Tag: DMS

Find a DMS Partner Invested in Your Success

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A good salesperson can earn your business. And, often, that business transaction ends at the point of sale. But a great partnership is built long after the ink dries on the contract. Your DMS partner should work hard to help you achieve success. Improving your day-to-day operations and accomplishing long-term goals is an investment in the future. You expect your technology to do a lot for your organization. It’s time to start expecting more from your partners. See why dealers like you are making the decision to switch to a partner invested in their success. Watch the video.

An Invested Partner

A great business partner should empower you to be the company you want to be. That means working with your team to ensure a seamless installation and technology migration. It means helping you find solutions to all your questions and working with your dealership to get the most out of your technology. Your DMS partner should be an invaluable resource to you, helping your team navigate industry complexities, enact operational change, and grow your business.

An Intuitive Technology

Any technology you take the time and resources to invest in should be intuitive to learn for new and experienced employees alike. It should make your operations more efficient by reducing the number of clicks to complete a task and making it easy to access information. That includes being flexible enough to integrate seamlessly with third-party systems and meet the requirements of every dealership department.

Flexible Contract Terms

Finally, your business partners should be easy to do business with. Technology providers should earn your business every month, giving you the freedom to choose and the ability to change direction at any time. That means offering flexible contract terms, not auto-renew clauses. In other words, you should be in control of the direction of your dealership, not your DMS provider.

Watch the video below to see how real-world dealers, like you, have made the transition to a DMS partner that’s invested in their success.

 

 

 

 

Unlock Your Dealership’s Profitability with Connected Technology

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When the data in your dealership doesn’t sync with the technology you’ve invested in, your staff will almost certainly struggle. Don’t settle for manual processes and broken workflows that frustrate your customers and your employees. Rather, opt for connected technologies that deliver time-saving solutions that result in higher profitability. Watch the webinar.

The fact is today’s increasingly competitive franchise dealerships must create seamless experiences that win repeat business and add additional revenue. Fortunately, connecting your service technology and DMS helps maximize efficiency and revenue while strengthening your dealership with the power of continuous, real-time data.

Utilizing and Tracking Discounts

When you combine the power of Dealertrack DMS and Xtime, you give your team the tools they need to successfully utilize and track discounts, including:

  • Dollar Discounts
  • Percentage Discounts
  • Variable/Manager Owner Discounts
  • Actual Retail Value Discounts
Tracking Your QL Effective Labor Rate

If you’re like most dealerships, your effective labor rate is probably not very good. By combining Dealertrack DMS and Xtime, you can separate mechanical repair (ML) and quick lane (QL) to:

  • Obtain Accurate Reporting
  • Manage True Effective Labor Rate (ELR)
  • Increase Warranty Rates
  • Avoid Disrupting Employee Processes

To learn more about how to unlock your dealership’s profit potential, book your personalized demo, today.

 

About the Webinar Presenter

Jade Mitchell

Jade is the Sr. Manager of Performance Management at Dealertrack DMS. He has more than two decades of experience working inside automotive dealerships. Today, he works with dealerships to maximize utilization and to drive process and profit improvement. He believes that deep-dive DMS data can have a sizable, measurable impact on dealership success.

Strategies for a DMS Switch

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Dreaming of investing in new technology to give your dealership that next-level boost over the competition? Many dealers get sold on fancy technology promises but lose sight of their goals and business needs in the process. Finding a new DMS partner is a big decision. But you can break it down into smaller, more manageable steps with the advice of Cox Automotive’s Director of Product Consulting, Josh Bickerton. Learn how to Invest in a Strategy to Overcome Inertia below and watch the full webinar to Demystify a DMS Switch when you’re ready.

Understand Your Dealership

Understanding your own dealership goes beyond the day-to-day workflows. If you’re not taking a close look at your mission statement and what sets you apart from the competition, you’re at risk of losing sight of your core values in the overwhelming decision-making process. Start here, otherwise, you’re at risk of letting technology own the decision you’re about to make.

Document Your Objectives

Fear of change can derail even the best decisions. Make sure to stay aligned as a team by writing down how well a potential provider addresses your wants and needs. Catalog each department’s unique challenges to ensure you have a clear line of sight into the issues you hope to address by a technology switch

Identify Employee Needs

Don’t ignore the fact that a new DMS will impact your current and future team members. Millennials and Gen Z now make up a significant portion of your workforce. According to a
report from cloud networking firm, HPE Aruba, 93% of surveyed employees believed their workplace would be better if their employer made greater use of technology, and 64% believed their companies will be left behind if they didn’t implement new technology. *

Overcome the Fear of Change

The natural reaction to risk is to stick with the status quo. The ‘unknown’ can be perceived as threatening and switching to a new DMS can make even the most experienced employee feel like a novice again. Will your paycheck suffer? Will there be a negative impact on the business? Investing time and effort in learning a new system (or training new employees due to turnover) is also a common fear. Will my support staff assist with the change, and could we lose our data? It would be a mistake to ignore these very real, very common fears. Leaders and decision-makers need to address and acknowledge the anxiety that comes with any technology change.

