2019 was the last year the global automotive industry’s leadership had to brave Detroit’s January weather to participate in the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) and the Automotive News World Congress. The events move to June in 2020, but left their final midwinter imprint with a variety of news and announcements of interest to dealers:

Ford & VW Join Forces

The biggest high-level industry news out of the two weeks in Detroit was the announcement of a partnership between Ford and Volkswagen to collaborate on commercial vans and midsize pickups, with potential future joint development of next-generation autonomous and electric vehicles. The alliance, which does not involve any exchange of ownership equity, aims to deliver medium pickup trucks manufactured by Ford on the Ranger platform in the European, African and South American markets beginning in 2022; followed by European-market commercial vans in 2023. Ford plans to manufacture commercial vans for this market, while Volkswagen will focus on passenger vans. The companies also say they are “open to considering additional vehicle programs in the future.”

While the implications for North American dealers may be few and far between in the short term, the partnership does have long-term implications both for the overall sustainability of both automakers as well as potential for future new product development that would result in new vehicles on showroom floors.

Midsize Market Moves

The hot midsize SUV market, which has been a key profit center for automakers and dealers, got even more competitive at NAIAS.

Ford announced the new 2020 Ford Explorer, with the biggest news being its move from a FWD platform shared with the Taurus to a RWD platform it shares with the new Lincoln Aviator. Even 4WD variants – which Ford expects to make up roughly 70 percent of its sales – will default to RWD. The new Explorer is also the first to feature a 10-speed automatic transmission that Ford jointly developed with General Motors.

Kia unveiled the 2020 Telluride, which the company calls its “flagship SUV.” Kia’s leadership say it is aimed at the Ford Explorer, Toyota Highlander and Honda Pilot market and predicts it will join other new and relaunched vehicles to increase the company’s U.S. sales figures up above 600,000 in 2019 compared to two flat years just under 590,000.

Coming Soon to Showrooms

Other important vehicle launches at NAIAS with competitive implications for dealers included:

2019 Ram HD: At the same show where the 2018 Ram won the North American Truck of the Year award, FCA unveiled the newest version of its heavy-duty variant.

Cadillac XT6: The Escalade’s newest “little brother” shares a platform with the GMC Acadia, Buick Traverse and Chevrolet Enclave.

2020 Volkswagen Passat: VW hasn’t given up on sedans and has updated the Passat for consumers who haven’t either.

2020 Toyota Supra: After almost two decades, Toyota is bringing the beloved enthusiast sports car back to North America in a low-volume production model it hopes can be a “halo” car to get traffic into its showrooms.

NADA Watches Affordability

While new products are great for dealers to have, customers still have to be able to afford them. At the Automotive News World Congress, National Auto Dealers Association (NADA) CEO Peter Welch said affordability is "probably the biggest thing” he is concerned about for the auto industry. He told Automotive News, “People buying $55,000 pickup trucks with $1,000-a-month payments — I’ve never seen it. A lot of people don’t think that’s sustainable.” However, said Welch, NADA’s forecasters don’t necessarily think the good times are over just yet. "I don't know why we can't have a few more good years on a plateau," he told the World Congress attendees. "I'll take a plateau between 16.5 million and 17 million for as long as we can get them."

Toyota Bets on Truck Growth

Toyota Motor North America CEO Jim Lentz told Automotive News that while Toyota expects its light-vehicle share to slip in the U.S. in 2019, the company projects strong Tacoma and Tundra truck sales to more than make up for decreased car sales and result in an increased overall market share. This would be a continuation of existing trends, as Toyota’s car sales fell 12 percent in 2018 while light-truck sales increased 8 percent.

Toyota is investing to increase truck production in Mexico and the U.S. to meet demand, said Lentz, adding "If I could build more Tundras today, I could sell them.”

How Can automotiveMastermind Help?

