What is normal now?
When things get back on track, your customers will expect a much different experience. Are you ready? At times like these, we often look to something more fundamental to help us get back on track. The actions taken to mitigate …
Author: Richard Cooper
Dealerships need to communicate during pandemic
No matter where you lived in Canada or around the world in the first half of March 2020, your head was likely spinning — both as a business owner and as a consumer. Dealerships had enough to contend with in …
Consumers are measuring you
Today’s consumers are less tolerant of businesses that can’t fix problems quickly enough — even if their expectations are unrealistic. With today’s consumers, it’s a game of inches — or seconds. Remember when the big debate about responding to prospects …
Crossing the privacy line: a human perspective
As businesses continue to take advantage of consumer data, there remain some questions as to how dealers should move ahead with this delicate issue to ensure a good customer relationship and experience. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of privacy these …
Consumers are getting fed up: the PO Index* is on the rise!
*Pi**ed off Handling problems with the correct mindset can improve the effectiveness of good process and good training in your dealership. By the time this column is published, our federal election will be over and I suspect there may be …
Protecting your most valuable asset – your customer base
There aren’t many dealerships around today who don’t recognize the value of their customer base. But not all treat that customer base as an asset in the same way they their “hard” assets. Think of your customer base in the …
How do you want to be remembered?
There may be fewer new-vehicle customers around in the next few years, which means dealers will need to make a good, memorable impression to appeal to consumers’ emotions. New vehicle sales in Canada continue to trend downwards, despite a near …
AI in the dealership
Looking at artificial intelligence through the eyes of the consumer. Artificial intelligence is supercharging CRM. Years ago, CRM systems were the domain of larger, sophisticated companies with large customer bases and big budgets. Thanks to the rapid development of technology …
Closing the digital divide
Our columnist experiences two next generation retail experiences and reports on his findings. We’ve been living in the true digital age for at least ten years now. Almost everyone has a mobile phone that has more capabilities than computers, laptops …
Is achieving true customer satisfaction getting easier or harder?
This is a bit of a simplistic question, in that there’s much more to the management of the customer experience these days than just customer satisfaction. But satisfaction is still the foundation of the customer experience. It’s the complexity and …
The shifting sands of consumer preferences and priorities
Dealerships can learn lessons from other retailers like banks. The January new vehicle retail sales numbers for Canada have been described as an expected softening in a more stringent economic environment and sales for January are still touted as one …
Automation is not just about the car
Automated experiences in other industries will impact consumer expectations for auto retail How far away are we from these two scenarios? Sound a bit far-fetched? Perhaps not, when you look at how quickly technology develops and is assimilated into everyday …
