DealerSocket hits the market with 3 new products within their CRM to take them to the next level at NADA in Las Vegas this week.  I was able to get a sneak peek of the 3 new features that they are rolling out last week that should bring their CRM up towards the top of the market.

The first part of the CRM enhancement is SocketTalk.  SocketTalk is a fully integratable texting feature within the CRM that will store everything in the history of the customer file.  When you click on the button to text a customer from within the CRM, it will open up a window and look like a text string like an iPhone.  You can also have instant messaging between employees that will pop up on the desktop.  The other nice feature is that it will integrate with your DMS so that when a customer’s vehicle is done in service, it will also alert them when the RO is closed.  Everything is opt in to cover any state and local laws to make sure that they dealership is compliant in texting laws.

The second enhancement that DealerSocket is releasing is Revenue Radar.  Revenue Radar is an equity alert program that will alert the sales rep when there is equity in a vehicle and can trade the customer out of their vehicle early.  This is a great program where you can do searches within the database for customers with specific vehicles in their ownership that you can trade for and source for your used car department.  The filtering within the program was very user friendly and all in drop down menus.  DealerSocket is tied in with the manufacturer programs so you will have the most relevant information to get to the customer when you call and try to schedule that appointment.  DealerSocket also has call centers that you can take advantage of and have them make the calls for you.

The last element of the enhancements is the Mobile CRM.  It is accessible on iPhone and Android platforms.  It was a very clean app as they were going through all of the paces of the product.  It is tied in with the main CRM so the Sales Managers can know what is going on out on the lot.  They can do a quick entry with basic customer info and they can fill out the rest as needed when they get to the computer.  The other nice feature is currently on the Android platform and coming soon to iPhone is the scanner for the customer’s trade in within the customer information screen.  One concern we all have as managers is sales people ‘faking’ their calls.  When they are clicking within the app and making the calls from their cell phones, it is a verified call and we as managers know that the call was actually made. 

If you are looking at adding a CRM or changing CRM companies, swing by the DealerSocket booth at NADA and they would love to show you the enhancements in person.  They are at booth 3180 and will be happy to go over all of their platform enhancements with you.   

DealerSocket hits the market with 3 new products within their CRM to take them to the next level at NADA in Las Vegas this week.  I was able to get a sneak peek of the 3 new features that they are rolling out last week that should bring their CRM up towards the top of the market.

The first part of the CRM enhancement is SocketTalk.  SocketTalk is a fully integratable texting feature within the CRM that will store everything in the history of the customer file.  When you click on the button to text a customer from within the CRM, it will open up a window and look like a text string like an iPhone.  You can also have instant messaging between employees that will pop up on the desktop.  The other nice feature is that it will integrate with your DMS so that when a customer’s vehicle is done in service, it will also alert them when the RO is closed.  Everything is opt in to cover any state and local laws to make sure that they dealership is compliant in texting laws.

The second enhancement that DealerSocket is releasing is Revenue Radar.  Revenue Radar is an equity alert program that will alert the sales rep when there is equity in a vehicle and can trade the customer out of their vehicle early.  This is a great program where you can do searches within the database for customers with specific vehicles in their ownership that you can trade for and source for your used car department.  The filtering within the program was very user friendly and all in drop down menus.  DealerSocket is tied in with the manufacturer programs so you will have the most relevant information to get to the customer when you call and try to schedule that appointment.  DealerSocket also has call centers that you can take advantage of and have them make the calls for you.

The last element of the enhancements is the Mobile CRM.  It is accessible on iPhone and Android platforms.  It was a very clean app as they were going through all of the paces of the product.  It is tied in with the main CRM so the Sales Managers can know what is going on out on the lot.  They can do a quick entry with basic customer info and they can fill out the rest as needed when they get to the computer.  The other nice feature is currently on the Android platform and coming soon to iPhone is the scanner for the customer’s trade in within the customer information screen.  One concern we all have as managers is sales people ‘faking’ their calls.  When they are clicking within the app and making the calls from their cell phones, it is a verified call and we as managers know that the call was actually made. 

If you are looking at adding a CRM or changing CRM companies, swing by the DealerSocket booth at NADA and they would love to show you the enhancements in person.  They are at booth 3180 and will be happy to go over all of their platform enhancements with you.   