Whether the new products are on your showroom floor or on your competitor’s, you’ve got new marketing opportunities and challenges. Our solutions help dealers stay ahead of the evolving competitive landscape. Get in touch with us today to learn more.

automotiveMastermind (Mastermind), a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for dealerships and manufacturers, today announced its Market EyeQ sales platform, another evolution in the company's mission to transform the automotive retail experience. The announcement was made during the National Automobile Dealers Association Show (NADA) 2019 taking place from Jan. 25 to Jan. 27 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

"Market EyeQ is the core sales platform dealers need to compete in today's flattening market," said Johannes Gnauck, founder and co-CEO of Mastermind. "Historically, dealers have segmented customers into three categories: retention, service and conquest. We're empowering dealers to view their full prospective buyer market more holistically, no matter if that customer comes from their retention, service, or conquest portfolio. The Market EyeQ sales platform is backed by real-time proprietary data and helps identify, communicate with and close more customers."

With key partnerships, Market EyeQ is the first tool of its kind to provide access to all prospective buyers for a dealer in one single sales platform. Mastermind has access to proprietary household demographic data from IHS Markit and key vehicle history details through the Carfax Snapshot tool to give dealers an exclusive 360-degree market view. Further, the TransUnion partnership uncovers potential sales opportunities with customers who have not previously bought from a dealership. These partnerships, coupled with their current Dealer Management System (DMS), allow dealers a holistic view of their local market by enriching the data they have on-hand and supplying them with data for prospects unknown to them.

"When we started this company, we set out to improve the car-buying experience for buyers and sellers," said Marco Schnabl, founder and co-CEO of Mastermind. "We started Mastermind by solving dealer's challenges that we knew of as former car salesmen. As the industry evolved from equity mining to data mining solutions, none of these categories ever fully encompassed everything Mastermind could do for dealers, and that remains true today. Market EyeQ is the first sales platform that provides a holistic view of a dealer's local market and allows them to sell in a more effective way, increasing sales as a result."

The organization is a winner of a 2019 Driving Sales Dealer Satisfaction Award in the Owner Marketing Category. More information is available here.

About automotiveMastermind
Founded in 2012, automotiveMastermind, a business unit of IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), is a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for the automotive industry. Market EyeQ by Mastermind is a single sales platform that identifies, communicates with, and closes every buyer in a local market. Mastermind is headquartered in New York City and San Francisco. For more information, visit automotivemastermind.com. Based in London, IHS Markit is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

automotiveMastermind and TransUnion today announced a partnership to help dealers identify highly qualified customers coming to the dealership for service.

Dealerships with access to the automotiveMastermind (Mastermind) solution now have the ability to deliver prescreen offers to consumers through serviceMastermind, a streamlined service that allows dealers to know when qualified customers come through the service drive, enabling them to begin new sales outreach. Customer data is obtained from TransUnion in connection with the prescreen and gives dealers invaluable insight about those customers.

TransUnion's backing of the solution allows dealers to pull real-time credit-based information that can be used to better understand consumers browsing the dealership showroom or customers having their vehicle serviced. As an integrated part of Mastermind's solution for dealerships, this quick and easy assessment of a customer's creditworthiness enables dealers to deliver the right offer, to the right customer, at the right time.  

"The combined power of our partnership with TransUnion, and IHS Markit data, gives dealers greater visibility on who is servicing at their dealership, including contract, loyalty and garage indicators, allowing them to market to service customers with the right message," said Johannes Gnauck, CEO and co-founder of Mastermind.

"We want to provide dealers with the most compelling, market-relevant data possible to strengthen the customer experience and, ultimately, customer relationships."

"This solution will enable dealers to make smarter decisions and tailor their offers to the needs and preferences of their customers," said Brian Landau, senior vice president and automotive business leader at TransUnion. "Through the partnership, dealers will have the right tools to grow their prescreen functionality and build demand, while equipping their customers with a more seamless car shopping experience."

serviceMastermind will be available to all eligible Mastermind dealer partners in the first quarter of 2019. The solution has been tested by a few key dealer partners who have seen strong results: initial tests show between 65 – 80 percent of customers were activated into the sales workflow, and 27 – 52 percent of those converted customers bought a vehicle through that dealer.