Set Expectations

Knowing that no software change will be a perfect fit is not only realistic; it is also the antidote to the fear of change. When your staff understands that there will be grace given for a learning period due to change, and expectations are managed, some of the anxiety will be released.

Expectations of Accountability

Have an agreement with your team that evaluating your new technology will be given a wholehearted effort. While many software companies may try to earn your business with shiny bells and whistles, you and your team will do your best to put in the discovery work and find a solution that meets your unique business needs.

Validate your Contract End Date (CED)

Before you make the decision to switch (or put the fear of change on the table) take a good look at your DMS vendor contract to fully understand when your contract ends. If you have ongoing 3rd-party vendor agreements, be sure to evaluate those as well.

Making a DMS switch impacts your whole dealership. From the data you use to deliver premium customer experiences, to running payroll, your DMS is the backbone of your entire business operation. But finding the right partner can empower your franchise to profitability once you’ve made the move. While it may seem overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be. Watch the on-demand webinar, Demystifying a DMS Switch: 7 Key Principles for Success.

Demystify My DMS Switch – Watch Now

 

 

 

Source: https://betanews.com/2018/06/04/technology-improves-job-satisfaction/

 

The Business Benefits of Easy-to-Use Technology

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Retail technology changes fast. As car shoppers continue to evolve their preferences, they increase their demands for dealerships to keep up. Despite the pace of change and the pressure from consumers, many dealers aren’t in a rush to refresh their old technologies—especially their Dealer Management System. After all, change is difficult and many dealership employees aren’t excited about having to learn new tools, systems, and processes.

Hanging onto old, outdated DMS platforms may be a common practice among dealerships, but it doesn’t make much business sense. When dealerships refuse to evolve, they lose ground to their competitors and they risk losing customers who expect a more modern, technology-assisted buying experience. And, with new, easy-to-learn technology tools, the cost of making a change has gone down drastically. Consider the following important impacts of implementing easy-to-learn technologies at your dealership.

Onboard New Employees Faster

Onboarding is an important process at every dealership, but the process of getting new employees up to speed can distract from revenue-generating activities. One recent study suggested that it can take up to eight months for fresh new hires to reach peak productivity. When your DMS is easy to use and easy to learn, your new hires get up to speed faster and more efficiently.

Hire For the Skills You Want

When your dealership runs on a difficult-to-learn DMS, it becomes necessary to hire employees based on their past DMS experience. In fact, candidates with prior DMS experience often edge out better candidates that don’t have a history with your difficult DMS platform. Unfortunately, eliminating impressive job candidates is not a good formula for customer satisfaction. When your DMS is easy to use and easy to learn, you can hire candidates that will fit your culture and care for your customers.

Develop Your Engaged Employees
In today’s job market, the very best employees aren’t just looking for a job. Instead, many young digital natives are looking to develop new skills while advancing their careers. To attract and retain them at your dealership, you’ll need to offer lots of opportunities for professional development. In fact, a surprising 87% of millennials listed professional development as even more important to their job search than time off and compensation. An easy-to-learn DMS offers endless opportunities for continued learning and a community they can turn to in order to develop new skills.

Technology change—especially DMS transitions—can be difficult, but holding on to old, outdated tools is harmful to customer experience and dealership profitability. An easy-to-learn DMS helps you hire better employees, onboard them more quickly, then keep them engaged with ongoing educational opportunities. Watch the video below to learn more about the business benefits of an easy-to-learn DMS.

A Truly Versatile DMS Connects All Your Systems

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The General Managers and Dealer Principals that I speak to are always brainstorming new ways to improve their business. And I mean always. It’s like they can’t turn it off. I’ve been in their shoes, too, with plenty of years as a General Manager, myself. I get it. In retail automotive, there’s simply no time to sit back and watch your business run, thinking, “Things are just fine the way they are.” When things are up—your competition down the street is doing better. When sales are down, maybe inventory is low, you focus on acquisitions and leads. And, always, you’re looking at data to run numbers from each department. When it comes down to it, running a dealership demands that all systems are working in sync.

