CIMA Systems Blog

CIMA Systems Receives “Top Rated” Award for Dealer Satisfaction in Database/Ownership Marketing Category

Read our reviews from drivingsales.com

Pleasanton, CA– February 22, 2010 – CIMA Systems, the leading provider of multi-channel marketing communications technologies to the automobile industry, has won the “Top Rated” Database/Owner Marketing award in the 2009 DrivingSales Vendor Ratings Awards.

CIMA Systems was chosen as the “Top Rated” vendor among 22 other Database/Ownership Marketing category vendors.

“We are extremely honored to have earned the Top Rated award in the Database/Ownership Marketing Vendor category,” said Gary Nixon, President & CEO, CIMA Systems. “We continually hear from our clients the tremendous increase in business CIMA Systems is driving into their store and how much they appreciate our pro-active dedicated support staff. The 5 star rating they gave us is truly a tribute to our entire team”.

CIMA Systems works like a virtual Business Development Center using multi-platform marketing and communications to enhance customer loyalty and drive vehicle, service and parts sales. It can replace from one to four vendors and drive down expenses while providing dealership management with insightful demographic insight, and sales and marketing data to fine-tune their sales and marketing efforts.

The 2009 DrivingSales Vendor Ratings Awards, presented at the 2010 NADA Convention and Expo, measure satisfaction with vendors by allowing dealers to rate and review their vendors online at DrivingSales.com. Only vendors who achieved top rankings in dealer satisfaction in each category, as determined by the thousands of dealers who are part of the DrivingSales.com community, received awards.

“We are proud to present this award to CIMA Systems which has achieved a standard of excellence that is clearly resonating with dealers,” said DrivingSales CEO and Founder Jared Hamilton. “This year’s award winners have won recognition in one of the most challenging years on record for our industry.  We salute them for their ongoing commitment to provide value to their dealer clients.”

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.

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.

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

Victorville, CA.

*Available for ADP or Reynolds + Reynolds DMS only.

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.

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

Pleasanton, CA, July 21, 2009 – CIMA Systems and Sandi Jerome Computer Consulting (SJCC) announced today a new marketing partnership that provides favorable pricing of CIMA products to the dealership clients of SJCC and its new dealer management system, DealerStar.

 CIMA Systems is the leading provider of multi-channel marketing communications technologies to the automobile industry. SJCC is a leading consultancy on automotive business management, internal controls and computer utilization. DealerStar is an open system DMS and integrates seamlessly with CIMA Systems for seamless customer communications.

 Jerome, also an auto dealership technology trends writer, said she’s keenly aware of the need for hands-off customer communications tools in the dealership environment today. “The biggest problem with most CRM/DMS systems is that they rely on constant human labor to be successful,” she said. “Today, most dealerships are operating with a limited labor force and customer retention is suffering. With CIMA products, all two-way marketing communications runs automatically in the background, allowing dealerships to remain in contact with their customers in the manner they prefer, whether by email, live chat, telephone, texting or blogs. CIMA is the most advanced product I have seen to drive business into a dealership.”

 “I’ve known Sandi for more than 10 years,” said Gary Nixon, president and CEO, CIMA Systems, “and we are pleased to offer this special pricing to her dealership customers. She is one of the most respected computer consultants in the industry, and we are honored to be chosen as the exclusive provider of marketing communications for SJCC and DealerStar.”

Rock Hill, SC — February 15, 2009 — Insignia Group, the leading provider of accessories sales and management innovations, announced today a new marketing partnership with CIMA Systems which will provide favorable pricing of CIMA products and services to Insignia affiliate dealerships.

CIMA Systems is the leading provider of multi-channel marketing communications technologies to the automobile industry. Under this new partnership, Insignia will offer their dealership customers the opportunity to proactively promote their parts and accessories through CIMA’s advanced patent-pending marketing communication tools which is integrated with the Insignia Accessories Sales System. The new offering brings Insignia dealerships unlimited marketing communications capabilities (e.g.. new vehicle/service promotions, service appointment reminders, seasonal events/promotions, automated appointment system via web & phone, etc.) and provides a complete dealership virtual business development center for dealerships.

“We have partnered with CIMA Systems for the past two years and have seen that dealers who combine the Insignia Accessories Sales System with CIMA’s advanced proactive marketing campaign solution have seen a significant increase in customers returning to their dealership for sales, service, and parts & accessories business,” said David Stringer, president of Insignia Group. “The special CIMA pricing our partnership brings dealerships delivers tremendous marketing value to our customers for a small fraction of what most others dealerships are paying to promote their services today”.

The partnership further streamlines the Insignia sales process by allowing dealerships to proactively promote their products and specials. As an example, CIMA will automatically send a custom email from the dealership’s parts department to a new vehicle customer congratulating them on their purchase. The customer will also receive a promotion (i.e.10% off any accessory purchased within 30 days) to thank them for their business. By simply clicking a link that is contained in the email, the customer will be taken directly to the dealership’s Insignia Accessories System, allowing them to easily shop for accessories and personalize their vehicle. Purchases can be made on-line, and the CIMA System will automatically notify the customer when the accessories arrive for installation. The customer can then schedule the accessory installation using CIMA’s AutoAppointment system. As an added convenience, CIMA automatically reminds the customer of the appointment, allowing them to confirm or reschedule as needed.

