ALBANY, N.Y. – June 1st, 2015 – Auto/Mate Dealership Systems announced today that Ristken Software Services has integrated its core enterprise level technology solutions for auto retailers with Auto/Mate's dealership management system (DMS). Ristken's MenuPro™ and Pro Tracking™ platforms, as well as its eBusiness Service Provider Access Network™ (SPAN), are now fully accessible for dealerships using Auto/Mate's DMS.

“Our Open/Mate integration program makes it easy for auto retail vendors to integrate with our dealership management system; there are no expensive certifications required," said Mike Esposito, President and CEO of Auto/Mate Dealership Systems.

Ristken's core set of applications and services includes menu selling, finance and sales reporting, and eBusiness solutions that allow dealerships to conduct core business tasks electronically; including rating, contracting, and remittance.

"Having our technology integrated with Auto/Mate's DMS is beneficial to our customers on both systems, as the seamless exchange of data increases productivity and improves the user experience," said Patrick DeMarco, President of Ristken.

With both systems fully integrated, all data entered into the Ristken platforms is instantly and securely updated in Auto/Mate’s DMS, and any changes made in the DMS are reflected in Ristken's solutions in real time.

Auto/Mate's dealership management system features easy-to-use, fully integrated modules to suit any dealership or auto group's needs in accounting, sales, F&I, parts, service, and more. Auto/Mate is known for its customer-centric values and has received numerous customer service and satisfaction awards. For more information call Auto/Mate at 877-340-2677.

About Ristken Software Services

Ristken has delivered enterprise level software solutions to the retail automotive market for over a decade. Ristken's solutions focus on increasing the productivity and profitability of dealership finance and sales departments as well as the OEM's, service providers, and general agents that serve them. Core offerings include the market leading menu selling solution, the most powerful sales reporting tool in the industry, and a highly adaptable suite of eBusiness solutions, including eRating, eContracting, and eRemittance. Their clients include some of the largest companies in the automotive and insurance industries including Zurich, Ford, Ally, APCO, EFG and Protective as well as hundreds of general agents across thousands of dealerships. For more information, visit www.ristken.com.

About Auto/Mate

Auto/Mate Dealership Systems is a leading provider of dealership management system (DMS) software to retail automotive dealerships, typically saving dealers thousands of dollars per month from their current provider. Our Automotive Management Productivity Suite (AMPS) is a user-friendly, feature-rich DMS in use by more than 1,100 auto dealers nationwide. Auto/Mate has received the DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Award in 2012, 2013, and 2014.

Auto/Mate’s employees have more than 940 years of combined experience working in franchised auto dealerships, the foundation of its “Designed By Car People For Car People^TM” slogan. Auto/Mate is committed to winning its customers’ business each and every month with no long-term contracts and free software upgrades. For more information follow us on Twitter @AutoMateDMS or visit us at http://www.automate.com

Rambo Drives More Sales & Service Revenue to Auto Dealers

From Vehicle Owners Motivated by Factory Recalls

San Francisco, -- May 26, 2015 -- Recall Masters, Inc., today announced the launch of Rambo, a revolutionary new platform that offers the most complete recall marketing program available for auto dealers. Rambo attracts new customers every month and enables auto dealers to effectively drive more sales and service revenue from vehicle owners motivated by factory recalls. According to CARFAX’s annual research, more than 46 million cars nationwide have at least one safety recall that’s never been fixed. Rambo is a cost-effective platform that markets to these consumers and brings in new customers for far less than what most auto dealers are currently paying.

Rambo markets dealer sales and service in a whole new way. Unlike conventional prospecting programs, it harnesses the sense of urgency associated with vehicle recalls to attract vehicle owners with open recalls into a dealership.

“With Rambo we create opportunities to attract new customers, generate more revenue from recall repairs, upsell service based on vehicle maintenance and convert higher mileage and older vehicles into new car sales for our auto dealer clients.  Dealers can begin welcoming new customers in just two weeks,” said Chris Miller, President of Recall Masters.

Rambo interfaces directly with OEMs to perform batch recall lookups by VIN. It learns which mandatory recalls are performed, unperformed, or expired and oftentimes what involuntary recalls exist for a specific VIN.  Recall Masters also supplements and verifies its VIN‐recall match process through VIN decoding and direct updates using NHTSA/ODI flat file databases and OEM TSB’s, as provided and regularly updated by the OEMs and NHTSA.  In this way, it obtains the complete Recall Description, Recall Consequence, NHTSA Code, and OEM Code for every NHTSA‐mandated recall. 

