Properly leveraging data offers huge benefits for dealers.
With so much data being generated today, how can dealers effectively harness it to create the optimal customer experience? It’s a question that’s on the minds of many in automotive retail, particularly in a competitive environment where it’s more critical than ever to not only find new clients but retain them.
At leading retail solutions provider Reynolds and Reynolds, Vice President of Marketing, Greg Uland, says that often, this proves a challenge because data tends to be scattered and siloed, creating inefficiencies in both time and money spent trying to manage this data. “Anytime you need multiple programs running to service or sell to customers, you have these silos,” he explains.

Single system
The solution then, is to break down, and get rid of these silos, and look at utilizing a single system that allows dealers to power tools and solutions across the entire retail store.
At Dealer Alchemist, which provides innovative advertising and marketing solutions for dealers, Founder and CEO Shean Kirin notes that data accuracy is also pivotal in ensuring a great customer experience. “The biggest challenge dealerships often face, is that you have salespeople inputting random information into a CRM with no process to search and verify whether a customer actually exists, and then match the data records.”
Often, he says, dealers run into a situation where there are multiple data files because of the way the dealership holds that data. And frequently, this is due to the fact, that the store’s CRM and DMS don’t properly communicate with each other. “The don’t reconcile data back and forth,” explains Kirin.
He also notes that many CRMs aren’t set up to easily take that data and match it to the right customer, and so every time the client comes in, such as for an oil change, a new data file is created and just adds to what the dealership already has.
Optimized retail experience
At Reynolds and Reynolds, Greg Uland says that this was a primary reason why the company built its Retail Management System around the concept of having a single, unique identifier for each customer record. With this approach, barriers that slow down product and workflow due to multiple data sets are eliminated, resulting in a far more efficient and smoother process when it comes to managing the data on each customer and optimizing the retail experience around them.
Uland also notes that Reynolds and Reynolds, through its Spark AI unified data layer, AI tools are able to pull data from multiple products that otherwise would be siloed in other systems. “This increases their learning capability, resulting in more efficient work where less time and money are wasted.”
Shean Kirin notes that while technology can solve a lot of problems, another issue in leveraging data effectively boils down to the fact that while the technology itself may be advancing a rapid pace, most advertisers have been around a long time and their processes are often still the same as they were years, if not decades ago. “They often work on the principle of throwing information out everywhere, hoping they’re going to find the right customer, but instead it ends up at a place where the customer doesn’t get what they were looking for to begin with.”
Exact match
Kirin says that today, things don’t have to be this way. “Technology and data are connected enough now that it is possible to take the dealership and website inventory and properly link it through advertising so what the consumer sees in advertising, exactly matches the experience they will get on the website.” The result is greater transparency and a much happier customer, with less opportunity for friction. Kirin says that often, problems can arise in situations where for example, a customer doesn’t qualify for the special promotion they saw on the ad and this can lead to further issues down the road, including missed opportunities, reduced revenue and negatively impacted business reputation.
Another issue that frequently presents problems relates to attracting the “right customers.” Shean Kirin notes that often, the best way to ensure a smooth customer experience, is not by focusing on credit backgrounds, but instead, leveraging data to ensure that the right customer is matched with the right vehicle. “If I’ve got a customer that has a lower credit score, and perhaps lower income, I’m not going to pitch them a $60,000 vehicle. Instead, I will pitch a $30,000 vehicle since it is within their affordability range.” The key to making it work is ensuring there is a proper connection between the consumer, such as data handled through social media or a prominent search engine, and then through the dealership’s information on the vehicle, that’s handled through the right connections when it comes to advertising.
“There are essentially two types of consumers,” Kirin explains. “Those that are looking for the vehicle first and those that are looking for the payment first, and at the dealership level, we have to know the difference.” Therefore, if a dealership is advertising a particular financing or lease rate, it needs to be uniform and link all dealership rebates and incentives to that specific interest rate and financing/lease options. Additionally, when all of this information is showcased correctly on the website, the consumer can easily and quickly put themselves in the right car, resulting in a smooth and much enhanced purchase journey.
CRM optimization
CRM optimization is also key to making it work effectively. At Reynolds and Reynolds, Greg Uland notes there are several key aspects to having an effective CRM. These include proactive management, where sales managers can access what is happening in real time, without waiting for the result of a loss customer, plus results-based CRM schedules that should be triggered by outcomes not time.
“The next action in a schedule should only be assigned once the result of the previous one has been determined,” he says. This helps eliminate things like accidentally sending an email that references a phone call that was never made, that can confuse the customer and make them skeptical about the level of professionalism of the dealership.
Priority Management should also be an essential focus where tasks for busy salespeople and BDC staff are automatically prioritized based on the dealership’s priorities and customers’ likelihood to buy, which tends to lead to far better results.
A Structured Mobile Sales Cycle, where the salesperson is able to follow the sales process, enter notes, and ask for help from their phone can also make a big difference, since it eliminates the task of updating the CRM later. Furthermore, sales managers can be alerted if a specific part of the sales process is taking longer than it should.
Unique record
To get the most out of a CRM, Uland also stresses the need for a single unique record for every customer, vehicle, and deal across all tools like the DMS and CRM. “Without that,” he says, “all data must be checked and updated in multiple places at a minimum, and it needs to be re-entered across tools at a maximum.”
Dealers also need to have an effective process management system for their BDCs, where the ability to schedule sales appointments is based upon salesperson availability and their existing workload of customers, ensuring they aren’t overloaded, and any potential deals don’t fall through the cracks.
Instant messaging is also another area that’s vital to creating a smooth customer experience today. “Having the ability to instant message managers and others through the desktop and mobile applications satisfies this important step,” says Uland.
Finally, there’s also the fixed ops side and this is where an effective Service CRM comes in. As Uland acknowledges, “it is very difficult to maintain a true customer relationship without your service department. An effective CRM should provide tools to reach out to customers, schedule appointments, and see interactions within the service department.”