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.

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.

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.

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

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.’

A more assertive, retention-building approach practices by many of today’s successful dealers is to proactively inform customers of their vehicle’s service needs, based on service intervals, previously declined services, and other factors, before they arrive on the service lane. This strategy builds their service business using a planned, continuous program destined to pre-sell customers on using their dealerships for these services.

Technology available today makes this straight-forward by automatically creating messages and offers specific to the customer’s vehicle make, model, mileage, and individual needs. Each communication is then delivered to the customer in their desired format (e.g. phone, text, email, etc.) with an appropriate link to details about the recommended services.

Here are the basics for getting started:

• Put into place an automated service reminder program that sends service-due notifications based on the vehicle’s service history within the dealer management system (DMS) and factory/dealer recommendations.
•  Link each communication (i.e. email) to a recommended service menu, based on vehicle make, model and mileage.
•  Include a link into an automated service appointment system. Some systems will automatically log the customer into your appointment system with preloaded customer and vehicle information. The customer then simply needs to confirm the date and time. The idea is to make it easy for your customer to do business with you.
•  Communicate other recommendations periodically, based on vehicle history within your DMS, such as previously declined services, recall notifications, seasonal services, etc.
• Review recommended services at write up if the customer did not respond to your proactive recommendations. Consider placing a video terminal in the customer lounge so customers can again review the recommended services and “why” explanations.

source: Dealer Marketing Magazine

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?”

Nixon advices that you use “focused ‘drip’ marketing,” instead of blast emails. With a “drip” marketing focus instead of a “blast” marketing focus, dealers should be “continuously communicating specials and promotions specific to the customer and to his or her vehicle, model and mileage…in a way the customer prefers, whether phone, email (with video), text, blog or hosted live chat,” adds Nixon.

Sending out a continuous “drip” of relevant email offers is more effective than traditional blast emails or bulk mailer for two reasons. First, when you target your offers to your customers’ needs, your odds of winning their business goes way up, because you aren’t sending out emails that people will just delete, or worse, cause them to block all of your emails. The second benefit is that you don’t have to continuously come up with better and better offers, because every month you’ll have a new group of customers for whom the offer will be new. This will free you up and increase your returns, because you won’t have to use ever increasing discounts to get the same level of business.

Another option for increasing your service business is to sell more to your customers when they are in the service lane. David Boyle, president and COO of Mobile Productivity, Inc. (MPi), believes “there really is only one way [to grow your service business] in today’s business climate and that is through a robust vehicle inspection process…Our data shows that when performing a vehicle inspection more needed work is not sold than what gets done. This leaves a huge revenue opportunity for every dealer if they just recognize the importance of this process and capitalized on these legitimately needed repairs.”

The key here is “legitimately needed repairs.” Thanks to the Internet, today’s customers are well informed and they don’t want the runaround. They also are keeping their vehicles longer, however, and if you can show them how the repairs will extend the life of their vehicle, you have almost made the sale already. “Part of a dealers brand promise should be an environment where the dealership is the customers, ‘friend in the car business.’ What does it mean when someone says they have a ‘friend in the car business?’ It means that they have someone they trust implicitly to take care of them. If every customer felt that way, retention would never be an issue,” continues Mr. Boyle.

These two approaches are not mutually exclusive, one is meant to bring more customers in and the other is meant to increase sales once they’re at the store. Both can boost your bottom line, but you will get the best results through a combination of both techniques. The wonderful thing about both these techniques is that neither is prohibitively expensive. The main requirements are time and effort.

Using fixed ops to boost vehicle sales

Besides the profits that the service lane can bring directly to you dealership, it can also grow your revenue by boosting your vehicle sales. Those customers in your service lane represent an opportunity to “get in front of the ball” and be there when the customer is ready to buy. If you treat your customers well and build a relationship based on trust, they won’t feel the need to look anywhere else; they’ll come to you when it’s time to purchase a new vehicle.

David Boyle, of Mobile Productivity Inc. (MPi), says, “Dealers can use service to boost their vehicle sales by having processes in service that promote a ‘customers for life’ philosophy. If a customer’s bond to the service department is very strong they will go nowhere else to buy but that dealership when a customer is ready for their next vehicle purchase.”

