Autotrader has debuted a new commercial spot highlighting various home services that dealers now offer to bring convenience and comfort to in-market shoppers while also minimizing in-person contact.
The ad, titled, “Still Moving,” is meant to alleviate consumers’ car-buying concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Autotrader, sourcing the Cox Automotive COVID-19 Digital Shopping Study, said the crisis has changed how consumers are looking to shop. Two-thirds of shoppers are more likely to buy a vehicle 100% online, according to the study.
Autotrader says that with its Dealer Home Services, dealers can meet consumers where they are in the vehicle-shopping process while also reducing the risk of infection.
The company said more than 9,000 dealers are signed up for Dealer Home Services, which allows consumers to shop more than 3 million vehicle listings for their next car.
Autotrader and global creative agency 72andSunny New York created the campaign, which will air across online, social channels and television. The ad can be seen on this YouTube site as well as the window at the top of this report.
Autotrader vice president of marketing Greta Crowley said helping its dealers and car shoppers navigate this period of disruption is the company’s priority.
“Dealers and consumers are actively looking for ways to safely complete the car buying process — we launched the new spot in response to help shoppers understand all the options they have available today to stay protected,” Crowley said in a news release.
The company said the latest Cox Automotive data shows Autotrader site traffic remains steady. In some cases, it is even better than previous months.
Incentives are likely fueling the shopping activity. Those include contracts at 0% APR for 84 months that Autotrader says are “the new norm for many automotive brands.”
According to Autotrader traffic data during the second week of April, site visits and vehicle description page views were significantly higher. They were above levels seen in early March and before the full impact of COVID-19 was felt in the United States.
In addition, Autotrader site visits and pageviews on April 12 reached the highest volume recorded in the past year.
Stating that the product makes dealership employee and customer safety a top priority during COVID-19, Dealer-FX has launched a contactless check-in application that enables physical distancing.
Mobile Check-In is the new application from Dealer-FX, a digital transformation and customer experience management company serving auto retailers and OEMs.
The company describes Mobile Check-In as a safer alternative to kiosk services or face-to-face check-in.
Mobile Check-In offers a “contactless” check-in process. Dealer-FX says that with social distancing in mind, customers can now use their mobile device to check in and sign for service.
That, according to Dealer-FX, allows a safe, physically-distant drop-off experience.
The service is now available at no additional charge to current Dealer-FX customers.
Dealer-FX chief executive officer Bill Lucchini said the company presented its roadmap for a self check-in tool at NADA in February.
“Given how this pandemic has disrupted the automotive industry, our team has dedicated significant time and resources to expedite its launch,” Lucchini said in a news release.
Lucchini continued, “COVID-19 has forced us all to think differently as to how we approach our day-to-day business and engage with our customers. Providing mobile check-in is just one way we can help our dealers adapt.”
Dealer-FX has fully integrated Mobile Check-In with its ONE Platform “and all leading DMS providers.”
The company listed several benefits of Mobile Check-In, and one is that customers can remotely check-in for service.
That allows for a quick and contactless drop-off, Dealer-FX said.
Another benefit is that Mobile Check-In offers full write-up capabilities, and that includes a digital signature for approval.
Additional benefits:
— The ability to add factory-required or previously declined services to the appointment. Dealer-FX says that can increase dollars per repair order.
— Mobile Check-In notifies the service advisor when the customer checks in.
— It allows service advisors to focus on customers requiring additional assistance.
Dealer-FX also said it has developed various initiatives to help address specific COVID-19 concerns and needs. The company is implementing the initiatives to help dealers effectively continue operating their service departments
— Financial relief: The company will provide its customers with a 25% discount on monthly fees for April and May. It will also pass along any discounts from third-party integration partners to dealers.
— Free COVID-19 marketing campaigns: Through Customer Connect free of charge, dealers can enable Dealer-FX’s library of COVID-19 related marketing campaigns. Any assistance needed for configuration or personalization is also free of charge.
— New Learning Academy: Dealer-FX’s new Learning Academy, powered by SmarterU, offers customizable courses for dealership employees to provide ongoing training and skill development. It also provides learner monitoring and reporting. The company says it delivers the courses in a “media-rich, online elearning environment.”
— Moving Forward webinar series: Dealer-FX is launching a new webinar series, “Moving Forward — How to Navigate COVID-19.” Each webinar provides information on best practices for effectively running service operations with social distancing in mind. Industry veterans lead the webinars, which feature interviews with North American dealers sharing their personal challenges and successes during the COVID-19 crisis.
Auto ad tech company Dealers United is developing tools and resources to guide auto dealers during the COVID-19 crisis, including “Facebook Ad Playbooks” and templates for service and sales strategies for facing crisis challenges.
