The COVID-19 Pandemic has accentuated the need for automation across most service and manufacturing industries and the automotive industry is no different. There are countless tedious repetitive, task laden manual processes within automotive sales and service that greatly benefit from automation and its best application is to make business processes easier for humans involved, essentially making human employees more efficient. Here are 3 benefits of an automated workflow.

Eliminating Obstacles

There can be a lot of factors that can get in the way of profitability in the many manual workflows in play at a dealership. Your best salesperson may not be the best email composer, so using a template believe it or not is a form of automation. It can free that salesperson from the tedium of writing an engaging email to a customer so they can focus on what they ARE good at. This is an example of how automation can eliminate sales obstacles. Naturally if you reduce the number of tedious tasks one person is responsible for you in turn reduce opportunities for human error.

If your Used Car Manager is the only person able to evaluate trade vehicles they might as well have their personal mail delivered to the dealership because that is where they live now. They are locked into the building constantly shuffling papers and scrutinizing the used car market. Or, there are 2 days a week where the dealership is unable to evaluate trades which would severely limit their ability to make a sale. An automated workflow eliminates the margin of error associated with shuffling paper docs around or relying on one person for approval or finalization.

Boosting Productivity

The main reason people automate a process is to make it more efficient. A CRM allows one person to manage hundreds of contacts from one hub. Imagine if a salesperson had to look up (on paper) and manually enter an email address every time they want to email a customer as opposed to simply being able to click on the customer's name and find the words: “Email Customer”. The number of people they could communicate with would be drastically lower and so would their sales.

Customer and User Experience

Wasted time is high on consumers’ list of things they do not like about purchasing a vehicle. When a vehicle shopper uses a tool online to evaluate their trade, the language is disclaimed so much that one has to wonder what the point of it even is. If the value they are given is “an estimate”, “subject to change’ or “at the discretion of Blah, Blah and Blah Motors” why not just bring the vehicle to Blah, Blah and Blah Motors to begin with? These types of evaluation systems slow down the sale as the dealer has to back track and argue against a phantom value. How can you blame someone for not taking the word of a questionnaire style analog form over what they see with their own eyes when the vehicle is in front of them? Vehicle shoppers do exactly that. A discrepancy in a perceived value and an actual value falls on the dealer, not the application. 

Automation provides solutions for eliminating obstacles that arise from the tedium of analog process management. It boosts productivity by freeing people from repetitive tasks allowing them to exercise their natural and professional expertise and can make a sale timelier which in turn improves customer satisfaction with a brand. Offering a consistent and seamless digital to in person experience is automation’s best application in the new normal. 

The latest and greatest digital shift since COVID-19 hit has reshaped the retail landscape faster than could have been imagined. It has brought new opportunities and challenges alike. Major retailers are closing physical storefronts and investing heavily in digital platforms with very positive results. While the latest digital transformation may be sudden, the idea of creating or using digital technology to meet changing consumer needs is not a new concept.

In the 60s, technology had almost no impact on businesses or consumers. It was slowly creeping its way into people's homes. The Company was King as business had to rely on customer service and satisfaction to win customers. That lack of impact affected consumers as well because shopping was sharply limited by geography.

The 70s saw businesses using technology to focus on profitability and the ones that did began to crush the ones who did not despite the quality of customer experience. Consumers were weary of businesses using technology to draw more money from their pockets.

In the 80s technology became paramount in consumers’ homes and was changing behavior. Communication tech was booming, and people were using it to share experiences, make purchase and shopping decisions and were able to shop from a greater distance.

In the 90s, technology became more realized in retail. Consumers were no longer shackled to local businesses that were not prioritizing their needs. They also were able to shop based on price. Businesses would use the internet to make themselves more accessible but were still solely utilizing technology to grow revenue and compete.

In the early 2000s, the customer was finally crowned King. Social media allowed consumers to articulate and share experience with a wider audience. More and more people were making purchasing decisions based on a company’s reputation over price and businesses finally understood that all the most expensive digital technology and strategy would be wasted without putting a priority on customer experience and satisfaction.

