Go to your website, open up the stopwatch app on your phone, and see how long it takes to do these things: navigate to a VDP, calculate a monthly payment, get a trade-in offer, get the CARFAX report, get service records, get the window sticker, see comparable vehicles for sale. If you did all of that and thought to yourself, “Wow, that was easy!” You’re done and you can stop reading or watching. If that took longer than you thought it would…continue on.

We all know that people spend hours and hours researching their next vehicle purchase. They visit a ton of different websites to get that information. And when they’ve got that info, they’re really only visiting 1 dealership, maybe 2, to make that purchase.

So you’d think we’d all be really good at getting buyers all the information they need, and help them get it quickly, right? Unfortunately this is still a struggle, for both dealers and consumers.

Here’s how we un-struggle this. 

Make The User Experience Simple

Number 1: If you make the customer experience really, really simple, you’ll get more business.

The people that want information quickly, whether basic vehicle information, more detailed research, a trade-in offer, a monthly payment, should get that information quickly. This is the majority of your website traffic. Help them!

Give People All The Research TheyNeed

Number 2: If you give buyers all the information they need, their sales cycle shortens and they’ll come into the dealership faster.

Buyers want as much information as possible before making a purchase. If you give it to them, rather than buyers having to bounce around to 20 different sites to compile all the information themselves, they will come to you. Even better, if you share this information in a personalized and human way, like with video, you’re building a personal connection before they even step foot in the door.

Maintaining Control = Maintaining Profitability

Number 3: If you have full control over what you share, you’ll maintain consistency and your margins.

When you control the trade-in offers or the payment estimates or the information shared with consumers and how it gets shared, you control the software tools to match your processes and your strategy, rather than the other way around.