At DrivingSales we advocate that dealers operate transparently to cultivate trust with their customers. You cannot get more transparent than have a nationally broadcasted reality TV show in your dealership.

Ride Time in Winnipeg, MB (that’s in Canada for you southerners) was the backdrop for the reality show The Bargain Brothers on Business News Network (BNN). Two brothers Andrew and Doug MacIver are the stars and owners of the dealership with their family making up a large portion of their staff.

Needless to say having the camera running all the time in a family owned dealership makes for some interesting moments. However, the self declared “Bargain Brothers” see their dedication to telling their story through TV and social media as a way to stay in the forefront of their customers’ minds.

“Branding is a point of differentiation for every dealership,” says Andrew MacIver. “It's how you're perceived in the local market and often tells the tale of how you do business. We are always looking for new ways to remain top of mind with buyers in fun and entertaining ways.”

The car business has been in their family for three generations. When two of the family’s franchise stores were closed they opened a used dealership fueled by unique marketing ideas. Their experience with the TV show and social media has given the brothers a unique point of view of what it takes to create customer experience that sets them apart from their competition. An experience they’ll be sharing during the DrivingSales Canadian Dealer Forum in Calgary June 22-23.

Ride Time sees their reality TV show as a way to tell their story, a family business focused on going the extra mile for their customers. That may sound like a common theme, but few companies are willing to put their business in a national spotlight like Doug and Andrew.

 “Those are values that have made us successful. The only way someone could make us look bad is if we were doing bad things. So introducing cameras into our lives, it’s just our life, right? Through our TV commercials, our personality has already been part of our brand, and that helps customers come to us,” says Doug*. 

The Ride Time invites a whole nation into their business and makes them part of the action. Their genuine approach to taking care of family, each other and their customers isn’t just lip service. The cameras show the daily struggles of the car business (and working with your brother, sister, mom and uncle). The cameras also show how telling your unique story can cultivate business through developing trust.

Join Doug and Andrew MacIver during the Canadian Dealer Forum to hear about their experience. They will be sharing how your dealership, even if it doesn’t have a national reality TV show, can build a story that differentiates you from the competition and how you can to share it with the world.

If you'd like to see the MacIver brothers live on stage join us in Calgary. You can learn more and register here - http://canadiandealerforum.drivingsales.com/

*Source: Auto Remarketing Canada http://www.autoremarketing.com/arcanada/%E2%80%98bargain-brothers%E2%80%99-ridetime-tackle-reality-tv

Thought Leadership Summits, Inc. (TLS), today announced the executives speaking at the Automotive Summit Series, which includes the Automotive Customer Centricity Summit on June 16, 2015, and the Automotive Social Media Summit on June 17, 2015 (both held at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey, CA).

Each Summit offers a full-day agenda and an exclusive environment featuring exclusive sponsors and strictly limited vendor involvement. They provide a unique setting focused on learning and networking with true peers. More information on the Summits is available at www.tlsummits.com or 720-287-0145.

Automotive Customer Centricity Summit — June 16, 2015

The Customer Experience as a Competitive Advantage - The proliferation of mobile devices and the demand for true personalization has fundamentally changed the automotive research, shopping, and buying processes.  Consumers are spending more time researching brands, dealers, & vehicles online, and are demanding a seamless, consistent experience as they move from brand to dealer websites, from PCs to mobile devices, and from the outside world to the dealership.  The Summit will focus on how brands and dealers are adapting to the “new normal” of increased volume, higher pressure on profits, and sophisticated consumers who expect a consistent, personalized experience across a diverse set of channels.

Presentation topics will include:

• Acura’s view on the customer experience in the new purchase funnel
• Gartner’s insight on the shift from connected vehicles to connected experiences
• Hyundai of St. Augustine’s ability to attribute clicks to sales
• Jeff Wyler Auto Family’s personalization with privacy
• Larry H. Miller Group’s successful CRM strategy
• Toyota’s utilization of disruptive marketing technologies
• Volkswagen’s collaboration with dealers to create true customer engagement

Keynote Presentation: Toyota Motor Sales

The Disruptive Impact of New Data Technology on Traditional Marketing

Technology has always acted as a disruptive force in the business world.  The advent of “Big Data” and related data technologies has led to a paradigm shift from traditional, broadcast, one size fits all marketing to highly segmented, personalized, one to one marketing.  Ned Curic, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer – Toyota Motor Sales will explain how Toyota’s Customer Engagement Platform and Marketing strategies acknowledge the disruptive impact of data technologies and seek to take advantage of the paradigm shift to personalized marketing.  Ned will discuss the tactics they have executed and will identify if the goal is increased effectiveness, reduced cost, or better customer engagement.  Specifically, Ned will spend a few minutes addressing how the following functions fit into Toyota’s strategy:  data analytics, personalization, customer 360, predictive modeling, customer matching, and lead management.  Ned will conclude with the strategic results achieved.

