Your customer is knee-deep in the car-buying process and ready for the final part, the car financing. Finally, after hours of deal making, they sign the terms.

But in your customer’s mind, was the long process worth it?

It’s a New World Out There

The car-buying process has been turned upside down by the advent of online car buying. Customers no longer have to sit in the dealership for hours using their best negotiating skills -- they can bypass that entire process.

The statistics are there. Sixty-two percent of consumers initiate the car buying process online and seventy-five percent said they would consider making their entire car-buying process online, including financing.

Sometimes, the toughest part of the process is financing. However, what was once a very touchy part of the car buying process, requiring the customer to sit in the dealership for hours, has now moved online. Lenders are now partnering with dealerships with creative online financing methods.

Online Financing is the Next Step

While online car buying was first, online financing is the next step. Many automotive leaders have great success with this in their dealerships. Pairing online financing with an online shopping experience not only puts the customer in the driver’s seat, it also creates more opportunities for dealers.

How?

If you partner with an online service that offers financing, your customers can easily compare vehicle prices paid by other consumers, select loan options and get approved by different lending partners, all with the click of a button.

This experience is easy for customers, and provides complete transparency, without any bureaucratic or sales-esque slowdowns.

Your dealership gets customers who are actually “ready-to-buy,” rather than those who are “just looking,” saving you time and resources.

Plenty of revenue is there if you choose to engage in online financing practices. You provide your customers with a stress-free car buying experience while saving your dealership time by attracting ready to buy customers.

What do you have to lose? Check out online financing options today.

The statistics are there: car buyers spend 59 percent of their time online before they purchase car, according to a 2016 study from Cox Automotive. This same study cited 88 percent of customers used the internet to purchase their vehicle and 46 percent use multiple devices to get to a dealer’s website, with 14 percent using only a mobile statistic.

Why are these statistics important? The future of car buying is mobile, and your dealership needs to be ready for it. So what should you do in order to attract the mobile customer?

Here are a few suggestions:

1)    Don’t Have A “Click or Call For Price” Button on Your Website- Everyone who shops online and on their mobile phone is used to having all the information available to them at once. Your dealership should abide by these same principles. Eliminate a button that requires a customer to call for the price, Make sure the customer can see that information on your website.

2)    Develop Widgets That Provide Further Information To Your Customers- Applications  like QR codes that take customers to a more detailed vehicle page help to simplify the shopping process for consumers and could help develop more leads if used effectively.

You may also want to consider dealer-specific apps to make it easier for employees to input data. Many third-party sites have apps that enable your employees to input vehicle data and capture photos. They include step-by-step instructions that make it a very simple process. These apps can also help you compare other cars on the market and price them accordingly in order to remain competitive with other dealerships.

3)    Try In-App Advertising to Target Different Consumers- Consumers use mobile apps every day. From Instagram, to Snapchat, to Twitter to Facebook, your dealership has an opportunity to geo-locate customers who are in the market to purchase a vehicle by putting ads in these everyday applications. If you develop specific phone or text numbers, you can accurately track the response and return on investment of customers that actually end up purchasing a car from these social media ads.

4)    Focus on Real-Time Locations- It’s important to get your customers when they’re in your dealership’s vicinity. Using geo-location technology your dealership can track mobile phones in the area and send them coupons, discounts, or different vehicle specials that could help quicken a customer’s buying process. Even if all a customer does is purchase some new window blades due to a push notification they received, that’s revenue you would not have garnered otherwise.

5)    Watch How You Create Your Ads- Bigger does not mean better when it comes to mobile advertising at your dealership. Size your ads in a way that they do not take up a customer’s entire viewing screen- that’s the quickest way to scare someone off. Not only that, but test the speed of the ad before you put it on your mobile site. No one has time to wait for an ad that takes fifteen minutes to load…. They’ll just go to the next dealership that has a more responsive mobile page.

Car sales today are a whole different process from how it was in the past. A few years ago it was pretty much a given that buying a car could easily encompass most of the day. In addition, little information was available to the consumer and the dealer had the upper hand in negotiations.

As the Internet has grown and evolved, and as information has become increasingly accessible, the playing field has leveled for consumers. In fact, in many cases it is the consumer that now has the upper hand. The rise of third-party shopping portals, availability of incentive and rebate information, and the expansion of consumer choice, means consumers no longer have to shop close to home. They now have their choice of dealerships across the nation. It is not uncommon for consumers to purchase vehicles from a dealership way across the country. It happens all the time. The Internet has completely changed the retail automotive business, transforming it from one that was primarily locally-based, to a national customer base.

While dealerships used to be able to count on that local customer purchasing their vehicle, along with every single vehicle within that family for many generations, and all the service needs for the entire network of family and friends, now the Internet has changed that. You can no longer rely on a customer visiting you as one of the few select dealers in the local area, or bank on that customer’s service business. There are simply too many other choices available.

Dealers who win are those that do a superior job playing the online game. You have to ensure your dealership is present and highly visible on as many of the touchpoints the customer visits in their car buying journey as possible.

And, be prepared to work with the consumer on THEIR terms, or they will quickly disappear to your competition. With so much information available to consumers, if you hide pricing, or veil it behind conversion forms, you may well find that consumer bouncing from your site to your competition. They simply want information.

By the time a consumer contacts you dealership they have already visited up to 24 websites while researching and gathering information in their car buying journey. How you choose to respond to that consumer is crucial. Be helpful and respond with the requested information in the same manner the consumer reached out to you. If they prefer email, email them back. If they texted you, text them back. If they prefer to talk on the phone, call them. These days the consumer wants it on their terms and if you respond correctly, this will increase the likelihood they continue to engage with, and, ultimately purchase their vehicle from your dealership.

Simply choosing to repeatedly call the customer or responding with the, “When can you come in” message template, without providing the requested information, is the single fastest way to get eliminated from consideration. You will simply deliver that customer onto your competitor’s lot.

I am sure you have heard all the recent chatter about the customer experience. With so much competition, these days, the customer experience is king and it is vital that your presence online mirrors the in-person experience in your dealership.

Make your dealership stand out by providing resources on your websites where consumers can gather information including payment calculators, trade-in valuation tools, incentive information and, most importantly, transparent pricing. I can guarantee that you will find that your customers are more willing to reach out as this helps to establish that all important trust.

But don’t forget that in-person customer experience. Of course, all of that trust can quickly disappear if, when the customer contacts the dealership, the helpfulness is suddenly gone.

With all the available choices consumers have today, dealerships that offer great customer experiences, both online and in person, will see more customers engage

Consumers want to buy cars. The only thing that’s up in the air is who they choose to buy them from. It’s your decision – Do you want to provide the experience the customer wants -- or not? Just as it is the customer’s decision to choose your dealership – or move onto your competition. Don’t be invisible to your customers, provide a stellar experience and you can win at this game.