SCOTTSDALE, AZ, March 29, 2018 -- Fidelis PPM announced today its sister company Vero has partnered with financial services provider Allied Solutions to provide a new inventory merchandising and vehicle service contract program designed to drive profits and retention for non-franchise used-car operators.

Together, Vero and Allied Solutions have launched Dealership Advantage Program. The vehicle merchandising and protection program helps dealers present fresher, more appealing inventory and deliver a better customer experience – and, make more money.

The program features:

• A comprehensive package of Simoniz-brand vehicle protection and appearance services for all inventory, at no charge.
• Includes GlassCoat, Simoniz’s ceramic paint protection, also, at no charge
• Vehicle service contract (VSC) options from a range of industry-leading underwriters
• A VSC purchase incentive upgrading the ceramic paint protection to a seven-year warranty

The Dealership Advantage Program is designed for independent dealers who desire maximum vehicle VSC retail profits, improved customer perception, and more satisfied customers.

“Market pressure on used car operators is considerable today, while competition for quality inventory is brisk, but dealers utilizing our Dealership Advantage Program help set apart their dealerships and vehicles as uniquely different and attractive to their customers,” says Vero CEO Joe Annoreno.

Program details include:

1. An inventory refresh suite - Simoniz-brand deodorizer, sanitizer, and antimicrobial products for vehicle interiors, paint and fabric protection, and Simoniz’s GlassCoat permanent ceramic barrier for vehicle exteriors.
2. Coverage-rich VSC options from a range of leading underwriters
3. A purchase incentive, a free paint coverage warranty upgrade with VSC purchase

“Now independent dealers can enjoy significant market advantages to separate their business and inventory from the competition,” says Mark Ladd, Vice President, Automotive Services Group, Allied Solutions. “We believe this Dealer Advantage Program offers benefits that independent dealers will value while it enhances their competitiveness through a unique protection upgrade to trigger high-grade service contract purchases.”

About Fidelis PPM

Fidelis PPM, a CU Direct company, turns prepaid maintenance into a brand-building, revenue-generating retention machine. Developed by dealers, Fidelis PPM knows the importance of substantiating ROI from its products. Powered by Driv Customer Retention Software, Fidelis PPM provides an easy-to-use interface for at-a-glance tracking of dealers’ ROI on their PPM program. For more information, visit www.getfidelis.com or email Williams at ryan@getfidelis.com

Dealers using Rapid Recon workflow software are recovering hundreds of thousands of dollars a month by being being faster and more efficient moving inventory through reconditioning to the sales line. Rapid Recon was recently named a winner of Dealer Marketing Magazine's Acceleration Awards.

Rapid Recon's benchmarks and best practices help fixed ops directors, general managers, used car managers, and service managers fine-tune their reconditioning processes to achieve faster inventory cycle times, which increases inventory turn and vehicle gross, lowers holding costs, and optimizes service facility utilization. The system is user-friendly, and employee training is quick and easy. www.rapidrecon.com

By Ryan Williams, president, Fidelis PPM

Customer loyalty does not necessarily translate into repeat business for your auto dealership. What drives measurable business gains – repeatable business gains -- is customer retention.

A new study reported by Wards Dealer Business notes that 45% of respondents who defined themselves as loyal to an automotive service center go elsewhere for that service.  While loyalty has value, what benefits the dealership is more customers (and the same customers) visiting the service department more frequently.

Customers who develop a habit of servicing their vehicle at your store are 86 times more likely to purchase their next vehicle from you.

As one pundit noted, “A loyalty program can be a great way to bring more engagement with your customers. But it’s not a silver bullet for customer retention.”

Being clear about these distinctions and using the right ones at the right time can have help convert the growing CPO customer base into long-term service and repurchase customers of your dealership.

With CPO vehicle sales an increasing opportunity for new-car dealers, operators should plan to retain that new business beyond the immediate sale.

One very effective way to retain CPO buyers’ service business is to connect them to the dealership through their continued use of prepaid maintenance plans (PPM) provided or sold by the dealership.

A survey by DMEautomotive, part of AutoPoint and Solera Holdings since 2015, noted three of five customers who receive prepaid or complimentary maintenance plans from dealerships “are likely to continue servicing their cars at the dealership after their plans expire.” Retention is only 22-40% range without plan use. 

The study further noted that 86% of customers who kept returning to their dealership for routine maintenance services were 86% more likely to repurchase from that same dealer the next time.