Automotive Social Media Summit — June 17, 2015

Integrating Social Media Throughout the Enterprise - Social media has become ingrained in our culture and daily lives and its’ power to influence the value of brands is constantly growing.  Social media comprise the majority of resources consumers consult during their several months of “Zero Moment of Truth” research so the importance of online reviews, videos, blogs, tweets, photos, and networking sites simply can’t be overstated.  The Summit will focus on how brands and their dealers are integrating social media into the traditional functional areas of their organizations.  In particular, the Summit will provide insight on how social media are being included in sales, marketing, customer service, and public relations. 

Presentation topics will include:

• American Honda’s use of social media to support marketing events
• Audi of America’s combination of social media & TV to create engagement
• Del Grande Dealer Group’s integration of social media in retail operations
• DrivingSales’ insights on using social media to drive trust, brand, & dealer selection
• Kawasaki’s ability to utilize social media to engage, educate, & excite customers
• LaFontaine Auto’s social media successes & lessons learned

Keynote Presentation: Del Grande Dealer Group

Integrating Social Media in Automotive Retail

Just like the Internet 20 years ago, social media has revolutionized how people interact and has quickly gone from novelty to ubiquitous in society.  In order to fully maximize the opportunities social media creates, these new channels must be integrated into standard operating procedures throughout the enterprise.  Shaun Del Grande, President – Del Grande Dealer Group will explain the Del Grande Dealer Group’s (DGDG) “P3” strategy - implementing a real world approach based on People, Process, and Performance.  Shaun will then delve into the impact social media has had on DGDG, specifically the ability to understand new consumers and communicate with them in the way they are used to in their daily lives.  He’ll discuss how DGDG has integrated social media in their ongoing operations, bringing all functional areas of the dealership together to maximize social media efficiency.

About Thought Leadership Summits

Thought Leadership Summits, Inc. (TLS) develops and executes exclusive, executive Summits, which enable the exchange of ideas, strategies, and tactics among the world’s best companies — helping our constituents maximize the return on their strategic investments. Learn more at www.tlsummits.com.

Summer is over and we’ve officially entered football season which means three things in the DrivingSales’ world:

(1) Our Executive Summit is right around the corner (register now BTW!);

(2) The office fantasy football league is rolling, and;

(3) The competition for our Dealer Satisfaction Awards (DSAs) is kicking into high gear.

The DSAs, for those that aren’t familiar, are the annual awards DrivingSales gives out recognizing the products and services on our Vendor Ratings platform which dealers rated the best of the best throughout the previous calendar year.  It’s a big deal!  We host a breakfast awards ceremony at NADA and all the winners show up to grab their awesome trophy.  It’s fun for us to watch how the winning companies use these prestigious awards.  Many promote this achievement on their website, some include a notation about it in their email signature, and several prominently display the trophy in their lobby and their NADA booth!

Please keep in mind that there are two award types for the DSAs.  The finalists are all considered “Top Rated”, and then from that short list a “Highest Rated” is chosen. The Highest Rated is considered the #1 product or service based on the dealers’ submitted ratings.

So, two things that most of the DrivingSales community can do to help:

If you’re a dealer, log on and rate your vendors’ products and services.  You can do this once every quarter so don’t consider this a “one-and-done” deal.

If you’re a vendor, reach out to your dealer partners and ask them to submit a rating.  This is never an awkward request because dealers “get it”.  They are constantly asking their customers to rate them on DealerRater, Yelp, etc., so this is nothing new to them.

There are less than four months remaining in 2014 and before you know it we’ll be into the holidays. We want every dealer to have a voice in the only awards program that is completely driven by dealers so what are you waiting for?

I came across this paper written by Ron Lamb, President at Reynolds and Reynolds. It's a good read and makes some interesting points.

Download the PDF Report here.

What really caught my eye was the fact that DrivingSales has secured a speaker at our upcoming Executive Summit from the Disney Institute  So, read Ron's paper and join us at DSES this year. It'll make a great "one-two" punch!

And, Check out the DrivingSales Executive Summit agenda

You’ve all probably seen the large ad in the upper right-hand corner of the DrivingSales.com site.  It’s tough to miss!  We have some great advertising partners utilizing this position including Contact At Once!, Dealertrack, DMEautomotive, and VinSolutions.  This ad position has always been an awareness-building / branding tool.  Each ad always received a ton of impressions but the click-thru percentage was quite low.  Let me explain.

When we launched this position it was a rotating unit.  Meaning when the page loaded, ads for the advertisers mentioned above would rotate through about every seven seconds.  So, while you were reading and enjoying our content you may have seen 15 – 20 ads rotating through this position.  The result was that each advertiser received a ton of impressions and everyone was happy.