Dealers United, a Facebook and Instagram advertising service for the auto industry, says dealerships and local businesses should have messaging and plans in place to continue operations safely.
Five U.S. and Canadian dealers, along with IHS Markit and Facebook Automotive co-hosted a March 26 Dealers United webinar, titled State of Automotive.
The webinar shared dealers’ experiences on their businesses and messaging. It also covered best practices on boosting sales and service revenue during the crisis.
Matt Sneed, director of marketing at Power Ford in Albuquerque, who was a dealer-panelist in the webinar, said going digital is much more “agile” than traditional marketing and traditional media.
“The targeting you can do on Facebook is so far superior to anything else,” Sneed said.
Sneed continued, “You can be proactive with your message.”
State regulations have forced Sneed’s dealership to sell vehicles only to essential workers.
However, Sneed has repositioned the dealership’s advertising expenses to promote service campaigns.
Power Ford has used Facebook and Instagram Ads to proactively target potential service customers with the latest information and offers.
During the State of Automotive webinar, Leader in Cars Auto Group vice president Michael Renaud said, “Facebook was made for moments like this.”
Renaud’s auto group is located at the virus epicenter of New Rochelle, N.Y.
The auto group has used Facebook and Instagram to provide customers with its latest store updates and hours, along with information on safety precautions the auto group is taking and how shoppers can contact them with questions or appointments.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Dealers United — guided by Facebook Automotive best practices, data-driven insights and audiences from IHS Markit, and their dealer-partners’ experiences — developed free resources for auto dealers.
Those resources provide a proactive plan for dealers to communicate with their customers and community about how their dealership can serve customers when they need help and also make them feel secure about the buying process.
In addition to “Facebook Ad Playbooks” and templates for service and sales strategies, the information in the Dealers United COVID-19 resource webpage also includes a recording of the State of Automotive webinar event, featuring five dealer-panelists.
The webpage also includes an article about the latest car shopper trends during COVID-19, an article with messaging ideas to help drive sales, the IHS Markit Rapid Response Report focused on COVID-19, and Facebook’s official guide showing how auto dealership advertisers can respond to COVID-19.
Auto dealers can use those resources to create and execute strategies for strengthening their business. The strategies can help their business remain prosperous throughout the pandemic and beyond.
Dealers United chief executive officer Pete Petersen said more consumers are turning to the web and social media to pass the time, and now more than ever, auto dealerships should be digitally visible and available.
Petersen said, “Every dealership should be asking themselves, ‘How can you provide your customers with an amazing car shopping experience, even if they don’t leave the house?’”
Two new auto service programs are now available to help dealers during the COVID-19 pandemic, one providing data on closed repair order volume, which could help new-car dealerships understand and respond to changes in demand for vehicle maintenance and repairs.
DriveSure is a customer retention product designed for new car dealerships, and it has compiled data on closed repair order volume.
The data is a seven-day moving average of the weekly number of closed repair orders per dealership.
It is a compilation of nearly 100 U.S. new-car dealerships. Updated daily, the data is meant to help dealership general managers and service directors understand rapid market changes.
DriveSure says that on average since late February, reporting dealerships have shown a 40% drop in closed repair orders.
“This is a time of uncertainty for all of us,” DriveSure president Bill Springer said in a news release.
Springer continued, “We are sharing this aggregated information to help dealerships get some clear answers and be able to make decisions based on trends they are seeing relative to other dealerships throughout the United States.”
DriveSure will also offer and curate tips for minimizing the long-term negative effects on fixed operations.
“We know dealerships will be relying heavily on service revenue as vehicle sales sharply decline,” Springer said.
Springer continued, “This information will give decision makers an opportunity to stay ahead of changes to service demand as much as they can and come out strong on the other side.”
In other news, CarAdvise, which describes itself as “the nation’s largest consumer fleet,” has launched No Contact Car Care, which is an expansion of its digital technology in response to COVID-19.
CarAdvise designed No Contact Car Care to protect people still relying on their vehicle for essential goods and services.
The company said many of its customers are gig economy workers such as shoppers and others in areas such as rideshare and delivery.
“Their current role is absolutely critical during this pandemic as they have been instrumental in maintaining the supply chain and supporting the economy,” CarShare writes.
The company describes No Contact Car Care as an automated, digital process.
During that process, the user schedules, approves services and pays all from his or her smartphone. The process requires no human interaction.
CarAdvise says that with No Contact Car Care, consumers and automotive service center employees can maintain a high level of safety and operate under governmental distinction as an essential business.
The company features a network of more than 20,000 shops nationwide.
It is working with each national brand, franchise location and independent shop to adopt and become certified in No Contact Car Care.