About automotiveMastermind
Founded in 2012, automotiveMastermind, a business unit of IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), is a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for the automotive industry. Market EyeQ by Mastermind is the single sales platform to identify, communicate with, and close every buyer in a local market. Mastermind is headquartered in New York City and San Francisco. For more information, visit automotivemastermind.com. Based in London, IHS Markit is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

About TransUnion
Information is a powerful thing. At TransUnion, we realize that. We are dedicated to finding innovative ways information can be used to help individuals make better and smarter decisions. We help uncover unique stories, trends and insights behind each data point, using historical information as well as alternative data sources. This allows a variety of markets and businesses to better manage risk and consumers to better manage their credit, personal information and identity. Today, TransUnion has a global presence in more than 30 countries and a leading presence in several international markets across North America, Africa, Latin America and Asia. Through the power of information, TransUnion is working to build stronger economies and families and safer communities worldwide.

We call this Information for Good.℠

automotiveMastermind® (Mastermind), a leading provider of predictive solutions for dealerships, today announced the appointment of Kos Jha as Chief Technology Officer and the promotion of Daniel (Dan) Malloy to Vice President of Sales.

In Malloy's new role he will drive the expansion of Mastermind's presence in the automotive industry by adding new brands, dealer groups and individual retail stores to automotiveMastermind's portfolio mix. Previously, Malloy served as National Sales Director.

Jha, who joins Mastermind from S&P Global Market Intelligence, will be responsible for managing the technology and global engineering teams, while closely aligning with the product organization.

"We are most committed to being a true partner to our dealers and that begins from the very start of our relationship. Now, more than ever, dealerships need to look at their market holistically to maximize all possible sales opportunities," said Marco Schnabl, CEO and Co-Founder of automotiveMastermind. "Dan is committed to help dealers address their challenges and pain-points through partnering with Mastermind."

Malloy's experience in the retail automotive industry spans more than two decades. Prior to joining Mastermind, he held the position of General Manager for Audi of Freehold (New Jersey) and Group 1 Automotive – working with brands like Honda, Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen. He also worked with DCH Auto group providing new car sales management, marketing initiative implementation and more.

"Mastermind is continuously innovating and pushing the boundaries of predictive solutions and this year is no exception," said Malloy. "There is a lot to get excited about in the upcoming year. I'm passionate about being a strong resource for dealers and am looking forward to showcasing this in my new role."

Jha's experience in the technology industry spans more than 25 years, joining Mastermind from S&P Global Market Intelligence where he was CTO for client-facing platforms and analytics products. Jha led large global teams to adopt modern cloud-native architectures and big data and analytics technologies to deliver growth and transformation. Prior to that he worked at EY in management consulting to lead IT strategy and implementation and at Honeywell as a Technology Manager to build software products.

"Kos is an extremely diversified leader who will further help us build a world class product development team around our strategic product vision," said Johannes Gnauck, CEO and Co-Founder of automotiveMastermind.

"Mastermind is constantly updating and innovating its technology to best serve dealer partners and their customers," said Jha. "My goal is to ensure that the technology is always catering to dealers' needs and providing the predictive analytics and solutions for each dealer's market."

automotiveMastermind has a proven track record of transforming the dealership experience for consumers and revolutionizing the way automotive dealerships and manufacturers, find, engage and earn long-lasting customer relationships.

About automotiveMastermind
Founded in 2012, automotiveMastermind, a business unit of IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), is a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for the automotive industry. Market EyeQ by Mastermind is the single sales platform to identify, communicate with and close every buyer in a local market. Mastermind is headquartered in New York City and San Francisco. For more information, visit automotivemastermind.com. Based in London, IHS Markit is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

The holidays are behind us, and the new year lies ahead. What do recent developments in the technology and automotive industries suggest might be on tap for 2019? How can and should dealers prepare themselves, and where are the opportunities to get ahead of the competition?

Here’s some news to consider:

Amazon becomes America’s most valuable company

What: Amazon passed Apple and Microsoft to become the world’s largest company, measured by stock market valuation.

