Tag: Digital Retailing

How to Stand Out in a World of Digital Dealerships

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How to Stand Out in a World of Digital Dealerships

Consumers have spoken and dealers have responded. As a result of overwhelming demand, about 70% of dealerships now offer some form of a digital buying experience.* They are giving customers what they want—the option to start and (in some cases) even complete the car buying process online. But with so many dealers going digital, how does your digital dealership stand out?

Bring Awareness to Your Customers

Simply having a digital buying experience is no longer enough, especially if your customers don’t know what you offer. To differentiate your dealership and win more automotive leads, you have to bring awareness to your digital options.

Having digital buying tools on your website is a good first step, but you have to create, design, and implement a buying experience that speaks to your audience—modern car buyers. Customers are already motivated to move through a digital buying experience (two out of three want to complete even more steps digitally during their next buying experience). And when they know what dealership offers, you stand out.

Tell your customers all about your digital buying experience and make the benefits clear to the customer—reduced time in the dealership, added convenience, and the ability to buy even when out of market. Doing so can expand your reach, attract more car buyer leads, and provide a clear pathway to engage with your offerings.

Make Your Digital Experience as Easy as Possible

One of the top pain points of buying a car is spending time in the dealership. If your customers can complete a handful of steps digitally before arriving at the dealership, the entire car buying process will be smoother, more efficient, and easier for your customers. These initial digital steps may include the ability to:

  • Calculate personalized payments in every aspect of their deal structure
  • Include every possible incentive and rebate available to your customers
  • Value a trade-in and see how the price of a new or used car adjusts accordingly
  • Get an idea of their credit worthiness and even apply for and get preapproved for financing
  • Schedule a test drive appointment

When you offer this kind of experience, word gets around. Before long, your online reviews will reflect that buying a car from your dealership is the best, most efficient experience around. This has a compounding effect of bringing even more awareness to your dealership as a place of business that speeds up the overall buying process and treats customers right.

Take Your Digital Buying Experience Above and Beyond

Another way to differentiate your digital buying experience is to implement steps that few other dealerships offer. This can disrupt the status quo of the new digital dealership and create some buzz around your offerings. These steps may include:

  • Personalized virtual video test drive: This may involve a video call with the customer while members of your sales team drive the car and show off features.
  • Remote deal signing: Give customers the option to complete signing from the convenience of their home or office. This can expand your dealership audience to include out-of-market customers and may give your dealership a competitive edge through inventory shortages.
  • Online vehicle reservation: On a similar note, giving digital customers the ability to put their name down for a car and get in line for an upcoming purchase can give your dealership an advantage when inventory is low across the industry.
  • Scheduling a first service appointment: Consider introducing your customers to your service department with a virtual service meeting. This can help your customers establish a consistent pattern of bringing their car to your service department and boost service revenue.

The digital dealership may be the new norm, but your digital dealership can stand out from the crowd by bringing awareness to customers, making your digital experience as easy and customer-friendly as possible, and going the extra mile to offer digital steps other dealerships don’t.

To learn more about how you can stand out in a world of digital dealerships, check out Dealer.com Manager of Performance Management B. Malaczewski’s recent webinar, all about differentiating the digital buying process. You can also learn more about delivering the kind of digital shopping experience your customers expect at Dealer.com.

* Digitization of End-to-End Retailing (DoEER) study by Cox Automotive

5 Ways to Build Trust with Modern Car Buyers 

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5 Ways to Build Trust with Modern Car Buyers

Written By: Chase Abbott

Half of a consumer’s decision to repurchase or recommend an automotive brand or dealer is based on trust. While dealerships and car salespeople have long suffered from a lack of consumer confidence throughout the purchase process, gaining trust most certainly is possible when dealerships act intentionally. A leading way to win over auto sales leads is through a digital buying experience—if it is done properly. 

Even with digital sales methods, dealerships need to bolster consumer relationships to meet their goals. Ensuring that the digital sales process is developed and grounded in trust ultimately benefits both the car buyer leads and the dealership. Here are five ways your dealership can build trust with modern car buyers. 

1. Understand the power of digital 

Automotive sales have been trending toward an era of online shopping for some time now. But within the past 18 to 24 months alone, the percentage of vehicles purchased digitally has skyrocketed from 2% to almost 30%—a massive and sudden shift in consumer preferences that dealerships simply can’t ignore. 