Recall Masters offers exclusive marketing areas. Auto dealers can choose a preferred marketing area by zip code and gain exclusive marketing privileges to VINs in the selected area. Only one dealer at a time is authorized to contact a vehicle owner.  Recall Masters’ proprietary system filters and ranks recalls to identify only the most motivated owners and most profitable recalls based on consumer safety, labor value, vehicle age, mileage and total service profitability. Each dealer receives only unperformed, non-expired recalls on vehicles eligible for service.

Once a dealership determines their target area, a two touch marketing program is used that increases conversion with response rates far higher than direct mail alone. First, VIN-specific recall mailers are scheduled to go out every two weeks. The custom branded pieces are mailed to all past and current recalls for all the leading manufacturers, not serviced by any other dealership, and tailored to exclude nuisance and sticker recalls. The eye-catching recall reminder is sent via “top of stack” delivery First-Class Mail. It includes a clear call to action to schedule an appointment with the dealership using a toll-free tracking number. Then the dealership reaches out to vehicle owners by phone, using the numbers provided by Recall Masters, as an added reminder to visit the dealership for their recall service.

When a customer calls in to inquire about a recall, Rambo ensures a fast and efficient process, making it easy for the dealership to look up the recall by vehicle VIN. It ensures all the information is immediately to hand to quickly answer any questions and service the customer. What used to be a 10-15 minute process has now become a 1-2 minute phone call.

“The problem is that the OEM recall process is highly inefficient. And not only that -- once a new recall is announced, OEMs focus on this ‘shiny new toy,’ and old customers get lost. Whereas we hope that going forward recalls will slow down and dealers get a chance to catch up. And that is where Rambo can truly help dealers kick into action and slaughter the market and any competition -- both the independents and other dealerships. With Rambo we truly are the dealership’s partner in success. In fact, we do practically everything except greet the customer,” said Miller.

For a free list count of open recalls in your dealerships area, please visit: http://www.recallmasters.com/free-recall-counts, or call: 888-651-4480.

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About Recall Masters:

Recall Masters is a leading provider of recall marketing programs and automotive services marketing. Its stated mission is to enhance the reputation and relationships of automobile manufacturers, local dealerships and consumers by demonstrating world‐class customer service and repairing every recalled vehicle in the United States. Based out of San Francisco, CA, the company offers a complimentary initial list count. The team includes dedicated account managers and automotive marketing consultants who are available to answer any questions.

Boulder, CO – May 26, 2015 -- Confident Financial Solutions (CFS), a leading developer of high quality financial solutions for automotive service centers and their customers, today announced that it has appointed Dan Beres as Vice President of National Sales. Beres joins an existing group of highly experienced professionals in the automotive industry and brings his expertise to his new role. He will be responsible for driving the creation and management of the company sales channels.

Prior to joining CFS, Beres held the role of Executive Vice President at MyCustomerData for seven years, where he created, developed and managed the sales force from three to 25 salespeople and was responsible for the company’s explosive sales growth at that time. He also initiated and developed vendor approved relationships with BMW, MINI, and Volvo, while managing an existing relationship with Mercedes-Benz.

Previous to that, Beres held the role of Director of Sales for DMEautomotive, where he brought on seven new accounts in less than three months, drove over $1 million in revenue and was named the Top New Business Producer of the Year. Before joining DMEautomotive, Beres served for five years as the National Sales Director at Who’s Calling, Inc., where he drove sales from $3 million to $42 million in revenue in less than three years.

“Dan is a highly skilled sales executive with extensive experience in our industry. I am certain he will quickly prove himself as an effective leader as part of our national sales force. I am excited to have him on board as we continue to drive profitability for our automotive service center clients while meeting the ever-changing needs of their service customers,” said John Dunning, CFS CEO.

Commenting on his new position, Beres stated, “I joined CFS because they are a dynamic and growing company with a great solution that handles a major pain point for automotive service departments. It’s a wonderful place to be, and I look forward to sharing in the company’s future successes.”

Beres holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Eastern Illinois University.