CarAdvise says it designed the effort to exceed CDC and local safety guidelines “because it removes human interaction entirely.”
The company says No Contact Car Care is a fully digitized avenue that promotes social distancing beyond the recommended six feet.
CarAdvise customers take the following steps:
— Schedule service online through CarAdvise.
— Drop keys at the counter or dropbox at the shop.
— Electronically approve and pay for services.
— Pick up the vehicle upon completion of service, with no direct human interaction.
CarAdvise electronically stores all receipts in the CarAdvise dashboard. That requires no signing or receiving a paper receipt.
“Now is a time for not just every company in the automotive industry to unite, but also for every citizen in the United States to do their part to ensure we do everything we can to stop the spread of this deadly virus,” said CarAdvise founder and chief executive officer Greg Tepas.
Tepas continued, “No Contact Car Care is our way of helping protect those who are continuing to provide crucial supply chain services to every American, as well as those who help keep those drivers on the road by servicing their vehicles.”
CarAdvise has also pledged to donate $1 for every No Contact Car Care service performed now until Dec. 31. That is an effort to help COVID-19 victims. The company will also allocate the funding toward the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Response Fund. CarAdvise said it has asked additional industry leaders to join in and donate to the cause.
A new collaboration between Flick Fusion and VinSolutions aims to ease the process for dealership staff to capture and share videos from within their existing CRM system.
Flick Fusion is a video hosting, marketing and distribution platform, and VinSolutions is the provider of Connect CRM, a dealership customer relationship management system.
VinSolutions has selected Flick Fusion’s Smart Flicks platform to deliver integrated video communications to auto dealership customers via VinSolutions Connect CRM and the Connect CRM mobile app. The companies say their collaboration helps dealers “win the battle with social distancing.”
The capability of dealerships to capture and share videos from within their existing CRM system “is more important than ever in today’s unprecedented climate,” the companies say.
They add that the enhanced ability to engage and inform car shoppers helps “propel the buying process” and expand opportunities to make customer connections inside and outside the showroom.
Flick Fusion chief operating officer Tim James described video communication as having a strong impact on the automotive shopper. James said video communication has been shown to increase appointments, shows and sales.
“Though there are a large number of stand-alone video communication options, the fact is that most owners and general managers would prefer that all of their communications — including video — originate from their CRM,” James said in a news release.
James added, “Full integration of our video communication products with VinSolutions Connect CRM provides dealerships with a platform to easily create, store, and deliver a powerful video experience that is more informative and engaging than any other form of communication.”
VinSolutions vice president of sales Chase Abbott said customers seek comprehensive information when they contact a dealership. Videos, he said, meet that need most effectively.
“Flick Fusion’s video platform allows dealership staff to deliver a highly personalized and immersive customer experience, which ultimately drives more engagement, lead conversions and sales,” Abbott said.
Connect CRM customers will be able to upload or create new personalized video content. They will be able to gain access to a library of pre-populated new model vehicle videos, which they can send out to their customers from within their CRM.
The system allows a dealership’s inventory videos to be pre-populated into the library.
Salespeople can use the Connect Mobile app to capture live walkaround vehicle inventory videos to send in response to lead inquiries.
Gulf Auto Direct general manager Erich Black said that because of the current atmosphere of constant change, quick and easy communication with its customers is crucial.
“Our partnership with Flick Fusion and VinSolutions gives every member of our team the ability to use videos to answer questions, do deep-dive vehicle walk-arounds, or communicate important messages so our customers get the individualized attention they expect from the comfort of their own home,” Black said.
Black continued, “The availability of communication records for every shopper profile and real-time reporting is really important from an accountability standpoint and enables us to identify which messages really make a difference.”
A new Business Continuity Resource Hub from Cox Automotive’s Dealer Software Solutions brands, Dealer.com, Dealertrack DMS, VinSolutions and Xtime, is geared toward dealers looking to resolve current challenges and reimagine their business for the future in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cox Automotive experts deliver the continuously updated series of no-cost webinars, which focus on building dealership resilience related to the crisis and what the company says is “the industry’s inevitable recovery.”
The hub launched today.
The company said the digital educational assets focus on helping dealers maintain business continuity, and the assets focus on three areas of auto retail: marketing to the evolving consumer, achieving peak dealership performance and capturing the opportunity presented by fixed ops.
Industry subject matter experts and dealership leaders will provide real-world tactical and applicable advice and insight via Essential Webinars addressing methods to adjust dealership practices and processes to the new environment, and they will also offer insight on how to prepare for the future.
Cox Automotive said it will update webinar topics frequently to keep pace with evolving economic and market conditions.
