How Click DMS Can Help Your Dealership Conduct an End-Of-Year Performance Review

data-driven
Another year is almost over, and your dealership might be starting to think about mapping out your strategy for 2019. But where should you start?

The best thing to do is look at how you performed this year and pinpoint areas where you could save time and money and increase efficiency and profitability. From this, you can set performance goals and devise a plan of how you will achieve these.

If you are using ClickDMS, checking your yearly performance is simple with our automatic reports. When you assess the performance of your vehicle dealership, three main areas that ClickDMS can help you investigate are stock, sales and customers.

Stock

If you have been keeping your stock lists up to date throughout the year, you will be able to generate an instant report which can reveal valuable information.

If you view your stock report in your DMS and alter the filters so that it shows you all of your vehicle sales throughout the year. Click Dealer’s stock reports are very comprehensive, including details like the make and model of vehicles and the number of days they spent in stock.

From this, you can conduct a make and model analysis, which will allow you to identify your bestsellers and those types of vehicles which tend to spend too many days in stock, which could be harmful to your profitability. This will help you form a stock acquisition plan for the year ahead.

Sales

Click Dealer’s Sales Margin Report function will give you an excellent overview of your sales performance for the year. You will be able to see the margins you have been making on each unit, the number of sales that have been made in specific price ranges, how many add-on products you have sold and the revenue from these products.

You can also see average sales margins and days in stock for the entire year, which makes it easy for you to draw comparisons with previous years. If you change the filters so you can see how these averages change on a month-by-month basis, you will be able to see your most profitable and difficult months. Awareness of this will help you prepare for peak times and quiet times next year.

Our Sales Margin Report allows you to see how members of your sales team are performing too. It will tell you the number of sales completed by each individual over the course of the year, the value of their sales, finance deals, and the add-on products they’ve sold, and total margins. This information could help you assess whether you need to adapt sales incentives or arrange training.

Customers

The last area where you may want to evaluate your performance is your customer base, and this should help you formulate a marketing strategy for the year. The Sales Enquiries Report feature in our dealer management system will tell you how many enquiries have come from each source, whether it is advertising portals, search engines, ClickEngage, referrals or any other source. Having this longitudinal data all in one place, should make it easier for you to see the value of each source, so that you can allocate your budget for 2019 accordingly.

You can also find a Customer Mapping Report feature in our DMS, which will tell you where your customers are coming from, including the town or city they are based in, how many miles from your dealership they are and the enquiry source. This is incredibly useful information, especially if you are investing in SEO and PPC, because it will help you figure out which regions to target with advertising.

To find out more about ClickDMS, email [email protected], call us on 01782 904 715 or alternatively, message us via our contact page.

Revhead Ramblings: Why Do We Sacrifice Comfort For Performance?

We all want our cars to be as light as they need to be for performance and emission, but not when it means sacrificing creature comforts!

It’s common knowledge that weight matters on the track, a lower total weight is the virtuous thing that keeps on giving. This is why I’ve got no issues with the likes of Porsche and McLaren releasing special driver’s packs that remove the radio or air conditioning.

These few kilograms may not seem like much, but they can make all the difference when your lap times are milliseconds apart from the person behind you.

Creature Comforts

To add these features back in is usually a no-cost option, one that’s very rarely not taken. Yes, a Porsche 911 GT3 RS without a radio or air conditioning system is pretty much the ultimate track car, but it’s also incredibly sweaty and loud.

I’d much rather fly around a Spanish track a few milliseconds slower at a comfortable temperature, than cook myself in a tin can for the sake of less than a second.

The Issue

So yes, we all like our cars to be light, but we’re less inclined to strip them down if it means inconveniencing ourselves or ridding our cars of creature comforts. This isn’t just seen in cars however, our environment would benefit if we used less energy, but are you going to do without heating and put an extra layer on? No, I didn’t think so…

Never Ending Additions

With each new model of car, manufacturers have an increasingly difficult job of reducing weight. Crash regulators are calling for more technology to keep you safe in a collision, but of course this adds unnecessary weight with it.