About Confident Financial Solutions (CFS):

Confident Financial Solutions is based in Boulder, Colorado and was founded in partnership with automotive entrepreneurs and dealership owners. CFS develops the highest quality financial solutions for automotive service centers and their customers.

For more information visit: https://www.confidentfs.com/ or call: 855-808-5861.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., May 27, 2015 -- Vboost Inc., today announced that, in response to high demand from auto dealers, the company has expanded beyond its core service as a leading auto industry viral marketing company, and launched “My Lead."   Industry studies show that video responses produce more lead to appointment conversions. The My Lead program offers salespeople an effective way to follow up with customers with a dynamic video response, without needing to shoot video every time they send a message. It is a turn-key and simple process with one-and-done templates. 

“Finally, there is a way to respond with video that my team will actually use,” said Jason Curie, General Manager with Feldman Automotive.  “Vboost get us into thousands of consumer’s living rooms in the most positive way ever.  Our sold customers are doing all the work in the most organic way possible…. This is for serious marketers only.”

My Lead builds a fun and interesting video for individual salespeople, featuring the vehicle their customer has expressed an interest in. By adding an entertaining and personal touch to the follow up process, My Lead helps cut through the clutter and turns cold leads into warm bodies.  Dealers piloting the program have seen a substantial increase in lead conversion rates.

“Vboost dealers enjoy outstanding share rates and video views through our proactive process. We bring them more referral business by creating positive viral marketing from customer photos and videos at the time of vehicle delivery. These then get shared by the customer on social media,” said Paul Moran, Vboost President and CEO. “As our dealers see the huge value of video, they have been asking for more video options that go beyond sold customers. We therefore repurposed our app to do more with video and developed My Lead. It is a very simple video program for salespeople to follow up with leads. Vboost is no longer just for sold customers, it now converts more cold leads into hot prospects.”

The My Lead program works as follows:

1. A customer sends in an enquiry about a specific vehicle on the dealer’s lot
2. The dealership responds with a fun video featuring photos of the vehicle and a video introduction from their Internet Sales rep in person.
3. In just minutes, the customer receives the unique message through email on their computer, smartphone or mobile device.

“Video walkarounds are a great way to sell cars, but the downside is that they do not happen often enough – they just take too much effort and most people are not comfortable shooting video.  My Lead shoots one video, one time.  The program then uploads photos/footage of the customer’s specific vehicle, integrates it with the salesperson’s recorded intro and it is emailed to the customer.  It’s that simple,” Moran said.

Vboost’s core product is a quick and easy process to capture photos at the time of vehicle delivery and quickly gets those “branded” photos out to the customer. The captured photos are stitched into a slideshow set to music. Now the customer becomes the dealer advocate by posting/sharing the photos and/or videos. These videos are shared via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other social platforms, as well as emailed and texted to the customer’s friends and family.

Vboost then monitors and quantifies results from each viral marketing campaign and reports back to their dealers. The Vboost Viral Marketing Platform delivers and tracks thousands of viral messages monthly – all designed to create referral business for its dealers. Some Vboost dealers are enjoying customer share rates over 70 percent, with more than 1,000 video views every month. These results go beyond simple page views -- they reflect customers that are actually clicking and watching the dealership “Customercials.”

Vboost will shortly be releasing an updated version of its core viral marketing product. Currently being piloted in numerous dealerships, it offers several enhanced capabilities including follow up for in-store prospects. The company also plans an upcoming release of another new tool for dealers for effective prospect follow up, further expanding its product line.  Dealers should look for more news about these releases in the 3^rd quarter of 2015.

To find out more about My Lead, click on this link. And, to find out more about Vboost, play this video:
 

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About Vboost:

Based in Huntington Beach, CA, Vboost, Inc., is the first proactive process to bring more referral business to dealers by creating positive viral marketing that is delivered quickly and gets shared. It involves a streamlined process via a mobile application and three unique technologies, which collect customer photos at the time of vehicle delivery, convert them to custom music videos and sends them directly to the customer. By sending these branded messages to customers during the emotional highpoint of the buying process, we have found that most buyers are compelled to upload and share these videos with family and friends via Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, email and other social media platforms. Best of all, results from each viral marketing campaign are being monitored, quantified and reported back to the dealers. For more information or a demonstration call 800.799.3130 or visit www.vboost.com.

