Xtime, a customer retention solution for automakers and dealer service departments, was selected as the exclusive service automation provider for Mazda North American Operations.
Providing integrated service recommendations, pricing, scheduling and service lane check-in through cloud-based applications, Xtime can increase customer loyalty and improves the ownership experience.
“For over a decade, Xtime has delivered a superior customer service experience, which is key to our success in driving more customers and revenue for OEMs and their dealerships,” Xtime president Neal East said. “A partnership with Mazda is a great fit, as we are both committed to providing a world class experience across the vehicle ownership lifecycle.”
The company highlighted Mazda Service Scheduler will integrate Xtime’s Scheduling 7, enabling Mazda owners to access dealership scheduling 24/7 via online and through smartphones.
Additionally, dealer customers can select appointment times based on availability, adviser or transportation.
For dealership personnel, Xtime can enable anyone in the store to answer the phone, book service orders and maximize shop utilization.
By also utilizing Xtime’s service lane tool, Check-In 7, Mazda dealership representatives can use tablets to meet and greet customers immediately on the service drive, confirm appointments, as well as review and capture the customer’s needs and capture vehicle condition and approval signature.
Both retention solutions can integrate secure and consistent access to factory and dealer recommendations, declined services, pricing and repair history.
Officials went on to highlight Mazda dealers will benefit from other Xtime cloud-based services to retain customers, including:
• DMS Integration: Certified, bi-directional integration with dealer management systems ADP, Dealertrack, Reynolds & Reynolds and more. Appointments booked via Xtime appear in the DMS and customer records are updated.
• Management Reporting: Service managers can review Web statistic reports to gain insight into a customer’s online booking experience.
• Digital Service Menus: Online and easy-to-read menus can provide manufacturer-recommended and dealer-preferred maintenance schedules based on VIN.
• Vehicle Owner Sign-In: Mazda owners can log directly into a Mazda dealership website to create appointments. The online account will maintain dealer preference, as well as vehicle and customer information.
• Efficient Walk-Around Inspection: Walk-around inspections and vehicle conditions are captured in the Check-In 7-enabled tablet. Vehicle history will also be displayed.
“We’re always looking at ways to improve the customer experience and are thrilled to partner with Xtime to help us reach our goals,” said Tim Manning, director of customer Service for Mazda North American Operations.
“We see Scheduling 7 as a tool to help Mazda dealers provide a service experience that exceeds consumers’ increasingly demanding expectations,” Manning added.
Dealers interested can contact Xtime at (888) 463-3888 or [email protected].
Carfax has been celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2014, and before turning the corner into the new year, we took a look at the company’s first three decades and where it is headed from here.
On its website, the company’s mission from the onset was clear: “to be the leading source of vehicle history information for buyers and sellers of used cars.”
These days, it has millions of monthly visitors and pulls data from 92,000 sources that include everything from state motor vehicle departments and auctions to police departments and rental agencies, just to name a few.
And as Carfax would share with Auto Remarketing, the company spent its first three decades honing in on vehicle history, and is now putting a combined focused on used-car listings with vehicle history.
In essence, it boils down to building confidence, something Carfax intends to continue fostering with its online listings.
“Used-car shoppers need lots of questions answered before they feel confident about buying a used car, especially when they’re online. The most successful dealers work to answer all the basics, including questions about a vehicle’s history. For decades, Carfax has been helping dealers build consumer confidence on the lot and wherever dealers list their inventory for sale online,” said Bill Eager, vice president, dealer business unit at Carfax.
“Earlier this year, we launched Carfax Used Car Listings, a trusted marketplace that helps Carfax Advantage Dealers immediately build confidence with online shoppers without ads or gimmicks. It also connects them with millions of in-market shoppers — another result of working together with our dealers for 30 years building a brand people trust,” he continued. “We’ll continue working to find additional ways to support our dealers and help them build confidence with potential buyers.”
Dealers, of course, have been a big part of the company’s efforts thus far, with vehicle history being an integral key to the car-buying process.
As Alex Hafer puts it, there are two things that consumers want to know before they buy a car.
