How to Improve Auto Dealership Customer Experience: 6 Tips

It is no great secret that the world of car sales is highly competitive. Customers are turn to dealerships that are better providers of an exceptional customer experience and not just those with the best vehicles. If you want an auto dealership that leads the way in sales for the auto industry, you need to focus on this customer relationship. Keep your focus on the buying journey and your dealership will climb in its sales rankings. It can be stressful for customers to work through the purchase and financing of a new vehicle which is why more emphasis is being given to the overall experience.

The features of the vehicles on your lot are important, but just as important is the time the client spends in the showroom. The car engine’s qualities are important; however, they are no longer the most important part of the process. Currently, the vehicles that are electric-driven, tech-enabled, and data-rich tend to get and keep the lead. Smart cars are becoming just as popular as powerful cars.

Many consumers have turned to digital interactions and how convenient they are instead of visiting a car showroom and working with salespeople. The need to limit the amount of time spent at a dealership is also an increasing factor in customer surveys.

Podium’s conversational AI is outcome-driven – it doesn’t just respond to inbound leads it guides conversations toward a specific goal, such as a sale or booking. Unlike other AI systems that focus on providing correct responses, Podium aims to drive specific customer actions to grow your business.

What is Auto Dealership Customer Experience?

CX, also called the customer experience, is the term used to describe the range of emotions the prospective customer goes through while at a business.

Specifically, what is auto dealership customer experience? Customer experience is of utmost importance at an auto dealer. It is in part because clients spend so much time in the showroom.  A potential buyer can spend three-to-four hours on average at a dealership going over things from car selection to financing.

The higher your dealership customer experience ratings are, the better your car sales will be. Keep reading to learn more about what you can do to get your customer experience ratings up.

Why is customer experience important in the automotive industry?

Because clients spend so much time in the showroom deliberating their purchases, a positive car dealership experience has a bigger impact on an auto dealer’s sales. Podium offers AI and other tools to help limit this amount of time and improve your customer’s experience.

There are certain factors that customers feel they need to have the best experience with car dealership customer service. These include the following:

• The ability to communicate over different channels
• Clear and simple communication
• Tracking orders in real-time
• Simple purchasing set-up
• Fast responses to communication

A clear and consistent interaction with your client is one of the best ways to establish and build trust. Trust is the first building block you will need for a quality customer relationship.

Understanding Customer Expectations in Auto Dealers

Identifying Key Customer Needs

The best way to deliver exceptional customer service is by understanding what your customers need. The more you understand your customers’ expectations, the better you can meet these needs.

One method for identifying needs is using customer surveys. You can conduct these in your showroom, on your website, or through your social media channels. Once you have the data, use it to determine what your customer expects from your auto dealership.

Factors Influencing Customer Satisfaction

Customers spend a long time at a dealership when purchasing a car. This includes finding the right vehicle, negotiating the correct price, and financing it. When it comes to customer satisfaction, there are three main parts of the car purchasing process your clients enjoy the most.

The first part customers like is the test drive. The next enjoyable part is setting up Bluetooth connectivity with your new vehicle and getting to know the layout of the interior. One other major component in customer satisfaction is how well they are educated on the vehicle they are purchasing. This means learning things about the automobile’s safety features and the car’s advanced technologies will go far in making your customers feel taken care of and satisfied.

The more time spent in these ‘happy’ areas and the less spent on frustrating areas like financing and price, the more satisfied your client will be.

Strategies for Improving Auto Dealer Customer Experience

Many factors under your control can improve your customers’ experience throughout the car purchasing process. Consider some of the following:

Building Trust and Relationship Management

There are many touch points to building trust with your clients when you run a car dealership. Using your CRM platform to give your dealership an edge is an excellent way to help this relationship along. Making notes about your clients and where they are in the car-buying process will help you establish positive relationships.

Using a professional system like Podium is an excellent way of managing your customer details. Part of establishing trust is remembering what your client finds most important about the car-buying process. It’s also helpful to be completely transparent with your client.

Personalization and Customization in Services

Another key factor in creating a premium customer experience is making sure to remember details about your new customer. Things like what they want from their car-buying experience and how much they can afford are just part of this. In addition, it may also help to learn about the customer’s family and lifestyle, like the number of kids they have and their ages. Such personal details can influence a customer’s choice of vehicle.

These details can also help you personalize email and text messages to customers, which can improve customer engagement and help you make more money, too.

Speed to lead is critical in today’s fast-paced market, and Podium’s AI BDC offers an unparalleled advantage by ensuring dealerships engage with leads within a couple of minutes—guaranteed. 

Streamlined and Transparent Transactions

Another key factor in developing the best customer experience is making sure transactions are transparent, streamlined, and easy to handle. When you make appointments, keep them. Don’t add extra steps in the buying process to clunk it up. Keep it short and simple and keep all your contacts easily within reach, so when you are working with your clients, you can answer any questions easily.

