866 viewsDigital retailing platforms have developed a lot in recent years. Amidst the recent inventory shortage and pandemic, customer behaviours and expectations have also undergone significant change.
A Google study showed that 66% of recent new-vehicle buyers expect more online shopping options since the COVID-19 crisis. With the growing popularity of online sales platforms on automobile dealer sites, your customers are likely to have selected or “built” a vehicle on your site or a competitor’s.
Whether consumers visit your dealership or your website first, the transition from one to the other should always be seamless. With online and in-dealership tools that work in synergy, you’re able to meet consumer expectations and deliver an unparalleled experience while gaining a clear competitive advantage.
Are you well-equipped?
Desking platforms are a must for today’s dealerships. Entrenched for decades in the everyday business of sales teams, these pioneering software systems are comprehensive and functional, but not consumer-friendly. They were designed at a time when 100% of cars were sold at dealerships, so customers did not need to be able to understand their interface.
With the recent rise of market disruptors (such as Carvana, Amazon and eBay) and automakers who want to sell directly to consumers online (such as Tesla and Polestar), there is no shortage of options. Customers are better informed and expect transparency around pricing, monthly payments and transactions that these desking software can’t provide.
What you need to meet these expectations is a tool whose interface can be shown to the customer.
Are your different platforms communicating?
Beyond the interface, the desking tool is too often disconnected from its complementary digital retailing tool. Yet both are used to sell the same vehicles. When selling with two independent platforms, the entire vehicle configuration done by a customer online is set aside and has to be redone in the desking software at the dealership.
Digitization of the retail function in the automotive industry is already underway. Today’s salespeople can no longer imagine being able to work solely with their in-dealership tools without considering their website platforms, because consumers expect more; they come to the dealership having already “built” and customized a vehicle and checked out prices and warranties. So how can you capitalize on this?
With our desking tool that works in synergy with your website’s integrated digital retailing tool.
Synergy between your online sales platform and desking: more than a competitive advantage
This is exactly what DESKING 360 offers. It works seamlessly with your website and SHOWROOM 360-V2, our digital retailing platform. The competitive edge is significant:
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A simplified user experience: the consumer selects a unit in inventory or builds their vehicle online via your website, saves it in their “virtual garage” (their account), and, once they are at the dealership, your sales representative or Business Development Centre (BDC) can take over and make changes to the quote, in collaboration with the buyer, directly in the web interface. The consumer can then return home and decide to complete the modified in-store transaction online.
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Better customer engagement: both tools use the same CRM 360 database, meaning that an online consumer also exists in the desking tool. Each new opportunity is more than just a vehicle of interest; it’s a complete package! You can interact in the dealership with the vehicle configurations, accessories, payment options and warranties selected by the consumer at their home. All changes are two-way. DESKING 360’s interface is designed to be visually pleasing to the customer, who can understand the changes made to their quote when interacting with a salesperson.
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A sense of control for your customer: when a consumer is ready to make a purchase, they can retrieve their quote in their account, review any changes made by their salesperson during their discussions, and reserve the vehicle directly online: if it’s still in the garage, it’s still available for purchase. Simple as that.
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More efficient than the competition: with a unified experience, you no longer have to manually enter information from website leads, and can no longer make typing errors. You avoid not only redundancy, but also information loss. Having two-way synchronization between your web leads and your submission manager is a huge time-saver, but more importantly, it provides an unparalleled experience for your current and potential customers. You will be able to differentiate yourself from your competitors and engage more prospects earlier in the vehicle buying cycle.
Why invest in digital if I have invested so much in an in-store experience?
Customer experience and price are consumers’ number one concerns. Now that the customer has greater access to information and choice, the challenge for a dealer is to work on the overall buying experience to ensure you are making the most of your competitive advantages.
All your investments in a showroom, inventory and specialized employees to produce the best possible transaction are far from wasted. This is your competitive advantage as a dealer. With DESKING 360 and SHOWROOM 360-V2, you are equipped to work with consumers both online and at the dealership, an advantage over the market’s existing digital retailing platforms. Selling vehicles online is a reality that is in its infancy. Consumers are ready to go digital, it’s up to dealerships to adapt and take advantage of trends in order to remain relevant to buyers.
Going even further
By opting for synergy between your online sales platform (digital retailing) and your sales tool (CRM/desking), you are buying in to a broader vision: that of making the customer experience uniform, seamless and flexible, regardless of their buying journey. Whether the first contact is made online or in-store, your technology solutions should be part of an ecosystem that enables consumers and dealers alike to move from environment to environment without having to navigate between different, unintegrated tools. For the customer, it’s a streamlined, pleasant experience that is also transparent. For the dealer, it means substantial savings in employee training time and a considerable gain in credibility and efficiency.
360.Agency offers more than websites. Our synchronized and unified ecosystem covers all aspects of your dealership, making DEALER WEBSITE 360 the only site that can work in complete synergy and in two-way synchronization between your CRM, your online sales tool and your desking tool.