PPMs’ Appeal to CPO Buyers

A recent CBT Automotive Network broadcast noted the following about CPO buyers that make PPMs attractive to them:

1. They are risk-avoidance buyers who want peace of mind about future vehicle maintenance needs.  They have grown up watching OEMs give PPMs away with the purchase of new cars and come to expect it, just like the base warranty.
2. They are cash flow-strapped consumers whom Bankrate.com notes cannot meet even a $500 emergency expenditure.
3. They have increasingly busy lifestyles and have little tolerance for inconveniences like vehicle maintenance -- prepaid plans help smooth the bumps
4. They are deal shoppers. Retailers report that 85% of consumers look for coupons before visiting. Discount-priced PPM packages convey value to these buyers.

Dealer-branded plan advantage

Every dealer hopes every customer will buy from them again when ready for a new or another vehicle. Car know the power of incentives to bring customers into their dealerships. These are not only cash and finance incentives, but programs like PPMs.

Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Maserati, BMW, and Audi among many luxury brands and many domestics engage customers using PPM incentives to connect them to their brands.

Dealers appreciate these OEM-based PPM plans, but also recognize their weakness: they brand the OEM, and don’t require use at the selling dealership.

Dealers like their OEMs, but they love their own brand, which is why many opt for instead (or provide in addition to) a dealer-branded PPM.

Most of these discount-priced service packages include an oil and filter change, and often other service commodities such as tire rotations, key replacement services, or are bundled with other products such as road hazard insurance.

True retention marketing should create long-term retention that drives full retail customer-pay upsell repair order dollars.

Never assume your store’s retention is as good as it can be. A dealer-branded PPM programs will increase retention and customer-pay service dollars at most any dealership. Choose an automated plan that administers, monitors and manages program details for you – and provide the dealership web-based reporting and usage savings details for plan users.

On a national basis, prepaid maintenance programs like this average an 85% first-year retention rate, with retention at 65% through year three. As most of these plans encourage customers use them three to five times a year, they get into the buying habit at your dealership quickly. Plus, on average plan use nets a $70 per visit RO upsell.

Ryan Williams is president of Fidelis PPM and DRIV Technologies. Reach him at Ryan@getfidelis.com or visit www.getfidelis.com

By Brooke Fernandez

Radical dealership technology should automatically engage and satisfy customers. It should increase business through traditional and new channels – all along the customer’s purchase journey. It must generate income and repeat business 24/7 without requiring hands-on staff time.

Vehicle service protection is one F&I product line now being marketed and sold via innovative all-digital technology. A self-serve customer engagement platform enables your dealership to market and sell to buyers of high mileage vehicles at any point along their customer journey without F&I having to lift a finger.

Consider these five reasons why technology like this will revolutionize how dealers sell service contracts and re-capture lost VSC sales opportunities:

• No start-up fees.
• Gives dealers a new way to make money without having to rewrite the loan.
• Customers can purchase online by logging onto your dealership-branded VSC site to complete the only end-to-end buying experience of its kind.
• Sales are seamless. Dealers earn commission dollars without lifting a finger.
• The platform automatically mines the dealer’s DMS to identify lost opportunities and remarkets those lost leads to recapture lost revenue for the dealer.

Self-serve online F&I technology like this brings advanced sales throughput to a dealership while expanding its market reach and penetrating new market demographics. It promises to give new and used car dealers a new way to offer protection services to a wider group of customers.

This sophisticated yet hands-off portal resides in the Cloud and the F&I desktop. Customers selecting coverage for their higher mileage vehicles may finance the purchase through a vehicle installment loan or finance it directly through funding sources integrated into this platform. Either way, dealers earn commission on every sale.

A new wave

This portal is the latest example of how technology continues to revolutionize vehicle and F&I sales. From emerging virtual reality engagement devices to shopper behavior analysis, digital innovation promotes, markets, and sells vehicles and ancillary products seamlessly. In cases like dealer-branded self-serve portals, timelessly and tirelessly.

The portal would also expand a dealership’s reach beyond traditional channels and broaden the demographics it can now seamlessly service. Dealers using this technology will see an increase in their VSC sales – and a built-in VSC remarketing engine brings more revenue potential to dealers using it.

VSC closing rates average 35-40%. After separating out the potential lease and cash customers who don’t buy service contracts, most dealers are leaving considerable VSC revenue on the table. Revenue that most dealers rarely pursue after the sale.

