According to the 2021 COX Automotive study, 67% of franchised dealers say motivating and retaining quality employees is currently a challenge. In a 2019 NADA dealer survey, a quarter of dealers surveyed were more concerned with employee turnover than access to consumer credit.  

We speak with dealerships all across the country about the direct benefit that digital screens provide the auto dealer – improving the overall customer experience, increasing sales revenue, and increasing service revenue and retention.However, at the back end of the store, sales leaderboard digital screens provide numerous benefits for the dealer management and staff.

One example of how dealerships are using new technology to help manage their sales teams is Mercedes Benz of Des Moines, a Lithia dealership. “Our Digital Dealership System sales Leaderboard motivates our staff and looks more professional than our old dry-erase board,“ said Anthony Gladney, General Manager of Mercedes Benz of Des Moines. “We never used to keep the old system up to date. Now we don't have to worry as this updates automatically. Staff are continually peeping their heads in to check stats and ranking.”

Retention of top talent is a must and with Gen Z showing more interest in sales positions, there should be interest in arming them with the proper sales technology tools to help them do their jobs more efficiently and motivate them at the same time.

Digital Sales Leaderboards help motivate, help create greater personalization between staff and management and give better access to insights on where deals are in the pipeline than ever before.

“We also have our sales appointment in the system, which is a great help to me and my sales managers,” said Gladney. “They all have screens in their offices. Yes, everyone has computers, but a large screen that is dedicated helps keep focus.”

Are your sales leaderboards done on a dry erase board, which is hastily erased and updated every few days? Digital Dealership System provides a digital screen solution to the low-tech dry erase board. With a program that is connected to the dealership’s DMS, the sales leaderboard is updated in real time and scrolls through multiple reports. Dealers can easily add their own reports.

Digital Sales Leaderboards rotate through standard DMS-Connected Reports including Sales, Trends, Gross, Pending and Score Cards. The system is customizable with additional ‘dealer supplied’ data including: Internal Metrics - Contacts, Ups, Spiffs, Tracking, etc.; Sales Goals, CSI; Announcements; Birthdays.

The digital leaderboard can be configured to scroll through selected reports automatically or with an interactive wireless mouse. 

The Digital Dealership System has recently innovated with a new platform called “DASHBOARD” that includes salesperson mobile access and advanced desktop reporting. Advanced reports can be called on-demand, scheduled, shared and emailed. Now dealers can drill down to the deal level and run customized reports, while staff have their own login, only showing them their specific information and rankings.

And, putting the dry erase board fully into retirement, the Digital Dealership System Mobile Leaderboard is essential for multi-store groups where managers can access store numbers on a single login. The system can be expanded with modules to support sales appointments, inventory and service tracking. 

To learn more about Digital Dealership System and the products we offer, please go to our website at www.digitaldealershipsystem.com.

About Digital Dealership System

Established in 2008, Digital Dealership System is the premium digital sign solution for the modern dealership. Digital Dealership System believes that dealers that invest in the in-store experience separate themselves from the competition by creating memorable experiences, giving dealers the most advanced, easy-to-use digital sign solution in the industry. Their expertise is widely known in the $100M/year dealership screen market, with over 1000 installations completed across the United States. 

For more information, visit www.digitaldealershipsystem.com

DCH Montclair Acura in Verona, New Jersey, a Lithia dealer, reached out to Digital Dealership System to make their newly renovated dealership stand apart even more from their competition.

While the renovation provided a clean and accommodating environment for DCH Montclair Acura’s sales and service customers, Tim Hlavenka, General Manager of DCH Montclair Acura, took the renovation one step further by incorporating Digital Dealership System’s programs into the new interior.

“Digital Dealership System’s screen technology adds to the overall experience we’ve created with our newly designed, freshly renovated and modern dealership,” said Hlavenka. “It fits with our store’s reputation. We want to go the extra mile in making customers feel comfortable with the right amenities, and that’s where strategically placed digital screens that help entertain and inform our customers come into play.”

The open dealership concept means the showroom, lounge and service center flow together without walled offices. Digital Dealership System provided vertical monitors throughout the store’s showroom, which play video content from Digital Dealership System’s custom library, including new Acura Offer and incentives.

As a result, the Digital Dealership System program creates energy and a marketing platform in the showroom, setting it apart from their competitors.

“Our showroom screens offer a sense of personalization, welcoming our customers and helping to reinforce our reputation in our market,” said Hlavenka. “Additionally, we’re using our screens to inform our customers of new offers and incentives that they may not have been aware of prior to walking into our showroom. We have examples of customers seeing an offer on our screens that they would like to explore. That’s a powerful tool to leverage as part of our in-dealership marketing.”

Because the lounge area of DCH Montclair Acura is used for both sales and service, it was important to incorporate messaging from both departments in the system. Back-to-back monitors incorporate LiveTV, updated service status, marketing and the super ticker for sales & service messaging.

“The Lounge TV screens, which show the appointments and the status of vehicles in for service, work very well,” said Hlavenka. “We’re in close proximity to one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country, so the service area gets busy, and advisors give appropriate times for consumers. By putting updates right in front of the customer - showing status and when a car’s service is completed, our screens contribute to our reputation of helping our customers with service and efficiency when they enter and exit our dealership.”