We certainly thought we lived in a fully digital world 10 years ago, but this pandemic has added an entirely new dimension to the connection between customer experience and technology. Automation and digital technology have always served the need to rise to new customer expectations and challenges in retail. A big new challenge is online shoppers changing expectations. COVID-19 has drawn more customers into digital retail who may have never done so if not forced. They bring with them the same expectations they had when they were having an interpersonal experience in store, like asking a salesperson a question that pops into their head while they have a vehicle in front of them.

When consumers had the ability to see how dozens of dealers were pricing the same model vehicle, dealers had to rethink their pricing strategy in order to win business. Basic consumer facing trade evaluation tools and algorithms have existed since the mid 90s and have changed very little since. A 30-year-old digital strategy just won’t cut it at a time where there are more online customers to engage with higher expectations and greater needs. Take this for an example: the old way of trade evaluation always leads to a customer physically putting a vehicle in front of an appraiser in order to get an exact offer proving that AI alone cannot inspect vehicles with accurate results. By utilizing new technologies, however, both consumers and dealers are able to narrow down values without the customer being present. And this is just one example of how the combination of technology and humans can interact with each other in order to facilitate more accurate and efficient transactions.

Don’t be afraid of new technologies. Changes are inevitable so it is better to embrace them now and be ahead of the game then take a ‘wait and see’ attitude. By making your business more efficient, you not only save money and manpower but create a more satisfying experience for your customer.

From sales to finance, and IT to marketing, workflow automation can liberate almost any departments from the burden of tedious manual processes. A workflow automation process begins with a clear objective and ends at process evaluation. I have already discussed the handful of ways in which dealers are already using automation so let’s take a look at how to choose a solution for a process that would clearly benefit from some degree of automation. Here’s a checklist to identify the must-haves in a workflow automation solution.

Speed

Leaders choose to automate a process to make it easier and more efficient. Speed is an obvious factor. If the solution isn't helping you get to a certain point faster, it is not worth the money.

Simplicity (for employees)

Automation is meant to make life easier, so the solution itself should be easy to use. Look for a user-friendly interface. You want something easy, that won’t require excessive training or onboarding. Your staff won’t use an overly complex system. Just think about how most salespeople use a CRM properly. They might use it for some simple things, but few take the time to learn and use all of its functions.

Simplicity (for vehicle shoppers)

Dealership staff are not the only ones who tend to not use complicated technology. Automation in sales and service processes can be scary and disconcerting for consumers as well. You need to find a solution that consumers will be able to use without getting frustrated and giving up. Nothing can drive consumers away faster than a bad automated process. And once you lose a digital customer they are lost forever.

Integration

Most cloud-based software comes with interoperability with other cloud apps. You want workflow automation solutions with API compatibility. Look for something that will fully incorporate and map into your current technology and business processes. Afterall, the point of automating a process is to improve upon an existing one. You are not looking to reinvent the wheel here so be sure the solution will work within what you already know works.

Reports and data

You can’t improve a process without reviewing it. The best workflow automation software solutions will offer reporting and data. You want the data collected to suit your integration requirements. Something consistent and relevant and be sure to ask who will own any data collected by that solution.

Device Capabilities

Workflow automation solutions in a mostly digital world must work from any location and on any device. Salespeople and BDC agents are no longer shackled to their desks. The most successful ones are on the lot taking pictures and shooting video for customers. The best solutions keep that in mind are ones that can be used by staff on the go. At the same time consumers are also on the move. If the solution is consumer-facing in some way, be sure they can use it on any device as well.

There are many options in the workflow automation solution market, especially for car dealers. No matter what your situation, you want workflow automation software that is fast, flexible for your staff to use and one that will exceed customer expectations. A solution should satisfy a current need, and not create more work in an area where you are looking to simplify.

Automotive sales and service teams are spread thin and are always running in a million directions. A good automated process keeps their involvement to a bare minimum and should keep a digital sales pipeline running smoothly and deliver higher sales faster.

Kevin Systrom, one of the co-founders of Instagram attributes the creation of the powerhouse Photo Application and social network to a particular yet simple life event. He had chosen to study in Italy his Junior year of college, and a professor had replaced the state-of-the-art modern camera he had around his neck with the iconic but ultra-simple Holga toy camera.

