When it comes to car sales and financing, the relentless search for efficiency touches all areas of a dealership. Smart dealer operators are finding steps and tasks that can be connected, automated and perfected; they’re reviewing workflow and expecting time and cost savings. For example, ask yourself this question: When a customer brings a car to trade with a balance due, how many days do you have to wait before you can remarket that vehicle? How long will that car sit on your lot, taking up valuable space, just because the “paperwork” takes forever? In today’s market, if a trade-in sits for weeks due to the time it takes for payoff and title processing…it’s an unacceptable obstacle to sales. Turning that workflow into a fast, consistent and trackable operation is what Accelerated Title does. If you’re considering Accelerated Title, ask these three questions:

1. What are the practical benefits to vehicle payoff and title release technology? Dealer operations benefit due to increased efficiency through a fast and automated process. Add reporting and tracking capabilities, and the technology reduces the time spent on administrative follow up. In terms of actual sales operations, it’s simple: a trade-in vehicle can be remarketed faster, and with less hassle. That’s great for the bottom line.

2. How does Accelerated Title speed the process of title release and payout? By streamlining the connection between dealer and lender. For example, dealers obtain payoff quotes directly from lenders through Dealertrack, allowing for precise payoffs. Accelerated Title then utilizes ACH processing to transfer funds, expediting the timeline for the lender to receive funds and trigger title release. Central to this is the integrated use of Dealertrack Title Management data; this allows for the speed of title delivery and creates a one-of-a-kind technology solution. Through automation, poorly-defined processes are also corrected, and made consistent.

3. What type of reporting and tracking does the solution support? This is a critical question, because when it comes to workflow knowledge is power – and data is king. As such, dealership personnel should be able to track status, get on-demand reporting, and have 24/7 access to statements or transactions. It’s a significant efficiency gain your team.

Few technology solutions solve a pressing retail issue as efficiently and precisely as electronic contracting. Indeed, virtually every aspect of the contract process is improved through this technology, starting with an improved consumer experience, and ending with a streamlined workflow between dealership and lender. eContracting is a simple and elegant answer to the errors and delays that previously slowed the final step in the car buyer’s journey. Today, it’s emerging as a required solution that keeps dealerships competitive and customers satisfied.

If you’re researching electronic contracting solutions, start with these three basic questions:  

1. What do I need to know before implementing the technology? First of all, make sure your electronic contracting solution is based on a SaaS platform – otherwise known as Software as a Service. That will eliminate many of costs and hassles of the technology. It’s also important to consider data integration: common customer data points may prefill the eContract, reducing manual data entry. That saves more time and eliminates errors. Finally, think about important sales flow options, such as the ability to review and sign via mobile device. That can help to create a more comfortable and convenient consumer experience.

2. Will eContracting save my dealership money? It depends on your dealership and the number of your contracts in transit. In fact, that is a great question to ask your service provider, who should be able to provide your dealership with a customized savings assessment. In terms of efficiency, eContracting will reduce time spent processing contracts and obtaining funding. That improves the overall experience, cuts interest expenses, and improves cash flow.

3. How many of my lenders are available? It’s simple: more lenders equals more opportunity to use the technology. That’s why Dealertrack features more than 20 key lenders (banks, credit unions, and captives) across the US, including Ally, Bank of America, Chase, Capital One and more. 

-- Brian Chee

I first realized that Pokémon Go was changing the world when I saw the signs on the New Jersey Turnpike:

Don’t Pokémon Go While Driving!

This was a little startling. I knew all about the game, but didn’t realize it had reached such a critical mass of acceptance and enthusiasm until I saw roadway warning signs. Indeed, upon a little research, I learned that Pokémon Go had turned the world upside down. According to AppInstitute.com, daily time spent on the game (iOS) is an astounding 33 minutes – about 10 minutes longer than Facebook. In the U.S. alone, the app has 23 million peak active users, more than any other game by a healthy margin. And get this: in the five minutes or so it took to write this passage, the game was downloaded over 210,000 times.