Over the last few years, Cobalt has been trying to win over their dealers and build confidence in them as a website provider.  In the last 12-18 months, they have really switched gears and wanted to focus on SEO.  With the help of Google Guru, Brian Pasch, they made some changes in how they can help dealers with their websites.  The biggest change in the last 18 months is the url’s on specific vehicles are now including year, make, model, and city with Brian’s suggestions which will optimize the search within Google, Bing, and Yahoo. 

Fast forward to July 21^st.  Cobalt just released PowerSEO.  There are only a handful of dealers on the program right now as it has just been rolled out.  PowerSEO is targeted to generate more organic traffic to the dealer’s website, which we all want.  Each dealer will be assigned an SEO specialist which will monitor and optimize the dealer’s website and pages with the dealer’s marketing goals.  They will do it all for you. 

1. They will set up all of the business listing pages on Google Places, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local.  They will also synchronize all of the information on online directories and yellow page websites. 
2. Monitor and analyze their website continuously for keyword content.
3. Perform regular optimization to improve the visibility of their website to search engines.
4. Do quarterly review of PowerSEO performance with the dealer.

Dealers will be able to access performance reports in the Dealer Command Center on a daily basis to see how they are performing in the search engines and see what the keywords that are working the best are.

Cobalt did do a pilot with 5 different GM dealers prior to the launch of the product.  They saw significant improvement in their organic traffic.  Traffic was up about 10% just due to the optimization tweaks that Cobalt did with the SEO Specialist.  The pages that they focused on were the New Vehicle Search, Used Vehicle Search, Finance, Hours & directions, and Parts and Service.  Here is a shot of what was improved:

 There There are obvious benefits to this program.  It will drive more organic traffic to your website, which has a higher closing rate than your third party leads.  Make you more visible on all of the search engines.  Increase your Google, Bing, and Yahoo search results pushing your competitors down the page.  The one thing that I liked is that it takes a lot of work off the dealer’s hands and they can focus on what we do best, and that is sell some cars. 

If you are a Cobalt dealer or have an ADP Digital Marketing package, you can contact Ellen Jones or your representative from Cobalt and they can get you set up with this program and take you to the next level. 

Over the last few years, Cobalt has been trying to win over their dealers and build confidence in them as a website provider.  In the last 12-18 months, they have really switched gears and wanted to focus on SEO.  With the help of Google Guru, Brian Pasch, they made some changes in how they can help dealers with their websites.  The biggest change in the last 18 months is the url’s on specific vehicles are now including year, make, model, and city with Brian’s suggestions which will optimize the search within Google, Bing, and Yahoo. 

Fast forward to July 21^st.  Cobalt just released PowerSEO.  There are only a handful of dealers on the program right now as it has just been rolled out.  PowerSEO is targeted to generate more organic traffic to the dealer’s website, which we all want.  Each dealer will be assigned an SEO specialist which will monitor and optimize the dealer’s website and pages with the dealer’s marketing goals.  They will do it all for you. 

1. They will set up all of the business listing pages on Google Places, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local.  They will also synchronize all of the information on online directories and yellow page websites. 
2. Monitor and analyze their website continuously for keyword content.
3. Perform regular optimization to improve the visibility of their website to search engines.
4. Do quarterly review of PowerSEO performance with the dealer.

Dealers will be able to access performance reports in the Dealer Command Center on a daily basis to see how they are performing in the search engines and see what the keywords that are working the best are.

Cobalt did do a pilot with 5 different GM dealers prior to the launch of the product.  They saw significant improvement in their organic traffic.  Traffic was up about 10% just due to the optimization tweaks that Cobalt did with the SEO Specialist.  The pages that they focused on were the New Vehicle Search, Used Vehicle Search, Finance, Hours & directions, and Parts and Service.  Here is a shot of what was improved:

 There There are obvious benefits to this program.  It will drive more organic traffic to your website, which has a higher closing rate than your third party leads.  Make you more visible on all of the search engines.  Increase your Google, Bing, and Yahoo search results pushing your competitors down the page.  The one thing that I liked is that it takes a lot of work off the dealer’s hands and they can focus on what we do best, and that is sell some cars. 

