During The NADA show this year CBT News was able to have a great interview with Jason Barrie, Vice President and General Manager at Dealertrack. We discuss his thoughts on consumers buying trends, dealership online visibility and what dealerships can do better to deliver a seamless customer experience.
Jason explains to our own Jim Fitzpatrick how the industry is in action mode making sure they are developing the right tools, programs, and technology that dealerships need to make sure they are meeting consumer’s demands. Based off of recent studies by Cox Automotive, Eighty-nine percent of consumers still want to complete their purchase in store. This means its evermore that important that dealerships are developing strategies that support an easy online to store transition.
One stressor that has been brought to light multiple times is how the consumer does not want to press the reset button when they step into your store after going through all the formalities online. Making sure your dealership has the right tools to support that effortless transition and making sure it’s consistent is key to the buyer’s car shopping experience.
Jason also suggested that dealerships should look into ways that eliminate a large portion of paperwork that is needed during the F&I process. A way that many dealerships are during just that is by adopting what’s called “digital contracting”. This gives users the ability to streamline processes that allow digital verifications of components within contracts. It also expedites the submission which proves to save time and adds value to the dealership.