My name is Russ Chandler and I'm the Digital Manager/BDC Manager at Bart's Car Store. We are a 5 location Independent used car dealer of the mid-west. We have been in business since 1995 and have taken a major jump forward online in the past 6 months. With all the recent development online as well as my position in the company I would love some real feedback from someone that isn't trying to sell me something. Please check out our website and post any feedback you can, negative or positive.
http://www.bartscarstore.com
Thank you,
--
Russ Chandler
Russ,
I like the site - mostly because you're trying something different than the cookie-cutter template style; it's bright, navigation makes it easy to get to the inventory and you've got a lot of trust building factor & personality as well.
Your URL structure for the inventory pages, and lower-level pages looks decent, however the individual page descriptions could benefit from have their own unique meta-descriptions.
I also like how you have a warranty tab, just need some content - consider hiding that page until you publish something there.
The inventory results pages and individual detail pages are also well done with most of the elements customers are looking for - nice touch adding the customer testimonials.
Nice job on the social integration and the Google Places pages too - verified & optimized.
One last question for ya, where's your blog?
Keep up the good work.
Eric,
Thank you so much for the input! You hit the nail on the head, we were really pushing for a different look from what most dealer sites look like. NO COOKIE CUTTER!
I agree on the meta tagging for the individual page, I've been working on a strategy, but I'm researching everything before I start to just drop stuff in.
For the warranty tab all the drop down options that can be clicked are full of content but your right in clicking the actual tab itself it is empty at the moment. I will retract the option to click the tab itself until I have solid content. I'm hoping for something interactive.
As for your question on the blog>>> http://bartscarstore.castpage.com
Check it out, however it is only a couple weeks old and needs some tweaking still. The site is only about 60 days old and it was a rushed launch. The analytics look great so far, we are seeing increases in nearly every category across the board.
Any suggestions for good blog content?
Anything you see we are missing that might be worth pursuing?
Thanks again for your input,
--
Russ Chandler
Russ, this is a fantastic example of a group site that promotes both the stores and the collective inventory.
The body style search shows results in alphabetical order by make, but the benefit of this type of search is allowing the shopper to see all your relevant inventory across brands. Consider using price for the default sort on the search results page.
Great job! With a good site, any improvements in the vehicle merchandising will pay off better than before. The same can be said for demonstrations of your staff and the proverbial "why buy from us." On top of Eric's comments, add chat!
by Jay Lynch about 3 months ago
Full disclosure: I do work for eCarList but have no responsibility for your area... (Florida)
I wanted to place some emphasis on what Dennis suggested. If you are going to spend the money to make your site a destination you need to be able to capture those leads.
Generally, due to a customers time tollerance with chat, I recommend managed chat. Having said that any chat is better than no chat at all and there are a number of different products available in the market place.
Well done!
Thank you both Dennis and Jay
When you say sort by price do you suggest lowest to highest? We ran that as the default on our old site but I didn't like how you saw nothing but our very cheap back row trade-ins on the first page. Felt like it didn't represent the majority of our inventory.
As far as chat goes I'm in the process of getting it set up. The issue I ran into is I need the customer to have the option of choosing which store to chat with, otherwise a chat comes into our Fort Wayne store that wants to shop in Avon. I'm guessing my salesman won't do quite as good of a job trying to sell a car for another store. Jay you may have a suggestion, ecarlist gave me the option to provide a total of 4 options to the customer but we have 5 stores. My quick fix for now was to group two of the stores together.
Example-
Choose to chat with:
Fort Wayne
Columbia City
Avon
Kokomo/Anderson
Kokomo and Anderson are our smallest stores and are located close to each other so I thought they would be effected the least from being grouped together.
We are new to BDC but have been on the ecarlist CRM software for a little over a month in our FW store and plan on introducing slowly to the other stores. They seem to do the best with chat that we have running through cars.com and Autotrader being that our BDC is always available and trained well.