These screens also provide an opportunity to advertise new car and trade-in incentives to their service customers.

“Most dealers look at marketing like checking boxes. We recognize that utilizing screen technology is an incremental expense that to some dealers, have a hard time understanding the ROI,” said Hlavenka. “But quite the contrary, sometimes the experience you create is worth far beyond what you’d quantify on a spreadsheet. There’s a value in enabling our customers to feel comfortable in our showroom, because if you are comfortable in our store, you will come back.”

“DCH Montclair Acura represented a challenge with minimal walls and a fluid layout,” said Todd Katcher, Managing Partner, Digital Dealership System. “At the end of the day, the store’s focus was on creating a unique showroom experience while supporting a lounge that serves sales, service and finance. Each store has unique requirements, and each manager has a different focus, which is why our installations are customized for each dealership. With over twenty different products and many years of experience visiting stores and installing systems, we are able to meet the needs of our customers.”

DCH Montclair Acura is located at 100 Bloomfield Avenue in Verona, New Jersey. www.dchmontclairacura.com.

About Digital Dealership System

Established in 2008, Digital Dealership System is the premium digital sign solution for the modern dealership. Digital Dealership System believes that dealers that invest in the in-store experience separate themselves from the competition by creating memorable experiences, giving dealers the most advanced, easy-to-use digital sign solution in the industry. Their expertise is widely known in the $100M/year dealership screen market, with over 1000 installations completed across the United States.

For more information visit www.digitaldealershipsystem.com

Digital Retailing -- the recent buzz word in automotive -- followed closely by "Attribution" -- is nothing more than a glamorized form. While talking heads refer to a frictionless experience, this only occurs every 1000 transactions, when someone pays in full for the vehicle.

9 out of 10 transactions (anecdotal conversations with market leaders) online are abandoned. They send an incomplete form the dealer. This is a great start, but the idea of frictionless is refuted when people stop the transaction at the friction. 999 out of 1000 transactions are still completed over the phone or in the dealership.

I saw a local dealer in South Florida actual use the Amazon logo and say -- like buying a car on Amazon. 

Why are dealers so quick to be Amazon? Digital retailing is far from an Amazon experience because it at the end of the day, you still have unknowns such as credit, payment options and trade value.

Why not call it like it is -- buy the way you want to. Buy the car with a concierge service. 

When you buy a commodity on Amazon (as you can purchase the item in many places), you go through a checkout system that is similar to thousands of other sites. The difference with Amazon is that it's simple, it's easy and that have much more than books. So you can find everything in one place, even if you pay a little more... it's just convenient.

The car buying experience should be convenient -- done my way -- but it is definitely not frictionless.

CREDIT FACTOR

Out of the largest digital retailing companies -- Drive Motors and Roadster -- neither pulls actual credit. This introduces friction. While they all do a great job of providing baseline information for a customer, credit is the largest determining factor in payment. And, if someone is buying or leasing, they will have a payment effected by credit. Friction.

So these applications are merely forms. Let's call them FORM 2.0 compared to the Finance form that some dealers still have on their website. When was the last time one of those were filled out?

Shoppers consistently think their credit is higher than reality, so if given the option, they will put a higher value, reducing their payment and allowing them to receive favorable terms. Only to revisit when the dealership calls (friction) or they visit the store (friction) to find out that their actual credit is lower than anticipated and the quoted price is not accurate (friction).

TRADE VALUE

90% of people think their car is worth more than a dealer is actually going to pay for it. Trade Value is a huge part of the overall car buying process as it determines options for payment, interest and overall value of the vehicle. So now you have more friction which is caused by the perception of value versus reality.

You can't trade in a vehicle, provide a definitive payment and close a transaction without human interaction from the dealership. This is the friction that stops the transaction from being seamless and "Amazon-like".

That perception follows through to the whole marketing idea that Digital Retailing is anything more than a lead generation form for dealers. If dealers advertise that Digital Retailing is this great process only to have falter along the way, they are now dealing with a customer perception that they were deceived in some way.

I personally applaud the dealers that are pushing the envelope and creating great processes around the Digital Retailing technologies that exist today. There is a bright future for this, but it's going to be taken in steps. Technologies are on the horizon that will account for actual credit scores as part of the process, providing more specific payments and a true digital retailing experience. NADA will showcase a few of these and we hope to implement these systems in our in-store kiosk solution.

IN-STORE

Dealers must not forget that some customers may want to have that same "retail" experience inside the dealership and use kiosks to get trade value, research inventory or even have the option to buy a car. Some people don't want to talk to salespeople. Some people want to research on their own. Dealers need to offer a variety of solutions INSIDE the store as well.

At the modern restaurant or entertainment complex, customers are met with a variety of options of how to transact business. Kiosks are available to order big mac at McDonalds, a movie ticket at Muvico, or a sandwich at Panera -- but you can also speak to someone at a register. Dealers may yield caution getting to invested in a single path of selling as they may turn customers away that want more options.

ABOUT ME

Just a guy with an opinion and a keyboard.