This preference to purchase vehicles online is still gaining momentum. More than three-quarters (76%) of automotive dealer leads are willing to consider a complete online purchase process. This movement toward digital or hybrid purchasing is not likely to go away anytime soon, and savvy dealerships understand that the sales process has been permanently disrupted. Having the right technology available is a necessary basis for initiating customer relationships, anticipating their needs, and building trust from the get-go. 

2. Evaluate technology to ensure you have the right solutions in place 

Whether your dealership has digital experience tools already in place or if you’re just getting started, it’s important to evaluate available technology so it is serving both your customer base and internal needs. With the right functionality, these tools can guide automotive leads through the sales funnel, close deals with more efficiency, and increase profits. 

Connecting those dots and getting the technology right ultimately impacts your bottom line. Dealerships surveyed earned 25% higher front-end gross profits and 24% higher back-end gross profits, compared to traditional dealer leads. The right technology will meet customers where they already are in the sales process, providing tailored support that demonstrates your business recognizes their unique needs. 

3. Use customer data to keep deals moving forward 

Through responsible customer data usage, dealerships can target buyers with relevant automotive digital marketing in spaces that are of most use for them, resulting in a win-win situation. Admittedly, it’s not easy to do. About half of dealerships say that it is a challenge to leverage data and systems to identify opportunities, while 86% of dealers agree that having accurate and complete customer data is a dealership priority. However, the right software and tools can assist. 

Customer data can come from a variety of sources, including the consumer sharing it directly with the dealership, the consumer sharing it with a trusted third-party partner, or outside entities collecting it. Ideally, the dealership combines its own data with that of trusted partners for the most well-rounded view. The data can help your dealership understand the customer’s vehicle type preferences, budget, stage in the sales process, communication preferences, and more. 

Your own data should provide the insights you need to offer personalized online user experiences like recommendations, specials, and fixed operations content based on their previous shopping behaviors. Customer data provides a 216% increase in lead form submission rates, based on a Dealer.com study of 524 franchise dealers who subscribed to Experience Optimization. Dealerships using Experience Optimization showed that customers were three times more likely to initiate a trade-in deal. Salespeople can use data to inform their approach to a deal and to better assure customers that they are being supported throughout their ownership journey. 

4. Give customers control of their buying experience 

Customers want to be in control of their shopping experience, so most successful dealerships offer a range of online and offline communication options to help make customers comfortable and enable open dialogue. Offering a hybrid experience that combines the functionality of brick-and-mortar operations with the convenience of shopping online is key for building strong relationship with a wide range of customers. 

With this hybrid model, customers can do as much of the shopping online as they would like, and then come to the dealership when they’re ready. This level of flexibility helps bolster confidence and trust in the process. Two-thirds of dealer leads say that they want to complete more of their next car-buying process online compared to their prior vehicle purchase. If a customer can purchase on their own terms, they’re more likely to give your dealership good reviews/referrals and remain a loyal customer. 

5. Gather and utilize feedback from recent happy buyers 

Consumers familiar with shopping online are overwhelmingly satisfied with their dealership experience, with 77% expressing this sentiment. Harness the power of your happy customers and make it easy for them to spread the word for you. Build the feedback-solicitation process into the car-buying experience. 

This is especially important because 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business, and almost the same percentage trust these reviews the way they trust personal recommendations. More than half of shoppers say that the most important factor when choosing a dealership is the dealer’s reputation. 

Building trust with the modern car buyer will help enhance and solidify your reputation. You can accomplish this by understanding what car buyers want, utilizing technology to your advantage, giving customers the ability to shop online, and then seamlessly moving the process forward. To learn more about how you can build trust with modern car buyers, visit Dealer.com. 

A version of this article originally appeared in Digital Dealer. 

Take Your Website to the Next Level

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The dealership website experience—and the new ground a website must cover—has changed.

Today’s dealership websites must do more than navigate shoppers to your car inventory. With consumer behavioral shifts, more flexible buying processes, and profitability fluctuating at the dealership, dealer websites must be configured to play a central role in every transaction, and every interaction.

The website experience must cater to consumers from all stages of the buying journey, and more importantly, it should play a part in the success of your digital marketing strategy.

What consumers expect from the car buying experience has also changed.

