Auto Dealership Software

Cell phones and the CRM solution in your auto dealership

Friday, October 2, 2009 by Steve Lausch

Cell Phones. Who do you know that doesn’t have a cell phone?

Cell phone companies are everywhere to, radio, TV, billboards. You can’t drive past a strip mall without seeing a cell phone store in it. And, in that store, you will see a lot of customers. No matter where you are, you are guaranteed to see someone talking or texting on a cell phone.

As shown by their auto dealer CRM system from Autobase has understood this trend of the communication age and applied it to our dealer CRM. With Autobase CRM, you can reach out to your customers through email, phones, ‘snail mail’, and many other options. You can even send a SMS message inside the Autobase system to any of your customers with a cell phone.

With so many people using cell phones today, our auto dealership software provides yet another way to stay in contact with the most important people to your business, your customers.

by Jason Solida

Automotive CRM: Successfully managing your auto dealership processes

Monday, August 17, 2009 by Steve Lausch

This past weekend was one of those weekends. One appointment backed up against another, and one to-do item overlapped with something else. My wife and I were at times moving on parallel tracks trying to successfully manage the weekend's events. If it wouldn't be for my DayTimer, I'd be loss -- plain and simple.

This kind of pace is experienced in auto dealerships across the country every day (can I get an "Amen" from someone out there in dealership sales management?) If you're using some form of automotive CRM in your auto dealership (of course, www.autobase.net we hope you've invested in Autobase CRM), you have the equivalent of my DayTimer at work ... hopefully, it's successfully managing the dealership's success in everything from traffic generation, lead management, variable and fixed ops business processes, as well as marketing for more of the same.

Auto Dealer CRM helps drive the processes that make your dealership profitable. It aligns everything you do against the specific business goals at your store. If you need something along the lines of this dealership software or if you need more from your current CRM system, check us out.

Hopefully, next weekend is a bit easier! :)

CRM, ILM, and BDC dealership software drives process on the road-to-the-sale

Thursday, August 6, 2009 by Steve Lausch

Everything we do in life has a process whether we realize it or not. Once you think about it, you can start to see that even the smallest act require certain steps. Perfect example: when you brush your teeth, you aren’t going to start without putting toothpaste on the brush. Small act requiring a process and yet we do it without thinking about it. It just comes naturally.

Having a process come naturally should happen when you are using your Dealer CRM, your Internet Lead Management (ILM) tool, or your BDC software. The way in which you use these tools should just flow into your way of business. It should just be part of the PROCESS. So developing a solid process around and for your CRM, such as Autobase, is essential to a successful launch and continued usage.

Think about how you sell a car. It is done without having to think about each step along the way. Sure, the beginning and the end of every automotive dealership's process are essentially the same, (meeting the customer – deliver the car) but the middle can vary drastically. At what point can or will you use Automotive CRM, ILM or BDC to help in your process? Thinking about this question will get you on the road to selling more cars at higher grosses and at lower costs. Could you ask anything more from your Autobase CRM?

by Sheena Lee

Using Automotive CRM to target business for your service drive

Thursday, August 6, 2009 by Steve Lausch

Yesterday, I posted a blog about "Serviced, Not Sold" customers. But what about using the permission-based marketing programs in your dealership's automotive CRM software to target your service drive?

How many people call or email or visit your store but DON'T buy from you? Probably close to 75% of all those prospects, if we use standard NADA averages. So what are you doing to market your service drive to those customers? Most likely, they are driving something right now, and the time will come when they need to have it serviced.

With just a few simple steps, any powerful automotive CRM (such as Autobase CRM) can help you market to those people to keep your name in front of them and “toot your own horn” about your service department. Dealership email can be generated to automatically deliver a video message from your dealership management, such as the General Manager or Service Manager. Or how about an email coupon for a percentage off on their first service RO or a free car wash if they come in for an oil change? The opportunities are endless.

