How to corral your online prospects
The last year has been crazy in automotive retail in Canada. With all the negative talk in the past 18 to 24 months, auto retailers are now feeling the pinch from increased volumes and increased demands.
By recent counts, the Canadian dealer count is down, net, over 160 locations. New vehicle sales levels, however, have increased slightly from 2009 making more opportunity for all other dealers to sell more new and used vehicles and attract those orphaned fixed operations customers.
So how do you put your best foot forward and attract those new customers?
It has to be online
According to Gartner Research, 85 percent of all new vehicle consumers start their vehicle shopping efforts on the Internet. This should be no surprise to anyone. What the research showed that may be a surprise is that 43 percent of consumers “might” or “would” switch dealers or brands if initial on-line handling did not meet their expectation. That means that roughly half the customers working through your dealership site and/or your brand’s site will not stay unless there is a good reason for them to stay.
Brands like to believe that their vehicle design and engineering are the main attraction. Dealers like to believe that their customer handling is the main attraction. What the Gartner research says that both could be correct; however the on-line experience is the show stopper. If the on-line experience is not good, neither the brand nor the dealer will get a chance to show their stuff and win over the customer.
The Internet with all its speed and vastness has created a user profile that is impatient and demanding. It’s just too easy to click around.
It’s like the wild west out there and you must develop methods to corral these happy Internet clickers and keep them within your site. If you do, chances are you will get an opportunity to do business. If you don’t, it’s quite simply an opportunity lost, never to be regained.
This type of customer handling requires expertise. It requires seamless execution to build the desired experience among the customer, the brand site and the dealer. Unfortunately, the industry has not developed a brand-centric customer handling approach to be able to consistently deliver on the consumer expectation. Although it is getting better, dealers still like to control their own offerings and often go outside brand rules and regulations in an attempt to show their uniqueness. Also some brands do not give their dealer network the direction and support needed to successfully meet today’s demanding and internet savvy vehicle consumer.
A simple test
This week I did a simple test; I sent out 10 e-mail requests for new vehicles to see what would happen. Here are the results:
• 10 e-mails sent to 10 different dealerships;
• After 48 hours, 6 requests answered (4 automated and 2 unique);
• Number of no shows – 4 (or 40%).
My simple little test revealed an 80-percent unacceptable rate. I can’t stand automated responses and consider them a non-response unless a real person gets back to me within a reasonable time. I think even 48 hours is unreasonable; however, that is the benchmark I used for this test. So 80 percent failed. Of the two that did respond, both were within one hour and both engaged in on-line dialogue. Those two were very good at building an on-line relationship.
So now I am going to ask you, as a consumer, not a dealer, how long you would consider reasonable when you want to find something out on the Internet? If you are like me and many others, you likely would not give any supplier 48 hours; you probably wouldn’t give them 24. In fact, if you are like me, you are on to the next one soon after you sent the original request.
Speed has become very important. As attention spans shrink, response times must also. It’s like every Internet prospect has Attention Deficit Disorder!
Your digital dealership
This leads me to my next point: your Internet department. Most dealerships have assigned this Internet stuff to one person, often part-time. The Internet is still an afterthought for many dealerships; one that is reluctantly considered a necessary evil. Well, I believe it is now mainstream and that you should be operating a digital dealership, not an Internet department. Everyone in your dealership should be Internet empowered. Each and every employee should be empowered to do business with any customer in any way the customer wants.
Ask yourself: from a customer’s perspective, is it easy to business at your dealership? Have you ever tried to do business at your own store? Mystery shopping has been around for a long time, but few dealerships make use of this all-important tool. Today it is easier than ever to do it yourself. Set up a new generic e-mail account and do your own enquiry. See what happens when you try to do business with yourself. You might be surprised at the result.
With so many free agents out there at the moment, capturing new customers is critical. Anyone can attract, but only a very few can capture and actually close the deal.
Let’s do some more math. Let’s assume that last month you sold 50 vehicles. Your reported closing ratio from the sales floor was 20 percent. That means that 250 prospects physically trolled through your dealership. Let’s also assume that another 250 prospects in your Primary Market Area (PMA) visited your website either, on their own or directed from your brand site or a lead service that you pay for. These were not counted in your 20-percent closing ratio. So, in fact, you had 500 ups and sold 50 cars for a closing ratio of 10 percent, not 20.
If the truth be known, very few of us actually know how much traffic we are miscounting and how many potential sales we are losing. Those that do, actually know how much opportunity there is. Those of that do not, simply don’t believe them. It’s a viscous circle.
The Apple example
I am a big believer in Apple-type CRM. Apple is in regular communication with me about many goods and services offered by the brand. There is no reason why brand owners cannot digitally interact with drivers of their vehicles to promote their brand and their brand experience in the same way.
Why is it wrong to continuously promote the brand on a one-on-one basis? For me and Apple, it’s not a steady barrage of marketing to get me to buy more. It’s an on-line relationship that allows me to pick and choose how I want to do business with the brand.
They don’t just send me a note when it’s time for a check-up; they regularly send me notes about “how to” type stuff. They educate me. This makes me more loyal to the brand and guess what? I spend more.
Brands and dealerships would be wise to dissect how Apple and others do centralized CRM. As a dealer, this could be a cost effective tool that differentiates my dealership from the ones down the street or across town. It might just be the hook that allows me to capture those prospects and allows me the opportunity to keep and gain deeper penetration into the customers I already have.
These are indeed crazy times. It is in these times that winners are made and new performance levels are achieved. Are you turning your craziness into opportunity?