The Holga is one of the ‘toy cameras’ that kickstarted a lo-fi photography craze in the late 90s and early 2000s. It was designed in Hong Kong in 1981 to provide low-earning Chinese families with a cheap camera that could take snapshots in sunny weather. The Holga used 120 roll film, a format that had been standard for many cheap cameras through the 20th Century. By the time the camera came out, 35mm film was everywhere and 120 roll film virtually disappeared in China. They began to market the camera as an inexpensive novelty to Western markets as a ‘starter’ camera.

The Holga was a camera reduced to bare-bones simplicity with only the bare necessities for photo mechanisms and provided a cheap and accessible alternative for people to dip their toes into the otherwise expensive world of photography. The Holga began a new life championed by photographers and artists who appreciated its glaring limitations and drawbacks, creating images that made a virtue of overlapping frames, light leaks and severe, tunnel-vision vignetting. Photographers who used the camera were actually fond of the vignetting. The ‘classic’ Holga shot is a square format 6×6 image, with the corners reduced to deep darkness. It is a very distinctive look which may have influenced the Influencer.

As digital photography took hold in the 2000s The Holga’s influence actually flourished. The classic Holga square format shot gained a new life on cellphones. 15 years ago, cellphone photography was in its infancy – the screens on our phones were tiny and extremely low-resolution and those deficiencies helped fuel the lo-fi digital photography craze. Those light leaks, vignetting, cross-processing saturation and dreamy focus fall-off that made Holga’s photos so distinctive were easy for the little cellphone camera technology to duplicate. Naturally, once your turn every cellphone owner into a semi-professional photographer, there needs to be a place to share those photos.

Systrom graduated college in 2006 and after working for Google for a bit began developing a ‘gamified check-in app’. He noticed the low quality of the photos users had uploaded and focused on writing the code that would add filters to the app - using dial-up Internet at a bed and breakfast in Mexico. At the time, the most advanced version of the iPhone was the iPhone 3G. The camera quality was less than ideal so Systrom drew from his experience with the Holga in Italy and created filters that could make use of imperfection.

The billion-dollar photography app-turned-social-network owes some of its DNA to a cheap plastic camera that is evidenced by its iconic logo. Instagram’s bespoke filters allow a drab photo of the Hollywood sign look like an old timey postcard. They made the square photo a modern standard maximizing screen space and looking interesting at the same time and wrote code to imitate and commoditize imperfections that have inspired artists for almost 50 years.

The idea of adding a degree of automation to an analog process in order to create something delightful for users is something modern technology strives for within the vehicle inspection realm. COVID 19 may have sparked the latest digital revolution/dependency but consumer demand will keep that flame burning. Online car shoppers want tools that can combine familiar purchasing processes with digital elements that they can utilize remotely. A human intelligence-first approach to vehicle inspection provides just that. Being able to find vehicle condition discrepancies automatically shortens the time it takes to capture and inspect a vehicle, produce real-time results for consumers and dealers with the click of a button. Dealers have more consistent and accurate information in order to better evaluate a consumer’s trade-in or, for that matter, buy vehicles smarter at auction. Efficiency is key to profit but it’s also the key to reducing customer friction in the sales process, creating a better customer experience while increasing gross profits in the sale.

One of the most popular metaphors in business is how leaders are the pilots of their organizations: in the driver's seat, handling turbulence, and getting employees and customers to their destination. This is an easy metaphor to apply to automation, especially since aviation’s adoption of automation follows a similar path as it does with the automotive industry.

Wilbur Wright, flew the first aircraft in 1903 by lying on his stomach, pushing and pulling levers as the wind blew over his head. Piloting a plane has become a lot less physical since those early days thanks to automation and autopilot functions that do most of the modern pilots’ work for them. 100 years later, aviation still needs human intelligence in order to get passengers to their destination safely.

Today’s pilot’s main responsibility is the pre-flight checklist - an important yet repetitive task that includes medical and security checks, data analysis and system and fuel checks. Each step needs to be completed before take-off. The Pre-Flight Checklist is something that needs to be done by a person while operation of the plane itself is mostly automatic. The right mix of human and artificial intelligence is necessary, and people’s lives depend on it. The pressure to get automation right is huge – it’s a major investment of time, money, and energy for everyone involved.