Orlando, FL – The inaugural Women in Automotive Convention will take place this summer with the purpose assisting the automotive community in recruiting, retaining and developing female employees and leaders. Women make up just 17% of employees at auto dealerships according to NADA – and organizers of the conference are working diligently to raise this number, beginning with this event.

The conference is set for Tuesday-Thursday, August 18-20 at the Ballroom at Church Street in Downtown Orlando. The three-day conference includes speakers, breakout sessions, workshops and booth displays – all centered on the goal of educating and inspiring women in all areas of the automotive industry.

Keynote speaker, Lisa Copeland, has been a pioneer in the field of automotive marketing and management for more than 25 years. She is currently Managing Partner of Fiat of Austin, the top Fiat retailer in North America since the brand’s return.

“The topic of women in the automotive industry hits very close to home for me, because for women, the struggle is real,” Copeland said. “The event’s organizers are women who have been in the automotive industry for many years, and I am honored to be part of this precedent-setting event.”

Christy Roman, President of NOW Digital and Women in Automotive co-founder, agrees. “With female consumers making greater than half of the major purchasing decisions, like buying a car, it is ironic that such a low percentage of women are employed by dealers. We think there’s an opportunity to help women see the career possibilities that exist in the industry, and this conference will help facilitate cultural changes inside dealerships to increase the population of female employees.”

With the dynamic choice of Copeland as keynote speaker, attendees will hear her inspirational journey in the male-dominated industry. Under her leadership, Fiat of Austin was named the #6 Best Workplace in North America by Automotive News in 2013. She is the co-author of The New York Times best-seller Succeeding Against All Odds, a book described as Chicken Soup for the Soul for entrepreneurs.

Her success story has been featured in such prominent publications as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Marie Claire and Automotive News. Copeland is also the cofounder of Women Impacting the Nation and The Project 19 Foundation, nonprofit organizations dedicated to advancing leadership roles for women. For more information or to register for the convention, please visit www.WomeninAutomotive.com.

Contacts: Public Relations - Susan Givens: sgivens@womeninautomotive.com Sponsorship information - Christy Roman: croman@womeninautomotive.com, 407-256-2645. 

Auto dealer-branded, consumer-facing mobile app is recognized for its exceptional value in the business-to-business product category: Driver Connect is increasing appointments, visit frequency and incremental revenue for auto dealership service departments

Jacksonville, FL – May 19, 2015 – DMEautomotive’s groundbreaking mobile app for auto dealerships, Driver Connect, was named a Finalist today in the Business-to-Business Products category in The 2015 American Business Awards, and will ultimately be a Gold, Silver, or Bronze Stevie® Award winner in the program.

The American Business Awards are considered the nation’s preeminent business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. 

Launched in 2012, and designed with the customer to dealer relationship in mind, the award-winning Driver Connect mobile app provides auto dealers with a powerful mobile marketing platform, offering features that engage customers, improve service and drive loyalty, all while helping dealers increase service retention and revenue.

“We are proud that Driver Connect has been honored by the American Business Awards for the second time, this time for its business-to-business focus,” said Mike Walther, president and CEO of DMEautomotive.  “Since we first introduced Driver Connect, the smartphone landscape has expanded rapidly and we have continued to innovate and enhance Driver Connect to meet this evolution, something we could not have done without invaluable feedback from our auto retailer customers. As a result, Driver Connect, and DMEa’s Service Connect for the aftermarket, have become one of the best, and most powerful service retention/customer loyalty-driving tools available to auto dealerships and aftermarket service providers today.”

According to auto retailer data, customers using Driver Connect are 73% more likely to purchase a car and will spend up to 7% more on that car than customers without the app. Additionally, customers using Driver Connect make up to 25% more service appointments, with a service visit frequency that grows 3.7 times faster than customers without an app. DMEautomotive estimates an annual lift of $144,000 in incremental dealership service revenue for every 1,000 app users.

More than 3,300 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of categories, including Startup of the Year, Executive of the Year, Best New Product or Service of the Year, Marketing Campaign of the Year, Live Event of the Year, and Human Resources Department of the Year, among others.

Finalists were chosen by scores of business professionals nationwide during first-round judging in April and May.  Members of several specialized judging committees will determine Stevie Award placements from among the Finalists during final judging, to take place later this month.

“So many fascinating and inspiring stories of success were submitted to the ABAs this year,” said Stevie Awards president and founder Michael Gallagher.  “We congratulate all of our 2015 Finalists on their achievements.”