Fast forward to this past June.  We began using a new ad server and it was not working well with this rotating ad position.  Ads weren’t being served up (randomly) or a blank box would show where there was supposed to be an advertisement.  We had to make a change so decided to serve up the ads in this position on a page-load basis.  In other words when you now go to the site the ads don’t rotate every seven seconds but instead you see one ad until the page reloads.   Initially we were concerned.  How would the advertisers accept this?  Would their results diminish?

The results have been amazingly positive.  Let’s look at one particular advertiser.  Under the old scenario of the rotating ads it was getting, on average, 76,000 impressions/month, but its click-thru rate was around 0.04%.  After we made the change its impressions went down to about 20,000/month but its click-thru rate went up 5x to 0.20%. And, its visibility on the site went from seven seconds at a time to two minutes.

As DS.com continues to grow and page views increase, so will this advertiser’s click-thrus.

Point being, don’t be afraid to try new things with your online ads.  Test, test, and then test some more.  Remain nimble and open to new ideas and you’ll find what works best.

     I have been thinking about buying a new car for some time.  This past Friday I got serious about it and pulled the trigger.  It was a pretty simple research project because I already knew what make and model I wanted.  I’d been on and off of websites for months casually looking around (It’s a “journey” as you know).

     As head of advertising sales at DrivingSales, most of the sites that I used to find a vehicle were companies that advertise with us.  I probably went to more of these sites than an average consumer because I wanted to check them all out.

Here’s my feedback in case anyone cares to listen:

Stock photos – Please don’t do this.  I glossed over any listing that only showed stock photos or no photos for that matter.  And, attention third party sites: Indicate if the photos are “stock”.  Nothing like clicking for more information and finding that there are 16 stock images.  Does the consumer no good.  It’s like going to pick out  a dog and the seller telling you, “Oh, I’ll just give you one.  They’re all the same.”  No they’re not!

In transit – Sites that indicate a vehicle is “in transit” I thought was a nice touch.  This may seem like a no-brainer to many of you, but  to me as a consumer this meant that the dealer was on top of his inventory from a paperwork perspective and even though it wasn’t on the lot, the vehicle info was already there.

No price – Just stop it!

Correct models – Some third party sites have extremely robust search tools while others do not.  When I want to find a Wrangler Unlimited I don’t expect to have to fish through all the Wranglers too.

Search criteria – Once again some sites are better than others, and not only did I know what make and model I wanted I also wanted a manual transmission.  Some sites didn’t even list this as an option in the search criteria.  Once again I had to either wade through way too much inventory to find what I was looking for or simply find a site that offered a better search (Hint: the latter is a lot easier as a consumer).  This might be petty and “no one wants a manual transmission these days” but I did, and certain sites made it more difficult to find what I was looking for while others did not.  Guess which site I used!

Website provider – Once again many of these companies are my clients so I paid special attention to whose platform I was looking at when I went to a dealership’s site.  Interestingly one company in particular was far and away the preferred provider.  And, while I thought their sites were nice, it got a little boring after shopping for a while.  Every dealers’ site looked alike!  I know the manufacturers have something to say about this and there are many other factors at play here, but as a consumer I want to get a feel for the dealership and its personality.  Cookie cutter sites didn’t do that for me.

Chat – Most of the dealership sites I went to offered chat.  I did not use this tool but appreciated the opportunity and can understand why it’s valuable.

Contact Information – Many sites should simply call this tab “800 number” or “Send us an email to a generic in box”.  If a GM, GSM, or others in the dealerships don’t want their contact info listed there’s probably a reason why(!).  As a consumer I expect to know who I’m dealing with, and I mean a real person with a real name.  I’m not going to “bug” you or crank call you.  I want to know the people behind the organization I’m dealing with.  Make it personal!

Dealership Ratings – Yes, I looked at the bottom-line results, but only dug into specific consumer posts once and that was simply out of interest.  I know that a business cannot have a perfect record with every consumer.  It’s impossible and that’s why there are so many choices for everything we buy.  So, a 4.5 or even a 4.2 overall rating had no impact on me.

     In the end I bought a 2013 Wrangler Unlimited from Jim Knox CJDR in Hillsdale, MI (90 miles from my home).  And, because I wanted a manual transmission we ended up ordering it from the factory.  Oh, and they offered to deliver it to my home and pick-up my trade-in.  Service!  That’s why I’ve bought five vehicles from this dealership.  Thanks Autobytel for introducing me to this dealer years ago.

     This experience truly helped me appreciate even more what all my customers/advertisers do for this industry on a daily basis to provide the consumer with the best information and experience.   The car buying experience has been made “fun” again due to the tools these great companies provide.