The other stores are improving, some better then others, but have a long way to go. Last month we had over 200 chats accepted through cars.com and Autotrader company wide. I hope to double that when we go live with the website chat.
Check out our Google analytics so far this month-
8,970 Visits
6,169 Unique Visitors
88,014 Pageviews
9.81 Pages/Visit
00:09:23 Avg. Time on Site
12.60% Bounce Rate
53.66% % New Visits
65.51%Search Traffic 5,914 Visits
12.70%Referral Traffic 1,146 Visits
20.48%Direct Traffic 1,849 Visits
1.31%Campaigns 118 Visits
23.85% MOBILE
by Jay Lynch about 3 months ago
Russ, It sounds like to me you are headed in the right direction and you have your arms around it... Hats off to you.
Allow me to clarify, You have each individual store managing its own chat?... If I understood that correctly allow me to make a few recommendations:
a. I prefer to have chat managed by the provider due to the tight time tolerance of the customer. If you look at a managed chat product ensure the following:
- employees answering chat are US
- They know which site the customer is on and have access to product knowledge -- are able to make recommendations and answer questions.
b. If you are going to manage the chat yourself please do so from one central BDC that then feeds the leads to the appropriate stores.
- issue - after hours chat? There are blended products out there but I find for the difference in price you should generally just stay with the managed product.
Russ, out of respect for others, I am careful not to talk product specific as I hate to see a good thread turn into an advertisement... Merrit Chritcher () is over our chat product and will be happy to consult with you.
Best,
Jay
by Dave Page about 3 months ago
You seriously have some great stats here and I highly recommend adding Live Chat. You might want to check out http://www.LiveChatChallenge.com for a free 30 days of Dealer e Process Managed Live Chat with Jumpin Feature. We just recently won the award for Live Chat from DrivingSales.com
Dave Page,
Hey Dave I submitted our dealer info for the 30 day live chat challenge. You know this website and dealer would be a great candidate for you guys. Check out January's website analytics! We are on pace to increase these about about 50%, see if you can put a good word in for us and get us on the list!
January 1-31st 2012
20,200 Visits
12,126 Unique Visitors
205,178 Pageviews
10.16 Pages/Visit
00:09:25 Avg. Time on Site
11.99% Bounce Rate
52.66% % New Visits
Thank you Dave, we have already started the process for chat through ecarlist but I will review the product anyway.
I think sorting the vehicles from highest to lowest price makes sense within the body-sytle search, since that's what customers experience on Cars.com and AutoTrader.com as well. It is what you most want to display and what the consumer is accustom to. As an independent, you have a unique opportunity to gain trusted advisor status with the shopper. Mixing the brands into relevant vehicle categories gets you off to a good start. Of course, we always need to allow the shopper to sort by make and model too, but I love that your site does not lead with that.
The chat problem is interesting. It should be possible to have the appropriate chat invitation drop in on the Vehicle Details Page (VDP) based on the store that vehicle is associated with. The challenge seems to be no different on a dealer group site than on a large, third-party site. Of course, handling the chat with a centralized service is always an option too, as noted by others.
Dennis, I like your approach of sorting the list to be the same as Autotrader and cars.com. I think I will probably go with the switch and have them default sort for highest price to lowest. I'm going to test this style of chat I mentioned early in this forum and will get back to you guys on how it goes after a few weeks. Thank you for the feedback.
Jay,
The system I have in place for a chat is a work in progress. I only have one BDC rep at this time, she is located at our FW location. The approach I've been taking for business hours is allowing the salesman and managers to answer chats while I oversee all the stores. I act as a type of safety net when they are not able to accept chats and also review all the transcripts to make sure we are constantly getting better at acquiring the customers information.
I would love managed chat or to eventually have a central BDC department that can handle chats from all of our locations. At this time I do not have the staff to support it and my owner is still somewhat suspect about investing real time and money in the product. I have not yet been given the budget for after hours managed chat and don't have any volunteers outside of myself. Last month we accepted a little over 200 chats company wide through just cars.com and Autotrader. I think have getting the website chat up and running I won't have a problem proving chat is a good investment.
I can't help but to feel it is going to grow to an even larger channel of communication in the future. My prediction is it over takes email, maybe even as soon as by the end of the year.
by Jay Lynch about 3 months ago
Russ,
Evaluating each dollar you are spending on third party sites, radio, newspaper, direct mail, ect. Do your best to run the numbers and figure your ROI by vender.
See how much of your budget you can free up by working with your existing venders on price (dont get em mad at me), step back a level where you can, cut out the feel good advertising that is not producing results, ect.
Put together a 90 day plan for managed chat combined with some SEM (pay per click) then measure the results... Make your site your #1 lead provider.
I want to see those results!
by Dave Page about 3 months ago
Russ,Thanks for signing up for the Live Chat Challenge. We do live chat on over a thousand dealer websites and its a full managed solution 24 hours 7 days a week. We even have a jump in feature that allows you to take over a chat you might be watching us perform. Given you situation, I think this wil be a great fit for you guys.
We are a big part of the DrivingSales community so thank you for aloowing us to lend a helping hand.
Looking at your stats, I would venture to say you should expect about 500 to 600 chat leads per month. The people who chat are not the same people who call phone numbers or fill out lead forms.
Dave, 500-600 would be fantastic! If we are able to get on the list, we plan on winning the 30 day Live Chat Challenge and taking the 1st place prize.
@Russ - I think the site looks great. Congrats!! It can be a real challenge to get the content juices flowing. I put together a list of 20 Article Topics that will get you moving in the right direction.
Hope this helps you: http://thedealergeek.com/dealer-blog-article-titles
Ryan- Thank you for the kind words about the site! I took a long look at the list you suggested and it was great. I will probably follow this list for the next few months. We are shooting for 6 blog articles a month and this will definitely help me fill the gaps. Thank you for the help!
Russ,
It looks good overall. It bothered me with the load time initially but by the 3rd visit back to the Home page the sliders were actually loading. Why doesn't your overlay show on all your photos until you click to the VDP? Also, I'd make the "Video" button larger and possibly in Blue like the rest of the relevant script.
One last thing, I know to click the logo to get back to the home page, but you'd be shocked at how many don't. I wouldn't add a Tab to the Nav bar, but maybe a "Return to Home Page" link-type text under it on the other pages?
Keep us posted! Good luck!
Bryan
@bryancarguy
Bryan,
Great feedback, this is the kind of stuff that I notice but aren't sure if its just me looking to into the website or if it is a worth while issue to look into.
The photo overlay is only about a week old and seems to be a processing issue on ecarlists side of things. I've notified them a few days ago but it seems to be taking longer then expected. We have just made the decision to take on the task of taking real walk around video's for every one of our vehicles. The video button is already on the drawing board, thank you for confirming it needed looked at.
Getting back to the home page was something I was told wasn't a concern for customers but I agree with you on this one. Not worth adding a tab but at least a link under the nav bar. I can see someone remembering a vehicle they saw earlier and wanting to get back to the page with out having to re enter bartscarstore.com worth while.
You mentioned the load time being slow and I would have to agree, its not terrible but needs obvious improvement. Part of the delay is due to the specials that populate the banner box that auto rotates through specials. Currently there is 10 specials for each location, a total of 50. Originally there was only 10 slides and it did load slightly quicker. Is it being a hair slower worth limiting the list of slides? also I have added a "Google Customer Search" bar that improves SEO and making it easier to navigate the site for something specific that you don't want to have to filter the inventory for. It is on every page including the portal page but I did consider removing it for the sake of the load time. What do you think?
These time of decisions are completely up to me and honestly I hardly get any real feedback when I bounce it off someone, your opinion would be greatly appreciated.
I already got the ball rolling on a few things and will let you know when they are complete so you can take a second look.
Thanks again for the feedback, great stuff!
Russ Chandler
http://www.bartscarstore.com
Does anyone else have a comparable site? I have looked high and low for a site that is getting comparable traffic and they are few and far between. I encourage everyone to list a favorite dealer site that they have seen whether it their own or a competitors. I would like to get a pro's and cons list going of different sites. It might give us a good idea of which site a customer would prefer when coming across several sites while shopping. Which site is most memorable or has the best conversion rate. Please post some other sites and keep the feedback coming, you guys have been great!
Russ -
I'm biased, but I'm quite fond of my site. (No vendor, managed internally)
http://AuctionDirectUSA.com
Jan. stats:
109,118 Visits
72,334 Unique Visitors
994,939 Pageviews
(Our source breakdown is very similar to yours, nicely done)
We're nowhere near where I feel the performance should be, I'm always trying to improve items such as load time time, features and most importantly, conversion.
Heed Dennis' advice and focus on your merchandising efforts and your inventory selection as that's what pay the bills,
I'm not too concerned with time on site, more focused on conversions, contacts & appointments. As for bounce rate, I watch my inventory page BR's; these hover between 9-11%, depending on the location. (Retailers like Amazon actually strive towards reducing time on site as they've identified their closing rate decreases when time on site increases.)
Russ, I would kill the Google search bar in favor of load time. Most won't know what it's for and you may eliminate a chance for them to "browse by" something they would have missed by using it.
Start with 4 Specials per Store just make them killer. Seriously, only the top 1/2 of each rotator was loaded by the time I was nearly 1:15 on your home page anyway. It was quick the next time, but NO ONE is going to look at 50 specials before they start browsing anyway. On that note, I would take the scroll feature out of the Specials box and put scroll arrows to either side of it. If you could have the 10 per store on the Specials page but have the option to check the 4 per store that go in the Rotator/Hero position...?
Sorry to bounce around like that in my comments, but I was A.D.D. BEFORE it was popular. ;)
Have a great night.
Bryan
Russ,
Being that you guys have a portal site and multiple dealerships, this is where our chat service is light years beyond what anybody else can provide. I really hate getting on these forums and becoming a sales pitch, so feel free to call me anytime: 214-722-8208.
Our live chat service is the only service that's tied directly into your active inventory. That means a few things. Since the majority of incoming chats will be about your inventory, our chat agents can take the chats a lot further than anybody else for better customer service. They can suggest, find, and send quick links for individual & groupings of vehicles (and a lot more). Second, the interested vehicles are then attached to the chat and sent back to the dealer's CRM for complete follow through. Third, and this is really cool! Our chat works amazing on PORTAL Sites with pulled inventory from multiple dealerships. We can attach the chat to the OWNER of the vehicle and route everything to the correct dealership and CRM.
We also have a ton of stats and analytics that most other chat companies offer, but full inventory integration really makes the system shine.
Eric your site is pretty awesome and those stats are even better. How many do you keep in inventory? Compete.com only had you for like 40k visits in a month for your high. They are usually a rough idea but never that far off, I thought maybe you had multiple domains? Although the botched Dec for us when we made the site switch they only accounted for about half our hits. What is your best lead capture method? What feedback do you get on your KBB information on the vehicle listing pages? I like the counter for dollars below KBB, great idea. You are in line to smack ZMOT in the face with that angle on KBB. You guys seem to be doing great with out of town shoppers, I might have an idea that works for you. About a month ago I started posting "Ask about our Out-of-State Package Specials" at the end of all of our descriptions. We immediately saw an increase in customers from all over the place calling, emailing, and submitting leads that are interested in the special. I came up with a package the salesman can present an out of town customer to help them make a purchase from far away. It consists of extra pictures, walk-around video, history report analysis, shipping quote, detailed directions to the dealership, trade appraisal, and financing options. Obviously these are all items that would need to be assessed before making the decision to make a long distance purchase. Providing it in an organized package shows we are experienced in selling to customers all over the US and that it is a common practice they can feel comfortable with. We also train salesman to use it to open a door to someone on the phone or email, "have you heard about our out-of-state packages?", something like that might open a door with a customers.
