucial to the overall health of your dealership. That’s why occasional DMS check-ups are an essential part of running a successful dealership. In today’s digital world, those check-ups are more important than ever. But how do you know when you’re due for a quick evaluation? Well, consider this your friendly reminder! Take a look at the following signs to decide whether or not your DMS is doing all it can to keep your dealership running strong.
Your Vendor is Absent
A great DMS vendor brings more to the table than great technology. In fact, having a partner you can trust is just as important as having a capable dealer management system. To be a good partner, a DMS vendor needs to offer efficient, easy-to-access technical support. And in today’s work-from-anywhere world, product and technical support need to be easily accessible omnichannel offerings. For example, you should have access to peer-to-peer forums where you can search for answers and learn from other dealers and veteran employees.
A great DMS partner goes well beyond traditional tech support by providing an experienced Performance Manager. Performance Managers are both product and industry experts. They understand your business and can proactively provide suggestions for applying the power of the DMS to your specific challenges and opportunities. They also offer personalized training and feedback on utilization that goes well beyond troubleshooting and product assistance.
Your Technologies Feel Disconnected
Car buying behaviors continue to shift, with shoppers wanting to complete more of the process online. In this new era of automotive sales, your tools and technologies have to work together. Specifically, those technologies need to reliably and securely share information with each other—a process that starts and ends with your dealer management system. You can’t afford to have disconnected data silos any longer. Your DMS needs to facilitate secure, bidirectional, real-time third-party integrations that protect customer privacy while giving unfettered access to your other systems. When your technologies connect, your dealership benefits from streamlined processes and your customers enjoy smoother experiences.
Your Customers Are Frustrated
Of course, all of the technical capabilities and connections in the world don’t matter if your dealership can’t keep its customers happy, and dissatisfied shoppers are the number one sign of a DMS that isn’t delivering. By increasing efficiencies, a great DMS facilitates better buying experiences from start to finish. As the source of truth for all data, the right DMS can share a shopper’s individual information across systems so that salespeople can personalize the buying experience.
Your DMS can be a powerful tool for driving change and promoting profit within your dealership. But to run a finely tuned business, you need to frequently evaluate the strengths of your technologies. Like regularly scheduled vehicle maintenance, occasional DMS check-ups can help diagnose problems and identify solutions for becoming more effective. After considering vendor availability, ease of integration, and customer satisfaction, you may find that your DMS doesn’t work anymore or that it needs a tune-up.
If you have big profitability goals this year, your DMS technology is likely due for a check-up. Consider our six-part Digital DMS Check-up Process. Get Yours Free Today!
