If you missed Digital Dealer 27 in Las Vegas, we’ve got you covered. There were a lot of great sessions with tons of information and stats, but the main themes of the conference – Digital Retailing and Customer Experience! Read on to get your recap of what both mean for your dealership.
Digital Retailing
We’ve all heard of companies like Carvana who are taking the digital car shopping world by storm, and you might think your dealership could never compete with that process, or that your dealership simply isn’t ready. However, there are a lot of things you can do right now to take a step towards digital retailing at your dealership.
Senior Account Strategist at Google, Tim Mueller, offered some impactful statistics regarding Google and YouTube and how today’s shopper is test driving.
- Google is the number 1 source for shoppers to learn about vehicles.
- 60% of searches are done on a mobile device.
- The average car shopper spends 17 hours shopping for a car – 75% of that is done online.
- The top 3 things car shoppers are watching on YouTube: Walkarounds, Comparisons, and Vehicle Features.
- 65 million digital test drives monthly on YouTube as of January 2018.
- There was a 22% increase in automotive view time in the United States.
- The top 2 things done after watching automotive videos: Researching more info and going to the dealership.
This information doesn’t just make a case for video. It tells the story of how car shoppers are spending the time, what they’re looking for, and how they are experiencing your dealership, brand, and models.
In addition, there are tools out there that can help you turn your website into a digital retailing friendly site. Webbuy can be integrated into a dealer’s site to enable purchasing online. With a fairly simple set up, this could be your first step.
Customer Experience
You might see these two words and think that you offer a great customer experience. After all, you sell a lot of units, and you have a great rating on Google and DealerRater. While that is certainly something to be proud of, customer experience expands far beyond volume and reviews. Here are some steps to consider to take your customer experience to the next level according to Jonathon Dawson, Founder of Sellchology.
- Create 30 second bio videos for your sales team.
- Create personal branding – each salesperson has something unique about them that engages the customers and makes them memorable.
- Go out of your way to personalize the experience. This makes it harder for car buyers to walk away. Whether it’s the first car, a birthday, or a new family car, make it known that you know what they’re going through.
- Have your individual sales reps get reviews. When people contact you, tell them to Google you! The reviews will speak for themselves.
- If you’ve done all of these things, don’t be afraid to ask for referrals!
Here are a few more steps I compiled from different sessions throughout the conference.
- Don’t be afraid to give pricing. 39% of shopper will reject a dealership if they can’t get pricing before coming in.
- Use response-based marketing automation style models. Do not use auto responders and generic email models.
- Ask how the customer would like to receive pricing – purchase or lease? Total cost or monthly installments?
- Find out what the customer is most comfortable with. Would you like to start your purchase from home, work, or wherever you are right now?
If you’ve been overwhelmed by either of these two concepts in the past, these tips should help give you some great starting points that are definitely doable! If you take some of these steps towards getting your dealership to the next level, we are confident you will see results. Of course, marketing is as important as ever.
Auto shoppers are only visiting an average of 1.4 dealerships before buying. The decision is being narrowed down online. How are you presenting your dealership to online researchers? If you need an automotive marketing agency or support executing any of the above, feel free to reach out to D2D.
Did you know we not only attended DD27, but we also presented! Check back to our resources page for more information on our session – Using Google’s Features to Attract Customers to your Showroom.
Christine has spent the last 13 years strategizing, executing, and optimizing digital campaigns. She is certified in a variety of digital tactics including SEO, SEM, Social Media, Display Advertising, Email Marketing and Mobile Advertising and has been published several times on PRDaily.com. She has hosted digital trainings, been a guest lecturer for Graduate classes, and has spoken at the Digital Dealer conference. Outside of the office, Christine is a roller derby coach and also teaches Digital Marketing at William Paterson University.
For more information on how D2D can help, feel free to reach out at cbeougher@digital2dealer.com
