IT’S THE DELIVERY, NOT THE DEAL-MAKING THAT IS CREATING LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CUSTOMERS AND DEALERSHIP SALESPEOPLE
Technology, specifically the Internet, has changed the process of buying and selling cars forever. The dealership is no longer the first stop in the purchase process, it’s the last, or nearly so.
Today, in most cases, buyers have researched their choices extensively on the Internet long before ever entering a showroom. Many know as much or more about the models, features and options of the vehicles they’ve shortlisted as the salespeople do.
They may even have details on invoice pricing and what specific vehicles are in a dealer’s inventory. So when they do show up in the showroom, it’s simply a matter of picking the individual vehicle in stock and haggling over the price.
In short, the traditional role of salesmanship has been dramatically altered. In fact, it’s potentially in a terminal state. Is it unrealistic to think that buyers will soon be purchasing their cars in a manner as simplistic as buying candy from a vending machine?
But the actual sale is just one part of the process. There’s another part that has the potential to make the salesperson an indispensable ally and, in so doing, help establish a long-term relationship that will keep buyers coming back to that person for future purchases. Or to the store, if the whole staff adopts the same approach. That part is the delivery process.
OVERWHELMED BY TECHNOLOGY?
As one who tests new cars on a regular basis and is relatively familiar with most of the new technologies available, even I find the prospect of picking up and driving off in a new model for the first time intimidating.
And it’s not just the exotic technologies that are now so common that can frustrate. It’s things as simple as opening the gas filler door. Does it unlock automatically when the doors are unlocked? Is there a button or lever to release it? If so, where is it? The time to be finding out is not when you stop for your first fill-up.
So many other basic functions that were once simple and intuitive to operate have also become nightmarishly devious in their operation. Things like displaying and resetting the trip odometer. Or even changing the radio station.
For a buyer that has been out of the market for a few years, driving off in one of today’s vehicles for the first time must feel like being thrust into the captain’s seat of the space shuttle.
Most of those functions, if still unnecessarily complex, eventually become second nature, once a buyer becomes familiar with his or her new vehicle and has driven it for a while. Some never do.
But the process would be so much easier if the salesperson took the time at delivery to go through each aspect step by step. Perhaps over two or three visits, going deeper into the complexities and choices available for each system as the customer becomes more comfortable with the technologies.
PATIENCE AND SENSITIVITY
That process is particularly important with respect to communication and infotainment systems, many of which can not only sync with and duplicate but expand on the functions available in the latest smartphones — functions that many of those phone customers may not yet have mastered. Some generational sensitivity in that area could pay big dividends in customer satisfaction, as well as significantly enhance the new owner’s enjoyment of the vehicle.
Perhaps nowhere is some straightforward explanation more important than in the area of advanced safety and driver-assistance features: everything from adaptive cruise control, blind-spot detection and lane-departure warning to cross-traffic alert, lane-keeping assist and forward collision warning and intervention.
The capabilities of today’s vehicles and the level of safety enhancement they provide is nothing short of incredible, compared to even a few years ago. But to fully appreciate those technologies and not to be spooked by them when they actually come into play, customers need to be aware that they are there, what they do and how they work, at least in broad terms.
Just imagine what might happen the first time a bright light flashes and an alarm sounds when a driver momentarily crosses the threshold of a collision warning alert, not knowing what it means or even that it was there.
Given such potential scenarios, it seems a no-brainer that a salesperson or dealership which takes the time and effort to thoroughly brief a new customer on all the vehicle’s operational features up front, stands a very good chance of getting that customer back again.
