As the market for vehicles continues to shift and evolve, we’ve been talking with dealers a lot about how to maintain profitability despite shrinking margins and decreased demand. We’ve heard about many different approaches to sustaining success from many different dealerships, but one common thread has emerged: proactivity.

One of the best ways to ensure your dealership continues to capture business is by anticipating customer needs – not waiting on customers to make the first move. Dealership software platforms are a treasure trove of data. But many dealers aren’t sure how to harness the powerful insights at their fingertips– and ultimately drive sales and retention.

Today’s most successful dealers are proactively diving into their data and taking action based on the insights they uncover. With the help of tools like a CRM, website behavior trackers and software integrations, you can identify, read and act upon these three key signs your customers are ready to buy.  

1. Equity standing
Equity standing can be one of the best, and most straightforward, signs your customer is ready to buy. If a customer has been making payments on the same vehicle for several years and is in positive equity, you may be able to get them into a newer vehicle without increasing their payments.

Your customers may not even realize they are in positive equity, so a smart step is to shoot them an offer to let them know. (You owe it to your customer to let them know. My dad taught me that on day one.) Don’t forget to keep rebates in mind when evaluating equity. Since rebates are always changing, you never know when it might be a customer’s lucky day and $3,000 negative equity turns into $1,000 positive with a rebate.

Many CRMs compile reports of customers in positive equity, and some can even alert you when those customers are coming into the dealership for service. Working with your software provider to make sure these types of reports and alerts are set up is a great first step in making your dealership more proactive.

2. Service activity and history
It’s no secret that fixed ops play a key role in a dealership’s profitability. According to NADA, fixed ops gross profits contribute nearly half of a dealership’s gross profit on average. Yet many dealers are still falling short on capturing service business. Only 30 percent of all service visits take place at a dealership,  according to Cox Automotive’s Maintenance and Repair Study, meaning there’s a huge opportunity for dealerships to build their service revenue stream.

Service activity can be a powerful tool in building that service revenue stream, but it also be a great signal that a customer is ready to buy. Is a customer bringing in an older vehicle for an expensive repair? Establish a process to remind salespeople of inbound service customers, and proactively meet those customers in the service drive with an offer for a new vehicle. Learning to read these service signals will help you make more sales and improve retention in the process.

3. Website Activity
Today's customers spend 60 percent of the car-buying process online, according to Cox Automotive's 2017 Car Buyer Journey study. As customers shop online, they are leaving behind a lot of data that can help you proactive make offers based on their real-time browsing behavior.

Integrate a web behavior tracking tool in your CRM to see when customers in your database visit your website and what they are browsing. A good tool with notify you with CRM alerts when specific customers are browsing your site, so you can follow up right away—and never miss another opportunity. 

One in three Americans would rather go to the DMV, do their taxes or sit in the middle airplane seat than go through the process of buying a car. Perhaps there was a day when dealerships didn’t have to provide a perfect experience to sell a car, but that day has come and passed. Now, 66 percent of car shoppers are much more likely to buy from a dealership with their preferred experience.

In today’s post-peak market, dealerships must adjust to the current business cycle: The Age of the Customer. We’re several years into this cycle, which experts estimate will last around 20 years, and yet many dealerships are still struggling to embrace this new mindset and what it means for their business.

The power has shifted from businesses to customers. Today’s customers are empowered to do their own research and question the businesses they choose to patronize. For dealers, that means customers often know what they want and the price they want to pay before ever stepping foot in your showroom. Nearly 90 percent of car shoppers research car pricing online, and 55 percent only test drive one vehicle, according to Cox Automotive’s Car Buyer Journey Study.

If customers have a poor experience with your dealership, they’ll let their networks know through social media and online reviews, a resource read by 92 percent of consumers. Customers have more power over a business’ reputation than ever before. Does your dealership have the processes in place to accommodate that shift?

Here’s a quick checklist to see if your dealership’s customer experience is up to the expectations of shoppers in the Age of the Customer. 

Are you meeting customers where they are?
Customers today demand to be communicated with on their terms. They expect businesses to be able to communicate with them via text and email, and they expect their communications preferences to be respected. And today’s customers won’t respond to just anything – messages must be relevant and personal.

One feasible way for dealerships to meet this demand is highly targeted automated marketing. Research from PCG showed that dealers who create highly customized campaigns see much better results than those using a mass-marketing, non-tailored approach.

Are your customers’ online and offline experiences connected?
Today's customers spend 60 percent – nearly nine hours – of the car-buying process online. They expect all the work they’ve done online, which often includes filling out paperwork and generating trade-in offers, to be recognized once they arrive at your showroom. Unfortunately, at many dealerships, information submitted by customers gets lost in cyberspace.  

To connect your customers’ online and in-store experiences, you have to ensure that the customer information provided online gets into the hands of the salespeople on the showroom floor. When used correctly, a CRM can play an important role in creating a process that facilitates a great customer experience by housing all customer data in one place.

Are you making the most of your customers’ time?
According to an IHS Automotive study, the amount of time it takes to complete a vehicle purchase is the most common frustration for car buyers, with 41 percent citing it as a frustration. Wasting your customers’ time is one of the best ways to lose them in today’s Age of the Customer.

One of the most common reasons dealers take up more of their customers’ time than necessary is a lack of software integration. When your software platforms don’t speak to each other, you have to ask customers for the same info over and over again, and then enter that info into all your different platforms over and over again. Integration streamlines that process.

When you can answer “yes” to each of these questions, you’ll be on your way to being customer-obsessed and thriving in today’s Age of the Customer.