• Hands on learning opportunities
• Best practice round tables
• Break-out sessions by discipline: Sales, Marketing, Service, CSI
• Learn from the experts
• Fun activities for the whole family or the individual
• Great price on one of the best hotels in Southern California
• Walk away with ideas that can be put to use immediately to sell and service more cars

Sunnyvale, Calif – April 14, 2010– ResponseLogix, Inc., the leading provider of automotive digital response management software for internet leads, today announced that its software solution suite has been certified through American Honda Motors Co. Inc.’s lead manager certification program. Honda and Acura dealerships can now deliver a complete, relevant, personalized quote response within 10 minutes of internet lead receipt regardless of lead source.

“Now we can greatly improve our Honda dealership’s internet response time and offer our customers a much better experience,” said Jack Ryan, operations director for Sloan Automotive Group, who uses the ResponseLogix solution suite at three of his dealerships. “As a result of implementing ResponseLogix at our other franchises, we experienced higher closing percentages and increased our gross profits in both our new and pre-owned departments.”

Having been certified, Honda and Acura dealers using ResponseLogix are now able to execute multi-vehicle price quotes within 10 minutes for their Honda/Acura OEM leads.

“We’re delighted that Honda and Acura dealers can now fully utilize our solution to engage their customers early in the car buying process and more effectively propel them toward purchase,” said Tom Mohr, CEO of ResponseLogix.  “And if the customer doesn’t buy right away, we can now continue to nurture the prospect with   best practice email marketing follow-up so as to bring a stale lead back to life.”

“Our entire process can be streamlined now that Honda has certified ResponseLogix,” said Kenneth Gray, general manager at Bobby Rahal Honda.  “Last weekend our dealership email system went down and we couldn’t respond to our leads from Honda.  If our email system goes down again we are confident that ResponseLogix will instantaneously execute multi-vehicle price quotes back to all of our customers.” 

ResponseLogix started in a car dealership.  By observing the internet car buying sales process from both the dealer and the customer side, ResponseLogix created its powerful patent-pending solution suite, tailored to the needs of the fast-paced, multi-tasking dealer internet selling environment.

About ResponseLogix, Inc.

ResponseLogix is a pioneer in the emerging category of Digital Response Management (DRM), leading the industry with a marketing solution suite that enables dealers to maximize sales from internet leads.  ResponseLogix helps dealers solve the top three challenges facing their internet sales departments: the speed and quality of the initial response to internet leads, the impact and consistency of ongoing follow-up, and the effectiveness of the internet team’s live communication with the customer.  No other solution provides dealers with a proven, robust marketing solution that delivers such significant increases in the conversion of internet leads to sales. 

ResponseLogix delivers software as a service (SaaS) technology to auto dealers that engages the customer early in the car buying process and then propels them toward purchase. SmartQuote® delivers a relevant quote response within 10 minutes of internet lead receipt 95% of the time.  SmartFollow® automatically follows-up and reactivates leads if the customer doesn’t buy right away.  SmartFacts® delivers powerful analytics to help optimize the performance of Internet sales departments.  ResponseLogix products are available in 40 US markets for Toyota, Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Honda, Lexus, Audi, Acura, Nissan, Infiniti, Hyundai and Kia dealers across the US.  Additional OEM’s will be supported soon.  Additional information is available at www.responselogix.com .

AutoUSA Auto Dealers Dominate Ward’s 2010 e-Dealer 100

Fort Lauderdale, Florida (April 14, 2010) –AutoUSA (www.autousadealers.com), the industry’s leading provider of the highest quality Internet leads to auto dealers nationwide, today announced that 76% of  auto dealers on Ward’s 2010 e-Dealer 100 list purchase Internet leads from AutoUSA.  The Ward’s e-dealer 100 list is an annual ranking of the industry’s top 100 automotive retailers by total unit Internet sales. 

“AutoUSA is proud to be associated with these top dealers.  They understand the importance of the Internet and are using third party providers like AutoUSA to grow sales in a difficult environment,” said Phil DuPree, president of AutoUSA. 

