Let's say you're an auto dealer (which you probably are, if you're reading this blog), and you have a customer database of 98,621 records. Of those customers, 23,849 have email addresses associated with their record.
Now, if your store used auto dealer CRM software to send one email per month to all of those 23,849 email address, it would save your dealership $10,493.56 in postage expense based on 44 cents a stamp...
To bring it home, multiply that by 12 and you'll see savings of $125,922.72 in one year!
Hey, we realize a dealership may not send an email to every email address each month (and probably shouldn't!) but the importance of collecting email addresses is overwhelming. Know what your email capture rate is?
About a week ago, a user using our automotive CRM software posted a forum question asking the Autobase CRM users at other auto dealerships for help. A couple of people responded but no one really had the right answer for the question. Someone at Autobase CRM was sent the forum link and was able to see the question. The user had posted his name and dealership so we knew how to contact him.
An Account Analyst from his Personal Service Team called and was able to begin the process of answering his question. What struck me as odd about this is why the customer didn’t call Autobase first? Once we spoke with him he said he hadn’t even thought about it but now realized that would have made more sense. His question may have seemed easy to answer on a forum with a simple glance, but what wasn’t being provided was the expertise of so many Autobase employees.
I am glad that we have been able to work with the customer to the extent that we have. We have made great progress and have been able to dive so deep that I don’t think he would have ever realized. I know this auto dealership (and specific employee) will be a great user of Autobase CRM for a long time to come and now has the help of Autobase experts, because he knows who to work with.
If you have a question or need help with something don’t ever hesitate to call our support center (800-568-6085). You would be happy to know that every dealership with Autobase has a personal team of associates to work with, only making your experience with Autobase that much better.
I once had a college professor who was a bit of a sarcastic cynic who felt that you had to be wary of charitable institutions that were fighting something (cancer, world hunger, the common cold) because you needed to realize that if they ever found a cure, they would be out of business. A somewhat skewed vision of the world but such are the inclinations of most cynics that I know. What I took from that is that they will never be done -- reminds me of Autobase CRM (but in a MUCH more positive way).
I remember serving auto dealers back in the days of our Autobase DOS product. Some of you may recall DOS from your visits to the Museum of Natural History (think Pong vs. Wii and that describes where Autobase has come from and where we are today).
We have some GREAT things brewing that will be revealed at NADA 2010 ... beyond that, it's an open book as yet unwritten, but you can believe that it will include the cutting edge of technology and keep us in the catbird seat of the industry. From our DOS days when we were virtually a simple shell that was an electronic file cabinet (but very high tech for the time) to the robust product of today.
Today our solution includes (among other things) showroom control features, a permission-based marketing suite, 70+ integrations, desking capabilities, digital marketing, newsletters, Internet lead management (ILM) ... as part of a TOTAL lead management system, and elements of every hot technology that can make a dealer more successful in today’s environment.
We are not done by a long shot, and we never will be either! Now get me some more Legos. I feel a product enhancement coming on!!!
If I were to ask, "How many customers who are not associated with a Sales Consultant in your Auto CRM?" I bet the majority of auto dealership owners would have to answer, “TOO MANY!" Or perhaps they do not even know about this hidden potential??
It is common in the automotive sector that the customer may buy a car at one dealership but service that same car at another dealership, maybe your dealership? Or maybe a Sales Consultant sold a vehicle to a customer and has since relocated to another profession, etc. The bottom line is right now you have a lot of customers within your Automotive CRM that are not attached to an employee at your dealership. There is a huge potential within this customer base if you have a quality CRM.
I serve as an Account Manager for Autobase CRM. Often when I am in dealerships, I notice that there are literally thousands of these customers within almost every dealership I visit. Why not single out these customers and assign them to your Sales Consultants? Maybe next time they are in for service your Sales Consultants can make an introduction? How about having these Sales Consultants call these customers 1 day after their service is performed? How about developing an email campaign to these customers? These are loyal customers who have done business with you in the past, why not figure out a way to reach out to them. Get creative with your Automotive CRM!
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.
OK, confession: I’ve never serviced my car at the dealership where I bought my car. In fact, I don’t recall going on a “service walk” with my salesman or receiving follow-up to schedule my first service visit. I may be the guy who bought, and doesn't service ...
But what about the many who customers who didn’t purchase from your auto dealership, but it’s where they get their vehicles serviced? They pay their bill and don’t think about getting serviced again until the mileage on their oil change sticker in the windshield expires. And, unfortunately for the dealer, a lot of customer business is being overlooked.
The Service Logbook in any decent auto dealer CRM solution can identify those customers who do not have an associated sales person. When a customer comes in for service, the RO builds a customer record and assigns the customer to a generic “Service Visit” account. The sales manager can monitor the logbook, view what work was done, see how many miles the vehicle has, AND how much the customer paid! Auto dealership management can manually reassign the customer to an active sales employee and have them make contact.
This is an ideal way to keep your dealership name with the customer and earn repeat or new business. If you need help stepping up your dealership CRM effort, give us a call to learn more about Autobase CRM.