Using self-serve digital VSC sales and remarketing technology, dealers can:

• Expand VSC sales into new markets and buyer demographics
• Re-target lost VSC and vehicle sales opportunities; VSC remarketing can typically close 15% of retargeted opportunities. At the average dealer profit on a VCS, the upside is significant.
• Engage customers where they are, at the time convenient to them. No irritating phone calls or direct mail. Instead, providing a menu of plan benefits and prices to mix and match to fit their risk profile and budget.

Dealers can experience this radical new VSC sales engine April 11-13, at the Tampa (Fla.) Convention Center, booth 729 at Digital Dealer 22, the leading technology-based conference for automotive dealership profitability tools.

Attended by 90% of the nation’s leading dealer groups, Digital Dealer Conferences set the pace among auto dealers, GMs, and their marketing and technology staffs to learn how to be leaner, faster, more transparent, and more productive.

This new technology forever changes VSC sales outcomes:

• Provides a powerful tool for remarketing to customers who declined to purchase a VSC when buying their vehicle.
• Helps monetize leads that either did not convert the first time or converted as a vehicle sale but not a service contract.
• Leverages the power of peer review, by providing web-based customer experience reviews from TrustPilot, so consumers trust the site, its content, and VSC providers represented.

ForeverCar is the vehicle service contract industry’s only technology portal providing engaging and intuitive decisioning for consumers, whether interacting with the tool in a dealership’s finance office or online. It is the only portal of its kind that markets VSC sales to a dealer’s customer database to help dealers monetize those original investments.

About the author:

Brooke Fernandez, VP of Business Development at ForeverCar, is a seasoned sales and marketing executive who brings a range of B2B enterprise experience in the technology arena — and now tackling the inefficiencies of the extended warranty market. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and a master’s degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Brooke is integral in ForeverCar’s mission to transform the extended warranty space using technology, transparency and big data to modernize the industry.

ATLANTA, GA, December 19, 2016 – CompetitorPro today announced the auto retail industry’s first competitive intelligence solution, providing automobile dealers with actionable, in-depth performance metrics on their top competitors. 

“CompetitorPro has figured out how to bridge the gap in business intelligence, that missing piece that now enables dealers to benchmark their business against their top competitors,” said Dinos Constantine, COO at Holler-Classic Automotive Group, Orlando. 

CompetitorPro sources over 1.4 billion data points collected daily, including multiple redundant sources of both vehicle and dealer data. All data sources are publicly available, and they do not pull any data from dealership management systems (DMS). Using proprietary machine learning and natural language processing algorithms, CompetitorPro gives dealers actionable insights in an easy to read dashboard, to help them outmaneuver their competition. 

“We’re on top of business intelligence applications here at the Del Grande Dealer Group, but the industry has never had this kind of day-to-day insight about their key competitors,” said Jeremy Beaver, COO of the Silicon Valley-based group. Like Constantine, he has been testing CompetitorPro for several months. 

CompetitorPro will provide NADA ‘17 attendees a free analysis of how they compare against their top local competitor. Visit Booth 5607 during January 26-29 at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Visit www.CompetitorPro for a demo. 

CompetitorPro’s intuitive dashboard user interface delivers side-by-side operating metrics comparing a dealer’s performance to their top competitors, as determined by the dealer, in these categories:

• Sales Data: For both new and used vehicles, month-to-date totals, top volume models, current and historic monthly sales, average inventory by month, days in stock, total sales, average MSRP and price to market, and average price change per VIN.
• Inventory Data: Days to sale and inventory turn, vehicle aging, pricing, repricing frequency, price-to-market data and days to sell.
• Website Analytics: Including monthly site visits versus competition, site engagement statistics, organic and paid keyword engagement data, cost per click, bounce rates, traffic sources, other websites your consumer is cross shopping, and the competitors’ top referring sites.
• Advertising Analysis and Spend: To identify competitors’ media choices and those advertising sources’ performance data. 

“Until now, dealers have been unable to instantly view this level of competitive insight, and have been challenged with benchmarking the performance of their stores against their main competition. CompetitorPro allows visibility into your competitor’s strategies, ultimately allowing you to outsmart the competition,” said CompetitorPro CEO Steve Greenfield. 

The U.S. automotive landscape is very competitive: 2,500 dealerships have more than 10 same-brand competitors within a 20-mile radius. Except for very rural operators, most dealerships have multiple local competitors with whom they compete aggressively, whether same-brand stores or other make retailers. 

“In the used car space, dealers have other tools to help them price vehicles and identify the best models for their market. But without CompetitorPro I wouldn’t be able to find used car data about the dealership up the street,” said Emanuel Jones II, General Manager for Legacy Automotive, Atlanta. 

