Automotive CRM: Differentiate Your Processes
The automotive industry is always evolving and with that evolution we must constantly adapt to the changes.
Question: When is the last time you thoroughly reviewed your CRM processes in your dealership?
Think about it. A CRM in the dealership is generally setup for sales people to enter an UP and follow up with sold/unsold customers by scheduling phone calls and email actions. The CRM is sometimes setup to properly follow up with internet leads. However, not many CRM systems are setup to follow up with lease retention, equity mining, service, birthdays, and other events that can enhance the guest experience of doing business with the dealership.
Now if the proper processes have been setup for he dealership, when is the last time they were updated? Do you continue to send the same old message month after month? It is amazing how most of the time I walk into a dealership to setup and train processes only to find that the dealership is relying solely on what the CRM company had installed during installation. Every dealership needs to have an effective action plan for proper CRM management. This includes templates, action plans, and reporting. A large dealer group needs to employ a CRM administrator to work the CRM a full 45 hours a week while smaller operations need to have proactive management.
The bottom line is that it is very important to manage and maintain the CRM system in dealerships on a daily basis. In many cases, the proper use of merging can clean duplicates. When a CRM is used properly there should never be a need for excel spreadsheets to measure performance.
by Stan Sher
www.dealeretraining.com
Practices and viewpoints expressed on this blog are my own
Comment
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Comment by Stan Sher on May 29, 2013 at 2:54pm
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Doug, those of us that eat, breathe, and live automotive are scientists because it is our duty to shape the industry and educate best practices.
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Comment by Doug Davis on May 28, 2013 at 2:08pm
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Stan, I strongly prefer "scientist" over geek. I have been involved with the internet "geek" for the last ten years. People ignore the fact that I held every position in the front of a store for the previous thirty.
If they are counting on their managers looking at the CRM, they are in serious trouble. Most Sales Managers are at the desk waiting for a salesperson to bring them a deal. You do well to have them watching the lot.
Keith, that is some great information. I copied it to my desktop so I can look at it in more detail. You need to make that an individual post. I noticed some information that many would prefer to have swept under the rug.
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I love how collective data and first hand experience of being inside of dealerships work hand in hand. Tell me that what we do is not a science. I mean we are scientists.
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Comment by Keith Shetterly on May 28, 2013 at 11:26am -
Doug, you are right on the money about who logs in.
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Comment by Keith Shetterly on May 28, 2013 at 11:25am
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Stan, this data will support what you say about CRM processes, right from the customer's mouth: I presented this information at Brian Pasch's bootcamp earlier this month from four years of data from CAR Research's call center, the company I now am VP for in Houston. Many thanks to Julie Seitz for working so hard on the both the data and the concept. Food for thought on The Invisible Customer: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxJJSE4To0mLRFRNTElCOGJ2TnM/edit?us...
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That is because they rely on their managers to know that information.
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When is the last time you thoroughly reviewed your CRM processes in your dealership?
Stan, You are absolutely right but you are taking a huge leap of faith. Most GMs and GSMs, can't even log into a CRM. If they can, they don't. Sorry, if this sounds pessimistic but I talk to GMs that can't answer simple questions like: "how many leads to you get a month"? Who is your best lead provider? What is your closing percentage on leads?
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