If you are a Cobalt dealer or have an ADP Digital Marketing package, you can contact Ellen Jones or your representative from Cobalt and they can get you set up with this program and take you to the next level. 

So many internet managers get so overwhelmed with sales end of the business, we forget about fixed operations. I think a lot of managers forget about that since it generally takes care of most of the expenses of the dealership and is a profit center and takes care of itself and we forget to put it under the microscope at times.  Fixed ops are the life and blood of the dealership and sometimes we have to be reminded of that.  How much business are we missing or turning away?

The phone is our first line of communication with the customer and IS our first impression with a call to service.  Yes, we have some walk in traffic like sales, but for the most part, people call in for a service appointment or to get a general question answered. We have to be sharp on the phone, if not; we may not ever see that customer in our service drive or even on the sales lot.  If we stumble through our answers to questions, we may look like we don't know what we are doing and we may never see that customer.

In my daily activities, I have always listened to phone calls to check on conversions from our website, but I never really listened all the way through on them.  I recently started doing this at the request of my General Manager. I started noticing short call times that were for service under and that were a concern. I got to thinking that it would have to be kind of hard to get all of the customer information and schedule the appointment under 2 minutes.  Then I really started listening to the calls.

So this will bring a question to the table. Are your Service Advisors clerks or salesmen?  In the last week, I have listened to a few calls where a customer would call in and ask what a diagnostic would be for a check engine light or how much a service was. We would give them the information and then the customer would say o.k., thanks and would hang up with the customer before even asking for an appointment or any customer information. Did those customers call back and make an appointment? I don't know, but it brought things to the surface where we have to change things on the service drive while taking phone calls.

I did decide to call a few dealerships for service and see for myself if other dealerships had the same issue in their service drive. My questions were the same and that I had a check engine light on and how much was the diagnostic cost?  I called 8 different dealerships, different makes, and of the 8 dealerships, I was asked for the appointment 3 times.  Not good.

A service call is no different than a sales call calling in on a specific vehicle. We have to engage with the customer and try to set the appointment.  Service advisors have to be on their toes.  So what can we do to make our service departments stand out?

1.  When a customer asks what a diagnostic cost is or what service is recommended and what the cost is, we have to give them the information they are looking for, but then put our selling shoes on and say "is there a time that you would like to get that scheduled?" instead of giving them the answer and ending the call.

2.  Keep the tone in your voice upbeat. I know there is a huge call volume to the service departments, but we have to try to stay excited on the phone. I have always said smile before you dial with sales guys, so smile before you pick up too.

3.  Don't be negative. If a customer wants to get in and there is no room for an appointment, offer solutions and keep the tone up.  Don't sound like Eeyore. Offer up letting the customer bring the car in and try to work it in if that is an option.

4.  Offer alternatives.  If for some reason you are booked with appointments, offer something like bringing it in and working it in and offer the shuttle to take them somewhere if need be.

If we stand out on the phones, just like sales, you will conquer the market in the service world.

So many internet managers get so overwhelmed with sales end of the business, we forget about fixed operations. I think a lot of managers forget about that since it generally takes care of most of the expenses of the dealership and is a profit center and takes care of itself and we forget to put it under the microscope at times.  Fixed ops are the life and blood of the dealership and sometimes we have to be reminded of that.  How much business are we missing or turning away?

The phone is our first line of communication with the customer and IS our first impression with a call to service.  Yes, we have some walk in traffic like sales, but for the most part, people call in for a service appointment or to get a general question answered. We have to be sharp on the phone, if not; we may not ever see that customer in our service drive or even on the sales lot.  If we stumble through our answers to questions, we may look like we don't know what we are doing and we may never see that customer.

In my daily activities, I have always listened to phone calls to check on conversions from our website, but I never really listened all the way through on them.  I recently started doing this at the request of my General Manager. I started noticing short call times that were for service under and that were a concern. I got to thinking that it would have to be kind of hard to get all of the customer information and schedule the appointment under 2 minutes.  Then I really started listening to the calls.