All this success, while partially due to the latent popularity of the trading card game from the 90s, is driven by Augmented Reality. Also referred to as AR, the technology places a computer generated image on a user’s actual real view. From a commerce point of view, it’s a powerful tool – and has been steadily moving toward the mainstream for a while. But investment hit the turbo button last year: According to CB Insights and eMarketer,investment in AR jumped from $144 million in Q1 2015 to $238 million in Q4 – then exploded to $1.08 billion in Q1 2016.

All that investment is beginning to show up – and one place we might see more of it is at the dealership. Earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress, in fact, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) unveiled an AR car configurator, built by Accenture Digital and using Google’s Tango developer kit. The prototype showed how people could interact with a full scale version of a car; Accenture’s objective is to enable a buyer to use a mobile device to “walk freely around a full-scale vehicle in almost any environment.” It’s possible because Tango enables an untethered, handheld experience free of external tracking technology like GPS. According to TechCrunch (in an article found here), Tango gives devices a sense of location – a sense of “where they are in a room, and what’s around them.”

The first device enabled with Tango is scheduled to debut this September. Like FCA, chances are it won’t be long before more dealerships and automakers start experimenting with AR. Indeed, from a global perspective, quite a few automakers are already engaged in testing the technology, including Ford, Land Rover, Ferrari, Porsche, Audi and others. For dealerships, one only needs to imagine the walk-around and F&I product sales possibilities to see how effective this technology can be, and how it can be used to blend the online and in-store experience. Ferrari, for example, has used AR to reveal additional information and features while a customer is walking around a model in the showroom. Land Rover has leveraged the technology to showcase upcoming models. With a prototype at the dealership, a customer can experience an actual preview of the features upcoming. On the F&I side, buyers would view their vehicle as it would look equipped with aftermarket items – creating a very personal approach.

Of course, it’s fun to gaze into the looking glass and see what types of technology may be coming down the road that will help dealers create a more interactive and effective car sales experience. It’s pretty likely, though, that AR is headed to dealerships – and soon – in some capacity. That makes a lot of sense, because let’s face it: as automotive retail continues to evolve and transform, technology like Augmented Reality could very well be an ideal way to bring the two together, and create a total immersive and blended experience within the showroom.

It’s been debated at conferences, in showrooms, talked about over dinners, written about, studied and queried. Still, the question – and the debate – rages.

Mobile. Does it fit in the dealership showroom?

The short answer is yes. Of course. And if you’ve not integrated mobile devices throughout your sales showroom experience, consider the overwhelming amount of data that points you in that direction, such as a recent 2016 survey from Ipsos – commissioned by Facebook IQ – that examined the behaviors and attitudes of mobile-first auto consumers. The study found that “71 percent of all respondents use mobile during the purchase process, and 58% say their smartphone is likely to be the only device they use for all their vehicle research in the future.” Additional findings include:

• 61% of mobile-first auto consumers say that video is playing a more important role in their shopping experience.

• 76% of mobile-first auto consumers know the exact vehicle they want before going to a dealer.

• 71% of mobile-first auto consumers prefer to do all their vehicle research online, and go to the dealer for the final transaction.

Indeed, mobile is the way of the world, to the point where a Google analysis of search data between 2014 and 2015 showed that auto category searches on mobile grew an amazing 51%.

But wait a minute. Just because it’s the way of the world, does that mean it’s the way of your dealership? Does it matter? You bet it does, for at least one compelling reason: it’s how consumers want to experience the journey of buying a car. It’s convenient, familiar and welcome technology. They want video on the tablet; they want to continue to shop in a way they recognize as credible and transparent.

By connecting “online to in-store” via mobile device in the showroom, you’re creating a familiar, modern, shopper-friendly environment that picks up where the buyer left off online –and that itself feels credible and transparent. The technology and interactivity of a tablet, for example, offers a much deeper level of information and a more interactive experience. That helps you to gain insight into consumer preferences and the information they have prepared online, prior to their arrival at the store. You’re then able to provide a more personalized in-store experience using mobile technology. That’s how mobile technology fits – today and as automotive retailing continues to evolve.