I know for a fact that the right DMS technology can help your business thrive—earning you more money and helping your whole team to do their jobs more freely. When it comes down to it, the right DMS technology is a game-changer.

Flexible Technology Connects and Improves

Your dealership deserves technology that doesn’t compromise when it comes to the important factors. Yet, a lot of the General Managers I meet are usually settling in several key areas when it comes down to it. They sacrifice on integrations, but they end up saving on cost. Or they find a great DMS that works with their CRM, but it’s cumbersome and doesn’t have flexible workflows. “Well, you can’t win them all,” is basically the sentiment. And that’s how it often goes. A truly versatile DMS should empower and improve the way your dealership performs by connecting your technology. Flexible integration with all of your dealership technology breaks down the silos that create cumbersome workflows and drive up fees from your providers.

Long Term Contracts and Hidden Fees

When it comes to your technology provider, one major red flag is an insistence on signing lengthy contracts that ensure your partnership long into the future. You don’t know what the next two years will look like—just look at the last two! When a vendor no longer has a need to earn your trust every month, you’re in a bad position. Does your business have plans to expand? What happens when you outgrow your current provider? Whom do you contact when you discover you’re paying more than you expected due to costly integration fees? In one study, an average dealer could expect to spend $42,000 a year on integration fees.

Easy to Learn is Easy to Use

More of the buying process has moved online. But the idea that buyers are forgoing any interaction with your sales team is sort of a misunderstanding. While it’s true that heavy digital users have reduced their time at the dealership by up to 40 minutes, in one report, they still visit. Some interactions will be 100% virtual. Others will take place in the showroom or the service center. Optimizing efficiency is key. And the way to do that is by streamlining your workflows, reducing the friction points your staff encounters when switching from disparate software systems that enable transactions and when pulling valuable data. When your team has access to technology that puts data right at their fingertips—and doesn’t slow them down—they thrive. And so do you. Your DMS technology shouldn’t take weeks and weeks to master. In fact, the sooner your team can reach productivity, the better they’ll feel about their roles.

It’s been quite a whirlwind year for dealers that I’ve talked to. Inventory levels have yet to recover. The sales process continues to move to a more digitized model. And service optimization is making it easier than ever to connect consumers and your service lane. Buyer satisfaction rates are up, year-over-year, to 72%. But bad habits are often formed in good times. And, without a partner in your corner, things like inflation, rising interest rates, and the cost of doing business are going to catch up.

Your dealership deserves technology that doesn’t compromise when it comes to the important factors. Ready to learn more? Don’t wait:. Visit Dealertrack.com today.

 

About the Author | Randy Wilson

With over thirty years of experience in the retail automotive industry, Randy Wilson brings exceptional wisdom to his role as Director of Performance Management to the Dealertrack DMS team. By leading a team of Performance Managers who have all previously held high-level dealership responsibilities in their careers, he is committed to driving rapid transformation and building measurable growth for our partners. Randy joined Cox Automotive in 2012 and works tirelessly to bring real-world experience into the development of technologies that enhance the day-to-day performance and efficiencies of every aspect of the business. In his spare time, he can be found sporting his Cheesehead gear and spending any spare moment boating and fishing on the ocean. He and his wife have four children together and five grandkids.

Seven Ways to Optimize Your Back Office

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“The right controller can mean the difference between dealers that thrive and those that are struggling to survive.” – Karli DeVall, CFO, Tim Dahle Nissan

 

Your dealership’s back office is easy to overlook when things are going well. But behind the scenes, accounting managers and controllers work hard to keep the lights on and the budgets balanced. Identifying a rock star controller—and elevating potential leaders—can empower your accounting team to improve profits and elevate your entire dealership’s operations. Here are seven quick ideas to build up your accounting team for the optimal back office.

1. Prioritize Training

Give your team a structured onboarding program and ongoing training opportunities to keep them engaged. When your accounting team and controllers are well-trained and have a clear path to high performance, they can see their role in the dealership plan and contribute to the bigger profitability picture.

 

2. Improve Communications

Give your accounting team the tools they need to communicate more efficiently with each other and with your technology. Better communication can empower your team to boost efficiency and evolve with time and new technologies.

 

3. Adopt Paperless Processes

Provide your team with the infrastructure to adopt paperless processes and digital document scanning. Going paperless improves communication between your teams and departments, and creates efficiencies throughout the dealership.

 

 

 

4. Unlock the Data in Your DMS

Your accounting team has access to troves of data, but they need a way to filter it down to metrics that matter. Empower your team with technology that makes month-end reporting accurate and timely, while also helping them to meet monthly sales and performance objectives and trends.