Most airplane operations are automatic - but not all of them. Some form of automation has been used in aviation for about 90 years. If robots were able to successfully fly planes, they would be by now but even the aviation industry knows that human intelligence is best augmented by automation, not replaced by it. Would you get on a plane powered entirely by automation?

When launching an automated process each step needs to be plotted out and accounted for before allowing the automation to execute tasks. Well managed business sales and service process are much like that pre-flight checklist. Each step needs to be carefully planned and completed before launching and many sales depend on it.

In the 50s, commercial planes had five crew members in the cockpit: a flight engineer, a radio operator, a navigator and two pilots. Over the next few decades, automation and improved technology replaced the first three jobs and saved airline companies a lot of time and money.

The first step is to think about which processes could benefit most from automation such as processes that include tedious, repetitive tasks and incur expensive man hours. Automation success relies on knowing your processes inside out and anticipating each step along the way that will lead to a sale. You don’t want to end up automating an unsuccessful process that ends up driving customers away. That would be like flying a plane with the wrong fuel in the tank.

Autopilot only does what a pilot tells it to do. Figuring out what processes could benefit from automation is a big step, but implementation is even bigger and one that requires constant attention. Autopilot only kicks in once the plane is safely cruising. Intelligent automation – combining human intelligence with automation is the ‘switch’ to autopilot. Technology can handle processing large amounts of data and the execution of repetitive tasks, but automation and technology still need a human element. Your human workforce should spend their time doing things that machines just can’t do. Relationship-building.

Last year, U.S. e-commerce sales generated about $365.2 billion in revenue. With the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in changing shopping habits as nonessential businesses endure mandated closures, there is more incentive than ever to invest in growing your digital retail strategy. One innovative strategy to make your business stand out from the competition is to roll out shopstreaming.

“Shopstreaming” is an amalgamation of “shop” and “live streaming.” and is sometimes just called “live stream shopping.” Its essentially video shown online in real-time encouraging viewers to purchase what they see much like an infomercial or home shopping show – except its live.

Shopstreaming has been a fascinating trend in Asia for at least two years but has yet to be fully embraced by the U.S. Maybelline dipped its toes into shopstreaming with a Chinese video-sharing app and sold 10,000 lipsticks in two hours and Hyundai and Kia have even launched successful shopstreaming services overseas. Just as dealers have been using automation for decades without knowing it, they have also been taking advantage of Shopstreaming in a few ways.

Sales

Anyone with even a tiny bit of marketing knowledge understands that video sells. Even social media platforms place a priority on video in their feeds. Facebook algorithms dictate that videos that are longer than three minutes and offer original content will show up in more news feeds. It’s really a no-brainer as 6 out of 10 people prefer consuming online videos to watching television.

The only real downside to using video in sales is that you have to trust that the shopper will watch it and contact you after. That is where shopstreaming can take video to the next level. Shopstreaming can keep a customer fully engaged with a sales person while taking advantage of the benefits of unique video content.

In addition, shopstreaming a vehicle demo allows a salesperson to guide a consumer through the vehicle features and benefits directly through their website or mobile device just as if the customer was standing right on the lot. The salesperson doesn’t have to learn any new sales tricks or strategies in order to join in on the digital transformation. They can just “plug in” and sell as they always have. They can also use shopstreaming as a way to complete the post-sale delivery process in the event of a cautious contactless sale. Again, simply going over the delivery walkthrough as they always have. PAVE even allows this medium to be utilized in the trade and lease return processes when it comes to grounding vehicles or evaluating trade-in vehicles.

Fixed Operations

The sales department isn't the only branch of a dealership taking advantage of shopstreaming. The analog version of a service experience involves a customer dropping off a vehicle and waiting at the dealership or by a phone for a diagnosis leaving the customer to mull over their next step. This allowed many opportunities for a customer to be lost to an independent repair shop or “handy” friend or relative. Using a form of shopstreaming to go over a vehicle diagnosis can be a powerful way to allow service advisors to explain and demonstrate repairs while the customer is at home or work keeping the customer engaged with the dealership during the decision-making process. Shopstreaming can eliminate hours of email, texts and phone calls back and forth by combining the video with live communication when a service advisor is trying to get service recommendation approvals.  