AutoUSA was originally acquired in 2000 by AutoNation as a strategic investment to ensure the AutoNation stores would have access to the best online automotive websites. This same exposure works for the thousands of non-AutoNation dealers with which AutoUSA is contracted.  In addition, the ongoing relationship with AutoNation enables AutoUSA to use AutoNation’s sales data for detailed analysis to ensure that leads it sells close at the highest rate possible. AutoUSA has continued to focus on identifying reputable automotive websites and developing the technology to automatically collect and redistribute customer inquiries to all dealers across the US.  This business has grown to thousands of automotive retail franchises nationwide, as automotive dealers have experienced the effectiveness of working with customer requests from the Internet.

“We’re extremely pleased that our dealer clients consider us one of their key lead sources and a marketing partner that brings value to their organization. The fact that they are continuing to demonstrate their ability to excel during tough times is very rewarding,” said DuPree. 

About AutoUSA (www.AutoUSA.com)

AutoUSA, Inc., is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and a subsidiary of AutoNation, Inc. (NYSE: AN), the largest retail automotive company in the United States. AutoUSA is an independent third-party provider of new and used leads to thousands of dealerships. The company has built its success on a combination of advanced web-based technology and a network that includes the country’s most well respected online automotive resources, including Edmunds.com, Kelley Blue Book, MSN Autos, Yahoo! Autos, America Online, NADA Analytical Services Group, AutoVantage.com, AutoNation.com and AutoUSA.com. The vast majority of Ward’s Top 100 eDealers use AutoUSA. More information is available online at http://www.AutoUSA.com

For additional information contact:

Sara Callahan

Phone: 727-288-2159                                                            

Carter-West Public Relations                                                scallahan@carterwestpr.com                                                                                                           

Phil DuPree

President

AutoUSA

Phone: 954-769-6659

dupreep@autonation.com

New Auto Dealer Preventative Maintenance Program “UltraCare” Increases Customer Loyalty and Service Retention

San Ramon, CA –April 12, 2010– Performance Loyalty Group, Inc., has partnered with  MediaTrac, LLC, a technology based marketing company that provides customized frequency marketing, owner loyalty and retention programs, to release  UltraCare.  Web based technology that allows auto dealerships to create, manage and market their own branded in house pre-paid maintenance program.  With the current year over year decrease in new vehicle sales, service volumes are predicted to fall by approximately 20 percent over the next five years.  Dealers who wish to minimize the impending future loss of service business must act now to establish an offset to the lower vehicle sales. The UltraCare program provides that offset with immediate liquid assets as it has no third party administrators, no sharing of plan revenue or forfeiture, no service claim submissions and is fully integrated into the dealership’s DMS.

The difference between UltraCare and other maintenance programs is that all of the dealer’s revenue stays in the dealership with the dealer realizing 100-percent of program forfeiture and plan sales dollars.

 “Dealers have to address the huge drop in car sales and what that will mean to service business 4-5 years down the road,” commented Michael Gorun, Managing Partner at MediaTrac.   “We listened to dealer’s objections about the typically archaic processes attached to the old prepaid legacy programs, their frustrations with such things as coupon books, shared forfeiture, loss of control of program revenue, non-captive service, delayed claims submission and we invested in new technology and processes that eliminates every one of these old headaches”.

With the combination of UltraCare’s complete program automation and MediaTrac’s superior integrated owner retention elements, Performance Loyalty Group predicts that a dealership should immediately see 35-45 percent program sales penetration and a 60-70 percent service retention rate.

Current industry statistics indicate that only 18 to 20-percent of customers return to the dealership for service, UltraCare could effectively triple the likelihood of the customer continually return for service.

UltraCare is also compatible with a dealers pre-owned competitive make inventory and is very effective as service lane sales product. 

For additional information about UltraCare contact Jeff Shenk at: 925-415-1300 or visit: www.media-trac.com.