Bryan,
I'm going to limit the specials and see what effect that has on the load time. We had 236 search queries on the customer Google bar so far this month so its definitely getting used and is powerful when it comes to SEO. However I would still have it on my other pages where it doesn't seem to have effected the load time. The portal page is most important to my SEO and want to do all I can to get it up the list on Google. I'm going to do some testing with the specials to get it dialed in and will let you know if you would like to take a look once revised. Thank you
Thanks Russ,
We usually average ~1200-1400 units. Keep in mind, Compete's stats are calculated a little differently than Google analytics; Compete's data is flawed, much like Alexa. (Quantcast is a little better IMO)
Compete scores traffic data differently, that why everyone's data shows #'s significantly off when compared to their own records. EX: they count individual visitors differently and also don't include visitors outside of the US.
Nice idea w/the Out of State package BTW.
I read a study last year that stated the location of the vehicle is a small, yet very important element for car shoppers - they simply want to know where the car is located - smart to include that info.
Hello Russ,
One thing that would be helpful if I was a customer searching your used cars using the Browse All Tab is to define which cars are at what location. If a customer starts clicking and then just stops by to see the 2007 Audi (which is in Anderson), they could also see the 2008 Audi (which is in Avon) and would consider the 2006 G35 (which is in Fort Wayne)
I notice some of the stores use a layover for the inventory photos. I would create five layovers; each with a unique color to that stores inventory. I would make it VERY clear where the vehicle is located.
It does state which location the vehicle is at when you are on the vehicle listing page, just below the photo's and several other locations. You are also capable of filtering your search by location that will only show vehicles from the one location. I do like your idea of having a location specific overlay but the problem is we transfer vehicles every day from lot to lot. We would have a lot of inventory with the wrong overlays with this much transferring going on. In the future this may become more of a concern but with all of our lots being so close to each other it generally doesn't become an issue with the customer. We've had a customer show up for a vehicle that was at a different lot and we are quick to send someone if not the customer themselves to go pick it up. Great feedback, I will definitely keep my eye on it.
I did noticed the location when I clicked into the vehicle. I would let customers know that you offer a service to bring inventory from other locations.
Hey Russ,
You can easily add what Gary said about bringing inventory over from other locations inside the eCarList software to all of your vehicles.
The easiest thing to do is to create the verbiage in the Auto Ink/Description Builder that gets added to all vehicles, that way it shows up for every vehicle that's posted.
Hope that helps.
Merritt
Yes, I used the "closing sentence" feature before with our "Ask about our Out-of-State Package Specials". I kind of assumed most customers would know this. However the space is their to provide the information and I'm sure it would trigger the thought with a lot of customers that would not of thought of it as an option. Great idea, I'm working on it right after this post. Thank you!
Russ Chandler
260-433-3168
http://www.bartscarstore.com
Hi Russ,
I like how your site isn't generic and too busy with a lot of bright neon colours, especially in the text. It is very easy to navigate and all the pertinent info is on tabs at the top!
It did take a long time to load on my computer and we have fast internet so that was a bit of a draw back, especially when I wanted to check out your blog, just took way to long to load.
I like the idea of staff pictures, but if they had been taken on a neutral background I think it would look more professional - as well head shots look more professional then half body shots. If you check our our website http://www.lindsaygm.ca and go under sales team at the bottom, you can see what I mean in regards to a smaller more professional style of photo.
Great intergration of different types of social networking, you have laid it out very easy for potential customers to "like" you.
Keep up the good work, the biggest think is staying relevant and being in real time!
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