2020 showed us that digital marketing is no longer simply a channel or a box for dealers to check. It accelerated the need for innovation and a focus on the entire shopping and buying experience—from vehicle consideration, selection, negotiation, selling, and commerce.

Digital marketing experts help dealerships take their website to the next level.

As dealers, you must manage multiple vendor relationships on top of managing the business of the dealership. That’s why it’s important to have specialized digital marketing expertise to help take your digital marketing strategy to the next level. You deserve a digital marketing that does more than help implement your website but stays ahead of emerging trends and best practices across all relevant focus areas including SEO, reputation management, creative, and video. 

More than a website provider, Dealer.com is the industry’s only complete digital marketing solution, fortified by unsurpassed customer insights, that provides dealerships with the technology and expertise to delight automotive shoppers and increase profits.

Is your digital marketing equipping you to adapt and thrive? Consider your capabilities in these key areas:

  • Does your digital marketing prioritize data and have meaningful integrations? Reliable consumer data is critical to success, not only for automotive digital marketing but also for overall dealership profitability. The right data enables you to generate more automobile leads by personalizing every touchpoint a consumer has with your dealership Dealer.com leverages the exclusive, first-party Cox Automotive data which includes insights from two out of three U.S. car buyers (2020 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey).

  • Is your digital marketing partner implementing tools and processes that make your work easier? If you haven’t updated your processes to incorporate new capabilities, you’re missing out on opportunities to improve—and on opportunities to deliver the best possible consumer experiences. 

  • Is your digital marketing partner making your job easier and acting as a true partner in your success? Or are they a little more than technical support? There’s no way around it—the right tools and the right data are critical to providing premium consumer experiences. But there’s a third critical element: the right people. Without the right people, even the very best tools and data will fall short. At Dealer.com, a meaningful partnership with our dealerships is at the core of our business. Your success is our success. With the right people behind premium consumer experiences, we can all win.  

You deserve a digital marketing partner who does more than check boxes. You need a data-driven partner who helps create a successful digital marketing strategy, maximizes your marketing ROI, and minimizes confusion.

Discover what a complete digital marketing solution could do for you.

Marketing Your Website for Digital Retailing Success

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Nearly every franchise dealer offers digital retailing, but very few do anything to effectively market their experience. They take a set-it-and-forget-it approach and fail to capitalize on a prime opportunity to engage customers and stand out from the competition. In this on-demand webinar hosted by Drew McEleney, you’ll learn:

  • Why digital retailing is so important in today’s market
  • Why marketing and branding your digital retailing experience is worth the investment and how it sets you apart from other dealers
  • Best-in-class examples of digital retailing marketing

Learn more about digital retailing tools from Dealer.comhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccsRcKHPaqQ&t=172s

Why eContracting and Digital Retailing Go Hand-in-Hand

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More and more dealerships are seeing the value of digital retailing for bringing in customers from a variety of online sources to help counter declining retail profit margins.

Consumers are definitely shopping for vehicles online. Recent research by Google/Kantar TNS found that 92% of car buyers now research online before they buy. Today, 76% of shoppers are open to the idea of buying completely online, according to the Cox Automotive 2020 Digitization of End-to-End Retail Study.

Dealerships are utilizing a wide range of digital retailing initiatives. On one end of the spectrum, there is the all-digital deal. This is where customers complete the entire deal online – including the eContract – and receive remote delivery of their vehicle to their location.

However, most dealerships currently use digital retailing to give customers the opportunity to start their deal online and then transition smoothly to complete their deal in-store. Research shows that 83% of consumers want to do one or more steps of the purchase process online, so even when the plan is to engage customers in person at some point in the deal, it’s important to have the technology in place to continue the shopping experience they prefer.

Allowing car buyers to do their research online can also add to a dealership’s profitability, as 63% of shoppers are more likely to purchase aftermarket products if they can learn about them on their own time before finalizing their vehicle purchase.

How does eContracting fit in with digital retailing? It’s a logical step in the purchase process, extending the convenience of technology-enabled car shopping to the contract review and signing stage of the deal.

With digital retailing in place on your dealership’s website and third-party websites, here’s some of what your customer may have done online before they walk in the door:

  • Select and reserve a vehicle from your inventory
  • Figure their car payment
  • Calculate the value of their trade-in
  • Research aftermarket options and add-ons
  • Complete a credit application
  • Submit an offer on the vehicle

After the car buyer has filled out their information online and taken steps to complete their purchase, would it make sense to print out paper contracts for them to sign at the very end? Of course not!

