Cloud based, or web based software, has quickly became the best way to deliver software to users. All new software products are now cloud based and there are virtually no limitations to web browser based software these days. Being that cloud based software doesn't require buying servers, that got me thinking... is it "green" software?

There are numerous advantages to cloud based software:

1. Better cross platform support - Windows XP, Windows 7, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone, Android... Just need a web browser
2. Painless upgrades - Always updated to the latest version of the software
3. Easy access and deployment - No servers or software to install. Just open your web browser and go.
4. Data is safer - Better security, redundancy and backups at data centers
5. Dealer groups - A centralized system allows better reporting than trying to run reports across many servers

Beyond these advantages did you ever think of cloud based or web based software as being "green"?

If 2,000 dealers buy a server based automotive CRM system they would have to buy 2,000 servers.

If 2,000 dealers buy a cloud based automotive CRM system, the vendor can host all of those dealers on less than 20 servers!

A cloud based system can easily host 100 dealers for every 1 server. That means a lot less servers have to purchased, supported, and backed up. That ultimately leads to lower costs and saves dealers "green". Fewer servers means much less electricity is used and fewer server end up in the trash, which is also a good "green" initiative.

If you buy 1 server for your dealership, you don't have any redundancy if the server fails, which it will do. Vendors who provide cloud based software automatically build redundancy in to their systems. To have redundancy it would take twice as many servers, which would be 4,000 servers, to do what 20 can do.

Vendors who provide web based software also continually upgrade their server hardware so you don't have to worry about buying new servers every few years or the speed of the system. Those of you who have a 10 year old CRM or DMS server that takes forever to run a report know what I am talking about. Vendors will also have servers that are much more powerful than what you would buy for your dealership. So the software will be even faster.

Going "green" usually takes more "green" to do. But for car dealers who are thinking about buying a web based CRM system, it can actually save them real "green". You can save a lot of money by not buying servers. You also don't have to worry about having an IT staff to manage them.

Cloud based software can save you "green" and be good for the environment by using less servers.

Matt Watson
Chief Technology Officer
VinSolutions
@mattwatson81

VinSolutions is excited to be a double finalist for the 2010 Driving Sales Innovation Cup. Our website dashboard and the industry changing VinLens were both selected as finalists. Below is some more information about these great innovations.

Website dashboard
VinSolutions created the industry's first website dashboard that combines website analytics (google analytics type reporting), call tracking stats, chat leads, website leads, and CRM conversion stats for appointments and sales.  Most dealers can't even get all of these stats together, or they spend hours trying to accomplish it manually. From a single dashboard you can now evaluate the performance of your website.

VinLens
VinLens is an industry changing technology that allows dealers to understand the behavior of all the customers on their website. From your CRM you can now see what your customers are doing on your website at all times. Some great examples of how VinLens is a game changer:

• Reactivate lost and bad leads in your CRM when the customer re-engages you by visiting your website again
• Monitor in real time what your customers are doing on your website
• Text message or email sales people when they visit your website
• Review customer activity on your website as part of the sales process to understand their behavior online and tailor your conversations
• Provide dynamic web content on your website based on the customer's sales and service history 
• Indentify original website traffic source for walk-in and phone leads
• Plus much more

We hope you join us at Driving Sales Executive Summit for the Innovation Cup!

 

Dealers send thousands of emails a month and have no way to track if customers are acting on those emails. I recently worked on a project to implement click tracking on the emails and wanted to share some of the results I have found.

Over 70% of the links clicked in emails were links to view more details about a specific vehicle. Links to view photos, videos, vehicle details, incentives, window stickers, etc.

These links drive the customer back to the dealer's website. This makes me believe that dealers who can embed vehicle details and links back to their website in  emails will have higher closing ratios. Dealers need a CRM that allows them to email vehicle details with hyperlinks back to their website for the customer to view more information.

In future posts I will share more information and stats about how customers are interacting. VinSolutions unique CRM and website integration and our new VinLens product is providing some very interesting insight and statistics.

 

Dealers use a variety of software applications as part of their sales process. Using too many software applications requires a lot of duplicate data entry and jumping through different tools. This can create errors and slow down the process.