The topics currently include
— Digital retailing: End-to-end basics
— Connecting with remote shoppers
— Deal making in today’s digital world
— Fixed ops/service best practices for business continuity in any environment
Why is Cox Automotive unveiling the Business Continuity Resource Hub? The company says that because of COVID-19, the process of buying and owning a car is changing.
According to Cox Automotive research, because of COVID-19 concerns, more than 50% of consumers are less likely to visit a dealership at this time.
“The resulting signal from dealers is clear: Help us go digital,” Cox Automotive said.
The company says dealer adoption of its digital retailing solutions has increased 189% month over month from February to March.
Cox Automotive also said it believes the current decline in auto sales is 100% COVID-19 related.
But the company added that as concerns about the pandemic ease, sales will rebound.
“With that in mind, the Cox Automotive Dealer Software Solutions team is responding to dealers who want to start building their resiliency now to prepare for the inevitable recovery,” the company said.
The webinar series resource hub seeks to provide dealers with foundational Cox Automotive partnership and support “today, and into our industry’s future,” the company said.
Who is conducting the webinars? Cox Automotive’s Dealer Software Solutions senior vice president Lori Wittman and a team of Cox Automotive experts, with input from a panel of dealership leaders across the country “grappling with pandemic and the evolution to the new normal,” Cox Automotive said.
Cox Automotive’s Dealer Software Solutions Business Continuity Resources are available at www.coxautowebinars.com or on Cox Automotive’s COVID-19 resource page at: www.coxautoinc.com/covid-19.
Saying it designed the new program to help consumers and dealers remotely navigate vehicle buying in response to COVID-19 social distancing guidelines, TrueCar has launched “Buy from Home” badging.
As dealers start to provide more remote retailing services, the program identifies TrueCar Certified Dealers offering three features to consumers.
Those three services from dealers badged with “Buy from Home” on the TrueCar platform are remote paperwork processing, home vehicle delivery and verified vehicle sanitization.
TrueCar president and chief executive officer Mike Darrow said that in the new rapidly changing world, his company and its dealer partners “are adapting just as quickly” so that consumers needing a vehicle have options allowing them to purchase, trade or sell vehicles from their homes.
“Starting today, consumers will be able to easily identify dealers offering these ‘Buy from Home’ features within the TrueCar experience,” Darrow said in a news release.
TrueCar’s consumer users will continue to have access to the latest automaker discounts. Those consumers might be able to take advantage of those discounts toward their purchase.
The company is working toward developing and implementing services that can have an immediate impact for its consumers, dealers and OEM partners, Darrow said.
TrueCar has seen a strong initial response to the initiative from its dealer partners. Within just a few hours of making the program available to them, TrueCar received more than 1,000 dealer signups.
“This is a great first offering, and we will continue to find opportunities to support our industry through this difficult time and beyond,” Darrow said.
Saying that it is committed to providing the support dealers need to get the best results possible during the COVID-19 crisis, CarGurus is giving its U.S. customers 50% off of fees for listings and display services provided in April, and for Canadian customers, 50% off fees for listings services provided in April.
In separate e-mails sent to U.S. and Canadian customers, CarGurus president and chief operating officer Sam Zales said his company, like its dealer customers, is working to adapt to rapidly evolving circumstances.
“We know the crisis is already hitting many dealers hard, but the impact is varied,” Zales wrote.
He added that some areas are nearing total shutdown. Other areas, he said, “are not yet impacted.”
“Similarly, our lead volumes remain surprisingly strong in many regions, while they’re weaker in harder-hit areas,” he wrote.
In the e-mails to U.S. and Canadian dealers, Zales said the dealers do not have to ask for the discounts. The company will apply the reduction to all U.S. and Canadian dealers, and Zales said dealers should contact their account manager with any questions.
Dealers’ subscriptions will remain active, and their contracts with CarGurus will remain effective.
“You will continue to receive leads, but as buyer activity has slowed, we expect significantly lower volumes,” Zales wrote.
He also wrote, “Please know that CarGurus is working hard to try to make sure our site and products continue to operate as best as possible given the circumstances.”
He noted that although CarGurus employees worldwide are working from home, that should not have an impact on CarGurus’ ability to support its dealer customers or the consumer shopping experience on its site.
“CarGurus employees are well-equipped to work remotely, and all major business functions should continue to help you through this difficult time,” he wrote.
In the e-mail to U.S. dealers, he said they can visit CarGurus’ Dealer Resource Center Insider forums. On those forums, dealers can share tips or ask questions about how their fellow dealers are navigating the situation.
For U.S. and Canadian dealers, CarGurus will share suggestions on how to do more business digitally, keep customers and employees safe, and continue to run their dealerships.
“We hope you stay safe and that your business gets back to normal as quickly as possible,” he wrote.
