In & Out isn’t just the name of an overrated fast food burger chain and an underrated Kevin Kline comedy. It is also what customers are hoping for when visiting your dealership. They’re spending hours researching prior to making the trip to the store, all in an effort to speed things up. Between your digital retail tools and your in-store process, you have the ability to make your customers a half hour happier. Is that what you’re doing?
In my last Beat the Clock blog about “Downtime”, I wrote about keeping things moving for your customers, and this is no different. There are two places we can leverage to help the purchase experience go quicker, and that is online and in-store. (Funny how that works). Today, we’ll talk about the digital retail aspect of it.
The allure of digital retail is breaking up what can be accomplished online vs. what needs to be accomplished in-store. Some customers are fully bought into a totally online transaction, with vehicle selection, payment calculation, e-contracting and vehicle delivery all taking place without every stepping foot in a dealership. Others want to go to the store, but most are open to starting their path to purchase online.
Dealer.com’s early version of their Accelerate/Digital Retail tool would show customers a specific time saving for each and every additional step they complete on the website. “You completed your credit application? You just saved yourself 35 minutes.” I’m paraphrasing, but that was the intent. Granted, it rarely ever translated into a real saving of time because digital retail customers would walk in, shake the hand of a salesperson who could care less about what they had done online, and start from Step 1 in their archaic “road to the sale”, thereby rendering much of what was accomplished in advance relatively useless. Some stores still operate like that and others have thankfully evolved.
As I’ve said countless times before, digital retail is not a product, it is a process. One that, when done well, is a seamless integration between activities performed online by the shopper, and picking up where those left off once they arrive in-store. When a customer arrives, they should immediately be met with a recap of those steps they’ve already fulfilled. Even going so far as to say comforting phrases like “You definitely saved yourselves some time” might make a customer feel a sense of pride or accomplishment as if they made the right choice. Now all you have to do is execute those remaining tasks necessary to complete the purchase. Typically, they still want to see the vehicle, drive their vehicle, be educated on how their vehicle operates, and sign the paperwork after learning about service contracts and protection plans.
If the trade appraisal was completed online, or a sight-unseen where pics were shared and estimates given have transpired, you don’t say, “Let’s appraise your trade”. They feel they already did that online. Instead, say, “Great for having done that information online. Now we just need to confirm your trade’s condition and perform a quick drivability test to make sure everything is mechanically sound. We’ll also measure your tire tread depth.” This sets you up for the ability to still perform a trade eval, while making it clear a full appraisal wasn’t necessary because of the advanced work they put in.
Unless you’re selling vehicles entirely online (and it is 100% possible as many of us were doing it in the early 2000’s), digital retail mostly works when the transition from the online deal-building experience progresses into the showroom purchase experience flawlessly. No wait time. Documents already prepared. All hands understanding where they are in the deal. No steps duplicated. No asking everything a second time. Then you’re saving the customer time. Which is the goal of the customer for starting this online in the first place.
Use your digital retail website tools to set up an online/on-phone process that effortlessly continues into the dealership showroom and you have built your customer a fast-track to the finish line. An automotive sale Autobahn, if you will. (I oughta coin that 😉 Build your process around the goal of a seamless integration from online to in-store, and train your team to execute it. Do this, and you will certainly make your customers a half hour happier.
And yes, In & Out burgers are overhyped and overrated. I said it at the start and feel it needs repeating. I’ll die on that hill.