So this will bring a question to the table. Are your Service Advisors clerks or salesmen?  In the last week, I have listened to a few calls where a customer would call in and ask what a diagnostic would be for a check engine light or how much a service was. We would give them the information and then the customer would say o.k., thanks and would hang up with the customer before even asking for an appointment or any customer information. Did those customers call back and make an appointment? I don't know, but it brought things to the surface where we have to change things on the service drive while taking phone calls.

I did decide to call a few dealerships for service and see for myself if other dealerships had the same issue in their service drive. My questions were the same and that I had a check engine light on and how much was the diagnostic cost?  I called 8 different dealerships, different makes, and of the 8 dealerships, I was asked for the appointment 3 times.  Not good.

A service call is no different than a sales call calling in on a specific vehicle. We have to engage with the customer and try to set the appointment.  Service advisors have to be on their toes.  So what can we do to make our service departments stand out?

1.  When a customer asks what a diagnostic cost is or what service is recommended and what the cost is, we have to give them the information they are looking for, but then put our selling shoes on and say "is there a time that you would like to get that scheduled?" instead of giving them the answer and ending the call.

2.  Keep the tone in your voice upbeat. I know there is a huge call volume to the service departments, but we have to try to stay excited on the phone. I have always said smile before you dial with sales guys, so smile before you pick up too.

3.  Don't be negative. If a customer wants to get in and there is no room for an appointment, offer solutions and keep the tone up.  Don't sound like Eeyore. Offer up letting the customer bring the car in and try to work it in if that is an option.

4.  Offer alternatives.  If for some reason you are booked with appointments, offer something like bringing it in and working it in and offer the shuttle to take them somewhere if need be.

If we stand out on the phones, just like sales, you will conquer the market in the service world.

We as Internet Managers seem to focus so much on the sales end of the operation of the dealership website.  I don't know if it is part of our pay plans, but we should be looking at it from a 30,000 foot view for the dealership.  How can we as Internet Managers grow the dealership as a whole and not just on sales?  I know when I am going through conversion rates for our website, more than 60% of the unique visitors are there for fixed ops.  So what are we doing for those customers?  Here are some thought starters for your main dealership website.

1. Have service specials or a link on your home page to engage the customer.  Call to action is the key.
2. Have a coupon available for your customer online.
3. Have a parts special or coupon.
4. Have your online scheduling form easy to find.
5. Make sure your process is in line to be able to handle those online appointment requests as more and more people are starting to make their appointements online.

Now to think outside the box a little.  Are you generating fixed operations sales by having more websites?  A lot of dealers have micro-sites for sales, but do you have one for fixed ops?  I took the advise of a well known person in the industry and grabbed a url with our city and oil change in it.  It comes up number one in a google search when you search our city and 'oil change.'  You can build a professional looking website using Wordpress and run with it.  The only cost you have is the cost of the url and time to build the site (took me about 3 hours after the tweaking).  If you have a body shop, try it.  If you have a strong parts department, try it.  The options are endless. 

What are you doing to help fixed operations on the internet?  Do you have some micro-sites that are helping them?  Would love to hear your ideas.

We as Internet Managers seem to focus so much on the sales end of the operation of the dealership website.  I don't know if it is part of our pay plans, but we should be looking at it from a 30,000 foot view for the dealership.  How can we as Internet Managers grow the dealership as a whole and not just on sales?  I know when I am going through conversion rates for our website, more than 60% of the unique visitors are there for fixed ops.  So what are we doing for those customers?  Here are some thought starters for your main dealership website.

1. Have service specials or a link on your home page to engage the customer.  Call to action is the key.
2. Have a coupon available for your customer online.
3. Have a parts special or coupon.
4. Have your online scheduling form easy to find.
5. Make sure your process is in line to be able to handle those online appointment requests as more and more people are starting to make their appointements online.

Now to think outside the box a little.  Are you generating fixed operations sales by having more websites?  A lot of dealers have micro-sites for sales, but do you have one for fixed ops?  I took the advise of a well known person in the industry and grabbed a url with our city and oil change in it.  It comes up number one in a google search when you search our city and 'oil change.'  You can build a professional looking website using Wordpress and run with it.  The only cost you have is the cost of the url and time to build the site (took me about 3 hours after the tweaking).  If you have a body shop, try it.  If you have a strong parts department, try it.  The options are endless. 