Driver Connect has won multiple awards, most recently including the 2015 Digital Edge Award from IDG, and the 2015 and 2014 AWA award for mobile apps.

Details about The American Business Awards and the list of Finalists in all categories are available at www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

About DMEautomotive

DMEautomotive (DMEa) is the industry leader in science-based, results-driven automotive marketing, and provides turnkey marketing to the largest and most innovative automotive organizations, from automobile dealerships to many of the largest aftermarket companies in the U.S. DMEa's uniquely panoramic view of the complete automotive sales and service market, combined with its cutting-edge, science-based marketing programs, increases customer yield, conversion and retention.

DMEa does not take marketing performance on faith, and each product and service is measured by a simple, precise scientific approach: Is it true? Prove it. Will it work? Test it. Does it generate results? Show it! Supported by DMEa’s proprietary, cloud-based Red Rocket Technology Platform, the DMEa product suite includes science-based, data driven, multi-channel customer acquisition and retention marketing programs; best-in-class campaign reporting; data management and analytics; auto-focused Customer Interaction Center solutions, and complete on-site mail and email fulfillment services. Headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida, DMEa also has major operations in Jacksonville, Florida.

About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in six programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  Stevie Awards programs receive more than 10,000 nominations from organizations in more than 60 nations each year.  Learn more about the Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com.

Media Relations

Melanie Webber, mWEBB Communications, (424) 603-4340, melanie@mwebbcom.com
Crystal Hartwell, mWEBB Communications, (949) 929-4637, crystal@mwebbcom.com

Urbandale, IA--May 18th--Flick Fusion (www.flickfusion.com) announced today that the Cardinale Automotive Group (member of the Cardinale-Group of Companies), one of the nation's top Internet auto retailers with 17 stores in California and Arizona, has increased sales velocity 36 percent since it switched to Flick Fusion for its video inventory marketing needs. In May 2014, the Cardinale Automotive Group's average initial contact-to-sold timeframe was 17.3 days. The auto group incorporated Flick Fusion videos as a key component in its digital advertising strategy, and today the group's rolling average contact-to-sold is 11.1 days, with a few of its larger metropolitan stores enjoying an average of 5.3 days. The national average contact-to-sold timeframe for auto dealers is 50.3 days.

"Inventory is like produce; it begins to rot the moment it's unloaded," said Erich Gail, Chief Operating Officer of the Cardinale-Group of Companies. "Our digital strategy throughout our automotive group focuses on being where the buyer is at the exact zero-moment-of-truth (ZMOT), when the consumer knows what vehicle he wants, why he wants it and is now looking for "the" place to buy it. The sight, sound and motion that videos provide emphasize the three emotional triggers we use to connect with those in-market ZMOT buyers."

Recently the Cardinale Automotive Group achieved the #4 ranking in WardsAuto e-Dealer Top 100 in North America list. Like a few other top Internet retailers, the group is 100 percent digital. "We do not invest one penny in traditional advertising of any kind," said Gail. "While I wouldn't recommend that for all retailers, a digital-only ZMOT strategy works extremely well for us throughout the markets we serve."

Gail focuses the group's digital strategy exclusively on consumers' ZMOT. "Of the $55 billion dollars invested annually in auto advertising, 93 percent of that is spent within the overcrowded stimulus and consideration phase," said Gail. "The challenge within these phases is they represent higher funnel shoppers who have yet to transition to a buyer. These phases make sense for a manufacturer, but not for a retail dealership. As dealers, we do not need to spray our brands or invest our precious capital across all segments, we only need to be where consumers are when they are buying."

To ensure success with consumers at their ZMOT, Gail has focused the operating and digital retail strategy to reflect five essential components: (1) merchandising (2) pricing (3) video marketing (4) targeted in-market buyer channels, and (5) a humanized social voice (being part of the conversation in social media).

To fulfill their video marketing requirements, Gail switched from another vendor to Flick Fusion Video Marketing one year ago. "We chose the Flick Fusion team based on their performance-fueled commitment, their ability to integrate with our technology, their scalable platform and their performance reporting capabilities," said Gail. "They're fantastic; it's been a wonderfully collaborative relationship."