Your massaging, heating, cooling and ejecting seats also weigh about as much as three small children too. Packaging all of this technology while reducing the overall weight of a growing car is becoming a nearly impossible task and I for one salute the designers tasked with the conundrum.

How Effective is Your Dealership’s Digital Advertising Campaigns?

digital-advertising-campaign
A recent study by Sophus3 revealed how effective targeted commercial messages can be in driving traffic to automotive websites. The study looked at seven UK premium automotive consumer publishing sites from January to May 2018, analysing 135 million visits. It measured the effect of six million impressions to a top-five car brand and tracked 10.5 million visits to the site. 

This study was a huge project in terms of the sheer amount of data processed, and it offers an important insight into the online car purchase journey. It assesses the timeframe in which consumers are exposed to digital advertising, and pinpoints when they reacted and visited the brand’s site. 

Findings 

Scott Gairns, Managing Director of Sophus3, commented: “The leading car brand involved in this study, the automotive publishers and their agencies took a risk to ask for this independent analysis of advertising effectiveness, but the results clearly show consumers engage with digital advertising.” 

Quantity 

Sophus3’s study found that 177,000 (3%) consumers visited the website within seven days of exposure to the advert, and three million (more than half) consumers visited the site within 30 days of exposure. It is clear from this that digital advertising is effective over time. 

Quality 

50% of web users will leave a car website after visiting just one page, spending an average time of three minutes on the site, but this survey found significant improvements in bounce rate and dwell time on one of the publisher’s sites after visitors had seen their advertisement. Only 34% left after visiting a single page and dwell time rose to almost eight minutes. 

The digital advertising efforts of one premium automotive publishing site led to a 237% increase in brochure requests in a seven-day timeframe and test drive requests rose by 131%. These figures show that the advertising wasn’t just driving more traffic, but high-quality traffic, that resulted in conversions. 

Competition 

In recent years, the number of brands that consumers consider after initially entering the market has more than doubled, meaning that car buyers have a tendency to shop around more before choosing a dealer. One of the most interesting findings of this study is that visitors who were exposed to the advertising were 27% less likely to go to a competitor’s site in the period when they are finalising their purchase decision. 

Making Your Digital Advertising Effective 

At Click Dealer, our in-house PPC experts have seen impressive results from managing advertising campaigns for our dealers and offer the following tips: 

  • Write compelling ad copy 
  • Optimise landing pages 
  • Measure your performance 
  • Conduct keyword research 
  • Regularly review your budget allocation 

If you would like to find out about how our PPC packages can help your dealership gain more high-quality traffic to your site, get in touch today via [email protected], 01782 478220 or through our contact page!

Used Car Dealers Must Adapt as Stock Acquisition Becomes Increasingly Challenging

With demand for used cars higher than it’s been in years, retailers are having to turn to alternative methods and adapt their acquisition strategies to compensate.

Remarketing expert, Manheim has recently conducted a dealer sentiment survey, in which used car dealers have expressed their views about the current trends.

Survey Findings

In response to difficulties in acquiring quality stock in the current market, Manheim found that 59% of the retailers they surveyed have adapted their buying strategies, with more than half agreeing with the statement “demand is currently outstripping supply in the used car market”.

Many said that they were having to resort to additional or alternative sources, with one in five turning to classifieds and one in ten revealing that they had bought lower grade stock.

We have seen significant development in the used car market recently, but respondents of Manheim’s dealer sentiment survey argue that there would be even more growth if more stock was coming through into the used sector.

Compromising

Customer Insight and Strategy Director at Cox Automotive, Philip Nothard, commented: “That dealers have maintained this growth despite stock availability challenges and increased competition in the lanes is testament to their resilience and ability to flex their business models to compensate.”

It is certainly true that dealers have had to make compromises to maximise on used car demand, whether it is fast-tracking vehicle preparation to speed up stock turn, travelling further than normal to obtain quality stock or settling for lower margins for high-grade vehicles to remain competitive.

Another compromise that I have recently discussed as a possible response to the shortage of quality used cars is outsourcing vehicle preparation. With more dealers turning to lower grade stock than usual, a lack of resources for refurbishment is likely to arise as an issue, but outsourcing could be a viable solution.