Visit NADA, booth 5607 to get a free competitive analysis of how your store compares to your key competitor’s performance metrics. Visit www.CompetitorPro now for a demo. For more information, contact Steve Greenfield at (470) 223-0227.

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Olathe, KS, November 15, 2016 – LotPop, the virtual dealership management team for franchised new car and independent used car dealerships, announced today LotScore powered by LotPop, a weekly report of a dealers’ top inventory, market and pricing indicators to help drive more used car sales at higher margins. 

LotScore will challenge dealers to question how they traditionally look at inventory management. 

“Dealers using inventory management systems have access to so much data the information confuses decision making. Instead, LotScore distills that data and, along with analyzing third-party party website data, presents managers with 23 essential and actionable inventory performance metrics,” said Jasen Rice, LotPop founder and CEO.

LotScore represents more than a decade of research isolating key inventory performance metrics that actually point to inventory, pricing and market trends. This is the insight a GM, GSM or used car manager needs at their fingertips to isolate opportunities or trouble before things go off track,” Rice said.

LotScore scores a dealer’s inventory in four key areas weekly and scores their progress toward goals. This service focuses on scoring: 

• Inventory Status
• Inventory Marketing
• Inventory Stocking
• Inventory ROI 

LotScore is available as part of LotPop’s virtual inventory management service for physical and online inventory management success. It is available to dealers using LotPop’s full services, which include all-encompassing professional inventory oversight, recommendations and management of inventory aging and turn, and online listings and merchandising best practices. 

LotScore is also available separately, for dealers who manage their own inventory but would benefit from having the used car inventory trends metrics provided by LotScore powered by LotPop. 

For more information, contact Jasen Rice at jrice@lotpop.com or call 1-844-568-7674 or 314-568-2754 or visit www.lotpop.com and to obtain a free Inventory Evaluation from LotPop.

At the Used Car Week conference next month in Las Vegas, Wheel’s Automotive Dealer Supplies, Inc. will announce its line of CPO-specific visual marketing ideas for automobile dealers.

Wheel’s CPO-specific merchandising tools are designed and printed on demand specifically for OEM and third-party certified vehicle programs. Wheel’s is the expert in certified pre-owned merchandising and is partnered with 17 OEMs’ CPO programs.

The company’s CPO-centric merchandising solutions deliver crisp, OEM-like presentations of CPO inventory, whether on the lot, in the showroom or online that gives this unique inventory classification the desired new-car/high-value perception dealers want to convey to their markets.

“To be successful in this evolving CPO market, dealers are encouraged to adopt new tactics on how they merchandise and market today’s certified pre-owned inventory,” says Richard Ashworth, president of Wheel’s, North America’s most renowned experts in innovative marketing products for automotive retailers.

Ashworth and the Wheel’s team will discuss CPO merchandising, marketing strategies and product solutions at Used Car Week, Nov. 14-18 at Booth #210, at Las Vegas’ Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa.

A reason that updated and specifically designed CPO-related signage and merchandising tactics carry more weight in CPO today is that CPO selling dynamics have changed so much, says Ed French of AutoProfit Automotive Consulting.

“It used to be any-old CPO sign on a car was enough to get eyeballs on it, but not today. CPO now has to stand on its own, with its unique identity and category between used and new cars, and must be marked and merchandised accordingly,” says the former Buick dealer and current member of the board of directors at TruWorth Auto, a used car superstore in Indianapolis, Indiana.  

Wheel’s CPO-defined merchandising products visually resemble OEM new-car signage, banners, point-of-sales showroom displays, lot flags and more. By duplicating and extending this crisp new-car signage look to CPO inventory, dealers help customers connect with CPOs’ unique quality and value.

“CPO inventory is not used cars,” Ashworth notes, “so dealers who use the right visual cues, attention-getters and marketing products create a crucial and vital distinction in buyers’ minds. Active CPO merchandising is much more than lipstick.” 

Several OEMs require their dealers use branded CPO-differentiated signage, point-of-sale displays, banners and windshield stickers. Their contracts with Wheels enable dealers of these OEMs to order CPO merchandising materials directly.

“Given the unique status that CPO vehicles fall under today – thanks to a great extent to OEM advertising – signage and point-of-sale materials for these vehicles need to be more polished and restrained,” says Ashworth. “This is the image our unique line of CPO-specific merchandising products conveys.”