Here is a scenario of how customer information flows through a typical deal:

• Customers submits a lead on the internet
• Lead transfers to Internet lead management tool which is used to set an appointment
• Customer comes to showroom and is entered manually in the CRM
• Customer is manually entered in to software for trade appraisal
• Customer is also manually entered in to desking software to create a proposal
• Customer is manually entered in to credit app and submitted to banks
• Sales documents must be printed via software or filled out by hand
• Customer is manually entered in DMS to do finance contract

There can be a lot of inefficiencies in this process. Dealers need to leverage technology that combines or integrates as many of these steps as possible to streamline the sales process.

Suggestions for improving the process:

1. Never use more than one CRM system. For example, do not use a separate system for internet and showroom leads.
2. Make sure all leads from all internet and phone lead sources get put in to your CRM electronically so they aren't manually entered
3. Use a trade appraisal tool that is integrated with your CRM. Some CRMs have these functions built in or integrate with vAuto, AAX, Firstlook, etc.
4. Use the desking module built in to your CRM since it is preloaded with all the customer and lead information
5. Transfer from your CRM or desking system directly to DealerTrack or Route One, and/or pull credit reports via your CRM
6. Use your CRM or desking tool to print sales documents like buyers orders, we owes, etc.
7. Transfer the deal electronically from your desking tool directly to your DMS so F&I can finalize the deal

Automotive CRM applications can provide the functionality to complete most of these steps. Review your current processes and check with your CRM provider to see if there are ways to streamline your process.

Matt Watson
Chief Technology Officer
VinSolutions

I ran across this blog post by Dr. Harish Kotadia and felt it was such a good read about Social CRM and wanted to share it. The original post can be found here: http://hkotadia.com/archives/2157

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In one of my earlier post, I defined Social CRM as follows:

Social CRM is the business strategy of engaging customers through Social Media with goal of building trust and brand loyalty. Loyalty is defined as attitude towards a brand that inclines a customer to repurchase it and/or recommend it to others. Social CRM and Social Media are more about building trust and managing loyalty with customers than about managing relationships or transactions, which are focus areas of “traditional” CRM.

I received a lot of great feedback on this definition and want to elaborate further on it to answer some of the questions raised by readers of this blog.

Let’s break-down the definition to its individual components:

1) Social CRM is the business strategy: It is not technology, tools or platform. Fundamentally, Social CRM is a business strategy. It is widely accepted by Social CRM practitioners and SMEs that Social CRM is a business strategy.

2) Engaging Customers through Social Media: Engagement through Social Media is the most important aspect of my definition. Any CRM related activity through existing channels like the telephone, email, snail mail etc.. will continue to be part of “traditional” CRM and will not be replaced by Social CRM (unless the Customer prefers to use Social Media instead of “traditional” channels).

Thus, Social CRM will augment “traditional” CRM, but will not replace it. And for some industries like health care or financial services, emphasis will continue to be more on “traditional” channels and not on Social ones for privacy related issues (who would want to tweet about their bank account or health condition). Traditional CRM channels will offer more private communication as compared to “public” Social CRM channels.

Having said Social CRM will augment traditional CRM and not replace it – let me add that Social CRM will be well integrated into overall CRM platform and systems with a 360 degree view of the Customer with feeds from all major Social channels. Customer will have a choice on what channels to use and organizations will reach out to the Customer based on that choice.

3) with goal of building trust and brand loyalty: Ultimate goal of Customer Engagement through Social Media is to build (a) Trust and (b) Brand Loyalty. I have used the word “Trust” before “Loyalty” for a reason because Social Media has introduced the “trust” dimension to marketing equation.

Before the Social Media age, Trust in marketing relationship was limited to face-to-face interactions (like friendly neighbourhood coffee shop or grocery shop). What Social Media has done is to make it possible for any one to have the same sort of one-to-one relationship irrespective of geography. This kind of one-to-one relationships based on mutual “trust” are not possible through “traditional” CRM channels like phone, mail or emails.

While “traditional” CRM helped manage Customer Relationships on a massive scale, it did not help in building mutual trust between buyers and sellers as it is impossible to build “trust” with thousands of customers over phone or mail. For building Trust, you need to know your partner well and not just be limited to mere “transactions” as was the case with “traditional” CRM. Social Media provides the opportunity to marketers to become “personal”, interact with thousands of customers spread across geography on one-to-one basis so that marketer and the customer get to know each other so well as to trust each other – the essence of a true relationship.

Second most important goal of Social CRM is to build Customer Loyalty – the ultimate goal of any business! Some have interpreted my definition as not being “customer focused” or “customer centric” or being “Social Media Centric”. This is not correct. The very fact that goal of Social CRM in my definition is to build Customer Loyalty implies that it is “Customer Centric” – as you cannot build loyalty without having a customer focus.