About MediaTrac, LLC:

Headquartered in San Ramon, California, MediaTrac, LLC is a marketing technology company providing customized frequency marketing, customer loyalty, retention and media tracking programs. The company is the largest provider of custom automotive loyalty retention programs in North America. For more information visit www.media-trac.com

Media Contacts:

Jeff Shenk
MediaTrac, LLC.
Voice: 925-415-1300
jeff@media-trac.com
www.media-trac.com

Sara Callahan
Carter West Public Relations
www.carterwestpr.com
727-288-2159 (office)
949-742-0477 (cell)
scallahan@carterwestpr.com

Report compares the car buying experiences of Women over 40 to under 40

Overview
According to Women-Drivers.com comparing women over- and under-40 (mean age: 48 and 27 respectively), the consumer rating company found that the experience of purchasing a vehicle was less satisfactory for women under 40 than for women over 40. The top line data suggests that women over 40 are more confident, relaxed and expressed when buying a car than their younger counterpart.

Anne Fleming, President of Women-Drivers.com, shared that her company collects extensive research on what works and what doesn’t at the dealership, in both retaining customers and securing first-time buyers.  She says “Women visit an average of three dealerships during the process of looking for and purchasing a car. She buys from only one. Our data provides insights and trends regarding the purchase experience at car dealerships”. 

It’s a valuable lesson for all, and goes back to the basics of human interaction.  What the report concludes is that regardless of age, ethnicity or marital status, women want to be treated with respect, spoken to truthfully, and to feel included in the process.  More importantly, women want to feel confident about their ability to make good decisions, in a process that may or may not be familiar to them. This report reflects the Women Satisfaction Index® scores, or WSI® as well as other data found in the reviews of women’s experiences.  

On Women-Drivers.com, individual dealerships are reviewed by women. The Women Satisfaction Index or WSI® scores range from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).  Dealerships with a maintained score above 3.80 are recognized as Certified Women-Drivers Friendly Dealers, assisting women in connecting easily with dealers that already have a great reputation with these powerful buyers. The data in this report is derived from over 2,800 reviews.  See chart below for details. 

Personal Experience Purchasing at a Dealership
Women over 40 reported being less overwhelmed and apprehensive about the car buying experience than women under 40; in fact the older age bracket reported being excited, confident and relaxed about their approach visiting the dealership.

The top reasons for purchasing at dealerships for women over 40 are ‘best price and deal, dealership’s reputation and best trade-in’. The top reasons for women under 40 are ‘best deal, dealership’s reputation and best financing’. While both age groups are aligned in their first two purchasing indicators, they differ in the third. The reason ‘best trade-In’ is a higher indicator with women over 40 is because they are interested in the maximum value of the vehicle in which they want to trade. On the other hand, the third indicator for women under 40 is best financing.  For women under 40  financing is important because this is usually their first car purchase, and  more likely their first new car purchase.

Interestingly, the top reasons given for not purchasing a car from a dealership include: pressure from the salesperson, lack of a specific model or color, and the price or deal offered (in some cases, separate from the trade-in value).   

Most women in the survey felt satisfied with the overall dealership experience (89.4% > 40 v. 87.6% < 40), with the initial greeting and felt respected (93.2% v. 85.4%), with the salesperson’s ability to listen and answer questions (93% v. 86.8%) and to the salesperson’s knowledge of the vehicle’s features and operations (89.4 % v. 85%). 

In both age categories, women who purchased a vehicle, reportedly perceived the salesperson as being “knowledgeable, trustworthy, and understanding” and “likeable and respectful”.  However, the scores tend to drop a bit when looking at women’s satisfaction with the pricing and negotiation process (86.4% v. 82.8%). 

Almost half of the women over 40 went to the dealership by themselves, almost eight percentage points more than women under 40. Of those that brought someone with them to the dealership, both age groups were consistent in the person accompanying them was a man (78.2% v. 81%). Again the higher age group perceived that they were treated ‘equally’, or the same as a man would have  been treated under the same buying circumstances  (82.2% v. 76.1%). With both buying groups, approximately 8 out of 10 said they received follow up communication from the salesperson or dealership.

Conclusion
The report reflects the very real imperative of dealers and manufacturers to familiarize themselves with the individual needs and desires of women buyers.  A quarter of the women in this survey indicated they plan to buy another car within one to two years. Therefore, it behooves dealers to become aware of factors that contribute to a successful purchasing experience.

PCG Digital Marketing CEO Brian Pasch announced today three new digital marketing services specifically designed for savvy automotive retailers that seek to leverage social media, consumer review portals, search marketing and paid advertising strategies to expand their brand(s) online.

Media Contacts: