Few people are likely to argue with the importance of digital and the need to implement proper processes in the dealership.
But whether those processes are digital or not, they will need to be clear and easy for both the dealership’s employees to understand and for consumers to appreciate, according to Gervais Parent, a consultant/trainer in the automotive sector.
His Quebec-based company Gervais Parent Consultants Formateurs offers online training, along with classroom training for different OEMS in fixed operations and sales.
In an interview with Canadian auto dealer, Parent said he believes there will always be a human element to fixed ops, but that dealers need to adapt to customer expectations to increase their client base.
“If our processes are clear, clean and precise, are adapted to customer requirements, to customer expectations, it’s fluid, everyone is aware, employees are trained in their new processes, and it’s easy for the customer, then we are able to wow and touch the customer emotionally and keep them in our dealership,” said Parent.
Specific to digital, he said the experience should be similar to Amazon in that it needs to be fluid, simple and intuitive — something that he said our industry still needs to work on.
“I think the industry now, in terms of automotive retail, we are not yet at the digital point we need to be at,” said Parent. “Often the tools we have will do the work, but they won’t necessarily communicate with the other digital tool (managing) another aspect of the dealership work.”
He said these tools do not always communicate well with each other, which can be complicated for dealers to deal with. Which is why focusing on meeting the needs of customers and adapting to digital continues to be important moving forward.
For Parent, digital is a necessary add-on that will allow dealerships to reach more customers that are looking to have their needs met in this way, while also facilitating the store’s processes for them online and particularly amid the pandemic. And those two elements are tied closely together.