Nothard predicts that things will calm down in Q1 of 2019, stating: “As we look towards Q1 and the prospect of a return to normality for the new car sector and a release of used stock into the wholesale market as fleets, manufacturers and leasing firms restart their buying cycles following the WLTP-induced lull, I think we can be confident dealers are ready and able to take full advantage of every opportunity.”

For more information on how Click Dealer can help your dealership start the New Year with a bang and improve performance in 2019, get in touch via [email protected] or on 01782 478220.

Revhead Ramblings: An Affordable Electric Sports Car is Exactly What We Need

The electric market is dominated by either small, affordable city cars or big, expensive saloons. What the market is crying out for is a cheap sports car to convert people to electric driving!

Think about it, sports cars are already light, so the added weight of a battery shouldn’t have too much of an effect on performance. The low positioning of the battery will also aid handling, a key point in sports cars. It all makes perfect sense.

I’m sure there’ll be a few people who’ve already jumped to the comments to tell me a car like this already exists. The Tesla Roadster is almost exactly what I’ve just described, a two seat EV with a focus on entertaining driving. The only point missing from the spec is affordability.

The Lotus-based Tesla cost just shy of £90,000 when it was debuted! That would place it against some seriously tough competition and, more importantly, well out of reach for the 99% of us…

The Best of Both Worlds

This new electric sports car would be more than just a fun car to blast on the weekends though, this is a car that you’d be happy to commute to work in. A range of over 200 miles would see most people only topping their batteries up overnight, you’ll have zero impact on local air pollution and at the end of a long day, when the roads have cleared, you’ll still have a fun car to thrash home.

You don’t have to compromise when it comes to weekend thrills however, you’ve still got a fast and low roadster to carve up the best roads Britain has to offer, you may have to stop to charge whilst you’re out, but how many Sunday drives are complete without a pub lunch or a spot of shopping?

Just a Few More Years…

I’m not expecting this Mazda MX-5 rival to be announced tomorrow, development and production costs of EVs are declining, but they’re not quite low enough to give manufacturers the profit margin their accountants crave.

There’s an influx of EV models due for launch between now and 2020, I just hope that at least one manufacturer will take pity on car enthusiasts, take some of this hardware and give us the affordable electric sports car we all deserve!

Click Dealer to Help Dealerships Thrive Amongst the Challenges of 2019

In a recent Click Dealer customer survey about the biggest challenges its dealership performance partners would face in 2019, the results highlighted some key trends such as stock sourcing and lead management, as well as the word on everyone’s lips, Brexit. 

The latter seems to be providing some real uncertainty for dealers across the length and breadth of the UK and it’ll bring an unrivalled level of uncertainty to the market in 2019 and beyond.  

Despite being master innovators with decades of industry experience, Click Dealer can’t predict the effects of Brexit on the automotive industry, but what they can do is make sure that dealerships are well equipped to tackle any challenges they may face next year and find a way to help them navigate potentially choppy waters! 

To that end, Click Dealer has been investing in technology and have several huge product releases planned and ready to launch in January, including advanced lead and prospect management solutions and mobile applications which will save dealers time and make their lives easier. 

The dealership performance experts are ready to ring in the New Year with a bang by utilising cutting edge technology to improve performance and remove inefficiencies within dealers’ archaic processes and this methodology has been at the core of all Click Dealer product developments. 

One of the issues Click Dealer has been working to tackle has been improving lead management for its dealers, with far too many enquiries being lost, left unanswered and too much money slipping through the net. In tougher times, it’s vital to grasp every opportunity with both hands and with Click’s latest product innovation, dealerships won’t need to worry about missing any more leads. 

In this day and age, dealerships, should have the ability to keep all leads, whether they’ve come from emails, portals or walk-ins, in one easy to access system, with the option of including staff KPI monitoring, lead notifications and enhanced enquiry management factored in as well. With today’s customer expectations, dealers must be on top of their administrative processes in order to offer consumers the speedy replies and top quality service they are now accustomed to.  

As a business at the forefront of automotive technology, Click Dealer wants its performance partners to make data driven decisions, allowing them to ride the wave of digital opportunities and take advantage of the automation and process refinement that tech can bring. 

