DealerUps adds New Marketing Tool to Drive Business into Auto Dealer Service Departments; ServiceUps Powered by CIMA Systems

February 2010

Interactive Automated Marketing and Customer Service Solution Ensures More Service Business for Auto Dealers

LEVITTOWN, New York – (February X, 2010) – Parayil & Mann Dealer Services Inc. (PMDS), today announced it has added the powerful CIMA Systems suite of service customer communications and profit-building tools to its DealerUps Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

Called ServiceUps, this module complements DealerUps front-end CRM, and adds dynamic, multi-platform customer communications and marketing tools to drive business in fixed operations departments.  ServiceUps communicates to customers in their preferred method – email, phone, text, Live Chat, etc. – and automatically so no opportunity to bring customers back into the service lane is missed.

ServiceUps powered by CIMA Systems, offers:

  • AutoRemind: Unlimited marketing campaigns, including new service appointment reminders, vehicle ready notifications, special order parts arrival notifications, service thank you letters, service CSI surveys and service-due notifications, among others.
  • AutoAppoint: Automated service scheduling that allows customers to schedule confirmed service appointments 24/7, 365 days a year via web or automated phone.
  • S.M.A.R.T Service Menus: Interactive online service menus marketed proactively to customers based on each customer’s vehicle parameters. Dealers can capture more service business when customers know beforehand what services are required for their vehicle with respective prices.
  • eCapture: An email appending tool which captures valid email addresses for those customers without one within the dealerships DMS.
  • CIMAVision ROI Analytical & Reporting Tool: Reports regarding customers, communication ROI’s, employee productivity, customer satisfaction and revenues.

“One of our primary goals for 2010 was to add an effective set of tools to DealerUps for the service department to create a true full-fledged service and sales CRM. ServiceUps powered by CIMA Systems more than fulfills that goal,” commented Guy Manasse, DealerUps President.

“It was critical for us to offer a system that is both affordable and helps dealers find lost opportunities within their own service department database. The icing on the cake is that the CIMA System enables dealers to communicate all these marketing ideas with very little added cost, using email, the web, text, Live Chat, IVR and more in a single tool that is simple to use,” Manasse added.

CIMA Systems President & CEO Gary Nixon agreed. “ServiceUps added to the DealerUps CRM gives dealers the flexibility, speed and robust technology to communicate in all the emerging formats, interactively, to drive service business and retain more customers.”

PMDS’ DealerUps (www.dealerups.com) is a state-of-the-art CRM system that enables automotive dealers to effectively manage current and prospective customers from one database. Tracked and reported in real time is information such as Internet leads, sales, service, walk-ins, and incoming telephone calls.  Dealers can also receive and respond to any in-coming email leads using web-enabled cell phones, PDAs or iPhones, with all incoming and outgoing data captured and pushed directly into DealerUps and the customer’s record.

About CIMA Systems

 

CIMA Systems provides interactive automated marketing and customer service solutions to the automotive market. Its comprehensive software solutions enable dealers and automotive service businesses to communicate with prospects and clients throughout the client lifecycle. CIMA System’s automated, real-time, communications-management solutions provide immediate 24/7 customer feedback to front- and back-end marketing campaigns, resulting in higher sales, increased client interaction and lower overhead. For more information, visit www.cimasystems.net.

About Parayil & Mann Dealer Services, Inc.

Parayil & Mann Dealer Services, Inc. (PMDS) is a privately held automotive consulting and technology company specializing in the optimization of dealership processes and customer relationship management (CRM). PMDS is lead by industry experts with more than four decades of extensive automotive retail experience. The company has headquarters in Long Island, New York and regional offices in Dallas, Texas.  For more information visit www.dealerups.com.

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Notify Your Customers Their Vehicle is Ready

January 2010


Are your customers contacting you to see if their vehicle is ready yet? Timely customer communication is critical to maintaining customers for life and driving service profits. From the moment the appointment is made until the time your customers pick up their vehicle, how you communicate and the timeliness of those communications is one of the keys to how they rate their overall service experience.

*CIMA’s Vehicle Ready application is designed to CALL, EMAIL, or TEXT your customer when it’s time to pick-up their vehicle. Dealers utilizing this feature are saving up to 40 minutes a day per Service Advisor.