Why: The big brown boxes on front porches – and soon in people’s garages – driving that valuation all have one thing in common: all are things the consumer didn’t drive to the store and pick up themselves. Ironically, Americans are buying less stuff at the store and having more of it delivered. At the same time, they’re increasingly moving to bigger vehicles with more cargo space. SUVs and pickup trucks finally have room for everything, just as consumers no longer need to go out and pick up anything.

This means dealers need to invest in understanding at an individualized and personal level how and why their customers will be using their vehicles in order to make the most effective recommendations. (One likely factor: Kids and sports gear. The number of American children who play on a youth sports team is at an all-time high, even as overall youth athletic activity continues to drop).

Luxury buyers claim two-thirds of EV tax credits

What: Purchasers of luxury vehicles accounted for two-thirds of the electric vehicle tax credits handed out in 2018, and some industry analysts predict that number to reach as high as 75 percent in 2019. However, EV tax credits face an uncertain future in general, with some scheduled to phase out under current law and others potentially ending sooner than planned.

Why: Even as manufacturers invest big in electrification, it’s still largely a luxury good for American car buyers – and ending the EV tax credit wouldn’t help reverse that trend. Brands like Tesla, Audi, Jaguar, BMW and Mercedes won’t be as sensitive as, say, a Chevrolet Bolt or Nissan Leaf to an effective $7,500 price increase. If you’re a dealer in the luxury space, how well are you able to identify potential customers for new EVs? If you’re not, what can you do to help customers who want an EV justify the price premium, and how can you identify the people for whom that sacrifice is worth it?

Some humans don’t welcome robot drivers

What: Police in areas where self-driving cars are being tested report a variety of human-on-robot “road rage” incidents, in which vehicles were run off the road, had their tires slashed or were vandalized or threatened.

Why: While there’s a lot to be said for the autonomous vehicle future, plenty of people are concerned about what it might mean for their communities and for themselves. Others simply prefer human interactions over engaging with automated systems. For dealers, it’s an opportunity to engage with their local community as the human face of their brand’s autonomous future strategy. It’s also a reminder of the importance of human connections when interacting with automotive consumers, even when it’s backed by complex and critical digital technologies. Remember, the root of “personalized” is “person,” and many consumers neither want nor trust automated interactions.

Fewer working customers in the future

What: After a long stretch of decline, the workforce participation rate – basically, the percentage of the adult population that’s either working or looking for work outside the home – ticked up again as core unemployment remained low. But economists warn the trend of more people dropping out of the workforce to resume for the foreseeable future.

Why: More people going to work every day in the short term means more potential customers. How does your dealership identify people who hadn’t been good candidates before due to lack of income, but might now need a new daily driver. Don’t forget that in the long term, estimates of future sales figures are often based on predictions of broad population size. But when increasing percentages of that population aren’t working – or aren’t working the kind of formal job that allows them to qualify for traditional automotive financing – how are they going to become your customers? How well do you know what your customers’ plans are for their own future, and what does that mean for their transportation purchasing plans?

How Can automotiveMastermind Help?

If you’re trying to predict the future, then it’s good to have predictive analytics on your side. Our technology helps you stay connected to changing buyer behaviors, changing industry conditions and evolving economies. Get in touch with us today to learn more.

If there’s one word that looks like it will define 2019, it’s “demand.” Consumer demand for new or used vehicles is expected to be down, potentially delivering a second year of lower sales in North America. At the same time, growing demand for trucks and SUVs, decreasing interest in cars and growing prevalence of alternative powertrains came to a head in 2018, driving fundamental automaker changes to production plans and product lines that will be felt in 2019 and for decades to come.

These trends, in turn, demand a strategic response from dealers that want to ensure sustainability and profitability in 2019 and beyond. With sales down, margins squeezed, products changing and consumers evolving, “business as usual” risks no longer delivering the usual results in 2019.

For the “Year of Demand” in 2019, consider responding with efficiency, adaptation and experience:

Efficiency

While efficiency is a dealer’s friend in the best of times, it’s during tightening markets where it truly becomes a critical competency. Too many dealers mistake cutting costs for efficiency, especially when they’re trying to do the same thing the same way while spending less.