What are you doing to help fixed operations on the internet?  Do you have some micro-sites that are helping them?  Would love to hear your ideas.

Thinking about last week and digesting everything that was presented at Digital Dealer is exhausting. I looked at a ton of products, and was a great week overall making connections on a vendor and dealership level.  There were a lot of really good products there and caught not only my eye, but a lot of dealer's eyes in the sea of vendors in the exposition hall, but any solution is only how great you use that product. 

Thinking on all of the sessions that I attended, they all had a similar underlying theme. The bottom line theme comes down to processes. There's a process for social media, a process for online marketing, a process for first responses and follow up, and a process for reputation management.  Everything has a process.  If your processes aren't there and not being executed, you won't see the success that you were promised by the vendor and you will fail.  But it doesn't end there. Have them in writing so you can watch the flow of things over time and make sure that all of the tasks are being completed according to plan.  No matter how great the product is, even if it is the best thing since sliced bread, it may be horrible with your dealership because of your process that is in place or lack there of.

Every dealer has different processes, but you have to find the sweet spot and find the processes that works for you. It will take some trial and error time, but in the long run, it will all be worth it. You have to come up with a good Internet process, good follow up process for unsold showroom traffic, unsold I-leads, unreachable customers that have submitted for info over the Internet. Not one process will work for every dealership. It may have the same concept or be similar, but they will be different in every store.

The process has to be unique to the customer to make you stand out from others. It will make the experience for the consumer great if you have the right processes in place.  I heard in the last week that it's not the best price that matters, it is the best experience that will get you the business. It all comes down to how you handle the Internet lead or incoming phone call.  It's all your process.  People will travel over 30 miles when the process is flawless and be executed correctly. 

If you don't have a process in a certain area, get one.  Collaborate with managers within the dealership that are involved in that area of focus and talk about it. Let that process work for 30-60 days and reevaluate it and make sure things are happening correctly and is being executed correctly. If the process that was decided on isn't working as planned, steer the ship back onto course and make changes on the fly as needed.  Once you have all of the processes in place, you will have the success you are looking for. 

What products did you see that can take your dealership to the next level and have a clean process with it?

Thinking about last week and digesting everything that was presented at Digital Dealer is exhausting. I looked at a ton of products, and was a great week overall making connections on a vendor and dealership level.  There were a lot of really good products there and caught not only my eye, but a lot of dealer's eyes in the sea of vendors in the exposition hall, but any solution is only how great you use that product. 

Thinking on all of the sessions that I attended, they all had a similar underlying theme. The bottom line theme comes down to processes. There's a process for social media, a process for online marketing, a process for first responses and follow up, and a process for reputation management.  Everything has a process.  If your processes aren't there and not being executed, you won't see the success that you were promised by the vendor and you will fail.  But it doesn't end there. Have them in writing so you can watch the flow of things over time and make sure that all of the tasks are being completed according to plan.  No matter how great the product is, even if it is the best thing since sliced bread, it may be horrible with your dealership because of your process that is in place or lack there of.

Every dealer has different processes, but you have to find the sweet spot and find the processes that works for you. It will take some trial and error time, but in the long run, it will all be worth it. You have to come up with a good Internet process, good follow up process for unsold showroom traffic, unsold I-leads, unreachable customers that have submitted for info over the Internet. Not one process will work for every dealership. It may have the same concept or be similar, but they will be different in every store.

The process has to be unique to the customer to make you stand out from others. It will make the experience for the consumer great if you have the right processes in place.  I heard in the last week that it's not the best price that matters, it is the best experience that will get you the business. It all comes down to how you handle the Internet lead or incoming phone call.  It's all your process.  People will travel over 30 miles when the process is flawless and be executed correctly. 

If you don't have a process in a certain area, get one.  Collaborate with managers within the dealership that are involved in that area of focus and talk about it. Let that process work for 30-60 days and reevaluate it and make sure things are happening correctly and is being executed correctly. If the process that was decided on isn't working as planned, steer the ship back onto course and make changes on the fly as needed.  Once you have all of the processes in place, you will have the success you are looking for. 

What products did you see that can take your dealership to the next level and have a clean process with it?