CIMA is currently offering special pricing for
Vehicle Ready application thru February 28th, 2010.

Installation= $200 NOW $100! Monthly Maintenance = Just $25.00 per month.


The Vehicle ready feature for us was the biggest selling tool for CIMA, we wanted our customers to know their vehicles were ready the moment the invoice was printed. CIMA does just that. The system seamlessly alerts our customer by phone, text or email that their vehicle is completed. We no longer have to rely upon the human memory to make that call, and better still, CIMA never calls in sick or is affected by being short staffed.

Andrew Gates

Parts and Service Director

Sunland Ford

Victorville, CA.
Click Here to See Samples


*Available for ADP or Reynolds + Reynolds DMS only.

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DEALERPRO Training Solutions offers FREE Service Department Evaluations to CIMA Dealers

January 2010

Would you be interested in finding out how your service department performance compares to NADA benchmarks? Would you like to increase your service and parts gross profit by 40% or more? What would achieving 100% service absorption do for you and your dealership in these tough economic times?

If we peaked your interest, CIMA would like to introduce you to DEALERPRO Training Solutions www.dealerprotraining.com, a CIMA Preferred Vendor and a Preferred Partner of the newly created NADA University. NADA will be announcing this exciting new training format at the NADA Convention in Orlando.

DEALERPRO has helped over 700 auto dealers over the past 10 years to dramatically improve their fixed operations gross profit with side-by-side, hands-on training and coaching of service and parts personnel. DEALERPRO shows your people what to do and how to do it by working with them and actual customers in your service drive. This is not classroom training or short-term consulting. DEALERPRO spends the first two weeks installing processes, procedures, software, sales boards for techs and advisors, menus and beginning the training process with your people. After that, a DEALERPRO trainer returns one-week each month for the next 13 months to make sure that the processes and procedures they installed are being followed. DEALERPRO trainers average 20 years of retail dealership experience and must have been at least a service manager to qualify for the position.

The good news? DEALERPRO training is performance-based, so if they don’t generate a revenue increase for your dealership, they don’t get paid!

DEALERPRO has generously offered all CIMA dealers a NO COST Profit Potential Evaluation of your service and parts departments, a $995 value! They will come to your dealership, collect and analyze your fixed operations data and show you where you are today. Even more important, they will show you where you could be with a first level business plan based on your specific dealership’s opportunities.

This is a limited time offer! Call CIMA Systems CEO, Gary Nixon at (925) 461-4601 or DEALERPRO CEO, Don Reed at (888) 553-0100 now for your FREE evaluation. Just mention the CIMA Systems/DealerPro offer.

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CIMA Systems Will Continue to Pull Reynolds Data Without Interruption

January 2010

As you are aware, in May of this year CIMA Systems developed a partnership with Stone Eagle to acquire the data necessary from your DMS to allow for your custom marketing communication campaigns. We chose Stone Eagle due to their advanced security and efficiency in pulling data for marketing communications through their SecureLink program as well as being a Reynolds certified vendor. As you are aware, this application runs on a local PC within your dealership.

This past week, Reynolds sent out a letter advising you that effective January 4, 2010 you and your vendors will not be able to access your DMS data via modem. As noted above, we do not pull data from your DMS via modem and therefore CIMA Systems has and will continue to send out your daily marketing communications campaigns without interruption. If you have any questions please contact our support team. We look forward to continuing to assist you in driving increased revenue to your dealership.

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November 20th, 2009 – CIMA Systems is Moving

November 2009

We are pleased to announce that CIMA Systems will be moving to 4305 Hacienda Suite 360 Pleasanton, CA. Our phone numbers and email addresses will remain the same.

The physical move will be on Friday, November 20 2009. During the switch-over, our phones will be down and the best method of communicating with us that day will be email.

The move will not impact the ongoing operations and daily customer communications, but we apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you. We would like to thank you for your patience during this time.

We look forward to serving you.

Sincerely,
CIMA Systems

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Pre-Sell Customers Before the Service Lane

September 2009

By Gary Nixon

Proactive marketing of factory-recommended services as well as dealership recommendations prior to the customer arriving in the drive not only pre-sells your service business, but displays your expertise at keeping their vehicle in top performance.

