Improving the in-dealership customer experience has been at the heart of many discussions at dealer-focused events, and dealers are feeling ongoing pressure from their OEMs. How have dealers evolved to meet this need?
The need to improve the customer experience has been a key topic at dealer-focused events this year, with a growing sense of urgency for dealers to evolve their processes and services to meet buyer needs.
OEMs are also amping up the pressure on their dealers, by pushing for a more consistent customer experience that matches the brand’s image and meets or exceeds expectations.
The customer experience has always been an important factor in the car-buying process, but many dealers now feel it has become a vital aspect that requires more attention, according to Adam Bourgeois, Owner and Dealer Principal of Bourgeois Motors Ltd. in Ontario, which includes two dealerships: Bourgeois Midland Ford and Bourgeois Midland Nissan.
“Customers are measuring us not only against our direct automotive competitors, but also the consumer experience with companies like Apple, Uber, and Starbucks — how they interact with their customers through technology, and how we need to adapt our processes to be seamless, frictionless, and transparent,” said Bourgeois.
Better quality products are being offered to consumers, who now enter the store with a vast amount of knowledge from research and technologies and with information readily available at their fingertips. EY’s Future of Automotive Retail study reveals that 80 per cent of customers use multiple devices (such a desktop, tablet, or mobile phone) to research a vehicle purchase.
With more choice, products and dealerships available to consumers, Bourgeois said dealers need to arm their sales team better than ever, and adapt to new technology. “We need to be there to help, get out of our way, adapt our long drawn out processes, and let the customer complete the purchase to relieve them of the stress of buying a car,” said Bourgeois.
To improve the process and reduce consumer stress, dealers may need to begin with something as simple as updating their websites, according to Catherine Lauzon, Vice President of Human Resources and Corporate Development at Groupe Lauzon in Quebec. The group includes six dealerships divided between Audi, Porsche and Volkswagen brands, and is involved with racing through its Lauzon Autosport.
Lauzon said consumers have increasingly less time to shop around (or even drive to the service department), so dealers need to accommodate them to simplify their lives — and the first step to doing just that involves updating the dealer website and including lots of relevant information.
“The web is the first gateway for customers so you have to be irreproachable,” said Lauzon. “We must be present and effective on all our platforms and respond as soon as possible. The customer experience on the web is as important as the customer experience in the dealership.”
Sloan said it’s still early in the process for some of the experiences to fully take hold, but the immediate response from the customer is an overall more positive and comfortable experience.
A look at Groupe Lauzon’s website reveals a clean and uncluttered homepage, with all relevant information available in one place, easy-to-find sections, and large icons to capture the user’s attention. Searching for information is fast and easy.
According to a 2019 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey report, the Internet is the main resource for 61 per cent of car shoppers, up from 57 per cent in 2017. Third-party websites are the most popular for people looking to purchase a vehicle, up from 76 per cent in 2017 to 80 per cent in 2019.
On the after-sales service side of the business, Lauzon said they made it easier for customers to make appointments by offering the option online and then welcoming them with tablets when they arrive for their appointment. This is to ensure the process is more efficient, and that it reduces the waiting time of the customer as soon as they arrive.
“Technology is a great way to be more efficient and offer a better customer experience, but you have to know how to use it properly,” said Lauzon.
Denis Tardif, CEO of Suly, believes there is a renewed interest for consumers in receiving a personalized service. He said the retail trade is moving towards a branding strategy that is based on experiences. Suly is a Quebec-based company known for its service and sales retention strategies.
“Dealers are entering a period of reinvention characterized primarily by technologies that empower consumers, and it is largely in favour of e-commerce,” said Tardif, adding that “Google-style internet reviews are already an integral part of customer satisfaction.”
He said consumers no longer rely solely on the opinion of their loved ones or their parents, but on other people whom they may not know personally. In this sense, online reviews are seen as something that taints the customer’s perception of a product or service.
“The customer experience is no longer a theory, it is an obligation,” said Tardif, who adds that the window of opportunity to create a strong connection with the customer is becoming smaller, thanks to the Internet. “We must rethink this notion of (what the) first contact of the customer (should be).”
Tardif suggests ensuring there is always a member of the dealership available to answer the phone to greet the customer, because many stores use automated response systems that were designed in a transactional context.
But overall, it may be safe to say that the customer experience is improving to a degree in the auto retail sector, though certain aspects of the dealership may require a bit more attention.
Derek Sloan, President of Sym-Tech Dealer Services, said the F&I side of the consumer experience is still experimenting with different approaches. The company’s main focus is on the sales process, not just the product, and is working to improve this part of the business for dealers.
Sloan said it’s still early in the process for some of the experiences to fully take hold, but the immediate response from the customer is an overall more positive and comfortable experience. In some cases it’s more efficient too, and in others more pleasurable since the consumer is not being passed from person to person to person. Sloan said the information is also more accessible to them.
F&I is an important part of the car-buying process and one that many consumers find long, drawn out, and lacking transparency — but that frustration can be dealt with in a number of ways.
“I’ll give you an example: we worked for a store that also has a Cadillac franchise and the seats in the showroom are very comfortable; large screens are shared with the customers — they are off to the side, so the sales representative and the customer are sitting across from each other but the screen is in the middle. They are sharing information on a large screen, so full disclosure, full transparency, so just a better overall environment,” said Sloan.
He said there is no need to use four-square on a sheet of paper, especially since there are many tools that dealers can use. Specifically in the F&I department, menu presentations are custom fit to the customer.
It’s not just about presenting protection options and products, it’s about presenting the products to consumers “with the terms, conditions and coverages” that are specific to their needs based on the information they shared with the sales representative, which in turn is based on the customer’s drivability habits, length of ownership or lease, kilometres driven, and so on.
According to Sloan, dealers need to review the protection products that are relevant to the customer rather than presenting them with all the products that the dealership sells in hopes that the customer will purchase one of them.
“It’s more of a prescriptive type of an approach where, ‘Here are the products that are closest to your needs, and the type of driving that you do and the type of customer that you are,’” said Sloan.
Asked about the sense of urgency around improving the customer experience that many dealer-focused events are pushing, Sloan said it depends on where you are today.
“It’s more of a sense of urgency about not losing the customer period. To be diplomatic, I would say there is an urgency to have a better customer experience, but at the same time too, I would say part of it is, in general, an urgency to make more money, an urgency to treat customers better so they buy more products and they stay retained to the dealership.”
“The sense of urgency to compete better is definitely there,” said Sloan.
Dealers that embrace a more customer-centric approach — that tweak their processes and improve on the digital and technology front — are more likely to differentiate themselves from the competition, while meeting the needs of today’s car buyers.
