Our insights

45% of people want face-to-face guidance from a dealer during the car buying journey. The main elements people want guidance with is the vehicle (67%), warrantee and maintenance (68%), and finance options (37%).

A study by DMEautomotive noted customers who develop a habit of maintaining their vehicle at a dealership are 86 times more likely to purchase their next vehicle from you.

You get out of your CRM whatever you put in and without the right usage and processes, your dealership will be wasting resources. A common mistake with CRM usage, especially in dealerships, is the follow up process.Every conversation and prospect should be recorded in the CRM.

The buyer’s journey and experience has changed thanks to the digital revolution. Customers are spoilt for choice and let’s be honest, they can have the majority of things with a click of a button. It’s all about convenience. So, to keep the customer happy you need to make the searching and purchasing as simple and straightforward as possible. Amazon have nailed this.

Customer retention is the end game- it’s what all dealerships are looking to nail and this is becoming increasingly hard. Doug Van Sach, AutoLoop’s Vice President, put it perfectly when he said, “the hard truth for dealers is most consumers have redefined what it means to be loyal in the digital age.”

The new data protection regulation is just around the corner so everyone’s asking the question “Are you ready?”. Despite being quite ominous, the question is an important one. Dealerships hold a lot of data in their CRMs and DMSs and there needs to be a few changes before the 25th May.

Millennials. If you google the term you will get a number of different descriptions but Millennials are people who are born from 2001 onwards. As I’m classed as a generation Y it’s safe to say I feel old! But jokes aside, there is common misconception of Millennials- they are tight! Well Ally Bank reported that millennials are not buying cars less often than baby boomers or members of Generation X. They are saving money for longer periods before purchasing.

When it comes to customer retention, I know this is every dealership’s primary goal but it’s easier said than done. The car buying process has changed because the customer has. We now live in a digital world which allows the customer to be firmly in the driving seat. The modern customer now has a range of dealers, service options and price plans to choose from, and all with the click of a button.

The traditional car buying process is a thing of the past, in today’s world customers clearly do business on their own terms and they come well reinforced with information, which means they know exactly what they want. But, one thing that hasn’t changed is the emotion attached to buying a car.