“Am I buying a good car, and am I getting a fair price?” said Hafer, who is the general manager at Koons Lexus of Wilmington (Del.). “With Carfax, it’s not a guarantee that the car hasn’t been in an accident, but it does give you peace-of-mind and tells you the vehicle history.
“It’s just more pieces of data that will make you feel more confident you’re making a good decision to buy a car,” he continued.
Hafer later added, “The customer feels that they’re empowered today because of all the information, and Carfax just gives them even more information.”
In today’s car-buying environment, the savvy dealers are the ones providing as much information as possible to consumers to help them make the decision, Hafer said. And Carfax is one of those tools that helps in the process.
But it has also provided aid on the wholesale side of the market.
The Wholesale Front
Jim DesRochers, vice president at Dealers Auto Auction of the Southwest, looked at the data streams for Carfax and wanted to work with the company to help bridge what he found to be a “big disconnect between the wholesale side of the business and the retail side.”
So, he traveled east to Virginia to talk with the folks at Carfax about potentially crafting a new solution.
“When I went to them,” he told Auto Remarketing in an interview this summer, “I said, ‘What would it take to create a product that would bridge the wholesale and retail gap?’ And I called that ‘transparent transactions.’ I labeled it that way because my feeling was, the more we disclose going forward to the wholesale buyer, the better it is for the dealer on the retail end. I don’t think we can deny that no matter what, you’ve got to sell these cars to somebody if you’re going to come back to the auction.”
The second development from his conversation with Carfax was this: in the past 30 years, Carfax had “created tremendous streams of data,” but it was their work to bridge aforementioned gap and help the auction’s customers that really made Carfax shine, DesRochers said.
In fact, as part of a deal announced back in January, DAASW began offering a Carfax report with every vehicle at its weekly sales in early February.
The reports have red, yellow and green highlights on each car crossing the block and are provided at no cost to buyers or consignors.
“This new program is a great tool in our arsenal of 360 Services which bridges the VHR gap between the wholesale and retail worlds,” DesRochers said when the deal was announced.
“It eliminates the arbitration issues on VHR reports, which are avoided under current association guidelines, and provides a transparent transaction on the wholesale level, driving auction credibility and repeat business,” he noted.
Additionally, as DesRochers would later share with Auto Remarketing, these red, green and yellow Carfax stickers allowed dealers to make quicker decisions in the lanes without having to scan each and every vehicle.
“We also found out, after the first month of testing, that 85 or 90 percent of the announcements were matching up to the Carfax database. Where the difference was, if the car had never been in the database and the dealer was obviously making the announcement for the first time,” DesRochers said.
“You could have a car with a green sticker on it that says, ‘Carfax says it’s great,’ but the dealer could be up on the block saying, ‘It is going to be a frame-damage car,’” he added. “So, that means that everything you knew about the car was green — clean Carfax — but this would be the first announcement that would go to Carfax or any VHR system that showed it as frame(-damage) and the next time, the Carfax would come up. So, that’s how we got the confidence building.”
DesRochers said it took some time for dealers to come around to this system at the auction, but “now they love it” — and a lot of that has to do with the large numbers of dealers in his market niche that are selling cars 100 percent as-is because they’re typically older, high-mileage vehicles and don’t want them to come back in arbitration.
“Can you imagine the actual upside of the price for that car if it has a green Carfax sticker or if it only has a yellow Carfax sticker, which means minor stuff wrong with it? It drives price,” he said. “And if it’s got a red Carfax sticker, it’s being sold as-is, so people are bidding that way anyways.”
Carfax & CPO
Going back to the retail side of the business, we reached out to Tom DeLuise, the national TCUV/TRAC sales and operations manager at Toyota Motor Sales USA, to talk about how Carfax has changed the certified pre-owned segment.
“Carfax has been an integral part of the success with Toyota’s Certified Used Vehicles,” DeLuise said. “Customers expect more from a certified used vehicle, and Carfax has brought an identity and credibility of the CPO vehicle in the consumer’s mind.
“In addition, Carfax has provided value and reporting that has supported a consistency amongst our dealer partners. Having dealer buy-in is critical. Carfax’s comprehensive vehicle history database helps ensure the integrity of the TCUV program while saving dealers acquisition costs on vehicles that may not qualify for certification,” he continued.