Flick Fusion Video Marketing provides the industry's only platform that completely automates the video production and distribution process, making it simple and fast for auto dealers to create inventory, email and other types of videos. Salespeople can shoot their own videos or choose from an existing library of stock video footage to create dynamic, custom-branded videos in just a few short minutes. Flick Fusion's automated distribution process ensures videos display on a dealership's VDPs, social platforms including Facebook and YouTube, third-party sites and more.

The Cardinale Automotive Group's three-pronged video marketing strategy includes:

1) Inventory videos on all dealerships' Vehicle Display Pages (VDPs)

2) Inventory videos on all dealerships' Facebook active inventory pages

3) Direct vehicle-specific video links embedded into active targeted and re-targeted digital ads, as well as text and banner advertising

Additionally, the Cardinale-Group of Companies has broadened its market reach with an ongoing, development collaboration between ZMOT Auto (a Cardinale-Group company) and Flick Fusion to provide all videos in English and in conversational Spanish.

The advanced reporting capabilities of Flick Fusion's video platform allows ZMOT Auto to track critical metrics, ensuring they are able to attribute every conversion, every lead source and every appointment. "When it comes to video-specific metrics, we study the frequency of views by an individual user," said Gail. "Say a person watches a video twice in 24 hours; they watch it once at work then later at home that night, which means they may be showing it to a spouse. The next day if that person contacts us via form submission, chat, email or phone, we know that person is a buyer. Done. He's an owner."

The Cardinale Automotive Group has high standards and performance expectations for all associates within every department of every store. For example, sales operating performance of manager-confirmed shown appointments reflects an average closing ratio of 80 percent or greater. "The sight, sound and motion of video creates a compelling pre-ownership experience," said Gail. "When that person shows, we already know they want to buy the car they have selected."

Because of this powerful emotional connection, the Cardinale Automotive Group through ZMOT Auto can attribute a higher gross profit per vehicle on inventory sold to video lead prospects. "We know by the volume and frequency of video views if a piece of inventory is likely to move quickly," said Gail. "We know when a customer arrives for an appointment they are emotionally invested in a specific vehicle or model series, and as a result of our merchandising and cost-to-market strategy we do not find it necessary to discount further. This reality of zero moment retail has provided sustainable growth on our overall transactions."

In one year, Flick Fusion's video marketing platform has helped the Cardinale Automotive Group boost its gross profit per vehicle and contact-to-sold sales velocity by 36 percent. The increased inventory turn has contributed to a greater volume of throughput and profitability for the group's fixed operations, including service, parts and sales, as well as sales operations within new, pre-owned and finance.

"After months, weeks and greater than 13 hours of research and consideration, it all comes down to that zero moment when the consumer asks 'Where am I going to buy?'" said Gail. "Video as an emotional connector accelerates the consumer experience. Video is such a great differentiator for us and has provided tremendous momentum to our digital marketing strategy."

About Flick Fusion

http://www.flickfusion.com

About Cardinale-Group of Companies

http://www.Cardinale-Group.com

ALBANY, N.Y. – May 18th, 2015 – Auto/Mate Dealership Systems (http://www.automate.com) announced today it has received a Platinum award in the 2015 Auto Dealer Monthly Dealers' Choice Awards. This year marks the second time that Auto/Mate has received a top ranking in the publication's annual award program, which recognizes the industry's best product and service providers. Winners of the Dealer's Choice Awards are selected exclusively by dealership personnel, each of whom has to manually enter their partner companies' names. 

"Our number one priority at Auto/Mate is to be the top DMS provider in customer satisfaction, and we have achieved that with a 97.5 percent customer retention rate," said Mike Esposito, President and CEO of Auto/Mate. "Our customers appreciate us because we make an effort to hire people who have worked in dealerships so we know what our customers are experiencing, and we empower our employees to take care of our customers first."

“This year’s awards produced a record number of participants, votes and awards,” said David Gesualdo, publisher of Auto Dealer Monthly and F&I and Showroom. “Each of the winners deserves praise for earning their dealer clients’ praise and loyalty while driving their businesses forward.”

This year’s program featured 29 categories. Winners were ranked based on scores that combined ratings of their product or service, customer support, value, and whether the user would recommend the company to another dealer. The Auto Dealer Monthly Dealer's Choice Awards will be presented to recipients at a special ceremony at the Industry Summit in Las Vegas on Sept. 10, 2015.