Take customer acquisition, which is the lifeblood of any dealership. Marketing costs are a constant source of irritation and pain for dealers, especially in the traditional “spray and pray” model that often defies trustworthy ROI calculations. It’s tempting for dealers to shave their marketing spend, reducing frequency or thinning out channels to save a few dollars month-to-month and improve their bottom line in the short term.

With the same number of competitors chasing fewer customers, this is exactly the wrong way to go about finding efficiencies in marketing and reducing acquisition costs. You’re not changing the fundamental number that drives profitability, which is your advertising cost-per-sale. Dealers are used to hearing all sorts of sales pitches about the value various marketing campaigns will bring their business. But predictive marketing like the kind Mastermind offers is an entirely different model, with the results to show for it.

For instance, the industry average advertising cost-per-sale is $632. For Mastermind users, it’s $128. That’s efficiency through reinvention, enabling a much higher return on your marketing dollar and not just by spending less money to do the same thing.

Creating this kind of efficiency in a highly-competitive and mature market requires true reinvention of the marketing process, using the kinds of digital analytics tools that are reinventing so many other industries. These are the kinds of technologies that drove the e-commerce boom, that are reinventing everything from insurance to tourism, from Wall Street to law enforcement.

This reinvention means a paradigm shift from marketing to demographics or channels, to a one-to-one, personalized and predictive model that gets the consumer thinking about buying a new car before they even realize they are in the market.

Adaptation

2019 isn’t going to be a business-as-usual year, and dealers will have to adapt to both customers and manufacturers going through deep transformations.

It’s a cliché that it’s hard to see the forest for the trees, and dealers who are focused on their day-to-day business – especially during a tightening sales market – risk looking up to discover that they missed both threats and opportunities along the path they were on. Are your customers still interested in what you have to sell them? Are you sure? How do you know? Are there new customers who might be more interested in what’s on your showroom floor now than had been in the past?

This kind of environment is where predictive analytics shines, as the technologies behind it aren’t static or locked into a snapshot of the past. They’re constantly learning, by their very nature. With their ability to juggle thousands of data points at a time, they factor in the behavior not only of the customers who show up, but just as critically, they learn from those who don’t and automatically identify what didn’t work and what could be done better for the next similar customer.

This automated adaptation, which constantly refines your dealership’s understanding of both its existing and potential customers, can form the solid foundation for dealership success in 2019 and beyond. If your environment is evolving, so must you.

Customer Experience

It’s long been a fundamental truth of the auto dealer business that it’s much cheaper to sell another car to an existing customer than it is to conquest a new one. With fewer consumers on the horizon for 2019, it’s time to invest in your customer experience (CX) to ensure you’re building and maintaining the relationships upon which your success will depend in this brave new automotive world.

With sales down, it might seem counterintuitive to talk about investing in CX. But with its importance to your bottom line, it’s an undeniable fact that being good at keeping customers happy and feeling valued is far less expensive than being bad at it. Given the difference in acquisition costs between existing and conquest sales, every customer who walks out your door never to be seen again is hundreds or thousands of dollars in profit erased from your future balance sheets.

As we’ve discussed before, there are simple things that a dealership can do to improve CX and increase loyalty; this can be a starting point in 2019 for a more comprehensive approach such as Amazon’s “obsession with the customer” that leads to meeting customers’ needs before the customer even realizes they have them.

Whatever your specific strategy for improving the total experience your customers have with your dealership might be, its foundation needs to be a great CRM system that gives empowered employees the right data to do the right thing at the right time.

Demand Excellence

If 2019 is going to be the “Year of Demand” for dealerships, let it be the year that you demand excellence in marketing efficiency, in your adaptation to a changing marketplace and in your relationship with your customers. If you’re successful in these initiatives, then 2019 will truly be a happy new year.