Of course, if you want to sell new vehicles to your service customers, it is essential to know when they’re in the market for a new car. You shouldn’t try and sell them a vehicle every time they come through your service lane. If you do, your message will just blend in to all the “white noise” of advertising that consumers see every day and erode the trust that you have built up with that customer. You need to engage customers at the moment they begin to think about purchasing a new vehicle. One of the easiest ways to do this is to track the mileage on the vehicles you service. “Tracking vehicle customers’ mileage…helps dealers identify when customers’ vehicles may have aged sufficiently so they’ll be back in the market soon,” explains Gary Nixon of CIMA Systems.

Winning customers back from the independents

There are other dealerships that service vehicles, but your real competition is the independent service stations. They are the ones stealing your customers with offers of cheap service. It doesn’t matter if your service is superior and a better deal in the long run that is not the perception of many consumers.

“The aftermarket does a masterful job of telling consumers why they should choose them over the dealer; the dealers need to do the same. We should never be ashamed of what we charge and in fact should remember the adage, ‘We are not concerned with what other shops charge for they know best what their services are worth’,” advises David Boyle. To do this “will require our service advisors to actually spend time informing and talking to their customers from the very first visit while the vehicle is still under warranty and educate them all the way up to the time they have the decision of staying with the dealer or going elsewhere,” he adds. “This is something we are not very good at in this industry.”

In order to communicate the value of dealer service to consumers it is vital to “talk” to them in the way they prefer. This means both the method they prefer (i.e. phone, email etc.) and the manner in which you converse with them. “Every service customer is different and, to get their attention and earn their business, they must be interacted with so [that your] communication matches their preference. ‘A-type’ personalities want direct, succinct answers without out a lot of detail—simply what’s in it for me? Others like long explanations and details,” imparts Gary Nixon. “Service advisors good at reading people and able to be flexible in their communications styles to match the particular customer’s do a better job at connecting with customers and earning their trust.” And we all know, when you earn a customer’s trust, you earn their business.

source: Dealer Marketing Magazine, by Michael Bowen   

Wednesday, 02 September 2009

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?

A properly used CRM system will increase a dealerships success, so were not debating the merit of the CRM system itself. Rather, looking at what steps and actions are necessary to realize success and make the technology work for you. The goal is to design an effective implementation strategy and ongoing business processes that will maximize functionality and increase customer loyalty, targeted communications, service bay appointments and, ultimately, your bottom line. How do dealers set themselves up for success when using CRM?

In exploring the above question well isolate some common dealer misconceptions and missteps that hamper the effectiveness of a CRM system, as well as speak to dealers who are doing it right to get some tips and hints for making your CRM system work for you. Well also look at the effect of the Web in maintaining and growing relationships, as well as address the future of CRM.

This technology is not working!

Placing the blame for an under-utilized or failed CRM system solely on the technology is a mistake. According to Jill Gehrhardt, solutions executive for CRM at Reynolds & Reynolds, The key to a successful CRM implementation lies in standardizing dealership processes and attaining a top-down commitment. In CRM, the process, driven by dealership management and solid implementation, is often more important than the software tool. Herein lies the key of a successful system: Getting solid buy-in from dealership management, changing dealership processes so that every user is trained before implementation, and selecting a senior person to monitor and report on user activity. The reasoning is clear- to create and mine a functional database, employees have to be trained to use it properly and the dealer has to be committed to reinforcing the trained behaviors that are necessary to be successful. The system can store, search, and mine data according to commands, but it cannot retrieve the necessary information from customers to populate its fields.

Simply having the CRM technology in place at a dealership will not make a significant difference in performance. As Todd Smith, vice president of sales for DealerUps notes, Dealers usually purchase a CRM system because they feel theyre missing sales opportunities because they are not following up effectively or consistently with customers, but these are not technology problems, these are poor business processes within the dealership. They want a CRM system to solve these problems, but usually it only serves to magnify these poor processes. Clearly, change has to begin within the dealership by changing the way business is conducted, and only then will a CRM system work effectively.