The more nuanced features of digital retail such as automation and digitization may seem daunting and complex, but shopstreaming is something that major retailers and dealers have been using for quite some time already. It allows your staff to use the personal sales skills they have honed for their entire careers within a media that consumers prefer in the digital realm. Simply put, it expands your audience and allows for personalized engagement.

Maybe it’s time to start focusing on how to take more old analogue processes, exploring how to digitize them and creating a more engaging customer experience.

Sales and service processes have been modified and fine-tuned as long as sales and services have existed. Making a product or service accessible and appealing is what drives sales. These processes include many areas where repetition comes in to play and have been mostly managed manually. As technology has improved, the ability to automate repetitive elements of workflow processes has become easier. Take emailing internet customers for example. Most dealers use some form of automated internet process. A customer submits a lead and they immediately receive an auto-responder typically designed to let the user know that the dealership has received their request for information. The better auto-responders attempt to engage with that user by asking a question prompting personal contact with a salesperson or BDC Rep.

Email Automation takes over the mundane and repetitive task of writing a short email that usually answers the same questions from customers. When that salesperson or BDC agent is freed up, they can focus their energy on driving sales via phone or into the showroom. Good automation will take over a repetitive task. Great automation takes over a repetitive task and knows when to steer attention towards it or whether to rely on a Human intelligence for assistance. If you are looking to add automation to a workflow, you must first identify your repetitive tasks.

Even a small dealer can receive 10 to 30 internet leads over the course of one day. Consider what it would cost to employ a person to monitor the inbox for 12 to 15 hours a day and expect them to compose an individual and engaging response every time a lead comes in. That first response letting the customer know their form has been received doesn't have to be customized for every single customer. This is why the auto-responder has existed from the very first day a website could receive a form from a customer. The same goes for value building and re-engagement attempts. A dealer's value proposition stays the same for long periods of time, so it’s not necessary to compose lengthy emails explaining it to your potential customers. It can be written well once and set to go out to prospects at a key point. Automated emails improve upon internet lead workflow and simplify the process by automating repetitive tasks.

Now that the salesperson or BDC agent isn't expected to monitor and respond to every lead as it comes in, they can use their time engaging in email, phone and chat conversations with live customers. This is a step that has yet to be perfected via full automation. Customers don't like to talk to robots during their retail shopping journeys. The best automated Chat applications use canned response to gather contact information so a living person can engage with the customer personally.

Once you identify repetitive tasks, the next step is to define your goals using your current manual workflow as a benchmark. With email automation, the goal is customers visiting the dealership or engaging with salespeople or BDC agents via phone. It was easy to see the effect on showroom traffic automated emails produced versus ignoring internet leads altogether or having someone try to compose individual responses along the process. Ultimately you need to be able to justify how your sales goals will be achieved by automation and how you plan to measure them.

How do you decide that a workflow could benefit from automated elements? It’s simple. Examine your workflow and look for instances where people may be spending a lot of time doing or saying the same thing. Consider whether or not that person's time could be better spent performing more complex tasks; which is ultimately saving the dealership money. Finally look for a solution that will complement the task itself which will lead to more showroom traffic and lower funnel shoppers. It will allow the dealership to work with less manpower and still deliver products or services with the same or better quality.

Keep in mind that automation processes are not limited to lead responses. There is a plethora of repetitive tasks that exist in your dealership that can be automated and result in higher efficiency and performance – both in sales, service and dealership operations in general. This was a simple example of not only HOW automation has already been helping dealerships keep up with workloads in customer to sales communications but also WHY a dealership should be investigating all of the other roadblocks or stumbling stones that prevent them from performing repetitive tasks faster with accurate results thus freeing up even more time for a staff member to focus his or her attention elsewhere. Automation combined with human intelligence produces greater efficiency resulting in increased productivity and higher sales.

With most of the country in quarantine, people are more reliant upon digital applications like Netflix and Amazon than ever before. Netflix reportedly had 16 million new subscribers in the first three months of 2020 due to the coronavirus. It’s no coincidence that platforms with a good user experience like Netflix thrive while others don’t fare as well. User experience drives everything from digital products to the hardware that keeps them running.