Interested in learning how you can capitalize on demand this year? Sign up for a VIP demo today: https://automotivemastermind.com/#/demo

When the Internet first began to play a role in car buying, many dealers were concerned they would lose influence over their customers and become simply a pick-up location for new vehicle purchases – or worse. But while the dealership’s role has evolved thanks to modern technologies, those same changes are giving dealers more opportunities than ever before to become proactive rather than reactive in their relationship with their customers.

Many of the same core technologies that allow almost 90 percent of American consumers to research cars online before visiting a dealership also power predictive marketing solutions that can put dealers in the position to reach consumers with personalized and targeted communications at the time when they’re in the market for a new vehicle. Critically, this can happen even if the customer doesn’t realize that yet.

These predictive marketing solutions are an entry point to a comprehensive customer experience (often referred to as “CX”) model that draws customers in, learns as much as they can about them and then uses those insights to build a lasting, long-term relationship with them.

Forrester defines CX as how customers perceive their interactions with your company. For a customer to have a positive experience, Forrester says, you need to make it useful, usable and enjoyable.

Here, it’s worth considering the difference between “useful” and “usable” and how that applies to the dealership experience.

A useful experience is one that provides value to the customer. Almost 90 percent of consumers use the Internet to shop for cars, but less than a third of them show up at a dealership knowing which vehicle they’re going to buy. A useful experience is one where they’re given the information and insight they need and the hands-on product interactions they want, so they have everything they need to make a decision. For today’s shoppers, this means moving away from the sales pitch where you’re telling them what they already know from their research, and more toward a consultative “product expert” model where you’re determining where you can contribute to their understanding.

This changes from customer to customer. Baby boomers and Gen Xers may be more likely to arrive with questions to ask, but younger customers tend to want a quick path to a test drive. Either rushing or slowing down a customer’s preferred speed can harm their perception of their experience with you.

Where usefulness is about the value you provide your customers, usability is about how easy it is to do business with your dealership. This starts with your website. Most web traffic is mobile, and your site should be designed with this in mind – and continues throughout the entire CX process. Does your sales team know who your customers are and what they want before they show up? Is their car ready for a test drive when they get there? Is there a place for the kids to play while the adults talk? Are your employees trained, prepared and able to give your customers a personalized experience?

Everybody wants to feel special, and customers want to feel valued. This shows up in research on how they interact with companies: According to Marketo, more than 78% of consumers will only engage with offers if they have been personalized based on their prior engagements with you. More than half of customers are more likely to buy from you when they’re recognized by name.

Your customers will enjoy the car buying process more when you use predictive marketing to treat them as individuals with specific needs you can meet and expectations you can match. This commitment to CX then forms the basis of an ongoing relationship marketing function that crosses sales, service and finance to build lasting positive relationships with customers.

Done right, predictive marketing gets customers in the door, empowers you to personalize their experience and forms the basis for a profitable, long-term relationship. The alternative is a model of low-closing percentage digital sales teams, price-shopping walk-ins and “spray and pray” marketing campaigns. When you plan for the future of your dealership, you can either decide that you’re going to know what your customer wants and needs – maybe even before they do – or you can continue hoping for the best when someone walks in the door.

How Can automotiveMastermind Help?

Do you have any questions or comments about predictive solutions and how it’s changing the customer experience process? Contact us today.

While it might feel like we’re at the end of 2018 with a month and a half left in the year, another way to look at it is that we’ve still got a tenth of the calendar left in front of us. Just as you can get a lot done in the last 45 minutes to an hour of your work day, there’s still a lot that can be done to improve your dealership customer experience before closing the books on 2018. Here’s five suggestions on how to spend the remaining weeks:

1. Ask Your Customers for Anything but Time

French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte famously told his generals, “You can ask me for anything you like, except time.” It’s a sign of progress that your customers today feel the same way an emperor did in the 19th century, which is why one of the quickest ways to lose their business is to make them think you’re wasting their time.

Take time yourself to follow customers through both the sales and service customer experiences and identify where you could shave time, even a few seconds here or there. How long is the customer waiting while information is entered or retrieved from a system? How long do they wait to interact with a cashier or service representative? How long are they waiting for information to get from one of your employees to the next, or for their vehicle to be pulled around?