In this economy and with the capabilities afforded you by dealership software like Autobase, the cross-over between sales and service needs to be habitual and automatic. Make it your habit.

by Jennifer Holliday-Buchanan

Auto Dealer CRM can help make raving fans of your car dealership

Monday, August 3, 2009 by Steve Lausch

Last weekend, my wife and I took a quick trip down to Charleston, SC, to visit some old friends and to check out the plethora of history, landscape, and low country cuisine. Of the hundreds of amazing places to go eat when your in the Charleston area, you definitely need to stop in at Hyman's Seafood.

Beyond fantastic seafood (I would have to recommend their signature Cripsy Flounder), you have to see just how much this family outfit "gets" customer loyalty and the power of marketing from the time you walk into the restaurant. Those who eat there enjoy an experience -- and for reasons far beyond the food. Is it possible to reproduce this in an auto dealership? What if you could boast of fans who rave about your your staff, service, and $20,000 product the way the Hymans boast of their fans of a $15 plate of flounder?

Sales management has the tools available. Automotive CRM, ILM, and business development software, all wrapped up in dealership software such as Autobase, is the ticket to making raving fans of your business and building customer retention that will have them coming back again and again. Check it out!

Leave no dealership customer forgotten with Auto Dealer CRM Software

Friday, July 24, 2009 by Steve Lausch

What if you were given a list of hot leads every month, leads for the sales people in your auto dealership to contact? You would jump on the opportunity for such a list of prospective buyers, right? Unfortunately, without a true automotive CRM system, thousands of automotive sales people let these customers buy somewhere else, month after month after month.

But with a dealership software like Autobase at work, you are able to receive early notification of customers nearing the end of the finance or lease term, as well as buyers who paid cash in the past and may be in the market again. Furthermore, selling these customers can be easier and more profitable. Additionally, you don’t have to do the preliminary "get to know the customer" work that takes so much time (... and we all know that time equals $$$ in the automotive industry).

Starting this month, DO NOT let these customers slip through the cracks and buy from your competitor. Pick up the phone, write and email, or send them a letter and get them back in YOUR store.

Posting submitted by Sheena Lee

No such thing as a "SOLD" customer in a good Auto CRM

Friday, May 8, 2009 by Steve Lausch

One of the key points separating the average dealership software (in terms of a CRM system) from the best-of-breed, auto dealer CRM is the grouping of customers. And one of the hurdles we in the auto retail industry need to clear (whether our auto CRM helps or hinders the effort) is adopting the mindset that there is no such thing as a SOLD customer.

Not to worry, this misconception is not isolated within the dealership world. It is common for many businesses with the potential for repeat sales to fall victim to a nearsighted view of the future.

A customer is always just that: a customer -- a warm body presenting opportunity for business on many levels far beyond the new car or used car they might be looking at today. If you are successful in selling the vehicle, congratulations! Now, let the cashier enjoy that moment ... we're already working to pencil the customer in for a future sales opportunity.

Here's another way to look at it:

Before taking delivery, the customer is a current sales opportunity. After taking delivery, they instantly become a future sales opportunity.

The auto dealer adopting this mindset is likely to enjoy a relatively high rate of customer retention.

Effective business planners for automotive sales people (Part V)

Sunday, May 3, 2009 by Steve Lausch

The next point to consider when sizing up the business planners offered by various auto CRM providers is the following:

Sales people should be able to complete the planner daily.

If leaving a call or two on the planner at the end of the day sends red flags flying, the auto CRM system may be a little too strict. If doing so happens without sales managers being aware, the solution is a little too soft for the good of the dealership. The end result should be an empty planner (with regard to phone calls) at the end of each day.

Automotive sales people who consistently leave unmade calls on their planner are missing the very concept. And managers who tolerate repeated offenses are condoning such behavior and defeating the purpose of auto dealership software. While exceptions occur (and should be allowed), the best utilization of daily business planners has a 100% completion rate as a goal.

Managers should consider a review of each planner part of their closing routine. The top CRM providers include a live scoreboard (or recap) that keeps managers aware of this collective progress throughout the day.

