What if I told you there's a hidden weakness in your dealership's buying experience that is costing you hundreds or thousands of dollars every month. Commonly overlooked, but essential, the practice of identifying weaknesses and threats has a greater impact on your success than you might expect. The greatest dangers to your dealership are the ones you’re not aware of. Rather than determining their impact and finding a solution, weaknesses that fly under the radar are often unintentionally accepted, opening your dealership up to stagnant strategies and outdated practices. So what are the buying experience weaknesses that many dealers don't realize?
The weakness lies in the disconnect between your online and physical store. Dealers will say they can’t sell online, or believe they don’t need to at present, yet they have a website. The very definition and goal of a website is to create an extension of your physical store online–to further represent you, allowing you to reach a larger audience, and creating access for someone to find who you are and what you sell anytime they want.
Here’s where the confusion lies: having a website does not mean you offer a connected experience, a true extension of your physical store online. Worse than being completely unaware is falling somewhere in the middle, believing you offer a 21st century experience, when in reality you don't. Having a website is not enough if the experience you offer online varies greatly from the experience you are working to maintain in your physical store.
If you take a step back and consider why it's important to maintain consistency between channels, you’ll realize that it has to do with experience. Studies show, during a purchase journey, customers switch between online and offline channels multiple times. Further, 75% expect a consistent experience across each channel as they’re making these switches.1 Think of it this way–Have you ever written something, only to find out it didn’t save and you have to go back and write it all over again? Or have you ever spoken to someone over the phone, explaining your whole situation to them, only to get transferred to someone else and have to repeat yourself all over again? No one, and I mean nobody, wants to go through that.
A good experience is a connected, seamless experience that not only represents your dealership uniformly, but gives your customers the same quality experience anywhere they encounter you. It must allow them to pick up where they left off, and quickly determine key information to prevent you and the customer from wasting time that won’t benefit both of you in the long run.
Experience has always been valued. We see this from the insane prices people are willing to pay for Super Bowl tickets, choosing to fly first class vs. economy, seeing someone famous in concert, or choosing a nice restaurant over fast food. These are all experience driven purchases. While it may seem clear that experience is important to us, the significance of experience is greatly underestimated when it comes to dealerships’ online strategies. Yet, your customers’ experience WILL impact their decision to buy:
Most dealers would agree, it's a bad practice to leave customers to figure out information on their own. Your job is to guide the customer, help them understand, and bring them to a point where they feel comfortable and confident about the purchase. If your website doesn’t show customers you have what they want, they can afford it, and the experience: navigation, communication, and financing is smooth and easy– it’s no different than taking them to the lot and saying “we might have what you want, hope you figure it out.” Once you realize you would never make these compromises in person, you’re forced to ask yourself, so why would I do them online?
To be successful in today's market, the concept of connected commerce is no longer just an addition to what you’re doing, it is what you’re doing. Who you are as a dealership is just as reflected online as it is in your store. When you begin to see this as fundamental to the core of your dealership, rather than an afterthought or variable cost, your mindset will shift. Your dealership is the very experience you offer.
If you want to increase your efficiency and focus on what matters most, you need a system that will aid you. To provide accurate information, treat each customer as top priority, and ensure your team has the necessary tools to accomplish this easily, you need a connected commerce platform. Transax drives engagement and conversions by allowing you to easily offer this connected experience to customers, saving time so you can spend it where it counts.
If an engaging, seamless customer experience is something you want to offer, discover the effective ways you can do this through the Connected Commerce platform Transax. It's easy to set up, works with your existing website, and includes an iPhone and Android app.
To learn more, schedule a 20-minute demo and talk with one of our digital retail specialists HERE.
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1Source: How to Deliver a Seamless Omnichannel Experience in a Digital-First World, Medallia, 2021
2Source: 7 Reasons Why Customer Experience is the Next Competitive Battleground, Retently, 2023
3Source: 7 Reasons Why Customer Experience is the Next Competitive Battleground, Retently, 2023
4 Source: 7 Reasons Why Customer Experience is the Next Competitive Battleground, Retently, 2023
5 Source: Everyone Wins With A Seamless (Online And In-Store) Experience, Dealer Marketing Magazine, 2020