Committing from the top down and changing processes

Management buy-in is an essential first-step to having a successful CRM system. From there, much of your success will depend on business and sales processes that reinforce the system. Changing the sales process or the service process in a dealership is not as simple as calling everyone together and announcing now its going to be different and then handing out new customer contact rules. Many members of the sales team may be veteran sellers with their own routines and ways of doing things, or maybe a sales force is made up of computer novices who are overwhelmed by the thought of entering contact information, not to mention details about lifestyle, communication preference, and more. The sales team, and the entire dealership, needs to be trained on the new system and the new way of operating, before implementation. According to Iain Smith, vice president of CRM Solutions for ADP, In the automotive business, good training in advance of installation is really a secret to success. It is critical for the senior executive in charge of CRM and the process champion (the title ADP assigns to the dealership employee who is in charge of ensuring all employees are trained and following processes) to attend off-site training and be committed to working through the learning curve.

Good training can then be reinforced by constant and definitive sales processes. Many dealerships may insist that they have hard-line processes that every member of the sales team follows, but when it comes right down to it, every person is selling in their own way. Sales processes need to be documented in writing and strictly enforced so that every person is entering the same customer information on a consistent basis.

We heard from some dealers that one way to keep the sales team on track is to offer incentives to those who use the system, and use it correctly. Incentives could include gift cards or gift certificates for those employees who consistently use the system, or even bigger competitions where employees who enter the most data within a certain time period are eligible to win trips or cash incentives.

Integration with the DMS is key

Youve got your team on board and a CRM vendor in place. Now its time to address the second key concept: integration. Many CRM systems fail because theyre added to an existing DMS, meaning that sales and service are working within two systems and neither one contains complete information. Entering data twice is inefficient, mistake-prone, and frustrating. The goal with integration is to seamlessly incorporate systems so they interact with each other. As Al Babbington, CEO of CallCommand notes, The greater the integration the less labor-intensive the dealerships ongoing communication with customers will be. This means you may have to buckle-down for a bumpy ride in the short term as you prepare for your vendor to come in and revamp your system. However, in the long run, your payback will be increased customer communications, loyalty, and dealership growth.

The Internet boom and what it means for CRM

Good integration is essential for a dealership to stay abreast of consumers in the current Web-driven environment. To illustrate the point, consider this example: A dealership has a comprehensive and easy-to-use Website that includes, among other tools, current pricing for all vehicles on the lot. A consumer visits the Website to price a vehicle, and his contact information is stored by the CRM system. The next day, the same consumer visits the showroom, to price the same vehicle. This visit is logged in the DMS system by the salesperson, but because the DMS and the CRM dont talk to each other, the dealership has no way of knowing that the consumer is shopping them on the showroom floor. Good integration ensures that all systems are connected and the dealership knows the customers needs and sales history.

More than just helping the dealer keep abreast of consumers actions, CRM is essential for a dealership to effectively communicate with todays Internet-savvy public, who want information to be delivered on-demand and in an easy-to-read format that is targeted to meet their needs.

The road ahead

The service bay is a great opportunity for dealers to utilize a CRM system, but most dont use it&hellip-yet. Why is the service bay essential? Lets say youve sold a customer a vehicle-he or she may be in the market for another vehicle in three or four years, but theyre in need of vehicle service at least once a year, making them an optimal target for incentive programs and service specials. Successful loyalty programs involve all aspects of a dealership and help shape the dealer and consumer relationship, says Steve Comes, vice president of sales and marketing for MediaTrac.By starting a relationship at the buying process and carrying that relationship through to the service level, customers have the opportunity to experience the dealerships value in a variety of ways and build a relationship with longevity. This is a huge untapped market of current customers who can become loyal visitors to your dealership.

The key to making your service bay work for you is to initiate customer communications that are timely, relevant, and delivered through the communication channel that your customer prefers. One vendor at the forefront of this trend is CIMA (Customer Interactive Management Applications) Systems. CIMA automatically captures any vehicle, parts, and customer data from the dealerships management system and sends out unlimited, two-way marketing and advertising campaigns to any customer based on this data. Moreover, all communication to each customer is based on that customers preferred method of contact: direct mail, telephone, email, or text message. The system then generates market penetration, marketing ROI and CSI reports based on the data in the dealers system.

