Why should your web site be connected to your in-house systems at all ?

In this article, we will review 5 key benefits of integrating your Web Site with your Car Dealer Management System.  

Here at Navigator, we write Dealer Management Software for car dealerships, but we don't author web sites.  

Many of our customers will link their web sites to our systems, others won't.    

What do the ones that do gain as benefits ?

Should you seek to gain the same benefits with your web site and Dealer Management System?

Let's explore the benefits

Up to Date Vehicle Stock on the Site

As a dealer, you want to be advertising a vehicle for sale at the very earliest point.  

Most dealers will measure the no of days to sell a vehicle.  

The clock is ticking even when the vehicle isn't on your web site!

Delays here may be a Sales or Marketing Manager not being in for the day, or simply they have other things to do which cause delays.

It's not too complex to link your Dealer Management System so that vehicles are automatically uploaded to the web site - even if the advert may not be complete, it has a chance of selling!

You can also easily automatically update the web site easily when vehicle pricing is changed (you update the Vehicle Record in your Vehicle Stock Book anyway!) - consumers don't gain confidence when they see a car at one price on the web site, and another when they visit the dealership!

Remove Vehicles when they are sold

As a consumer, there is nothing worse than making an enquiry on a vehicle you've seen on a web site, and finding that it has been sold.  

We've experience of vehicles having been sold 2 or  3 days previously and still showing on the web site.

This is even worse if your web site has a "Reserve Now" button - you risk taking a deposit on a vehicle that you can't supply!

Integrating your web site with your Vehicle Stock System in your DMS will enable sold vehicles to be removed from the site or at worst marked as "under offer".

No more disappointed customers.

Feed Enquiries directly to the Sales Team

These days, it's often fastest fingers first when it comes to responding to leads.  A consumer may send enquiries on multiple vehicles in quick succession to multiple dealers.  

The first dealer that gets in contact with the customer is in the driving seat to make the sale.

By integrating your web site directly with the Lead Management or CRM in your Dealer Management System will enable leads to be straight on your sales teams desk without delay.  

No delays whilst emails are picked up, forwarded and then read.

It's also much easier to report on the performance of "Time to First Response"

Allow Customers to Book Services Online

Most dealers will have a "book my car" page on their web site.

Often, this is a form filling exercise which ends up as "your service request has been forwarded, we will get back to you in 24 hours"

This unfortunately, doesn't take the customer out of the marketplace or give him the feel-good factor that he wants.  

He may continue looking elsewhere to gain that instant confirmation.

At the dealer end, someone has to pick up the booking (normally an email) and re-key it into the Workshop System within their DMS.  Then respond to the customer to confirm.  This is cumbersome and awkward for the dealer team as well, and they will often take longer than the time the customer expects to respond.  Not a great initial customer experience!

Giving customers a route to book a service/mot or other work online and have that booking transfer instantly into the Dealer's system giving the customer an instant positive booking confirmation and a booking number will make it :-

• Easier for the customer
• Removes the customer from the marketplace
• Improve Customer Satisfaction
• Improve Dealer Team Satisfaction as they don't need to re-key anything

Whilst dealers often focus on Vehicle Sales on their web site, aftersales booking is a key part of the customer journey and helps with long term customer retention.

Have an Integrated Online Shop  

You have products within the dealership which can be sold online.  

If you could easily promote these, and have them on the web site with orders simply flowing into your Parts Stock System ready to pick and invoice in a single click, this would add sales and profit to the dealership for very low effort.

Everything from Oil Filters, to body kits, to branded merchandise.

Most dealers don't do this well because it is hassle.  Parts pricing changes regularly, so the web site needs constant maintenance.

You may not want to take orders for product you don't have in stock, or want to show on the web site whether the product is in stock or not in order to set delivery expectations.

For those that use ebay stores etc, this will send emails of sales made into the dealership which then need re-keying to invoice.

It's hassle....  

Unless you connect your Parts System in your DMS to the Online Store.  Simply add a description to product for the web site, add an image and click "add to online store".

Hey presto the product can be online on your web site.

With the correct price, updated every time it changes

Showing the correct stock position.

and all orders come back into your system so you can review, and invoice with a single click.

Sounds simple

It should be!

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article has given you some insight as to the benefits of linking your in house Car Sales, Service and Parts Systems to your web site.  

Dealers that do so, see benefits, in increased stock turn in their vehicle sales department, more sales, more service bookings and an additional revenue stream from your Parts Department.

In addition, customers will gain better satisfaction, and potential customers will gain a higher level of trust in your dealership because of the professional levels of tools available on your web site.

You can find out how these features work in Navigator specifically by clicking the button below.

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