It’s no secret that car dealerships are facing trouble as a new decade approaches. Thanks to changes in technology and the ease with which people can hail a car using apps like Uber or Lyft, car dealerships and automakers alike are looking for better ways to appeal to consumers.
While it’s true that there are no silver bullets to make your job as a dealer easier, there are several tools that you can leverage to improve your business. If you’re looking to gain a competitive edge in the auto market, here are a few secrets that dealerships need to pay attention to.
One way to increase your profits is to decrease your expenses. While this is no secret to any business owner, thinking about this problem creatively is one way to get ahead in the auto market. A dealership that is running as lean as possible has a much higher chance of success than a business that is not tracking its expenses properly and wasting money on frivolous things.
How your dealership ships and receives its inventory is one such example of this. For example, an enclosed shipping container is usually a much higher expense than shipping cars on a means of open transport. Depending on the make and model of the cars you sell, there are some situations in which open shipping containers won’t work as well. For example, enclosed auto shipping is a much safer way to transport luxury vehicles or other high-end cars. That being said, for almost 80% of the vehicles you will be receiving, open transport is a much more cost-efficient way of receiving inventory.
Utilizing the right telecommunications call center software is another way that you can gain an edge as a car dealership. Nowadays, buyers are doing a lot more research ahead of visiting your dealership and some of that involves communicating with your sales team before coming in for a test drive. Being able to be reached in the manner most convenient for your customers is one way to ensure that interested buyers approach your dealership instead of the competition.
With the right omnichannel call center solution, your customer service agents and sales team can engage with consumers through a wide variety of communication channels. Whether it’s discussing further information on the phone, via email, or with text messages, call center software can help your dealership feel more approachable. Best of all, call center software like Bright Pattern’s integrates with CRM systems like Salesforce, which allows you to better understand each customer’s value to your business no matter who is interacting with them.
While it may seem counterproductive to suggest since one of the previous suggestions is to run a lean business, paying your sales team and employees a fair wage is a surefire way to keep your business running. When you invest in your team, they invest in you, and having salespeople with a deep work history with your business can ensure that you’re using your resources productively.
Turnover costs businesses a lot more money than keeping an employee happy with raises that are appropriate to their work history and skillset. If you can attract top talent with top wages, and keep them with your business, in the long term you will have saved much more money than continuing to hire entry-level individuals every year. It’s also worth noting that customers recognize this job loyalty as well, which gives them even more of a vote of confidence in your dealership when it comes time to lease a new car.
Don’t underestimate the positive effects of a customer seeing the same smiling staff members in the showroom each time they visit.