Hope this clarifies many questions that were raised regarding my definition of Social CRM. Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

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Written by Dr. Harish Kotadia  The original post can be found here: http://hkotadia.com/archives/2157

Improving internet response times can improve your closing ratios. Manufacturers are starting to put a huge emphasis on improving response times in 2010. Here are some tips on how to improve your internet response times. 1.    Text messages and email alerts - Immediately notify yourself when new leads are received 2.    Manually sending an email or logging a phone call attempt counts as a response. (Auto-responder emails don’t count.) 3.    Respond to leads from your smart phone if your CRM supports it 4.    Lead “buckets” - Don’t assign leads to any particular person but instead put them in a bucket and whichever sales rep gets to it first, gets it! 5.    Use a fully mobile enabled CRM system that allows you to view complete lead details, send emails and log phone calls. 6.    Unresponded lead alerts - Setup your CRM to email a manager if leads aren’t responded to within a certain timeframe. 7.    Alert prompts within your CRM – Receive popup notifications automatically when new leads arrive. 8.    Use a phone calling service that can instantly call the customer when a lead is received. Response times can be <5 minutes! 9.    Netbook – Use a netbook or laptop on to the go to respond to leads 10.    3rd party monitoring services – They can ensure all leads are being responded to on time. (Some even offer 24 hours monitoring.) Another good idea to help keep your staff on their toes is to do mystery shopping! Automotive CRM Software continues to get more and more sophisticated for handling internet leads and mobile CRM solutions can really assist in improving response times. Matt Watson CTO VinSolutions

Originally published in AutoSuccess Magazine Oct. 2009 Over the past few years CRM usage in dealerships has greatly increased and is still a big priority for most dealerships. As internet leads became more and more important, it has become increasingly more important to have CRM solutions that were designed to efficiently handle internet leads. The problem a lot of dealers have is their CRM doesn’t do a very good job of handling internet leads. To remedy this problem, dealers purchase an Internet Lead Management (ILM) solution which is more or less a 2nd CRM solution designed only for internet leads. ILM software, unlike traditional CRM software, is typically web based since it is designed to handle internet leads. Internet Lead Management (ILM) solutions are great for your internet department and have special functionality that makes it easy to handle internet leads. Some of these special functions include: • Distributing and routing leads to your internet sales staff • Sending text messages to alert your staff about the new leads • Allowing responding to leads on mobile devices to improve response times • Send automated emails to customers to confirm their leads were received • Emailing vehicle details, brochures, photos, and videos to customers • Manage follow up processes by specific internet lead sources ILM software solutions can help take care of deficiencies in your CRM software. The problem is your dealership is no longer working together as one team. It is important to have your showroom and internet department working together on the same CRM system. Here are some of the downfalls of having a separate CRM and ILM in your dealership: • ILM only solutions don’t show you the full sales and service history the customer has had with your dealership. • Separate ILM and CRM solutions create “skating” problems between the showroom and internet department. • When an internet customer comes in, you have to additionally log them in to your CRM to desk the deal and do unsold follow up. • Does your internet department do sold and unsold follow up in the CRM, ILM or both? • The ILM has powerful email functions that are not available to your showroom salespeople. Don’t all your salespeople need to email their customers? • Reporting to see what is going on in your dealership becomes more difficult Automotive CRM solutions have evolved over the last few years to better handle internet leads. All good CRM solutions are now web based to better handle these internet functions. It is no longer necessary to have a separate ILM solution. If you have to purchase a separate ILM, then you are really paying more money to make up for problems with your current CRM. You would be much better off purchasing a new CRM that was designed to handle internet leads as well as handle all your CRM needs. If you are stuck in a CRM contract and desperately need a separate ILM to properly run your internet department, then I would definitely recommend doing so. When you pick a new ILM system, pick one that also has full CRM capabilities. Doing so let’s you try out the new vendor and will make the CRM switch a lot smoother when your current CRM contract is up. If you are considering purchasing a new CRM solution, here are some of the advantages to web based CRM systems. These are some of the advantages to web based CRMs: • No expensive servers to purchase or manage in your dealership • Less likely to have contracts, typically a pay-as-you-go model • CRM is available securely from anywhere via a web browser with no software to install • Software is enhanced more often since the vendor can update it in one place • Ideal solution for dealer groups who need reporting and BDC functions across stores • Enhanced email features to allow easily sending vehicle details, brochures, photos, and videos • Mobile access from your Blackberry, iPhone or other smart phones As if having a separate ILM and CRM wasn’t bad enough, some dealers even have a 3rd CRM or BDC solution to handle the follow up of their service department. There are now good CRM solutions available that can handle your showroom, internet and service department together. Tying it all together lets you see a customer’s complete history and value to your dealership from one place. It is important to have one CRM solution to keep track of all aspects of your customers and keep everyone in your dealership connected. Having one CRM with all the data in one database also allows you to do some amazing reporting and marketing campaigns. Matt Watson CTO VinSolutions