Auto/Mate has been honored with several awards in the past year, including:

1) "Top Rated" dealership management system (DMS) vendor award in the 2014 DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Awards

2) Number one on the "Top Workplaces" list in the mid-size business category, as determined by Workplace Dynamics and the Times-Union

3) Mike Esposito received a special leadership award from the Times-Union. Only one leader is chosen in each category, and Esposito scored the highest response to a question asking employees about having confidence in their leader.

4) A "Best Places to Work" award for the fifth year in a row by the Albany Business Review

Auto/Mate's DMS is a full-featured, user-friendly solution that is scalable for any size dealership or dealer group. The system comes with the best customer support in the industry and has an open API for third-party vendor integration.

For more information call Auto/Mate at 877-340-2677.

About Auto/Mate

Auto/Mate Dealership Systems is a leading provider of dealership management system (DMS) software to retail automotive dealerships, typically saving dealers thousands of dollars per month from their current provider. Our Automotive Management Productivity Suite (AMPS) is a user-friendly, feature-rich DMS in use by more than 1,100 auto dealers nationwide. Auto/Mate has received the DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Award in 2012, 2013, and 2014.

Auto/Mate’s employees have more than 940 years of combined experience working in franchised auto dealerships, the foundation of its “Designed By Car People For Car People^TM” slogan. Auto/Mate is committed to winning its customers’ business each and every month with no long-term contracts and free software upgrades. For more information follow us on Twitter @AutoMateDMS and subscribe to our blog at http://blog.automate.com.

ELEAD1ONE named the recipient of the first place Diamond Award winner in CRM category for the fifth consecutive year.​

(Atlanta)– ELEAD1ONE, the industry leader in customer contact management, CRM and dealership software for automotive retailers announced today it has been named the recipient of two awards presented by the publishers of Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine in the 11th annual 2015 Dealers’ Choice Awards.

This is the company’s fifth consecutive win for the highest-ranking Diamond Award in Customer Relationship Management and the second consecutive win for Digital Marketing.

“We are truly humbled to receive these recognitions again this year from such a prestigious organization,” stated Bill Wittenmyer, partner of ELEAD1ONE, a division of Data Software Services, L.L.C. “We are grateful to our clients who continue to show us their support and to the publishers of Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine for giving dealers a voice.  These are extremely competitive spaces, and such recognition solidifies the hard work, vision, and passion ELEAD1ONE maintains for our clients and the automotive industry.”

These awards mark the eighth and ninth awards presented to ELEAD1ONE in 2015.  Other recognitions include:

• Four (4) Highest-rated DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Awards for CRM, ILM, Owner Marketing and Fixed Ops Solutions
• Two (2) Highest-rated Dealer Marketing Magazine’s Technology Leadership Awards for CRM and ILM
• CRM Superstar awarded by PCG’s Automotive Websites Awards

This year’s Dealers’ Choice Awards feature 29 categories and recognizes the most highly regarded vendors, suppliers and finance companies in the retail automotive industry as voted on by dealers and dealership personnel.  To qualify for a first-place “Diamond,” second-place “Platinum” or third-place “Gold” award, a company must be among those that scored above the group average score in each category.

With over 7,000 automotive retail clients, ELEAD1ONE continues to raise the bar in dealership and customer contact technologies, providing the most intelligent and intuitive automotive software available in today’s market. Visit the website to learn more or schedule a demo, or go see them at upcoming industry events.

About ELEAD1ONE
 

Six of the top ten dealer groups have chosen to partner with ELEAD1ONE, the most intelligent and intuitive dealership software available in today’s automotive market. ELEAD1ONE helps dealers achieve unmatched results in increased sales and profit, lead generation, customer communication, sales process, retention and complete lifecycle management across all departments. The company’s automotive-only customer contact management center and CRM are the foundations of their unique dealer-focused suite of products and profit-building strategies. No other company in the industry has the resources or ability of ELEAD1ONE to maintain a 100 percent focus on training, teaching, and support after the sale. For more information, visit our , like us on Facebook, YouTube or follow us on Twitter.

Contact

Melissa Maxey

melissa.maxey@eleadcrm.com

P: 229.469.9903

New “Check, Inspect and Protect” platform helps auto dealers sell used cars faster, and at a higher profit, while giving today's used car shopper more peace of mind

Las Vegas, NV – May 12, 2015 – SureSale, the certified pre-owned marketing program designed to change the way used cars are bought and sold, today launched its upgraded certification platform – “Check, Inspect and Protect” – which targets the 20 plus million used cars not covered by manufacturer CPO programs. The new, easy-to-use platform makes certifying and marketing these used vehicles practically turnkey for auto dealers.

