Listen to your Customers, not your Competitors.

I still love to participate in dealer sales presentations with my team. I'm proud of the solutions we have created and the insights we provide to help automotive retail evolve. Winning new accounts is always a thrill because I'm a competitive entrepreneur. Competition is good, but sometimes, even I can lose focus on what is really important: our customers.

Dealers I speak with are also competitive, but some go a little too far. They are obsessed with what their competitors are doing, regardless of whether it will work for their business or not. Their focus on their competitors may distract them from the real opportunities to grow their business.

Listen to your customers, not your competitors.

There is a lot of conversations lately around first-party data management and the need to unify customer data. These conversations are long overdue because fragmented data results in poor customer experiences. Dealers are finally realizing that DMS and CRM platforms were never designed to create an awesome customer experience.

Dealers can infer many things from data, but listening to your customers and shoppers is essential because they are the ones who ultimately determine your sales effectiveness. Their feedback and opinions can help you improve your sales and service experience, which can ultimately lead to better CSI and loyalty. On the other hand, paying too much attention to your competitors can be detrimental to your business.

While it's important to stay aware of what your competitors are doing, constantly comparing yourself to them can lead to a focus on the wrong things. A better plan is to target your actions on meeting the needs and expectations of your own customers.

Understanding customer behavior and preferences will improve the effectiveness of marketing and sales efforts. Customer Data Platforms (CDP) will help to create a strong foundation for improving the customer experience, but building a great customer experience goes much further than data or marketing.

Consumers are not loyal to dealers because they see personalized Facebook or Google ads.

Improving Customer Experiences

Car shoppers are typically searching for several things when they visit an automotive website. Here are some of the key elements that they are likely to be looking for which form the foundation of a great customer experience (CX):

• Vehicle inventory and transparency: Websites that provide detailed information and high-quality photos of each vehicle (not stock images), as well as information on the car's history, any previous damage, and a money-back guarantee. This level of transparency can help build trust with customers and make them feel more confident in their purchase. A well-organized and searchable inventory is essential.
• Pricing and financing options: Car shoppers want to know how much the vehicles cost and what financing options are available to them. Providing transparent and easy-to-understand pricing information and the availability to start the purchase online.
• Competitive pricing: One of the most common reasons why car shoppers leave the dealer’s website is non-competitive pricing. If they find a better deal elsewhere or if they feel that the vehicle they are interested in is too expensive, they may look for other options. If the financing options are not favorable or if the process is complicated, car shoppers may search elsewhere.
• Convenience: Your website should allow customers to complete the entire car buying process (or as much as they want) online, from browsing inventory to financing and scheduling delivery. This can save customers time and allow you to sell more vehicles outside your primary market area.
• Customer reviews and ratings: Car shoppers often look at customer reviews and ratings to see what other people have experienced when buying from the dealership. Positive reviews can help build trust and attract new customers. Negative reviews or bad word of mouth can also cause car shoppers to change their minds about a particular dealership or vehicle.
• Personalization: When shoppers or existing customers return to a dealership website a personalized experience goes a long way to make them feel recognized and appreciated. Shopper identification is one of the reasons why shopping on Amazon is so easy. Our new Connected Retail Platform (CRP) will connect to leading CDP platforms to deliver a bespoke experience that will make it faster, easier, and more convenient to shop.
• Timely Response – When a consumer returns to the dealer’s website, and has a question, dealers should offer a real-time messaging experience during normal business hours. After hours, lead forms serve a purpose, but few dealers are looking up the consumers past buying and service history before sending a response. Can we do better? Yes we can!

These online experiences are just the start of a comprehensive review of a dealer’s sales process to improve CX. What else would you add?

It's Not One Thing - It's All Things

All of the dealer's efforts to create a better customer experience (staff training, modern sales processes, marketing, first-party data management, and online retailing) have to be working together to generate a memorable first impression of the dealer's brand.

By providing these key elements on their website, car dealerships can create a positive and informative online shopping experience for car shoppers, which can help them convert website visitors into loyal customers.

One last note about unifying customer data with CDPs: While many focus on the marketing use cases for unified customer data, I believe that the real benefits will come from using data to create personalized website experiences, one-to-one communications, and improved sales experiences.

This is what consumers have been saying for years, and it looks like our industry is finally listening and willing to take action.

Discussing Innovation For Improving CX in Austin

I know my team at Dealer eProcess is ready!

I look forward to discussing our CRP innovations and demonstrating true website personalization at the 2023 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC) in Austin in May. Dealers can save $250 on your ticket using our special discount code: DEP250.