Over the years, the Internet role’s in car research opened up greater access to information and pushed more of the consumer decision-making online, DealerRater chief executive officer Gary Tucker said in an interview here at the NADA Convention.

Choices that were largely offline-based — what am I going to buy? What price is fair? What dealership am I going to buy from? — are now largely decided based on online research, he said.

DealerRater is banking on yet another step to move further online, as well

“If you think about those as the first three ‘P’s’ of the customer journey — product, price and place — what we’re betting on is that the availability and access to information is going to transform the fourth ‘P,’ which is person. Who do I want to buy from?” Tucker said. “What do I want to buy? What’s a fair price to pay? Where am I going to go? And who am I going to ask for?”

The latter is “incredibly powerful,” he said.

Picture this. The car shopper has already been researching for 14 hours. He or she already has a car choice in mind and has figured out a fair price to pay.  The shopper has also picked out a dealership that has that car.

Then the shopper drives up to the lot, Tucker says.

And there are more than a dozen salespeople lined up. 

The shopper’s “heart rate goes through the roof,” he said.

It’s no wonder: this is the “highest anxiety moment for a buyer,” according to DealerRater research that Tucker references

His company is looking for a way to help dealers soothe those nerves.

“We know that if we can arm the consumer either with a path to make a digital connection with the salesperson before they get there, which the majority of customers are willing to do, or if we can at least arm them with enough information about those salespeople so they know which one to ask for, then they can confidently walk past that lineup” and ask for a specific salesperson, Tucker said.

The company launched a new platform at NADA called CustomerConnect that “showcases the employees much more prominently” to help connect the shopper and a specific salesperson.

Tucker showed Auto Remarketing an example dealer page that DealerRater had set up. Say the shopper is looking at a car the dealership has in its inventory, Tucker said. The shopper will see the usual VDP info, but he or she will also see the dealership’s three highest-rated salespeople.

“Now as a consumer, I have the opportunity to engage with somebody specifically about that car, rather than send in a question to the dealership and wonder who’s going to get back to me,” he said.