Let’s take a look at some reasons why a good user experience (UX) is important for consumers and businesses alike.

Working from home has forced people to become expert multitaskers - especially those with kids in the mix. That means people are looking for a digital experience that allows them to complete tasks as fast as possible. A good UX allows users to get things done faster. As soon as a user hits a roadblock on a website or application, they are quick to dismiss it and move on to a competitor. And your competitors are mere fractions of an inch away in the digital landscape. According to a study from web usability research group the Baymard Institute, the global average online shopping cart abandonment rate is a whopping 69.57%. You get one shot. If you aren't helping that consumer get answers quickly or complete tasks as fast as possible, you’re out. A good user experience will help people get where they need to go faster.

A good UX helps users see that products are purposeful. Consider the applications you are personally using right now. When you need something but don't have the time or the ability due to lockdowns to physically shop at multiple physical locations looking for the best value, you look for something that can help. The choice between paying a small fee for grocery pick-up or delivery services or standing in a long line with your face covered in July heat becomes an easy one. That small fee provides time, convenience and comfort. A good UX is what levels up your product. It doesn’t matter how much it costs if it’s easy to use.

There is no excuse now. User experience is something that is essential to consumers. Technology has changed so much in the last 10 years that we may view UX as a luxury, but now with the sudden widespread adoption of technology, there is so much competition that consumers have endless options and they know it.

In today’s rapidly changing environment, having good UX is the key to customer retention and loyalty. The right user experience will create emotional connections with products. When you establish a bond of trust between a dealership and its customers, you forge and secure a relationship. In this technological era, people use mobile apps, websites, and in-store kiosks to interact with companies. This can estrange a feeling of intimacy, as we don’t really need to line up in banks anymore if we want to pay bills, or go to physical stores to buy something, when we can do the same things online.

Digital retail solutions with the best user experience in mind will cater to the online customer. If it does not it will damage the relationship and dealers can lose customers indefinitely.

Online shoppers' perceptions have changed, and the experience itself is more important than calls to action that are screaming for attention with empty results. A bad user experience can impact your bottom line today and well into the future. A good user experience creates emotional connections with products and allows users to get things done faster. It makes users feel like a product or service has a purpose and can push the boundaries of what we believe is possible.

A good user experience will encompass every touchpoint and interaction that a consumer has with the dealership. The less friction that a dealer can introduce into a digital journey – or even a hybrid physical/online journey, the more likely the consumer will continue on the journey that you want them to and end up with more sales.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic and economic crisis, dealers have been struggling to adopt and perfect digital retailing and the need has accelerated at staggering speed. Data from McKinsey & Company show that consumers have no desire to ditch behaviors they’ve adopted amid stay-at-home orders, like more online shopping and fewer store visits.  Dealers can’t afford to remain in wait-and-see mode. It’s time to re-imagine baseline requirements and then turn attention to taking their customer experience beyond the next level.

Dealers that have been allowed to re-open physical locations have to adapt their operations to comply with health-and-safety regulations and meet new customer expectations. This includes mask wearing, ensuring physical distancing, and controlling the number of employees and customers in stores, instituting contactless transactions, improving speed of service, and using more self-service digital options.

Dealers also need to offer a simple and seamless e-commerce experience which includes browsing to research, selecting and purchasing. Customers will no longer tolerate sub-par digital shopping experiences like they may have before the crisis. Retailers have to make sure their sites are mobile-responsive, offer integrated services such as “buy online pick up in store” and out of store test drives while also delivering a consistent, reliable digital experience across all devices and channels.

For some retailers, such as fashion stores or pop-up restaurants, executing at a baseline level is sufficient. Waiting in hours-long lines to shop may eventually return as a super fan’s pastime. But that’s no longer a strategy to rely on – enhanced in-store operations and a well-functioning digital presence are the new normal.

