Let’s stay that estimate is accurate (we began offering 24/7 service BECAUSE of overnight demand). With our lead conversion rate of more than 60 percent, that’s at least nine leads – with a potential for two or three car deals –plus timely intervention in a potential sales or service CSI issue. So if a chat vendor tells you 24/7 doesn’t work, they’re really saying they can’t figure out how to MAKE it work. Read post

It was a humbling experience to watch the final DSES speaker submissions roll in last week. Over 140 impressive industry professionals from inside and outside the dealership raised their hands asking to be considered to share some of their wisdom and insights with the progressive DSES audience this October. It’s an honor for us to be considered a high caliber event worthy of attention from so many great people. Thank you to everyone who sent in an application!Read post

The team at FlexDealer is proud to introduce the formal beta launch of their new Total Control Website platform for Auto, RV, Powersport, Marine and Heavy Equipment dealers. The platform, which has been developed over the last several months, is a clear indication of FlexDealer's commitment to deliver state-of-the-art tools to dealers who are looking to enhance their digital presence. Check out the time-lapsed video showing just a few of the platform's capabilities.   ...Read post

It’s Saturday! Blow up the Balloons, blow up the squiggly air man thingy, get your game faces on and get ready. Barely anyone will walk on to your lot today. Any ideas why?Read post

Dealertrack Expands Cutting Edge Digital Retailing Suite with Online Dealer-Controlled Vehicle Trade-In Appraisal Tool   New TradeDriver Tool Available for Automotive Dealer, OEM and Industry Portal Websites   LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., June 17, 2013 –  Further expanding their innovative suite of digital retailing tools for automotive retail websites, Dealertrack Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRAK), today introduced TradeDriver™, a powerful online trade-in appraisal tool.   TradeDriver enables dealers, OEMs and third-party portals to present customized vehicle trade-in appraisal offers directly to consumers on their websites. This powerful tool leverages local market data and features dealer-controlled appraisal values, resulting in realistic appraisals for used vehicles through the combination of Dealertrack analytics, dealer-configured settings and Black Book® data.   “Research has shown that 54 percent of car shoppers want to obtain a ...Read post

As social media gets more and more entrenched in our daily lives, it’s becoming the easiest and most visible place for one of the most important things your company can have but can’t buy – word-of-mouth marketing. You can have your customer experience down pat, a loyalty program that rocks and customers lined up to do business with you; but does that mean you’re leveraging everything you can? Many social media sites like Facebook, Foursquare, and Yelp have some sort of “deal” type feature. What would happen if you take advantage of this feature and tie it in to your existing loyalty program? Here are some things you may or may not know about these deal features. (I’m going to focus on Facebook since it has the most advantages, in my opinion.) There have been many studies that have concluded that 60% of people “Like” a business’s Facebook page for special offers and deals. Facebook has two features: check-in deals and off...Read post

There are too many opportunities out there in the world of social media that makes it a bad idea to ignore the medium. Businesses can make an impact if they put in the effort. Unfortunately, not everyone is ready. It’s still possible to put in minimal effort and have a decent presence. When it’s time to put in full effort, you’ll be better prepared if you have a nice string of daily content that fills your pages. Automation is a bad idea and can do damage in the long run, but there are ways to put in a little bit of effort and still do okay, at least holding down the fort until you’re ready to blast off. Diversity is a key, so having a rotation of content types that get posted once a day can keep things rolling until the time comes to take it seriously. Scheduling a single post a day and rotating the various types of posts will give you an acceptable presence. Keep in mind that this will not help you find success. It will only allow you to keep success fro...Read post

DealerOn Weekly Webinar Series Thursday, June 20 12 PM EST/9 AM PST "How to Attract Today's Internet Shoppers" Sean Peoples, VP of Sales CarGurus Today’s auto shoppers have more data than ever before: MSRP, Invoice Pricing, incentives data, analytical products that outline market pricing and demand trends, editorial content such as vehicle and experiential reviews, etc. So why are they still complaining? For the love of cheese, what will it take to get car buyers to actually like the car buying experience?! Well you’re about to find out! Sean Peoples of Car Gurus is armed with a truckload of comprehensive data and in this 1 hour webinar, he will tell you how to best market your vehicles and dealership on your website and third party sites.  Properly attracting today’s savvy internet car buyers will maximize profitability, dramatically increase inventory velocity and greatly improve customer satisfaction.  It’s a win-win-win! If you ar...Read post