At a time when consumers are accustomed to a high level of convenience and efficiency from online shopping, eContracting features such as mobile contract review and sign-and-tap help meet those expectations as they complete their vehicle purchase at the dealership. And for customers who wish to to do more of their purchase process online, remote contract review and eSigning provide the flexibility for them to sign from anywhere.

Click to discover how Digital Contracting with Dealertrack uniFI complements your dealership’s Digital Retailing initiatives.

Why Now is the Time for Auto Lenders to Go Digital

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Over the past several years, the paperwork and manual processes for handling auto loans have been gradually giving way to technology-based processes. But this year has changed everything. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital solutions have quickly moved from “nice to have” to “vital” for both dealers and lenders.

Consumers have led the charge: two-thirds of car buyers surveyed said they were more likely to purchase a vehicle 100% online1. Dealers have gotten up to speed quickly: the same study found that 81% of franchise dealers and 47% of independent dealers say they now have a digital retailing solution in place.

These technology solutions help keep consumers and dealership personnel safe while keeping the deals moving – but what role do lenders play? Digital retailing tools work similarly for lenders to initiate a contact-free browsing process that can turn casual shoppers into pre-approved, contract-ready buyers for their dealer partners.

With digital retailing technology helping dealerships work deals virtually and remotely, contracting electronically is the natural next step in the deal process. And today’s customers appreciate the contactless deal experience.

Now more than ever, dealers are relying on their lender partners to support the digital solutions that keep car sales moving. Lenders are embracing technology for driving consumer engagement and expediting the signing, submission, review and funding of dealers’ contract packages. Here are some of the drivers behind many lender modernization strategies.

Digital workflows drive efficiency for everyone — and enable lenders to appear as strong service partners

In the beginning, dealers’ eContracting adoption was driven by a desire to optimize workflow efficiency to counter margin pressure and gain cash flow fluidity. But today, a contactless contract signing process and fast funding are more important to dealers than ever — and Dealertrack data shows eContracting has lenders funding their dealers as fast as the same day. Improving on this level of service helps strengthen dealer partnerships. And strong partnerships can help drive more loan originations.

Digital contract packages are designed for completeness and accuracy, ensuring that no signatures are missed, no calculation errors have been made, and no required documents are overlooked. Dealertrack data shows that eContracting can help reduce returned contracts and lower the rate of re-contracting below 1%.2

And what about office space and paper clutter? With these paperless deals eliminating hefty paper contract packages, the documents are now stored digitally — freeing up office space and lowering storage fees, while still keeping the authoritative contract and digital data readily available in case of audit.

The way forward: matching technology to business strategy

Lenders’ unique financing models and business goals make one-size-fits-all solutions a speculative approach at best. There’s ample opportunity to implement digital strategies that align to a lender’s specific business goals and the resources they have available. The right technology partner will help lenders optimize their processes, drive the online experience consumers have come to expect, and help strengthen dealer partnerships through improved service.

Read more about lender strategies for the new digital car shopper.

.1Cox Automotive COVID-19 Digital Shopping Study, April 4-5, 2020
2Based on 2019 Dealertrack eContracting transaction data

Dealertrack and the Evolution of Digital Retailing

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Earlier this month, Cheryl Miller, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Dealertrack F&I and Titling Solutions, participated in a keynote panel at the Consumer Banking Association’s CBA Live 2019 conference. The topic was Digital Retailing Evolution: What’s NOW & What’s Next, and Cheryl shared her expertise on digital retailing in the automotive industry and how the technology is bringing lenders and dealers together.

Following are some of the subjects Cheryl addressed during the panel.

How has digital retailing evolved over the past year and where do you see it going over the next 2-3 years?

The trend is toward an end-to-end digital experience that gives car buyers the flexibility to do as much or as little of the deal online as they prefer. This opens up new worlds for dealers when it comes to buyer targeting throughout the customer lifecycle, including advertising, purchasing, servicing and financing.

For dealers and lenders alike, it’s driven by customer demand. The way consumers purchase things has changed, and customers want the car buying process to incorporate conveniences such as shopping online. Our research shows 83 percent of customers prefer to do at least one purchase step online outside of the dealership. Using a digital retailing solution can help deliver a better customer experience that’s in line with what buyers want.