Effective business planners for automotive sales people (Part I)

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 by Steve Lausch

Different auto dealership software providers offer a variety of screens, or views, of a sales person's daily game plan. In fact, there may be no better way to differentiate between two automotive CRM solutions than to evaluate the very screens that will be used daily by your sales people.

Proper use of electronic business planners is contingent upon the design of the planners. As you search for the best CRM solution for your dealership, keep the following six considerations in mind:

1. All prospect follow-up calls are not the same.
2. All owner follow-up calls are not the same.
3. Salespeople and managers should have the same view (screen), with managers being notified when calls are not being made.
4. Sales people should be able to complete the planner daily.
5. The planner should change during the night.
6. The planner must force closure to each opportunity.

In our current economic climate, the need to plan and execute around the existing business opportunities in your CRM of choice is absolutely VITAL. For this reason, we'll spend some time over the next few days looking further into these points.

All Sizzle and No Steak: What you see may NOT be what you get with some Auto CRMs

Thursday, April 16, 2009 by Steve Lausch

When Autobase was born in 1988, it was the only technology-based auto CRM solution that lived in the showroom at that time. And at that time, we endured the extremely basic, but extremely functional, screen layouts allowed by the DOS platform. The software did wonders for auto dealerships, and we put up with the generic white text on the generic blue screen. It was all steak -- and very little sizzle.

With the dawn of Windows, dealership software providers could get creative -- not just for the sake of colors, images, and the overall "cool factor," but creative in such a way as to increase ease-of-use and user-friendliness. It's exactly why Autobase created its screens to mimic the dealership logbook -- something dealers, managers, and sales people could use immediately because they were familiar with what they were looking at on the screen. All steak -- and lots of sizzle!

Over the past ten years, automotive CRM companies have come and gone. Some have introduced screens with big fonts, bright colors, and big icons in an effort to make the program appear user-friendly. A few web-based CRM solutions have taken a more conservative approach, but nevertheless, deliver on the glitz without the underlying functionality to serve the dealership as a true auto CRM. All sizzle -- and very little steak.

Let's just put it on the table: Even though our innovation and technology grow year after year, Autobase is sometimes thought as being old technology, mostly because dealers see similar screen layouts as were used a few years ago. Unfortunately, they often opt for the sizzle elsewhere and realize in time there is very little steak on the plate...

Others look at the Autobase system and see the tried-and-true electronic logbook on the screen, know that it's what their guys are used to, and understand that true ease-of-use is going to translate into usage and usage is going to translate into success for the business.

Let's face it, the automotive world will probably witness a face lift to the Autobase software at some point in the future. We all love new stuff. But those who partner with us THEN will do so for the same reason auto dealers continue to partner with us NOW even though there are "glitzier" systems available ... it's because they know they'll see more return on their investment with Autobase CRM than with any other sales and marketing solution available to auto dealers.

Autobase and Automotive CRM in 2009

Thursday, March 5, 2009 by Steve Lausch

The last time I sat down to blog about all things "Auto Dealer CRM," the radio stations were beginning to play Christmas music. Ninety days later, things have calmed down enough for me to begin blogging again.

So many great things have been happening at Autobase:

In December, we brought every last person on our nationwide team to Indianapolis to unveil and train on the latest and greatest in automotive CRM, lead management, dealership marketing, etc. etc. etc. Simply an inspiring time for the entire Autobase team!
We then took this growing package of products and auto dealer services to New Orleans at NADA. Beyond the basics of dealership software like permission-based marketing and ILM, auto dealers learned about our new offerings in voice messaging, toll-free number call tracking, SMS text messaging, and a number of other additions to our marketing solutions. The overall traffic was down as many of you know -- but Autobase had a great show!
Finally, Autobase Business Solutions (formerly, Autobase Platinum CRM) continues to be recognized by auto dealers as one the highest returning investments they can make in today's market.

All that to say, we've been busy helping auto dealerships nationwide to thrive -- even in this turbulent market. Still, I hope to be back here blogging about Automotive CRM again sometime soon -- sooner than another ninety days out at least.