Over the years, championing an open integration policy, remaining transparent with our customers and staying at the cutting edge of new technological advances has served Click Dealer incredibly well. The business has no plans to abandon these core philosophies anytime soon. 

In 2019, Click Dealer will continue to invest in its already market leading customer service team and in dealership training to make sure that our customers feel supported in times of unprecedented change and uncertainty in the industry. 

As we look back on 2018 though, we’d like to raise a toast to the successes of all of our multi-award winning dealership partners and wish them all the best for a challenging but successful 2019 and beyond! 

For more information on how Click Dealer can help your dealership start the New Year with a bang and improve performance in 2019, get in touch via [email protected] or on 01782 478220.

High Used Demand Creates Additional Category for Nearly New Cars

According to contract hire business, Meridian Vehicle Solutions, demand for near new condition vehicles is forming a ‘grade one plus’ standard for used stock, this will grant consumers access to near-new condition cars, often less than 12 months old.
What This Means for Used Car Buyers  

An additional category for nearly new cars will provide buyers with more choice. Used car buyers have always had access to a broad age range of cars, this new category will offer cars in pristine condition, with most cars being less than 12 months old and in showroom condition.

Previously, the highest standard for used cars was considered grade one, however the guidelines for these examples allowed for minor dents and missing trim. Many buyers want their cars in mint condition, so by offering this new category, they’re more likely to find the car they want in the condition they expect from such a new vehicle.

Impact of High Demand on Independent Dealers  

Phil Jerome, managing director of Meridian Vehicle Solutions, said: ‘’The NAMA (National Association of Motor Auctions) grade one standard allows for a few minor issues such as small dents and minor missing trim items but we are in a situation where demand for used cars that can be immediately retailed is so high that there is a further level emerging above this.’’

‘’These are cars that can be placed on a dealer’s website and offered for sale immediately because they require almost no preparation. Of course, these cars also command the highest prices – often in excess of the highest level shown by industry pricing guides,’’ he further added.

‘’Certainly, demand for vehicles of this kind is very high and we are not seeing any slippage in values as we head into 2019. In fact, while new car order times remain on the high side, we do not envisage any change in the market.’’

To find out how Click Dealer technology can help your dealership provide a higher standard of customer service, get in touch today by emailing us at [email protected], calling us on 01782 478220 or sending us a message via our contact page!

Is Outsourcing Vehicle Preparation the Solution to the Quality Used Cars Shortage?

Mechanic
There has been a lot of focus on used cars this year, which has resulted in high acquisition prices and a lack of quality vehicles. This has led some retailers to turn to cars which are lower in quality and in need of refurbishing.

This solution to the shortage of decent cars, has its downsides, primarily the increased time between a vehicle being obtained and put on sale.

The Outsourcing Option

Outsourcing can be of benefit to some larger dealers with service centres and car supermarkets because with so many vehicles coming in and out constantly, the refurbishment could conflict with appointments scheduled by the aftersales department, which may end up having an impact on customer satisfaction.

Outsourcing car preparation work will free up time and resources in the workshop and reduce the number of days vehicle spend in stock without being on sale.

Improved Car Refurbishment and De-Fleet Centres

In recent years, refurbishment and de-fleet centres have improved their facilities and performance, making outsourcing an increasingly appealing option.

These centres can offer fixed prices for manufacturer-standard vehicle preparation, and with a pre-determined service level agreement (SLA) you can expect a set turn-around time to be honoured. This means that you can be prepared to put vehicles on sale, with assurance of the date that they will be ready.

Flexibility

Another benefit of outsourcing is that it can save money, as you can pick and choose when you need to use external resources, rather than hiring more staff and investing in more facilities, which might not always be required.

If you have workshop hours available, you will be able to conduct refurbishment in-house, but outsourcing is an option during busy periods. You will be in control of your dealership’s usage of extra help and won’t waste money on staff and equipment when you don’t have as much refurbishment work.

For more information about how Click Dealer can help your dealership’s management of days in stock, get in touch today by emailing us at [email protected], calling us on 01782 478220 or sending us a message via our contact page!