“Another key feature is the ‘Carfax Buyback Guarantee’ which was unheard of in the industry at that time and added confidence to our program. The VHR brings peace-of-mind to uncertain buyers. Carfax really served as a catalyst as on-line vehicle shopping grew into the primary lead source for most dealerships,” DeLuise added.
When asked what value points Carfax has brought to dealers, DeLuise had this to say: “The Carfax VHR has changed the way a salesperson presents the vehicle and represents the high value of TCUV. The VHR allows the salesperson not only to build value in the vehicle and but also helps them build gross profit.
“Carfax and their representatives have assisted TCUV’s success by elevating awareness and building TCUV value. Carfax provides extensive education to dealers and their associates helping them meet the needs of their customers,” he added.
Editor's Note: This story appears in the Dec. 15 print and digital editions of Auto Remarketing, which is available now.
Dealers and buyers that use AuctionEar — a mobile app developed by Xcira, which adds audio and video to the company’s mobile bidding platform — can now use the tool on their smartphones and mobile devices.
The app is now available for both IOS and Android devices.
The tool first launched in August, and the free app is now available at both the iTunes Store for iPhone and iPad users, and at Google Play for Android devices.
“AuctionEar allows remote bidders to experience the excitement of the auction floor by maximizing the efficiency of audio and video delivery,” explains Nancy Rabenold, chief executive officer and founder of Xcira.
After users download the app, they can access the online bidding platform for auction sites using the company’s OnLine Ringman technology.
“The system automatically detects that the device is enabled with AuctionEar and directs the user to a mobile interface that is audio/video enabled,” company management explained.
AuctionEar touts separate audio and video controls, as well.
The app also allows users to view vehicle run lists and switch between different auction lanes.
“We recorded more than 100,000 bidders using our mobile OnLine Ringman offerings in the past 30 days alone, representing approximately about 28 percent of our users, a clear indication that online auction attendance continues to increase,” says Rabenold. “AuctionEar is an indispensable tool in making that online experience even more effective.”
Two Michigan dealership are joining forces to make online vehicle transactions a reality for their customers.
Katie Bowman Coleman, owner of Bowman Chevrolet in Clarkston, Mich.; and Sam Slaughter, owner of Sellers Buick-GMC in Farmington Hills, Mich., have merged their dealerships to form the Sellers Auto Group.
The new business will be headquartered in Clarkston, Mich., and will launch an online-buying service for vehicle shoppers.
The service is titled YourOnlineDealer.com.
"Ninety-five percent of car buyers use the Internet when considering their next lease or purchase," said Coleman. "We've created YourOnlineDealer.com for customers to not only shop more efficiently, but actually buy or lease online."
The new site will allow visitors to work with a live person or "Auto Guide" using two-way video and co-browsing.
Shoppers will be able to choose a new vehicle, value their trade-in, and buy or lease, all online.
"We want our customers to have a choice," said Slaughter. "They now have the option of visiting one of our four showrooms or going online to YourOnlineDealer.com to experience the same high level of service they would receive in our dealerships. It's simple: buy what you want, how you want, at the price you want, whether it's in the dealership or online."
Black Book released the results of its Mobile Usability survey, which takes a deeper look into how industry professionals use mobile technology in their day-to-day business.
Auto Remarketing previously spoke with Mike Williams, the vice president of mobile and direct sales at Black Book, to get a forward glance at the study’s results. The majority of the more than 1,000 dealers, remarketers and other such professionals surveyed revealed that they feel more profitable using mobile technology (64 percent of those surveyed) and said the apps they rely on make vehicle valuation quicker (77 percent of those surveyed).
“While mobile technology today offers a wealth of features and benefits to industry professionals, it has to show that we can make profitable decisions faster,” Williams said in Black Book’s release. “And the speed at which mobile apps like Black Book Digital perform, can eliminate critical seconds when accessing valuations, vehicle scans and history reports.”
Here’s a breakdown of the survey questions and results, according to Black Book:
How much more profitable do you think you are using a mobile app?
- Equally profitable (31 percent)
- More than 10 percent (30 percent)
- 1-5 percent (19 percent)
- 6-10 percent (15 percent)
- Less profitable (3 percent)
How much faster can you value a vehicle using a mobile app?
