In today’s market, with uncertainty impacted by tariffs and rising costs, CDK Global is investing and innovating with a suite of inventory products to help dealers maximize efficiency and profits.
CDK outlined some of those products in its fifth annual CDK Connect online conference on Tuesday, spotlighting empowerment, engagement and partnership.
CDK President and CEO Brian MacDonald said visiting with dealers and talking and learning is the foundation for helping them achieve their goal of being successful. He added the conversations have fuelled the creation and continued expansion of CDK’s services and solutions, including the dealership experience platform. He said dealers are seeing the results across their operations.
He said there has been a 35 per cent increase in accounting efficiency; 50 per cent reduction in time spent merchandising vehicles; 25 per cent increase in sales appointments scheduled; 25 per cent more hours per R.O. when using tech video; 20 per cent more precise revenue forecasting.
He said the company launched a new payment solution, CDK SimplePay, which continues to be popular with its customers. He also said CDK’s focus on artificial intelligence has continued to intensify as it invests and innovates even more.
“While we’re proud of what we’ve delivered, we can’t do it without listening to you and partnering with you,” said MacDonald. “At the end of the day our mission at CDK is to help dealers sell and service more vehicles and be (as) efficient in their operations as possible.”
Dave Thomas, CDK’s Director of Content Marketing/Automotive Industry Analyst, said used vehicle purchases are on the rise because they are selling quickly, but that won’t always be the case. He said CDK’s Vehicle Inventory Suite allows dealers to price today, but predict prices in the future.
He said service is more important than ever during these uncertain economic times and it’s critical for dealers not to lose customers. He said 60 per cent of people call to schedule an appointment but many encounter an issue. He said three out of 10 are put on hold for an average of nine minutes.
He said CDK is offering an Artificial Intelligence Virtual Assistant (AIVA) service scheduler to address it. He said while most people schedule appointments after hours, AIVA works best during the day.
“Service managers know how busy it can be during the day, so that’s where they are also getting some performance,” he said. “That’s going to help get more profit and not lose those customers.”
Sanjay Almeida, CDK Global Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer, said the company is focused on three major areas of innovation: “frictionless and delightful” consumer experience, whether they are doing it online or in the store; boosting dealer performance experience; and new ways for dealers to improve their margins.
He said to improve customer experience, CDK has built a platform called MyDay that includes everything a sales agent needs in one dashboard because it is personalized to provide details on appointments, communications with consumers and deals. He also said, as many consumers start their service journey on Google Search, CDK has partnered with Google.
