Dealers must now respond and process leads more quickly, adopt video conferencing and texting tools, focus more on the end user, and leverage their people — and all in the name of a more seamless customer experience.
When COVID-19 all but shut down the Canadian automotive retail industry, many dealers were forced to follow up on every lead and embrace more digital methods of communication — but there remains a large gap in digital responsiveness.
According to RAPID RTC’s Global Insights Team, while 30 per cent of website leads typically receive a response in 30 minutes or less, a little more than 25 per cent of digital leads in Canada receive no response at all.
“As physical distancing remains a hurdle to visiting showrooms in person for some, customers are more frequently completing as many steps as they can online, including their initial communication with dealerships,” said Glen Demetrioff, President and CEO of RAPID RTC.
In an interview with Canadian auto dealer, Demetrioff said that “it’s imperative dealers are efficient and timely in responding to leads.” And for good reason. Based on a May 2020 Cox Automotive report: How the Rise of ‘Digital’ is Changing Consumer & Dealer Experiences, the likelihood of consumers finalizing a deal online has increased by 73 per cent — with two out of three shoppers now more likely to buy their vehicle 100 per cent online.
“Our experience as a digital communications company has been that digital tools in general are gaining traction at a rate that wouldn’t have occurred were it not for COVID,” said Demetrioff. “Our new video chat product, Live Dealer, would likely not have seen the early success it has.”
Live Dealer is a fully integrated omni-channel platform that provides chat, voice, and one-way or two-way video.
Demetrioff said contactless forms of communication have grown significantly, with downloads for video conferencing mobile apps having increased by 90 per cent from pre-COVID averages, based on data from recent Computerworld and App Annie articles. To be clear, “digital conferencing tools” refers to products like Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts Meets, and Zoom Cloud Meetings which, based on the data, experienced larger numbers of downloads in the U.S., U.K., and across Europe amid the pandemic.
“In considering digital communication tools, what’s important for dealers is how easy the technology is to use and how effortlessly it integrates with their current software and sales processes,” said Demetrioff. “If the tools are easy for staff to use and mimic their sales process digitally, this will translate to easier change management processes and a seamless customer experience that builds confidence and trust online.”
“If the tools are easy for staff to use and mimic their sales process digitally, this will translate to easier change management processes and a seamless customer experience that builds confidence and trust online.”
Glen Demetrioff, President and CEO of RAPID RTC.
He said a surefire way to appeal to customer expectations is to provide communication tools that offer options, since having the ability to choose will create a more positive user experience.
Communication is key
One of the biggest shifts in communication tools thanks to COVID-19 is video conferencing. Those were trends that were previously active in the auto retail space but were fast-tracked by the pandemic, according to Nick Cossette, Head of Growth and Operations at Matador.AI — a self-described end-user and user-centric software-based company.
“If you look at the adoption numbers from Zoom, in a matter of weeks everyone became comfortable with modifying their background on Zoom, interacting within a group chat — so now it feels as though you no longer have the choice,” said Cossette. “But as a dealer it’s more of a matter of time: when will you start integrating video conferencing into the lead management process or digital retailing operations?”
According to App Annie, Zoom was downloaded 14 times more than its U.S. weekly average in Q4 of 2019 during the week of March 15-21. It was also downloaded 20 times more in the U.K. during the same period, 22 times more in France, 17 times more in Germany, 27 times more in Spain, and 55 times more in Italy — one of the hardest hit countries in Europe early in the pandemic.
Cossette said he is in discussion with a large dealer group in the Montreal region and that its top priority is to deploy video conferencing in the “very near future.”
“They were looking at the digital retailing solution to have the end user choose their own financing offer,” said Cossette. “What they were interested in was prioritizing a different communication channel with their end users. They mostly already heavily rely on phone calls as well as emails when it comes to communication.”
Online texting too, is a trend that was fast-tracked due to COVID-19. Cossette said that when the dealer group looked at the data from their CRM, the statistics around texting for consumer engagement and responsiveness were higher. And while some dealers have already been doing this on a smaller scale, sharing their personal cell numbers with customers to text, FaceTime or video conference, Cossette said this is not scalable.
“For a bigger dealer group, you need to have visibility over the different communication channels,” said Cossette. “And not only do you want to have visibility, you want to control and optimize that. You want to embrace enterprise-level solutions to deploy either online texting and video conferencing, or any type of communication — even AI.”
Matador.AI, which recently launched an engagement platform for retailers, considers itself an anti-lead company. Its focus is on providing additional context over the end user, as it seeks to bridge the gap between the dealership and the person in the market looking to buy a vehicle.
Cossette said their focus is on meaningful conversations and engagement, which is why he believes digital responsiveness is also about relying on people and processes to work and operate within the different types of communication tools.
People move the needle
That concept is also shared by Kyle Orlando, President of EDealer, who believes there will be no bigger impact on the future of the store than people.
“You can have any tool in the world to communicate with your customers, but if you’re not setting the bar for what that communication is supposed to look like, how you’re communicating, what your standards are within your own store with your people — that is what’s moving the needle — those expectations,” said Orlando.
He said any tool that facilitates clear communication and delivers on customers expectations is what is working in the industry right now.
As for the tools he sees really working, in terms of digital responsiveness, it comes back to the idea of products that facilitate communication and make it easier for the dealership to both engage and track the engagement with their customers.
As an example, EDealer launched its Guaranteed Trade tool about a year and a half ago. Interestingly, Orlando said they had a hard time getting dealers to engage with the tool.
The tool allows a customer to visit the website, fill out information on the vehicle they want, and then receive an app via text. They then download the app and are able to self-capture photos of their vehicle, from home — so take photos of the vehicle or photos of vehicle damage, do all their disclosures, etc. — and then send it to the dealer. The dealer is then able to put a “pretty accurate number” on the vehicle.
But the company was having trouble getting dealers to push forward and engage with the leads.
“But not all dealers,” said Orlando. “You always have your top 10-20 per cent that always does an excellent job with communication, and frankly those are the dealers that are thriving across the board (not just with our tools) right now and through COVID.”
“You always have your top 10-20 per cent that always does an excellent job with communication, and frankly those are the dealers that are thriving across the board.”
Kyle Orlando, President of EDealer
But then they saw a 100 per cent increase in engagement, as far as dealers using the company’s system, and about a 300 per cent increase in the way that those dealers using the tool were engaging with the customers.
Orlando said it all trails back to the communication piece, and that dealers that are leveraging their people and setting the right expectations for clear and transparent communication are the ones he sees winning right now.
For dealers that are uncertain about the overwhelming number of tools and products being launched around digital responsiveness and even digital retailing, particularly amid the crisis, Orlando advises asking providers for three references, and then putting some parameters around those references to ensure the tool the vendor is trying to sell them really carries merit.
“A very simple solution to a very simple problem,” said Orlando.