This is not the only way dealers benefit from digital retailing. The traditional retail sales process takes 3 or more hours for the average dealership to complete. Completing steps of a deal online saves an average of 30 minutes. A more efficient process gets deals completed more quickly, which gives a dealership more time to serve more customers. Digital retailing solutions better connect the online to in-store shopping experience due to streamlined processes, less data re-entry and increased accuracy.

The market is growing, in large part due to demographics. By 2020, Millennials (consumers in their early twenties to late thirties) are forecast to represent 40% of car buyers. There are more than 75 million members of this tech-savvy generation, and they’re at the forefront of demand for digital retailing experiences. Eventually we expect to see the 100% digital deal where every facet is handled online. Most of today’s customers still prefer to finalize their purchase at the dealership, but each successive generation will be more comfortable with ordering a car online the way they order merchandise from Amazon.

How are dealers and lenders working together to succeed with digital retailing solutions?

Dealers see digital retailing as an opportunity to connect the online experience to the in-store experience, and ultimately as a way to increase revenue. Our 2018 Cox Automotive Lender Study revealed that 51% of dealers say it is important for lenders to offer digital contracting to complement their digital retailing workflow. Dealers select their lender pool based on rate competitiveness, turnaround time for credit application decisions, and the strength of their relationship with their finance partners. Being able to work with lenders via the same platform they use for other digital retailing functions strongly meets two of those criteria.

Dealers today suffer from margin compression, so they are constantly looking for ways to profitably structure their deals with their lender partners. Lenders should strive to bridge the gap so that dealers understand you are there as a partner and what you can bring to the table to assist on margin compression and the deal structure – at the right rate for profitability. We see that most dealers are looking for qualified customers who meet their lender requirements. Dealers are a critical part of the retail experience, often finding the best financing available with valuable incentives for their customers. We offer solutions to both dealers and lenders that are well positioned to offer consumers choices that lead to a frictionless car-buying experience.

Dealertrack and all our Cox Automotive solutions are fully committed to our vision to digitize the process to procure a vehicle “from contact to contract.” We understand dealers and lenders both play key roles in every vehicle sale that involves financing. A well-planned digital retailing solution gives both of them tools that work together seamlessly.

With 85% of all new cars sold needing to be financed, dealers and lenders do play well together. The dealer works with the lender and for them – as well as for the consumer. The dealer provides the lender an opportunity in the form of a sourced lead, the lender is retained, and they work together to sell cars, to the benefit of both organizations. Partnership here is instrumental between dealers and lenders.

Do lenders need to upgrade to digital retailing tools now or can they wait for the industry to mature?

The answer is “now.” The time for waiting is over because dealers are already engaged in some form of digital retailing – many dealers already use their website for leads, digital media/social strategies, and more. Digital retailing enables dealers to capture more opportunities. Thus, now is the time for lenders to act if you are trying to increase your partnerships with dealers and gain market share and grow originations.

The technology is in demand by dealers. Customers are demanding better service orientation and a solution more akin to other shopping experiences, like the way they buy coffee and shop for groceries and other household goods. It makes sense for lenders to put digital retailing tools in place now, even if there are certain functionalities and features that won’t be fully utilized until the industry matures further. Be ready for what is here now, and it will simply continue to grow. Be ready so you can win in the marketplace.

Is Your Dealership Maximizing Out-of-State Sales Opportunities?

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There was a time when dealerships didn’t think much about attracting out-of-state customers unless they happened to be located near a college town, military base or state line. The internet has changed all that.  

According to Cox Automotive 2018 Car Buyer Journey research, 60% of the time car buyers spend buying a vehicle consists of researching and shopping online. 

Car buyers can now peruse vehicle inventories all over the country from the comfort of their own homes. That means there’s always a chance that the next customer to walk through the door drove cross-country or booked a one-way flight from another state to get to you. 

When you take into account that half of all car buyers do not contact the dealership before they stop by for the first time, it’s important to be prepared for customers from anywhere. 

The flip side is that your dealership is no longer just competing with the auto dealers across the street and down the road. Now, every dealer in the country is a potential competitor. 

If you don’t feel quite ready to take on the myriad titling and registration laws, regulations, guidelines and processes that differ for every state, you’re not alone. It can feel overwhelming to keep up with your own state’s registration and title forms, fees and taxes, much less those from 49 other states. 

