Are you using the right technology to engage with customers?

USING better technology to drive increased and more productive customer engagement will be key for dealers in 2020.

James Tew, Chief Executive at iVendi, said that whether customers ultimately opted to choose, finance and buy a car in the showroom or online, their initial interest will almost certainly have been digital.

Dealers need to differentiate themselves right at the outset with more usable and more productive technology.

He said: “Almost all initial dealer interest today is driven online, so that first period of digital engagement with the customer is crucial. It is important to make the process of first interest and first contact as efficient and effective as possible.

“In a lot of ways, this is the most dated area of online motor retail, with many dealers relying on traditional search and some form of e-mail to drive communication but investing in newer and better technology can produce much better results.

“The fact is that, heading into 2020, there is technology available that helps customers identify the right vehicle faster and dealers to create a much greater level of engagement earlier on.”

Tew said that, in a market such as the one we are likely to see next year, when new car sales would be tough and used sales busy but competitive, these differences would be meaningful.

“Better engagement will mark out the dealers who are working hardest to make their impact in the market by meeting the growing digital expectations of customers through introducing more advanced technology.”

More effective technology did not necessarily have to be expensive and complex, he added. In some cases, it was just a question of rethinking the way dealers engaged with potential car buyers.

“A good example is the work that we have done on a new vehicle search product that we are introducing next year. There are features included that are very advanced, such as a search that uses open and intuitive language rather than traditional drop-down boxes. This has taken some serious coding to deliver.

“However, just as effective is the fact that we offer search results on a map when we are presenting group stock. There is nothing revolutionary about this in online terms – if you visit Right Move, you’ll find something similar – but it is almost unknown in the car retail sector and actually provides something new and of genuine use to customers.”

In Q1 of 2020, iVendi plans to unveil a completely revised product range to meet the changing online needs of car, van and motorbike buyers, retailers and finance providers.

New and existing products will be organised into three packages – engage, convert and transact – providing everything from a complete online motor retail solution for major international organisations to relatively simple tools for single site retailers.

Tew said: “As a company, we have just celebrated our tenth birthday and we took the opportunity to take a look at what we do from the ground up. What we are doing is bringing our product range into line with how we see the market developing.”