To view Wheel’s line of distinctive CPO-focused showroom and lot merchandising and marketing products, visit Wheel’s at Used Car Week, Nov. 14-18, Booth #210, at Las Vegas’ Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa. For more information, contact Renee Perri, Vice President of Corporate Division at 1-800-465-8831, Ext. 105 or www.wheelsauto.com

Wheel’s Automotive Dealer Supplies Inc. announced today its revolutionary Flagmaster 360, a new display design that holds flags and banners open in all weather conditions. Wheel’s is North America’s most renowned experts in innovative marketing products for automotive retailers. 

Flagmaster 360 rotates 360-degrees on square or round poles, without the need for shock cords. More durable than Wheel’s original and highly popular Flagmaster, Flagmaster 360 will not scratch poles. It is available to fit all Wheel’s 3.5-by-7-foot and 3.5-by-10-foot flags. Click to see Flagmaster 360 in action. 

With Flagmaster 360, flag-type merchandising is now always crisply seen and readable by consumers, whatever the weather – blustery or still days, which can otherwise blur this important branding and marketing. Flagmaster 360 has been tested to 74 mph winds with no damage resulting to the device or pole. Easily installed, it comes with a one-year warranty. 

To order Wheel’s proprietary Flagmaster 360 for more visible inventory merchandising whatever the weather, call Renee at 1-800-465-8831, Ext. 105. For more innovative and cost-saving lot merchandising and dealership supplies, visit wheelsauto.com.

NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK, NY – June 21, 2016: First Wheel’s Automotive Dealer Supplies Inc. released its new reusable dry-erase type hang tags to save dealers money while using these tags as powerful merchandising tools. 

Now comes from Wheels new Magic Cling car window information holders for adding a crisp, like-new merchandising appeal that shouts, ‘Look here!” as shoppers browse the lot. 

Presenting with a pre-printed customized section for dealership branding and marketing, these cling holders accept dealer-printed window stickers and then press and hold everything firmly and tightly to the window glass, creating a better visual perception for your used cars. 

Wheel’s magic-cling window sticker holders can be custom ordered in any size or shape. The minimum order is 25. These magic-cling holders leave no residue when removed from car windows. They can be used again repeatedly. Custom imprint area is 5 by 11-inch. 

Dealers may also be interested in Wheel’s new reusable dry erase-type hang tags designed to save dealers money by replacing wasteful paper tags.  With Wheel’s exclusive dry-erase hang tags dealers simply wipe clean any prior message and write new details using dry erase or wet erasable markers. 

A dealer selling 1,000 new and used vehicles a year will enjoy an ROI of $600 in the second year of tag use, replacing disposable paper tags. 

To order Wheel’s proprietary dry erase reusable hang tags that save money to merchandise inventory, call Renee at 1-800-465-8831, Ext. 105. For more innovative and cost-saving lot merchandising and dealership supplies, visit wheelsauto.com

NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK, NY – May 17, 2016: Clever new reusable dry erase-type hang tags exclusively from Wheel’s Automotive Dealer Supplies, Inc. help dealers merchandise inventory and save them money by replacing wasteful paper tags.   

Dealers will reuse these durable hard plastic tags with built-in mirror hanger repeatedly. Innovative and ecofriendly, these unique dry erase hang tags exclusively from Wheel’s eliminate the costly need to waste paper tags having old data or misprints.

With Wheel’s exclusive dry-erase hang tags you simply wipe clean any prior message and write new details using dry erase or wet erasable markers.  

A dealer selling 1,000 new and used vehicles a year will enjoy an ROI of $600 in the second year of tag use, replacing disposable paper tags. 

“Erasable, reusable hang tags is just the kind of money-saving inventory merchandising idea dealers have come to expect from Wheel’s Automotive Dealer Supplies,” said Richard Ashworth, president. Wheel’s is North America’s most renowned experts in innovative marketing products for automotive retailers.

• This unique, one-of-a-kind dry erase, reusable hang tag features a highly visible area dealership branding, For Sale notices, or other dealer-customized copy.
• The area for writing vehicle details is bright, substantial, and clearly visible even through tint.
• Tags are available in multiple colors. Dimensions can be customized to any size and scale.  Copy is easily customized to highlight the topic on which the dealer wants the shopper to focus.
• There is no minimum tag order.

“We are always listening to dealers and looking for practical new ways to help dealers sell cars and save money,” Ashworth said. “These new dry erase useable hang tags will not curl at edges or fade easily, so they always look new and fresh to shoppers.”

To order Wheel’s proprietary dry erase reusable hang tags that save money to merchandise inventory, call Renee at 1-800-465-8831, Ext. 105. For more innovative and cost-saving lot merchandising and dealership supplies, visit wheelsauto.com.