Be Considerate of Your Customer’s Time

This is the time of instant gratification and as such many customers don’t want to wait for your response or wait on financing a vehicle. Your clients are going to be on the search for an auto dealer that can give them the best customer experience when they are shopping for a new vehicle.

Fortunately, there are many features Podium offers to help keep your dealership efficient.

The platform can help dealerships improve their paperwork processes, digitizing workflows where possible for efficiency.

Implementing Cutting-edge Technology for Efficiency

Many technological tools can improve the efficiency of your dealership. From making financing easy to integrating chatbots for customer queries, your dealership must keep up with the advancements. Podium offers AI features to keep your lines of communication open and keep your branding consistent.

Podium’s AI BDC helps dealers transform potential interest into concrete actions like booking test drives and scheduling service appointments.

Improve Dealership Service

A simple Google search will tell you that, after the purchase, a customer will judge your dealership based on the service they receive maintaining their vehicle and this influences their brand loyalty. You want to ensure they have the best experience when working with one of your team members.

Some added services that clients state have made a positive impact on their customer experience include:

• Maintenance services at home.
• Complimentary delivery of new purchases and pick-up of trade-ins.
• Video calls for diagnostics and evaluations of mechanical issues.
• Messaging that is always updated and current automotive service marketing materials with safety expectations and guidelines.

Three Technology Trends Reshaping Customer Experience

Improving the customer experience is a common pursuit among car dealerships as it is known to improve car sales. The following offers some tips for dealing with customer experience trends in the automotive industry and where technology will take the customer experience over the next couple of years.

Role of AI and Machine Learning

There are staffing shortages everywhere and more than enough work for the staff that does come in. AI can help dealerships work through the staffing shortages they experience. Using AI for things like autoresponders and answering simple inquiries is an excellent method of keeping communication smooth and your car sales up. Podium offers chatbot services that can help answer your client’s questions and even steer them in the direction of tutorials they may need.

Automate your BDC with AI to dominate the market. Watch a demo today.

Utilizing Big Data Analytics

Collecting customer data to gather better insights into their specific experience is another trend we are sure to see more of over the next couple of years. Using social media as well as surveys to get a better understanding of what your client needs is an excellent use of customer feedback.

Podium has chatbots that can help you conduct surveys and gather useful data. This data can then be analyzed to give you insight into what you need to provide your customers with a better experience. Take the feedback and utilize it to improve your sales process.

Integrating Omnichannel Communication

There are many different means of communicating with customers. To make sure you are getting through to your clients at all stages of the car-buying process, make sure to use an omnichannel communication strategy. Make it simple to communicate through SMS, phone calls, social media pages, and email. These channels can be coordinated to work together with simple tools such as those Podium provides. Keeping your channels of communication organized so you can communicate effectively is one of the simplest methods of improving the customer experience.

Cross-channel communication not only makes the car buying process run smoothly, but it can also create a blurred line between digital and physical experiences. Your clients expect to move easily through the digital sales experience as well as the physical experience. This is aided through virtual experiences augmented with real-time information.

If you are lost on how you can improve this process for your dealership, reach out to Podium. Our trained staff can lead you to the right set of tools to get your communication channels working together easily.

Engage every lead with meaningful conversations to drive sales with Podium’s best-in-class conversational AI Employee. Watch a demo today.

Overcoming Challenges in Improving Customer Experience In The Auto Dealer Industry

When working through your auto sale you are going to need to understand what your customers’ pain points are. Pain points are the issues your customer has had in the past when working with dealerships. These are predominantly salespeople pressure as well as deal negotiations.  Here are some ideas on how to deal with these pain points.

Addressing Common Hurdles Faced by Auto Dealers

There are several pain points with customer experience in the automotive industry. Some of these pain points are vehicle pickup and drop off, making appointments, lack of transparency, and failure to promote mobility.

There are unique challenges that auto dealers face as part of their business. For instance, supply chain delays can affect the delivery of cars and car parts, which can result in unsatisfied customers and a negative reputation for your dealership. Being transparent with these challenges can help improve relationships with customers.

Strategies to Overcome Resistance to Change

If you want long-lasting relationships and customer loyalty, you need to use your customer feedback to promote change throughout your dealership. When approaching new concepts in your dealership, it is common to come up against resistance.

As you come across this resistance, it is important to show other businesses that have implemented the new procedures and methods and their success rates. For instance, implementing new sales scripts can take some getting used to, but with time, your dealership will benefit.

Optimize Auto Dealer Customer Experience

To create the best experience possible for your customers, you need to use every tool at your disposal. From a detailed CRM to sales scripts for closing deals, Podium can help you with the tools you need to create the best possible customer experience for your clients.

Bring speed and efficiency to every customer experience and sale with Podium’s AI BDC. Watch a demo now.