To accomplish this, you will need a plan of action and some automation to make such pre-selling practical, largely hands-off, and effective. Your audience must include new and used vehicle customers, current service customers, those you haven’t serviced in a while, and those which declined some of your recommended services.

Today, most dealers attempt to do this with a “blast” direct mail or email offering one-time service specials like a lube, oil filter or brake special hoping customers will see a coupon that is applicable to the service they feel their vehicles need. Although this plan does result in a spike in service, it is only temporary.’

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Building More Profits in Fixed Operations

September 2009

There is no denying that the last year has been a tough one for auto dealers. Sales are down and consumers are keeping their vehicles longer. That trend of customers retaining their vehicles longer, however, has led to one of the few bright spots for dealers during the recession: fixed operations. With customers holding on to their vehicles longer, there has been an increased concentration on vehicle maintenance and repair. After all there’s no point holding on to a vehicle that doesn’t work. With that in mind we spoke to some experts in the fixed operations field to find out how dealers can squeeze more profit out of their service lanes.

Boosting fixed ops profits

The first question we put to our experts was the obvious one: How can dealers boost the profits from their fixed operations departments?

One obvious option that many dealers have used is to send direct mail of email offers to customers who have bought cars from them in the past. Gary Nixon, president and CEO of CIMA Systems, warns, however, that “Many dealerships attempt to do this with “blast” direct mail or emails offering a single service special, such as a LOF [Lube, Oil, and Filter] discount. These blasts then leave the dealership wondering, “What do we offer next?”

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CRM Keeping and Growing the Dealership Customer Base

September 2009

Today, it is highly doubtful that you will find a dealership that is not using some form of customer relationship management (CRM). Some efforts may be as simple as recording contact information and products and services purchased, while others may keep detailed records of every client contact and send out automated email and voice messages. No matter what form it takes, some type of customer relationship management is a necessity for dealerships to retain and grow their business. In fact, a recent study from the University of Marylands Robert H. Smith School of Business, conducted with CRM provider Autobytel, found that dealerships using a customer management system perform 23 percent better than the competition.

There are a number of providers in the automotive space who offer well-designed and effective CRM systems, such as Reynolds & Reynolds, ADP, Autobase, DealerUps and CallCommand. So whats puzzling is why so many CRM systems are under-utilized or fail altogether. Why do so many systems not live up to the hype? Is this a function of overly complicated technology, a vendor issue, a dealership issue, or a combination of any or all of these?

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Promote Your Entire Dealership

September 2009
We all know the current market situation. A decline in consumer confidence, along with high fuel prices, and the worry that the weakened market could turn into a full blown recession has hit the automotive industry hard.

According to Reuters, auto sales dropped 12 percent in March alone and predictions are that they will continue to decline through the second quarter of this year. Experts counsel that a strong focus on promoting your parts and service business is the way to keep your profits up during this down time. I’d like to offer a different perspective to ensure you focus on your entire dealership.

Although individual promotions for parts and services, vehicles sales, or any other aspect of your dealership are an integral part of your marketing plan, sending communications that promote specific departments to the exclusion of others sets you up for a roller coaster ride. For example, a marketing promotion that only touts a $9.99 oil change may make your service business rise briefly, but it may soon go right back down again, leaving you in a constant state of peaks and valleys, scrambling to come up with even better promotions.

Instead, focus on promoting your entire dealership. This approach gives you room to highlight a particular department, for instance your service department, while still tying in all the services and products you offer that meet the full gamut of customer needs. Marketing your dealership as a whole sets you up for a steady stream of revenue, so your business remains strong even during the most difficult economic conditions.
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CIMA Systems Adds Major Communications Enhancements

July 2009

CIMA Systems, leading provider of multi-channel marketing communications for auto dealers, adds software designed around the newest technology trends. Enhances reporting tools allowing dealers to view trends in market penetration and zip code mapping analysis on all car deals and service repair orders. New system technologies, marketing and communications products such as hosted “live chat” and blogs help auto dealers grow their business more efficiently and effectively. Don’t miss out on gaining a virtual business development center that delivers unlimited two-way communications to dealership customers and prospects! For more information visit www.cimasystems.net.

SOURCE: Dealer Digest Daily

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