 

5. Invest in Automated Technology

Embrace digital technologies that eliminate manual processes. When your accounting team is free to work without restrictions that slow their progress—and ultimately reduce the risk of error—they flourish and thrive! New reporting tools that streamline reports and manually compile data with fully automated General Ledger mapping, like Critical Analytics, are designed to increase efficiency and free your accounting team from the burden of manually compiled spreadsheets from multiple locations that add hours to your team’s workload.

 

6. Help Your Team Embrace Change

Change can be difficult for accounting team members. But truly great leaders can help them to see their vital role in how technology is implemented and used at the dealership level. When they’re better able to embrace technology, the entire dealership stands to benefit by becoming more efficient and more profitable.

 

6. Identify Accounting Team Superstars!

Identify true leaders among your accounting team—those who use and embrace technology. Empower them to take the lead when it comes to training new hires, being an ambassador, and rolling out new technology. Find ways to connect your leaders and super users together to unlock the true potential of your team and technology.

To learn more quick ways to build up your accounting team and thrive as a dealership, visit the Controllers’ Hub.

 

 

 

 

Information is Good. Knowledge is Critical.

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Working in retail automotive, we hear a lot about data. It’s practically everywhere—troves of it. In fact, most dealer management systems are filled with all the data we could ever need. And if we had time, we could dive in, all day long, and consume it.

It sounds like a joke, but when it comes right down to it, a lot of us simply throw our hands up. Instead, franchise dealerships operate month-to-month—most of the time looking back at past performance. How did we do? Where did we fall short? Were we close to hitting our goals? Just imagine if we could flip that. Harnessing predictions, unlocking data’s true potential, and influencing key-decision-making would make it possible to act fast, and take swift action based on data, not just our gut feelings. The events of 2020 and 2021 taught many dealers a lot of valuable lessons about the ability to pivot and adapt to change. But if we can’t leverage data—without always being reactionary—the true cost to our business will always be realized in hindsight.

Actionable Insights We Can Use

As a Performance Manager, I have the privilege of spending time working one-on-one with franchise dealers, helping them get the most out of their technology. Whether we’re standing up a new Dealer Management System, working out a new integration, or updating processes, there’s almost always a rough spot or two to work out. But there’s never a lack of data to sort out. One of the more rewarding parts of the job is seeing the “lights turn on” for those new hires and team leaders who’ve tapped into their DMS and found data and analytics that deliver action-based insights. And that’s kind of the whole point. If your reports aren’t easily digestible, organized by role, and flexible enough that senior leaders have access across departments, then they probably won’t see much use.

KPIs that Drive Productivity

Everyone who has worked in a dealership has been frustrated by underperformance. Yet, the push to “just do better” or “increase production” rarely does the trick. Upping the hours your service team works doesn’t result in higher profitability. It usually results in burnout, overworked staff, and a net loss. Data from your DMS—when paired with Critical Analytics—works like a high-powered calculator. With detailed dashboards and reporting modules, our partners get drill-down KPIs into the daily performance output of team members across the dealership. This is the kind of data that you can use to take small steps, day-by-day, month-by-month, to improve by setting benchmarks and goals that result in sustainable productivity. So you can ditch the guesswork and help your employees, all the while avoiding burnout.

The Future is Data-driven

Data is not a temporary technical advantage. It does more. And we’ve yet to unlock its potential within the dealership. Right now, we’re at the tip of the iceberg of how data analytics can improve our industry. When it comes to understanding where our revenue comes from (or why it’s suddenly going to crash), we need to use data to look six months or further into the future of our business projections. Critical Analytics within the DMS provides monthly predictive dealership pacing, based on how you’ve performed so far. So, for example, when those cars come back onto your lot to sell, you can be prepared. But, our team is still thinking bigger. Imagine harvesting DMS, CRM, F&I Data all together to look even further. There’s more to the picture that we’re not seeing. The insights are there.

Data from your DMS matters more than ever. Automotive technology is more integrated, more interconnected, and more powerful than it’s ever been. If we can make the mindset shift from hindsight to foresight, our ability to drive change before a disaster will be unmatched.

Ready to learn more? Schedule a demo with your Performance Manager to uncover the data within your DMS using Critical Analytics today.

About the Author

Tom Tellepsen | Dealertrack DMS Performance Manager

 

Tom Tellepsen is a Performance Manager at Dealertrack DMS with over 18 years of experience helping franchise automotive partners reach their goals by optimizing budgets, building better operational procedures, and obtaining the right mix of tech and talent. Prior to joining Dealertrack, Tom worked as a General Manager and General Sales Manager in some of Virginia’s leading franchise dealerships.

