The customer experience (CX) is the driving force of any successful business. More than ever, providing customers with seamless service and access to information is vital to attracting and retaining valuable consumers. For that reason, franchise and independent dealership websites must reflect this cultural shift and offer consumers a variety of ways to find the information they seek.

Customer Experience is King

In a McKinsey article on automotive retail, Christian Richter, Google’s global automotive director, said, “All the digital touchpoints during the car-buying journey need to be connected. The customer expects it all to work. And when it works, you get their full attention and some money with it.” And according to recent data from Qualtrix, 8 out of 10 people feel customer experience should be improved across products, prices and fees, customer service, and ease of use. Brands risk

losing 9.5% of their revenue on average due to poor customer experience. And more than 50% of customers say they are likely to leave a brand after a bad customer experience.

How Your Dealer Website Experience Helps Customers

You will lose potential and existing customers if your website is clunky, outdated, or hard to navigate. People have many choices, so optimizing your website experience, for both the car buyer and service client, is key to generating new revenue and word-of-mouth recommendations. Here’s what to look for:

Ease of Use

The first – and most important – element of a successful dealer website is that it’s responsive, meaning it works the same on any device. Most consumers initially research purchases from smartphones, so your branding must be consistent across platforms. Ensure it’s easy to search, provide chat options and use eye-catching elements that are visually exciting. You are selling your products and services here, and this is your first chance to make an impression before a client ever steps through your doors.

Offer a Variety of Resources

Giving your customers many ways to learn about your products and automotive services on their own can only benefit you. A rich and compelling content offering will allow potential and current customers to explore and find answers to their questions on their own before they meet with you in person. Giving them the information they are looking for helps establish you as a valuable resource, even if they don’t buy anything this time. You can offer this by creating an extensive knowledge base on your dealership website with testimonials, product videos, and articles on trends or new releases. Customers will check your social media for reviews, so stay on top of those channels. And offering a “Get a Quote”/”Build Your Vehicle” page allows the consumer to envision how the vehicle will work with their lifestyle.

Drill Down on Data & Information

Offering a vibrant car search inventory is another way to elevate the customer experience. Consumers like to do their research, so provide different ways to imagine themselves in one of your vehicles. Here are a few suggestions:

• Create a “Lifestyles” page, sharing options for commuters, families, outdoor enthusiasts, and eco-friendly options.
• Pricing/financing calculators are popular features
• Share stats/trends on your vehicles
• Highlight current offers
• Repeat calls-to-action throughout the pages on your site
• Add contact forms to each page to capture user information

Take Advantage of Your Dealer Insights

Finally, identify the most utilized features customers visit and mine them for data and insights. And don’t fall back on updates. Continue to innovate and improve your site based on what you see customers engaging with and visiting the most.

Developing a rich and engaging dealer website will improve your customers’ experiences and set you apart from your competition. Find out more about how to create a new or optimize your current website today!

Learn More About Solera | DealerSocket’s Best-in-Class Solutions

To avoid an inventory problem, you need a plan of action that covers merchandising, your plan for per-unit profitability, and all the critical stages in an inventory unit’s lifecycle.

Inventory success in 2019 will depend on how you answer the following question: Do you have a policy or plan when it comes to aging inventory. Most dealers will say they have a policy when a unit reaches 60 or 90 days, but a policy isn’t a plan. What’s the difference?

Well, what’s the process when a vehicle reaches 15, 30, 60, or 90 days? What will you do differently to merchandize units? How are you going to price those vehicles? Are you going to place those aging units in different spots on your lot? Bottom line, what are you going to do differently with a unit as it ages through its lifecycle?

The answers to those questions need to be in your written plan.

Virtual Merchandising

You also have to look internally and ask the following: How long does it take to get photos on a car? What about a description? How long do you price a unit competitively? If your inventory management system can’t report on those statuses, you’re operating blind.

We have very successful dealers who can have a vehicle they just took on a trade merchandised on their site within two to three days. And what they’re doing is giving themselves an extra week or two to sell the car. It may not be frontline ready, but it’s available virtually to everybody in the market.

Profit vs. Turn

I want to finish up this piece with one other trend, which I think is critically important. See, one of our competitors in the inventory management space announced a major change in philosophy earlier this year. See, the biggest difference between us and everyone else leading up to that announcement is that we, here at DealerSocket, have always looked at how well a dealer performs on a particular unit. And for those vehicles the dealer does well on from a profitability standpoint, well, there’s no reason to get down in the gutter with every other dealership engaged in a race-to-the-bottom pricing war.

See, DealerSocket has always believed every lot unit deserves a chance to be sold at a profit. We’re glad our competition has finally come around, because a race to the bottom is no way to conduct business.

This content may express opinions and ideas that are not intended to be official statements from DealerSocket, Inc.