It’s time to rethink experience. For years, dealers have been focusing as much, if not more, of their priority towards improving the in-store experience rather than on the products they sell. Many dealers think that investing in popcorn machines for the showroom, decking out the lot in balloons, holding events or offering special in store-experiences will attract customers and encourage them to linger longer. As a result of Covid-19, all dealers have to ensure that their in-store experiences are even more extraordinary for those who visit. They have to give people a reason that justifies their exposure to health risks and overcomes the new behaviors they adopted during the shutdown.

Think about how premium movie theater brands emerged back when Netflix and other home movie-viewing options threatened the movie theater industry. These new experiences didn’t simply improve what was already offered to customers They made visiting a theater better than watching at home — offering luxury reclining loungers, high quality food and beverages delivered seat-side. Retailers that offer an exclusive, superior experience like luxury cinemas once did will draw people out of their homes.

An emphasis on innovation and service needs to extend to the digital customer experience as well.  Dealers tend to rely on old school techniques online. Lauding that the only way to get exact information is by visiting the dealership and using gimmick calls to action that all result in demanding an in store visit but such efforts are fruitless and misguided.  Customers don’t expect a virtual experience to be like an in-person one — nor do they want it to be.

Investing in digital capabilities like real-time inventory management, payment calculators, trade-in evaluation tools, and personalization can create unique shopping experiences. A retailer can use new capabilities to create a social, interactive, immersive experience wherever customers may be which is something a physical outlet can’t provide.

To get inspiration and insights for designing an online shopping experience from the ground up, examine the evolution of other brick-and-mortar industries and institutions.  When Covid-19 forced churches to shut down their weekly services, most simply transferred their church services online via live-stream But Cincinnati-based Crossroads Church  has re-imagined its pastors’ weekly sermons. Now they film pastors delivering messages at different locations to reinforce that week’s message, for example, talking about the importance of a strong foundation at the site of a historic church. Take advantage of the greater flexibility and new contexts that digital affords like giving customers the shopping tools they seek on vehicle detail pages so they won't have to look for them on another site.

This isn’t the time to try to simply ‘ride out the storm’. With a more proactive, progressive approach to both digital transformation and a new era of customer experience and service, the future looks far less bleary.

With Covid-19 creating a ripple effect across the socio-economic fabric of America, life as most of us know it has been disrupted, especially that of the retail customer journey which has migrated into the digital landscape. As a new normal materializes, even the more technophobic consumers have taken to digital retail platforms and applications to meet even the most basic of needs. Many dealers had the choice of either providing the tools and platforms to consumers or board up the doors and wait. Dealers that focused on concentrating resources online, through new features, offers and technology-led innovations were doing more than keeping the lights on, they were building customer relationships that will last long after this virus fades.

We get a do-over. It’s time to turbocharge customer experience. In January, Tim Odom, president of the AAM Group, gave a presentation on what he considered some of the most disruptive trends we have seen in the past decade and how they have shaped customer experience. “The greatest disruptor of the last 10 years is Amazon,” Odom said. “How have you changed your business in the past decade? The customer at your door today is different – same person, but different expectations.” This rings even more true today as curbside test drives, online shopping and trade evaluation were sometimes the only options for dealers to sell during state shutdowns. Customers may not want to go back to past practices once this pandemic is over. It might be easy for your sales team to revert back to the days of waiting around in the lot for walk-ins, or demanding customers come to the dealership in order to have questions answered but customers know that dealers can accomplish these things... if they wanted to.

People can have food from their favorite restaurant delivered to their homes with almost no human contact and, as restaurants reopen, they certainly have not shut down their new drive through windows and curbside services. Consumers will be congregating online for the foreseeable future restricting visits to physical brick and mortar stores not only out of safety concerns but out of convenience as well. Dealers have the opportunity to create a memorable and engaging digital journey that will ultimately amplify their customer experience moving forward. It’s not time to go back to the past, but time to look forward and create personalized journeys and touch-points for consumers and adopt the digital shopping tools customers crave.

The Auto Industry has not been defeated by COVID-19. In fact, this pandemic has given dealers an opportunity to improve by embracing the digital experiences that consumers want. Contactless shopping and delivery have become the norm in almost every aspect of retail and brands need to curate specialized and memorable end-to-end digital experiences to attract lasting loyalty that extends far beyond this pandemic.