The mere thought of “Customer Relationship Management” (CRM) is enough to raise the blood pressure of some auto dealers. While this response is due much in part to souring experiences with some CRM providers, many are frustrated from confusion over the concept itself, and the plethora of “so-called CRM providers” isn’t helping.
Unfortunately, it seems every technology vendor offers a CRM, and hence, the waters get muddy. In recent years, digital marketing providers have added on CRM. Outsourced call centers and call tracking providers have added on CRM to their solutions. Companies beginning as ILMs or inventory solutions now have CRM. This may be why NADA Expos see as many as 70 companies listing themselves as an automotive CRM from year to year. Before you know it, a dealer doesn’t have a CRM system; he has six or seven different programs he uses to sell a car, each with their own follow-up processes (CRM).
Naturally, the data for a single customer may be isolated from other data in any one of the other six or seven, separate databases. A dealership can jump from program to sell a car (if he has to), but different databases simply don’t cut it where things really count – true customer relationship management.
The single most important reason for gathering quality data today is its inherent value to market and sell customers tomorrow. This is an important role of a (single) dealership CRM. It makes sense that all marketing data should be kept in one place, yet with six or seven products at work in the average dealership, the average marketing effort is disjointed at best (and crippled at worst).
Need to reduce the headaches to the tune of about five or six CRMs? Contact us to see True CRM -- a single solution to capture, sell, manage, and market to all customers in a single database!
If you analyze the data in your CRM system are 90% of your leads from the internet and not the phone? In the Autobase CRM, Internet Leads and Phone Leads are treated equally and the goal for each CRM entry type is the same ... GET THEM IN THE STORE!
Have prospects stopped calling? Look at the “calls to action” in your advertising. Are all of your ads driving people to your website instead of the phone? Is motivating your prospects to jump on the Internet to search your inventory always the best thing to do? What about the thousands of people that drive by your expensive piece of real estate every day? With their cell phones in hand and often in use, can you goad them into calling right then and there, or are you encouraging them to go home and search your inventory through pictures and words?
After driving past a few dealerships near NADA headquarters this week, I couldn’t help but notice that not one of them used any signage to post a TOLL FREE number to call. Every effort was made to remind the consumer of their World Wide Web address where they can browse 24/7 without any sales interaction. This encourages them to not only shop our store, but every other store on the planet. Too bad. Of those thousands of cars with all of those people with all of those cell phones, somebody needed a new car that day.
I encourage you to start filling up your CRM database with true phone prospects and get your staff trained to professionally get them in the door .. and get them in NOW. Tell the customer to TURN AROUND and you will have their favorite car warmed up or cooled off – ready for a test drive. Put some emotion back in the sales process and remove some of the research stirred by the web.
Three things to consider...
1. Use toll free numbers so you can truly manage inbound phone traffic from advertised numbers. All calls from toll free numbers can be routed as leads directly into your Auto Dealer CRM system.
2. Post a specific number for your drive by numbers so those calls can be handled differently. They just drove by your store – GET THEM TO TURN AROUND!
3. Train a few specialists or your entire team to handle phone calls properly ... teach them to be EXCITED again. Use the technology to listen and grade the effort of your staff. Continue to monitor and improve.
Remember, don’t let the WWW be your ONLY source of leads. Put a spiff on true phone leads and start having fun again. Why grind out 15 emails and replies with a consumer when they just drove by your store 2 hours ago?
No dealership sales person would say they "want to rely on floor traffic for every up" or "want to avoid repeat and referral business," but this commercial from the Autobase Archives has a lot to say. Orignally put together for the 2004 NADA Expo in Las Vegas, this clip has a little fun with a spoof on the old "When I Grow Up" commercial. It also makes a statement to how Automotive CRM from Autobase truly helps auto dealers drive more traffic, higher sales, and stronger profits -- all through our Auto Dealer CRM Software.
If your auto dealership is looking for an automotive sales and marketing solution (CRM, BDC, ILM, Permission-based Marketing, Digital Marketing, and more) that can do just that, start by getting more info here! For now, enjoy the video ...
It's a Friday, so we'll let our hair down a little bit and have some fun.
We won't cover our usual subject of auto CRM, Internet Lead Management (ILM), permission-based email, or even voice and text messaging. Today, we'd like to introduce our favorite Automotive CRM Motivational Speaker...
You may have seen Buck in our NADA booth a few years ago. Here is one of our favorite Autobase commercials.
Since Autobase began developing auto dealer CRM software in 1988, we've formed numerous relationships with some of the leading auto dealerships and auto dealers in the industry. One of those is with Former NADA Chairman, H. Carter Myers III. The following video was shot at a Virginia Automobile Dealers Association meeting and captures some of Mr. Myers' thoughts on Autobase and Automotive CRM. Take a listen ...
I was paging through a book* we at Autobase published (2004), when I stumbled upon the following quotation:
"Proactive franchises should realize that the successful dealerships of tomorrow will not stay on top simply by selling attractive brands or service, but rather through the relationships they have with their customers. Leveraging CRM to generate dialog has the capacity to initiate valued customer contact with prospects and owners. Above all, maintaining customer loyalty should be viewed not as the goal, but as the foundation of business."
