The Role Of Dealerships Has Changed

By Author: Yuval Moed
Total Articles: 14
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Auto dealers have been the primary gateway for a car purchase. Customers depended on the dealers at every step of their car buying process – starting from identifying the right car segment, depending on needs, gathering information on all suitable options, to evaluating features of different cars, to discussing the different financing deals available and the final purchasing. But the advent of online medium has ushered in a revolution in the car buying process.

Today there are numerous sources online that provide the customers with in-depth information on all aspects of car buying – technical details on cars, performance, or financing facts. Customers are tech-savvy and take advantage of the plethora of information available across these online sources to educate themselves. Instead of visiting multiple websites, customers carry out all their research online and then visit select 1-2 dealerships for test-drives or in-person discussion.

Auto Dealers Seen As Experts Today
A survey has found that 68 percent of car buyers visit two or less auto dealerships during their car shopping journey. So car buyers ...
... are planning their visits to dealerships for specific getting a better understanding of their options. At this stage their intention is to gather additional details, clear doubts or ask questions. This highlights the shift in how customer views the dealer today.

The role of a dealer has changed from that of a facilitator to an expert guide. Dealers have become someone who can assist the customer in providing guidance on making a final choice. The dealership staff must therefore engage proactively with the customers to add value to their car buying journey – by offering suggestions, recommendations and solutions as the need may be.

In order to do this, dealers must have a proactive communication policy, taking every opportunity to interact with the customer to educate him. With the online channel and website in particular gaining in prominence, dealerships make certain that their customer service representatives can provide an enriching and valuable service.

By deploying platforms like the web-RTC enabled real time engagement solutions, auto dealerships can offer customers in-depth and personalized advice and support.

Here are 4 ways in which such tools make a difference in the performance of auto dealers:

Live Video Chat to understand customer needs and build a strong rapport: Car buying is a complex process requiring a lot of discussions, be it on the technical specs of the car or the financing. Video chats enabled a live face-to-face interaction that is close to in-store discussions for an interactive discussion of needs and.

Cobrowse to explore the product features and in-site inventory: With a cobrowsing session, BDC automotive support staff can offer a live tour to the customer, guiding through suitably options

Use document sharing features to instantly share critical documents: Heavy documentation requirements are a feature of car buying – online document sharing makes it possible to instantly transfer documents, even as the discussion is ongoing live

Provide live assistance in complex transactions like form filling: Screen-sharing and co-browsing offers live support in terms of annotating or collaborative working on complex transactions securely.