How to Thrive Against Top Dealership Challenges

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Do you have what it takes to thrive against the competition? With threats against your bottom line, people poaching your top talent, and inventory dwindling every time you take count, it might feel like the challenges facing your dealership just keep adding up! Discover the Top Seven Challenges dealers are facing and How to Survive Them. Here are just a few…

Supply Chain Shortages

It’s no secret that inventory is taking a hit from industry-wide supply chain shortages. But the real “kicker” is how it’s impacting buyer habits. Up to 48% of potential buyers are hanging onto their vehicles longer and longer and postponing their next purchase due to low vehicle inventory.

Consumer Data Challenges

You use data to uncover shoppers most likely to buy. Yet, outdated CRM data might just be your worst enemy to date. Find out how thriving dealers are utilizing the right data to match deal-to-buyer and win against their competitors.

Changing Buyer Habits

Two out of three buyers surveyed in our study are likely to buy their next car 100% online. The future of digitization in retail automotive is here. How prepared is your dealership, and your staff, to meet the needs of these new buyers?

Discover the Seven Tips for Surviving and Thriving—Learn How.

Flexibility, Dedication, Commitment from your DMS Partner

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Are you in complete control of your dealership’s destiny? Or, are you being held hostage by a DMS that wants to run your business a different way?

When your systems are connected and coordinated, and your central technology aligns with your dealership’s unique goals, you have the freedom to decide how best to run your business. You can maximize efficiency, reduce unnecessary costs, and improve profitability.

With Dealertrack DMS—the only dealer management system specifically built to enable reliable, affordable connectivity with your other dealership technologies—you control your own destiny. You don’t have to rely on a rigid DMS system that dictates how you do business. You run your dealership, your way.

  • Reliable, affordable connectivity with best-in-class solutions
  • An experienced partner committed to your success
  • 2020 and 2021 Dealers’ Choice Award for best DMS

Watch the video below to see how you can find efficiency gains and reduce risks, inefficiencies, and bottlenecks with a connected and coordinated dealer management system.

Yes, You Still Have Inventory Issues

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Inventory acquisition challenges were a huge headache last year. And, as luck would have it, they are a pain in the neck this year. Unfortunately, this industry-wide problem is still having a profound impact on profitability. And while some dealers are choosing to “wait it out,” smart dealers are finding strategic ways to succeed now. We’ve pooled the data from the past eighteen months that looked at best practices from thriving dealerships and practical solutions for inventory challenges. The resulting five operations strategies will help you and your entire operation overcome your inventory obstacles and supply chain challenges before it’s too late.

Operational Strategy 1 – Aim for Departmental Cooperation

Your target? Tear down the traditional silos creating division, confusion, and disconnection! Your best tools for this strategy are going to be communication and data to spot opportunities, target trade-ins, and acquire vehicles. Ask yourself, are you potentially missing opportunities because you’re not collaborating across teams? 33% of thriving dealerships use cross-departmental data to spot opportunities.

Operational Strategy 2 – Adjust Your Processes

It’s time to make a plan. Inventory acquisition goals need to be tied to details about pay structure and approaching customers. Rethink your current pay structure and set new, and exciting, goals around bonuses to help drive acquisitions for all team members who play a role in the process.

According to research from Cox Automotive, 50% of thriving dealers utilize activity tracking for customer web and search history.

Operational Strategy 3 – Create Useful Reports and Measure Analytics

The information you’re tracking can help your dealership succeed. According to research from Cox Automotive, 50% of thriving dealers utilize activity tracking for customer web and search history. Don’t just rely on your gut—use data to determine which used vehicles are in high demand. Then, share the data with your team to be on the lookout for these cars when they come across your service lane.

Operational Strategy 4 – Time to Team Up!

In addition to the very frustrating and very real issue of inventory shortages plaguing your business, you still have to deal with…well, your business. Retail automotive often faces more than one challenge at a time (like keeping your top talent and fighting the data war). So, your best bet is to partner with a provider who has your back. If you’re going to improve your numbers, make sure you’re working with an expert who can help you optimize your reporting and get to know your technology inside and out.

Operational Strategy 5 – Think Big(ger)

A simple shift in approach may not hit the mark. To overcome the challenge of inventory shortages, you’ll need to get your marketing, sales, service, and operations in sync. Cox Automotive delivers first-party transactional data from Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book allowing you to connect workflows across all departments. This dealership-wide approach ensures your entire business is protected from this—and the next—challenge.

To learn more about these strategies and other tips for acquiring inventory, check out our guide, “Operational Solutions for Inventory Challenges.”