“We at CIMA are very excited to expand our relationship with Insignia,” states Gary Nixon President and CEO of CIMA Systems. “The combination of CIMA and Insignia makes it extremely easy for dealership customers to do business with them by automating the entire marketing and purchase process. In today’s economic times, dealers need these tools to drive more business in the most cost effective way”. 

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Pleasanton, CA, July 14, 2009 – CIMA Systems (www.cimasystems.net), the leading provider of multi-channel marketing communications technologies for the automobile industry, announced today its latest software upgrade, designed to take full advantage of the newest technology trends in communications.

 This extensive release from CIMA offers major enhancements that allow for trends in the latest communications technologies and tools on the media horizon. Further, the new release enhances CIMA’s already advanced reporting tool allowing dealers to view trends in market penetration and zip code mapping analysis on all car deals and service repair orders.

 “As new ways of reaching customers continues across society, these improvements to our system give car dealers more flexibility, speed and robust technology to communicate with their market base using the newest forms of emerging media, helping them to increase their business through more interactive marketing and customer retention communications,” said Gary Nixon, President & CEO.

Reflecting this dramatic upgrade, CIMA also announced new branding, resulting in a new logo and tagline — “Building Customer Loyalty Through Innovative Communications” – and a new, more comprehensive website. This new branding reflects several new system technologies as well as new marketing and communications products such as hosted live chat and blogs that help auto dealers grow their business more efficiently and effectively.

 Unlike a typical one-way “blast” promotion, the CIMA system works like a virtual business development center, delivering unlimited two-way communications to dealership customers and prospects. It automatically communicates to customers based on their individual or vehicle needs to increase customer loyalty and response rate. Working automatically in the background, CIMA promotes the entire dealership based on any data which resides in the dealership’s dealer management system.

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Gahanna, OH – DealerPro, the nation’s leading high-performance training group specifically for dealers, announced today they have selected CIMA Systems as the exclusive communications provider to integrate with DealerPro’s SMART System in order to maximize profits in the Service Department.

SMART, short for Scheduled Maintenance at Regular Times, is DealerPro’s proprietary service menu system that helps dealerships and manufacturers maximize profits per customer and service visit. In addition to the SMART system, DealerPro trainers will use their more than 22 years experience to consult and train service departments on the integration of SMART into their current process.

By integrating SMART’s service menus with CIMA System’s product suite, customers will receive scheduled communications from the dealership regarding a needed service or repair. The email will link directly to the dealership’s SMART system, which takes the customers to an online list of manufacturer recommended services. From the menu, the customer selects the services needed and can automatically schedule an appointment, by web or phone. In addition, using SMART, customers can also view dealership labor and parts rates, view videos or listen to audio clips and receive automated appointment reminders 24 hours before an appointment. The integration of CIMA will also help dealerships attract and retain current customers by keeping them informed and up to date via regularly scheduled communications and promotions.

“I’ve been in this business over 37 years, including some time as a dealer, so I had a pretty lengthy wish list when it came time to look for a marketing communication tool to integrate with SMART. When we found CIMA, I was thrilled to find it hit every requirement I had,” said Don Reed, CEO DealerPro Service Solutions. “In my mind it is the optimum system for bringing business into the service department.”

Using DealerPro and CIMA together, dealerships have the ability to increase service revenue by more than 40 percent. In addition to the SMART system, DealerPro will offer unparalleled consulting and training knowledge to ensure staff members are using the system to its full potential. As a part of the partnership, CIMA will recommend DealerPro’s training and consulting program to their clients.

“Don has a tremendous reputation in the industry as a leader in training and consulting services. Between his mastery at bringing out the best in the service staff and the integration of DealerPro and CIMA in SMART, dealerships have all of the ammunition needed to make their service department the powerhouse of the dealership,” said Gary Nixon, President & CEO, CIMA Systems.

The SMART System and dealership training is available from DealerPro immediately. For more information on DealerPro, please visit www.dealerprotraining.com (http://www.dealerprotraining.com/) or call 1.888.553.0100. For more information on CIMA Systems or its products please visit www.cimasystems.net or call (866) 461-CIMA.

DealerPro, the training group specifically for dealers, announced today they have selected CIMA Systems as the exclusive communications provider to integrate with DealerPro’s SMART System in order to maximize profits in the Service Department.  

SMART, short for Scheduled Maintenance at Regular Times, is DealerPro’s proprietary service menu system that helps dealerships and manufacturers maximize profits per customer and service visit. In addition to the SMART system, DealerPro trainers will use their more than 22 years experience to consult and train service departments on the integration of SMART into their current process.

By integrating SMART’s service menus with CIMA System’s product suite, customers will receive scheduled communications from the dealership regarding a needed service or repair. The e-mail will link directly to the dealership’s SMART system, which takes the customers to an online list of manufacturer recommended services. From the menu, the customer selects the services needed and can automatically schedule an appointment, by web or phone. In addition, using SMART, customers can also view dealership labor and parts rates, view videos or listen to audio clips and receive automated appointment reminders 24 hours before an appointment. The integration of CIMA will also help dealerships attract and retain current customers by keeping them informed and up to date via regularly scheduled communications and promotions.

Using DealerPro and CIMA together, dealerships can increase service revenue by more than 40 percent, the companies said. In addition to the SMART system, DealerPro will offer consulting and training knowledge to ensure staff members are using the system to its full potential. As a part of the partnership, CIMA will recommend DealerPro’s training and consulting program to their clients.

For more information visit www.dealerprotraining.com