CPO sales are at an all time high, with 2014 marking the fourth consecutive year of growth. However, millions of used vehicles in the market every year are ineligible for manufacturer CPO programs, which typically only cover vehicles less than 5 years old with no more than 70,000 miles. SureSale’s Certification program delivers the same kind of peace of mind to consumers who want to purchase vehicles up to 15 years old and with up to 150,000 miles, while also enabling dealerships to accelerate profit and sales.

The program includes listing syndication across dozens of used car marketplaces, which generate millions of searches per month, resulting in thousands of leads. In addition, dealers have the benefit of third-party trusted branding, compelling point-of-sale materials and comprehensive vehicle history reports.

“Car buyers are willing to pay more – thousands more – for the peace of mind certification delivers,” said Jeffrey Schwartz, Founder and CEO of SureSale. “Our new platform is designed to make it simple and cost-effective for dealers to market, certify and protect older used vehicles that aren’t covered by the limited scope of OEM Certified Pre-Owned programs. And consumers will benefit from a larger pool of used vehicles that they can be sure will not cost them in expensive repairs.”

A recent survey[1] of used vehicle shoppers showed that the three most important considerations when shopping are vehicle condition (81%), accident history (77%) and service history (75%). SureSale’s “Check, Inspect and Protect” CPO program addresses all these common used car buyer concerns.

“SureSale vehicles sell faster and for more money,” said Schwartz. “On average, SureSale vehicles sell in less than 30 days and bring an additional $2K plus in sales premium. According to a recent NIADA report[2], over 80% of independent used car dealers do not offer any certified vehicles on their lots – SureSale offers these dealers a huge opportunity to increase gross profits on the vehicles they sell.”

SureSale Certified Program

SureSale’s CPO program’s proven platform is now enhanced with a state-of-the-art workflow that integrates seamlessly into a dealership’s current sales practices. Getting started is easy: dealers simply sign up and log in online to “Check, Inspect and Protect” their eligible vehicles. Certified vehicles can be posted on their own website and syndicated across SureSale’s used car marketplaces.

Certification includes:

Check: More than 75 title brands are checked with the SureSale CAReport (Comprehensive Auto Report), giving SureSale customers the peace of mind that their vehicle has a clean title.

Inspect: A 125-point safety and mechanical inspection is conducted by the dealership and then presented to SureSale customers.

Protect: All SureSale Certified vehicles come with a 5-Month/5,000-Mile Limited Warranty and include a 5-Day/500-Mile exchange guarantee, providing SureSale Certified buyers with purchase protection and the assurance that their car will be covered for costly repairs.

SureSale also includes a comprehensive point of sale merchandising program for each certified vehicle. Dealers can print out a customized window sticker, CPO Report, and Buyers Guide, and merchandise the vehicle with hang tags and license plate rims and inserts, among other items.

SureSale is available for both dealers and private sellers. The process is quick, easy and cost effective, and includes syndication across multiple used car marketplaces. Dealers can learn more and sign up here (www.suresale.com/dealers). For general information visit www.suresale.com.

About SureSale

SureSale was founded in 2012 to bridge the gap between the number of consumers looking for certified vehicles and the limited supply of CPO vehicles. Today, SureSale is meeting the skyrocketing demand for certified vehicles with an enhanced platform that makes it easy for dealers to turn every qualified ‘As Is’ vehicle into a certified vehicle, all while offering consumers the assurance of its ‘Check, Inspect and Protect’ program. SureSale’s online certification process includes turnkey marketing and syndication, 125-point inspection, and a comprehensive vehicle report. For additional consumer peace of mind, SureSale includes a 5-Month, 5,000-Mile Limited Warranty and a 5-Day/500-Mile exchange guarantee.

Media Contacts:

Melanie Webber, mWEBB Communications, 424.603.4340, melanie@mwebbcom.com

Cassandra Cavanah, mWEBB Communications, 818.397.4630, cassandra@mwebbcom.com

[1] CarStory “How to Convert Used-Car Shoppers to Buyers” Survey, April 2015

[1] NIADA 2014 Used Car Industry Report