CIMA Systems Blog

by : Sandi Jerome

Wikiwiki means “quick” in Hawaiian, which is a perfect theme for this article since I’ll be giving my Profit Reporting and Super Controller seminars in Hawaii for NADA and HADA this summer. The quicker you can do your job each day using technology the happier the customer will be and you’ll have more time to concentrate on those things that make profit.

I have found something that can save time in the office and get your money quicker – remote deposit. All you do is run the check through a scanner and you get instant credit for the checks. The bank keeps a digital image so you can then destroy the original. It creates your deposit, and if you don’t have any cash to deposit, you eliminate the need for an employee or a courier to take the deposit to the bank. Another potential benefit is that it cuts down on paperwork, and therefore reduces the chances of making mistakes or losing checks in the process of depositing them. Bounced checks also show up faster when processed through remote deposit. See if your bank offers this service – 11 banks currently do.

Speaking of scanning, the quickest way to get your customers into your database is with a driver’s license scanner. I saw the latest version of SnapShell from Card Scanning Solutions at NADA. It was very fast – only two to three seconds to capture and process. There are no moving parts and they can read driver’s licenses from all 50 states.

Another way to get your money quicker is to have the F&I managers pull contracts. I used to pull my own contracts when I was an F&I manager because I knew exactly what was supposed to go with the contract. It was easier to do it myself then write a note to the office telling them what the bank wanted. My dealer would come into my office each morning and sign the contracts and then I’d take them back to the parts department to have them deliver or overnight. Wikiwiki!

Moving into the service department, another technology solution that is not only quick, but also easy for a dealership’s service lane is CIMA ServiceDriver. Through this system, dealership customers are able to click on a link in a dealer communication piece and are sent to the web site with a list of manufacturer recommended maintenance for their particular vehicle. The customer can then click through the recommendations, calculate an estimate based on the service they need and even watch 10 second audio/video clips that explain why the service is important. Afterward, the customer can use CIMA to schedule a service appointment online. It’s fast, easy and requires no additional work from your service staff. Now that’s wikiwiki!

And speaking of wiki, have you heard of the term wiki on the web? A wiki is described as a web site that enables users to add, edit, remove and change content. Forward-thinking dealerships are moving on from brochure-ware web sites and creating sites that center around user-generated content. For an example of a wiki, go to www.wikipedia.com – a giant encyclopedia of terms and facts that is continually added to by its readers. The exciting thing about wikis is they’re moving user-generated content to the forefront of the industry. Unlike a static website, dealerships can use wikis to share internal knowledge, create a blog, share customer-based content with other customers etc. For instance, CIMA Systems has built a wiki for their customers that displays all of the marketing campaigns available in their marketing communication solution. Dealerships can even add their own campaigns to the CIMA wiki and share with other CIMA users why one campaign performed well over another or which was the most successful for pulling ups into their dealership. That is quick!

If you want more information about my seminars in Hawaii, just visit my web site (www.crsauto.com) to download a registration form or call the Hawaii Auto Dealers at (808)593-0031 but do it wikiwiki, seats are limited!

Sandi Jerome is the editor of Digital Dealer magazine. She is a former controller, CFO, system administrator, F&I, assistant GM, and fixed operations manager with over 30 years experience in the automotive industry. She is the owner of Sandi Jerome Computer Consulting.

A recent CapGemini study shows that of the tools auto shoppers use when researching a vehicle for purchase, a healthy 16 percent used interactive marketing in the form of blogs or discussion groups and more than 20 percent of respondents between 18-34 years of age used web groups and social forums when compiling information. The numbers in the study point to the evolution of interactive tools like blogs, RSS (really simple syndication) feeds and social networking sites becoming as much a part of the automotive landscape as Search Engine Optimization and e-newsletters did just a few years ago.

Consumers are hungry for information and interactive marketing enables them to engage in two-way communication that traditional marketing channels just can’t match. Take the internet sensation MySpace. One of the revolutionary things MySpace enables its users to do is create a social network or virtual coffee shop where friends can check in, post comments, see videos and photos and share information.

You find the same sense of flow of information on up and coming dealership blogs like that of one of our customers: Fiesta Ford. Teddy Stephens, general manager of Fiesta Ford in California has established a dealership blog for his customers to view important information regarding their Ford dealership promotions and the latest Ford commercial(s), et cetera. Through his posts, each customer can respond to his promotions or provide important feedback to his insightful articles, driving valuable two-way communication between buyer and seller.

What makes blogs and social networks successful and other forms of marketing fall flat can be attributed to three main items: back and forth flow of information, timeliness and brevity.

It has to inspire feedback
Perhaps the best example of immediate communication versus stalled communication can be found when looking at a dealership blog versus an e-newsletter. The dealers that are taking full advantage of technology are the ones who are blogging about their own thoughts, theories and opinions of the vehicles on their lot and the industry in general. The thoughts are short, relevant and sincere.

Nothing kills a blog faster than content that was obviously written in masse for a variety of different dealerships (similar to the e-newsletters I get from two different real estate brokers with the same generic content). When sincere, thought-provoking content is posted, readers then share their thoughts and opinions back through comments on the original blog post. These can be valuable pieces of information for the dealership. They give the dealer a feel for public opinion about their dealership, the vehicles they carry and may even alert them to an upcoming customer problem or obstacle the store can solve before it becomes an issue.

On the other hand, an e-newsletter is sent to the reader as a “one-way” message, and often has more to do with the dealership specials and promotions than commentary on what’s going on in the industry or the dealership. In addition, other than the “contact us” email link at the bottom, there’s little or no invitation for the reader to share their thoughts back with the dealership; creating a one-way communication channel with little to no input back from the addressee. What’s more, e-newsletters are often planned out a month or so in advance, leaving little to no time for updated news as it happens. Which brings me to my next point…

It has to be timely
When news hits, blogs enable a dealership executive to jump online and immediately post how they feel about it, what they’re going to do about it or even how they’re going to make it right. For example, Edmunds recently announced its top 10 list of mom-friendly features for Mother’s Day. Jumping on the newly released information, Fiesta Ford posted this information immediately, just in time for Mother’s Day.

In stark contrast, many e-newsletters are on a monthly schedule or longer. Often this leads to the news story either coming out too soon before deadline or so late that the news loses its relevance by the publish date. Either way, the dealership has lost out on an opportunity to make a comment about relevant, timely information in the space.

It has to be fast
Let’s face it: we’re in a world that’s hooked on better, faster, more. We want information that can be easily digested in bite-sized chunks. We do much better scanning an article than actually sitting down to read it. In our fast paced lives we need just the facts and don’t have time for much else.

A dealership blog taps into this trend by giving users bits of information that can be easily scanned. Rarely do we see a blog post that is more than a few paragraphs long. Compare that with an e-newsletter that often contains three to eight feature-length articles and it’s not hard to figure out why e-newsletter conversion rates are dropping.

While I don’t think dealership e-newsletters are gasping their last breath just yet, there are some clear benefits of a dealership blog over an e-newsletter when it comes to two-way communication. I would encourage dealer principals to look into new tools like blogs on the market and see if there is a way to strengthen their communication throughout all of their channels. As the CapGemini study noted above clearly proves, it’s time to expand our thinking when it comes to communicating with today’s consumer. Whether it’s texting, MySpace, wikis or blogs, your customers are using interactive technology more than ever before. You need to be where the customer is in order to pull them into your dealership. Good luck!