Turlock dealer group in Northern California has been on the CIMA system for a year, using it for such things as: sending service reminders the day before appointments, notifying customers that special parts have arrived, and conducting special offer campaigns. Jim Welle, parts and services director for Turlock, is impressed with the system’s effect on his service bay, We saw an immediate decrease in number of no-shows for service appointments, and weve found that most folks appreciate that youre calling them and reminding them its time for a service. The CIMA system can also be used by the sales team to send out special marketing campaigns, or even be programmed to send out Happy Birthday eCards or greetings on the first anniversary of a vehicle purchase. But what Welle is most impressed with is the effect CIMA has had on his budget, or should I say, has not had. In our industry everybody gets into the service reminder business with mail pieces that can cost anywhere from 56 cents to $1.25 per piece. With a database of 10,000 names, I cant afford that. CIMA does a lot more than just remind you of service, and it does everything for about one cent per name. Theres no comparison in terms of bang for your buck.

Another development in the world of CRM systems may be informal user groups where dealers using the same CRM vendor and system can get together and use their collective power to make the systems more functional and more able to meet their needs. Jeff Kershner, popular creator of the automotive blog, Dealerrefresh.com, and Internet sales manager for Mercedes-Benz of Hagerstown, has recently put together an exclusive Website for Mercedes-Benz BDC managers called MercedesCRM.com. The Website is a place for Mercedes-Benz BDC managers to go and voice opinions and share comments about the Mercedes Qualified CRM vendors that Mercedes-Benz USA allows their dealers to use, with the goal of using the power of the group to get CRM features enhanced or changed.

No matter how you look at it, you need some way of managing your customer relationships and contacts to keep and grow your current customer base. If youre currently frustrated with your CRM system, take a look at your current business processes and expectations. Are you looking to technology to help your sales team better follow up with leads and customers? Or are you expecting your system to magically increase your bottom line? If so, its time to check how your dealership does business and implement concrete business practices that will make your CRM system a success, not the other way around. Once youve accomplished this admittedly time-consuming step, watch your CRM success take off, eventually incorporating your service bay and positively impacting your bottom line.

source: Dealer Marketing Magazine, by Sara Maudlin

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.

To see what this type of communication would look like, let’s take the example of a service special. A dealership creates a June promotional email offering half off of a spring vehicle tuneup. Most dealerships would throw this offer into their basic dealership communication template (i.e. mailer, phone, email, text, etc.) and shoot it off to their entire customer database. They would get some business and then as that drops off, go to work brainstorming a new offer.

Using a dealershipwide approach, you would send the service offer above via email, but would also include direct links to ‘new vehicle promotions,’ ‘accessorize your vehicle,’ ’schedule service,’ and all the other departments of you dealership. Suddenly your communication go from attracting one business stream of revenue-service-to more than three. This type of approach allows your customers and prospects to view all aspects of your dealership and easily access the information they need at that time&hellipnot just the specific item you are promoting.

Let’s look at another example. You send a ‘thank you’ or ‘congratulations’ email to new vehicle owners with details about your service department, such as hours and contact information. This is a missed opportunity! Instead, this email should include not only the ‘thank you’ message, but an introduction to your service department with staff photos, a personalized message and Website link, and a link to your parts and accessories department. Now the customer can get complete service information with one click, and explore a full list of accessories for their new vehicle. There are even on demand communication systems in the space that allow customers to log in and then accessorize an interactive image of their vehicle, change their communications method, view their vehicle history, and more. Adding these links for one-click access to your complete dealership is an easy and effective way to boost your business.

With any type of marketing plan it is imperative that you reach your customers in the way they want to be reached. This means asking customers if they prefer phone, email, or text message contact, and then communicating with them through their preferred channel. Just as important is making it easy for them to access the information they want and need. If you are only sending oneoff promotions for individual dealership departments, you may be cheating yourself out of a lot of business. By adding information about your entire dealership in every message, you are embracing a dealershipwide marketing approach that meets your customers’ needs and allows you to reap the maximum profit from every part of your business, in all market conditions.

Gary Nixon is president and CEO of CIMA Systems, a Customer Interactive Management Application that helps serve as a 24-hour, automated BDC for dealerships. He can be reached at 925-461-4600 or email gnixon@cimasystems.net