Survey after survey finds convenience is king for today’s customer – especially the next generation you’re hoping to build a relationship with now for decades to come. Find ways to make the entire process as short and efficient as possible, and then make a point of telling your customers what you’re doing. Don’t wait for them to notice that you’re finding little ways to make things move faster, but rather train your staff to share that information: “We’re doing things this way now because it lets me get you out of here faster.”

The more your customers believe you’re making a sincere effort not to waste their time, the more they’re going to be willing to entrust you with it in the future. A reputation for respecting your customers’ time is a powerful relationship marketing tool to drive future sales.

2. Who’s Waiting, and What Could They Be Doing?

Rethink your service waiting area. You’ve probably already figured out chargers and easy-to-access Wi-Fi are the new “doughnuts and free coffee,” but what’s next? These rooms tend to try to be something for everyone, but in the process, they can fail to meet the specific needs of your working customers. For someone who’s had to take unexpected time away from the office to deal with a car repair issue, it can be frustrating to try to stay connected to work while young children chatter, and game shows play on the television. Consider creating an adults-only service waiting area targeted at businesspeople, with minimal noise distractions, seating conducive to laptop use and potentially even a printer or fax machine.

Take a look at the next hotel “business center” you pass and consider what value its amenities might provide to your service customers. This is also a great time to make customers feel like they’re valued: Have a dealership manager take the opportunity to ask them in person what they thought of their wait, and what would have made it better: “We’re thinking of making some changes and would value your opinion.”

3. Revisit the Rules

Are your CRM rules still reflecting the way you want your customers cared for? Too many dealerships “set and forget” their CRM rules, and too few get dealership leaders in sales, service and F&I together to go through the rules together and ensure they reflect reality and best practices.

Your CRM is a critical engine for dealership sales – and, given the low cost of retaining an existing customer compared to the cost of acquiring a new one – profitability. Take the time before the end of the year to revisit those CRM rules about who gets contact, how often, for what and by whom, and make sure that they’re leveraging your CRM investment to its maximum potential.

4. Spread the Social Love

Keep your team connected to the digital world. While social media platforms are great for sharing special offers, news and other information with customers, they’re also a source of potential friction if your customer-facing staff don’t know what’s being said.

Do you have a process for making sure your sales and service teams know what’s being said on your social media channels and website? Do they all know what digital coupons are out there, or what vehicles are being featured today?

You can’t trust your team to be constantly watching Twitter – and you probably wouldn’t want them to, anyway. But with today’s customers virtually always starting their shopping online, it’s critical for dealerships to connect the (often offsite) digital team with the people who will be the next point of contact for those customers, ensuring there’s no confusion about the featured deal or coupon of the day.

5. Use the Free Time

We’re entering the slower period for foot traffic in the dealership, so this is a great time to get things done. Use this time for sales and service staff training, getting them up to speed on new tools as well as refreshing the things you let slide during the busier times. You don’t need to send people off to all-day seminars – although if you’re going to this is the right time – but you’ve got more time now for the kind of 15-minute or half-hour sessions that make a real difference in the long term. Whether it’s sales techniques, product knowledge, upsell opportunities, market information, internal policies or other useful knowledge, take advantage of the opportunity to make your team more efficient and effective.

If you’ve got maintenance or renovations to do to customer-facing areas that could be disruptive, this is the best time to get that done with the least possible interruption or inconvenience. Carpet a little worn in the service waiting area? Time to repaint the walls in the service bay? Need to reconfigure the sales team’s desks to make more room? November and December are the right time to get that done.

How Can automotiveMastermind Help?

With a number of tools out there to help you maximize your customer experience, the automotiveMastermind technology will help give you a major advantage over the competition. Nearly 70 percent of our dealer partners said they were at least 50 percent more productive after implementation. More than 70 percent said conversations with customers have also improved.

Contact us today to learn how we can help you improve your overall customer experience.

IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in information, analytics and solutions, today announced the acquisition of automotiveMastermind Inc., the leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation software for the automotive industry.

http://mstrmind.us/IHSMarkitaMRelease

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