Fortunately, there are software solutions available to help. Dealertrack’s RegUSA is designed to handle dealerships’ out-of-state registration and titling needs for all 50 U.S. states, including calculating fees and taxes and generating the proper forms. All this while ensuring compliance with each state’s regulations. 

With an out-of-state registration and titling solution in place, your dealership can confidently market to potential buyers across the state line and across the nation. Knowing that you have the tools to handle registration and titling for all your customers, no matter where they live, opens up sales opportunities that you may have been overlooking in the past.  

Moving F&I Online

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Car buyer preferences are shifting toward more online research, and 83% of consumers today want to complete at least one automotive purchase activity online, according to the Cox Automotive 2017 Future of Digital Retail study.

As dealers move toward a digitized customer lifecycle that encompasses advertising, purchasing, servicing and financing, customers expect a seamless transition from online to in-store.

The F&I process is ripe for digitization. When customers have the option to begin to structure their deal online, their satisfaction increases, along with the dealership’s revenue and profits.

A recent Cox Automotive and PwC survey found that 63% of dealers saw the biggest ROI from digitizing their sales and F&I process.

Learn more about bringing F&I into the digital world in this F&I and Showroom article by Cheryl Miller, Vice President and General Manager of Dealertrack F&I Solutions.

Streamline Operations and Boost Satisfaction

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Think for a moment about the interactions your dealership has with your customers. How many people really want to spend more time buying or servicing a vehicle? They want to get in, get out, and get on with their lives. But the unfortunate reality is that most customers dread the in-dealership experience. And it has more to do with the day-to-day operations of your business than you might think.

 

The Frustration of Buying a Car

In the minds of consumers, visiting a dealership isn’t far from a trip to the DMV. That’s because in-dealership inefficiencies lead to customer downtime and a prolonged sales and services process. And when customers have to wait, customers get annoyed. In fact, 41% of customers label the amount of time it takes to complete a purchase as the single most frustrating aspect of buying a car. That’s a higher level of frustration than dealing with salespeople, negotiating a deal, getting a good trade-in offer, or applying for financing.

As you might expect, customer satisfaction and the amount of time a customer spends in the dealership are closely correlated. According to an AutoTrader.com study, average customer satisfaction scores are highest when a customer spends less than an hour in the dealership. And those scores begin to fall off dramatically at the 90-minute mark, with scores dipping below the average at the 2.5-hour mark. The study also reported that every dealership analyzed failed to meet this 90-minute customer-cycle objective, regardless of the operational or sales tactics employed.

 

The Divide Between Dealers and Customers

Yes, it takes time to buy a car. But it’s obvious that there’s a real disconnect between dealers and customers about just how much time is considered acceptable. Most customers come to the dealership already having researched everything about their car of choice for weeks, even months. They want to show up long enough to sign a financing agreement, pick up their keys, and drive off the lot. In their minds, there shouldn’t be a difference between buying a car and walking into any other store to purchase a product. If inventory is available, they want to be able to buy the car and be on their way.

Dealers, on the other hand, understand that the process is more complicated. And yet, many of those complications can still be avoided. When dealerships use non-linear sales processes that involve multiple, potentially deal-breaking decision points and multiple technology systems (that don’t always play well together), tasks get duplicated, processing time increases, and customers wait.

 

A Wholesale Shift in Operations

To improve operational efficiency and improve the customer experience, dealerships need to think about people, processes, and technology as one and the same. In other words, every means available to the dealership should be used to bring about the singularly-important goal of providing a better customer experience.

Dealership and customer expectations will more closely unite when dealerships:

  • Hire, train, and retain talent with the customer experience in mind.
  • Review and improve technology and processes with the customer experience in mind.
  • Inform and incentivize customers about new and improved operational capabilities and efficiencies built with the customer experience in mind.

This wholesale shift toward an improved customer experience can begin when the customer first begins researching vehicles. By moving part of the sales process online, including online trade-in tools, F&I education and offerings, and having qualified salespeople available via chat, more decisions can be made when the customer is most interested. This also cuts down on in-dealership wait time and improves transparency.

By streamlining processes, implementing technology that simplifies operations, and emphasizing a customer-centered culture (including fostering transparency and trust), dealerships can get closer to the ideal in-and-out car-shopping experience. And eventually, dealership by dealership, sales will increase and the negative perception of the car-buying process will begin to change in the minds of consumers.