Automated emails are very important to the success of your internet sales. For starters, an immediate auto responder is nice because it lets the customer know they received the request. It builds confidence that the dealership will respond. Auto responders also provide opportunity to provide information that they did not receive on the website they submitted the lead from. For example, your auto responder can automatically send pictures and brochures of the car they were interested in, links back to your website to view more info on that vehicle and even similar vehicles. Take this screen shot below as an example. This is from a real internet lead from one of our customers just a few minutes ago. Someone submitted an eBay lead on this Jeep Wrangler. It is Sunday and the dealership is closed, but the system can respond with a whole wealth of information. Now instead of the customer having one reason to contact you, they might have 3 or 4 and have now clicked on all these links and spent some time on your website. Think about how that compares to an auto responder that just says "Hey we're closed, call you tomorrow."

Automated emails are also very important for long term follow up. Sometimes you don't get a customer's phone number or they won't take your phone call. By using your automotive CRM software you can tell they are reading your emails. So it is important to keep sending them information. Now think about 2 weeks later and you sold that Jeep Wrangler. Wouldn't it be nice to automatically email them some similar vehicles to that Jeep? Your inventory continues to change and so will the similar vehicles. You want to keep possible vehicles of interest in front of the customer. Maybe you got some more Jeeps in stock. Matt Watson CTO VinSolutions

 After playing with Windows 7 for the last 48 hours, my first reaction is this is what Vista should have been!  Overall, it isn't that much different than Windows Vista. If you have used Vista before, you will quickly be at home with Windows 7. Most of the changes are very subtle.

I was able to get my hands on the final Windows 7 release early because VinSolutions is a Microsoft Partner, so of course we get all the cool toys early. Windows 7 will be widely available October 22nd, 2009.

Windows 7 was designed to run on the netbooks that are all the rage these days. So it has been tweaked to be faster and use less RAM. It is noticeably snappier on my laptop and it comes out of hibernation much faster. The system requirements from Microsoft only say 1GB of RAM and a 1ghz processor. These are actually the same requirements Vista had, but Windows 7 should run a little faster than Vista did.

If the software you currently use works fine with Vista, you should be OK with upgrading to Windows 7. However, if you have Windows XP now and have never used Vista, you may still have a bumpy road ahead of you with making sure all of your applications will run on Windows 7. Be sure to check with your vendors before you upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7.

The biggest concern with switching to Windows 7 will be the new Internet Explorer 8. Windows 7 comes with Internet Explorer 8 and a lot of web applications that are used by dealerships still don't support Internet Explorer 8 or other browsers. These vendors need to get in gear and upgrade their sites to work with Internet Explorer 8. In a couple months dealerships will have a hard time buying a computer that doesn’t come with Windows 7.

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Matt Watson
VinSolutions (Co-Founder, Chief Technical Officer)
Automotive CRM Software, Inventory Management & Custom Dealer Website solutions provider
Twitter @mattwatson81 @VinSolutions @Automotive_CRM

 

If you want to get better at something, you first have to know how well you're doing, right?  How do you know how well you are doing? You have to be able to quantify it. Once you can quanity how you are doing, you can more effectively manage it.

CRM software is a great tool to monitor and measure the activity going on within your dealership. If you pull a showroom activity report and it says you are closing 90% of your ups, that doesn't mean you are doing a great job. It means your salespeople aren't using the system. Are they following up with the people that didn't buy that day? Could you sell more cars if they were?

If you want to improve how your store is performing, you have to get everyone using the CRM and use it's reporting to measure and track your success. Track your response times, closing ratios, appointment statistics and much more.

How can you manage what you can't measure? The problem is you don't know what you don't know.

Matt Watson
VinSolutions
Chief Technical Officer