Top Tips for Getting the Most Out of Live Chat

60% of traffic comes through mobile and only a fifth of this is calls, the rest is browsing online and messaging. As consumer habits change to embrace shopping on the go, live chat becomes an increasingly relevant channel of communication between car dealers and customers.

If you offer a live chat service to customers, it is crucial that you stay on top of this communication channel, because by providing a method of instant messaging, customers will expect fast responses, and if you are not going to be able to commit to this, the customer might as well use email. So, before you make the decision to introduce live chat to your business, consider your strategy carefully.

Plan How Messaging will be Integrated and Managed Within Your Dealership

It is important to consider how live chat and messaging will fit into your business. Will you have one person or customer care team responding to live chat messages, will you direct sales enquiries and aftersales enquiries to the relevant departments individually, or will you have third-party live chat teams handling a proportion of enquiries?

You should also think about whether you want to implement live chat solely on your website or only use social media platforms like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp or have multiple sources. These are important considerations, and when you have made decisions about how messaging will fit and be managed within your business, you must make sure that your team knows exactly what is being implemented and how their roles and responsibilities will change.

Use Chatbots

Would you consider using chatbots within your business? Artificial intelligence is incredibly sophisticated now, and there are live chat tools you can use to deal with basic enquiries, such as questions about opening hours or what is in stock. This can save you a lot of time and allow you to focus on enquiries which require a human response.

It also means that customers will receive an instant response to their message and may have their questions answered without needing to be referred to an actual team member, which means that you can meet their expectations of immediacy, whilst delivering a higher standard of service.

Track Conversions

To see the benefits of messaging, make sure that you have a way of tracking how many interactions result in a conversion, whether your dealership defines a conversion as moving to the next step, for example, providing contact details or arranging a visit, or an actual sale.

Facebook Marketplace

If your dealership feeds stock to Facebook Marketplace, there are two options for receiving enquiries: via lead generation forms or via Messenger. If you have the time and resources to dedicate to instant messaging, this and Marketplace go hand in hand, because it offers both efficiency and a personal touch.

Customers can do their own research and choose a vehicle in a no-pressure environment, then follow up with any queries they have about the car or your dealership by starting a chat with you. It also allows you to build rapport and give them more of a reason to visit your dealership, so make sure your staff are friendly and polite.

For more information about the benefits of live chat, get in touch with Click Dealer today by emailing [email protected],calling 01782 478 220 or via our contact page.

Revhead Ramblings: Our Motorway Service Stations are a Neglected Necessity

If you’re driving along one of our many motorways you’re bound to read a sign educating you on the importance of taking a break.

With the rise of plug-in cars too, our motorway services are due to become a focal point of trips, rather than a last-minute splash and dash. Unfortunately, they’re often the same generic concrete block with an under-staffed McDonalds, an overpriced WHSmith’s and a funny smell emanating from the end cubicle…

What We Need

With plug in car numbers increasing year on year, longer stops are going to be the norm to top off batteries. So, the first point to address has to be our lacklustre charging infrastructure; by providing ample, working, charging points not only will EV drivers walk in with a smile on their face, it’s also easy future proofing for the increase in EV sales.

Family areas are also increasing in popularity across our nation’s stations too, there’s only so far a McDonald’s toy can go before the little ones realise just how boring their surroundings are. Entertaining the family has long been a request ignored by service stations nationwide.

They’re Not All Bad

While the majority are owned by either Moto, Welcome Break or Roadchef, recently there’s been a rise in independent vendors. Tebay Services is located just outside of Penrith, between the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District, this stopping point is unlike the usual franchised offerings.

Cake and coffee shops, a butchers and outdoor barbecues can be found there, giving a fresh alternative to the standard tedious lunch break. A second Tebay Services has been launched on another site on the M5 now, offering a greener solution that supports local farmers, while also providing quality sustenance for the weary traveller.

Will We Ever Stop Needing Them?

As I previously mentioned, with EVs becoming more mainstream, our stops are likely to become more frequent and longer for our cross-country journeys; that is until our batteries offer a reliable range of 400 miles or more.

Automation may see a reduction in service station use however, fuel efficient driving and less stress on the driver could see us go the full distance on our journeys, opting for a cooked meal at our destination instead.