That was stated by the [then] Director of CRM and Business Development at the Village Automotive Group... again, back in 2004. Nearly ten years later, we are not just seeing the reality and truth of his statement, we're living it!
Automotive CRM purchased by dealers then is helping them to thrive just five years later in the face of a challenged economy. With all of its components (ILM, Automotive BDC software, Digital marketing and other permission-based marketing solutions, etc.), atrue Auto CRMand the data in it IS THE ANSWER to success today as well as the success yet to be experienced another five years from now.
* In 2004, automotive CRM was not only widely growing in popularity, it was leaving many dealers (who were new to the idea) quite confused on the subject. Floor Traffic is for Green Peas was written to help auto dealers understand what a true CRM solution was and how it worked in their dealerships. The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) so enjoyed and approved of the book that they reprinted its contents with permission in their "Management Series" as their definitive statement on CRM.
Autobase will be back in Las Vegas this weekend for the 6th Digital Dealer Conference. Looks like a decent line-up of speakers and seminars, as well as a fairly good turnout from vendors who are ready to show off their various automotive software and services.
Vegas is always a draw for these kinds of events, but the poor showing in New Orleans for NADA 2009 as well as the fact that Mr. Roscoe and his crew have these shows twice a year has everyone asking, "Will the dealers show up?" I am optimistic.
There are a few important areas where the average dealership requires evolution in today's market, and harnessing the power of technology for sales and marketing purposes is at the top of the list. Those who (are able to) attend this conference get it.
Of course, our sales solutions(Autobase CRM with its fully-integrated Internet lead management (ILM) and business development (BDC) solutions)will be on display alongside of our marketing solutions (digital marketing, permission-based voice and text messaging, and service/ loyalty marketing solutions to name a few). And our neighbors will be our friends at Dealer Specialties and Dealerskins -- both from the family of brands under Dominion Dealer Solutions.
If you plan on being there, stop by and see us (and the latest offering of true customer relationship management for auto dealers) at Booth #61.
Good question. A little background to our take on the answer...
In 2004, Autobase had noticed a growing interest (and confusion) by auto dealers in customer relationship management, or CRM. Having been the first to combine CRM with technology in the dealership (1988), we took steps to help dissolve some of the mystery around Auto Dealer CRM. The result was a book titled "Floor Traffic is for Green Peas."
Beyond defining CRM, it touched on the topics of sales force automation, integration, getting salespeople to use the system, training, as well as key components to this dealer software such as data acquisition, planners, logbooks, letters, and reports.
The book was a hit -- so much so that NADA contacted us, requesting permission to reprint the book as their definitive work on CRM for all of their dealers.
Four years later, the more important question in the mind of the average dealer is not "What is CRM?", but "How do I achieve success (make money!) with this thing?" Our attempt to help answer that question resulted in the printing of our second book, "Seven Months to CRM Greatness."
I'll dive a little further into "Seven Months" in future postings, but needless to say, the book has likewise taken off. Contact us to request your FREE copy today.
"How many engines does a car need?" Obviously, one. It drives everything the vehicle does. Two engines (or six) would complicate a process that can (and should) be handled by one, capable engine.
It's the same with Automotive CRM. How many CRMs does an Auto Dealer need? Dealer CRM drives everything that dealership does in terms of growing business by creating customer relationships and maintaining customer loyalty. Like the engine in a vehicle, two CRMs (or six) complicate the process that can (and should) be hanlded by one, capable CRM.
So even if an auto dealer's website provider, digital marketing provider, ILM provider, lead management provider, and phone lead provider each give that dealer some level of CRM with their individual product, has the dealer won? Or is he complicating the process... and losing??
Just ask the Top 125 auto dealer (large, multi-store dealer group in the upper midwest) who spoke with me at NADA... "Steve, we have six different programs we use to sell a car -- one for this that houses these customers and one for that and it houses those customers. Six different programs and I can't get them to talk to each other! Can you help me?"
The answer to his question was TRUE CRM. He realized that he needed only one, capable engine at work -- one solution to drive business, sell more cars, and to house and mine his data. I pointed him to an Automotive CRM that could serve as the central nervous system for ALL his customer management (including digital marketing, Internet Lead Management, loyalty marketing, website leads, permission-based marketing, etc.). It made sense to him...
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.
The buzz on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) first hit auto dealerships back at the 2000 NADA Expo, but as you may know, technology-based Auto CRM originated on the showroom floor back in the late 1980s. As a 10 year veteran with Autobase, I can tell you that this kind of dealership solution has come a long way.
At the same time, there seems to be 100 different definitions floating around as to what a true CRM is and what a true CRM system does for today's auto dealer. Great questions -- exactly the kind we hope to address in this blog.
For starters, check out this video... and check back with us again soon!
The mere thought of “Customer Relationship Management” (CRM) is enough to raise the blood pressure of some auto dealers. While this response is due much in part to souring experiences with some CRM providers, many are frustrated from confusion over the concept itself, and the plethora of “so-called CRM providers” isn’t helping.
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