- 20 or more seconds faster (53 percent)
- 10-19 seconds faster (15 percent)
- Equally fast (14 percent)
- 5-9 seconds faster (9 percent)
- Not faster (6 percent)
Which area does mobile help you most?
- When buying at auction (56 percent)
- When appraising a trade-in (39 percent)
- When selling retail (2 percent)
- When selling at auction (0 percent)
- I don’t use a mobile app (0 percent)
What features do you use the most on your mobile app? (Choose as many as apply)
- Valuation and appraisal research (30.9 percent)
- VIN Scan (30.7 percent)
- Vehicle history reports (15.0 percent)
- Market Report (7.3 percent)
- Other (7.2 percent)
- Q-list/Wish list (5.4 percent)
- Determine demand for vehicles selling in specific regions (3.4 percent)
- Sharing vehicle information with colleagues, other dealers or retail customers (0.0 percent)
Reader feedback for our previous story on this topic shed light on the opinion that some new technologies may be making people in the industry a bit lazier. And, according to our previous interview with Williams, that is a suggestion that’s not too far from the truth.
“At this point you can sit down in front of a computer, you can be in four different auctions, you can be looking at two or three different dealer networks, all at the same time,” Williams said. “You can be pulling the trade-in value and see what they’re going for on all these networks. I don’t want to say anything provocative, but you’re now in a better position not to go anywhere than you ever have been.”
This lead to a question about the importance of the physical auction setting, where many in the industry swear by the relationships they’ve grown and fostered in person while bidding. Williams believes that side of the auction system will always have a place.
“The reality is there’s always going to be a core group of guys,” Williams said. “And I think every dealer enjoys a good auction. It really is a carnival, it’s a fun atmosphere; there’s a lot going on. I think that while they’ve slowed down their number of visits per year, the reality is they’re always going to go there. They’re always going to visit their IADA convention and things like that. And they’re going to have opportunities to intermingle with other dealers.
“I don’t think, in the end, we’re ever going to see the end of the auctions,” Williams continued. “But I think we’ve already seen one evolution of them, which is now most guys at the auction, if they’re not on the mobile themselves, they have a second spotter out on the lot who’s checking the information. They’re communicating back to the dealership. We’re already getting this hybrid where they’re not just online and they’re not just in the lane. There are a lot of guys who will bid on 4 or 5 different sales at the same time from home base while they’ll have guys out there on the lot checking the vehicles.”
What do you think? Do you prefer to go to the auction in person or do you find more value in bidding remotely? Or a mix of both? Let us know in the comments or tweet us @autoremkting.
Insurance Auto Auctions announced Wednesday the launch of a new feature for its CSAToday app for iOS.
The feature, Vehicle Assignment, is the first mobile vehicle assignment feature on an iOS device for the salvage industry, the company reported.
Vehicle Assignment allows customers of CSAToday “anywhere” access to begin an assignment with IAA while also improving its capabilities through GPS location.
“We focus on developing technology that best serves our customers, who are on-the-go and value flexibility and efficiency,” John Kett, IAA’s president and chief executive officer, said. “The mobile Vehicle Assignment feature further exemplifies IAA’s continued commitment to building innovative solutions for our customers.”
The Vehicle Assignment feature streamlines the process into a “five swipe” workflow – each of the five sections focuses on only required fields, which users swipe through to complete information on the seller, owner, vehicle, location and pickup. The feature also utilizes the iPhones camera for scanning VINs and its GPS for location entry. It can also use the phone’s dispersal tools, as well, including text, email, print and AirDrop.
CSAToday by IAA can be downloaded for free on your mobile device from the App Store.
AutoTec announced this month that it has completed the upgrade of AuctionACCESS.
With its upgrade to Version 4, all subscribing auctions, totaling more than 260, have been updated to include enhanced features, including commercial account credentialing, additional search capabilities and improved image uploading. The upgrade also provides a more efficient user interface and strengthened data security measures.
Chuck Redden, AutoTec’s chief executive officer, stands behind Version 4 of AuctionACCESS, also reminding customers on the new version that support for Version 3 will soon be discontinued.
“We are excited to have all our auctions on AuctionACCESS Version 4,” Redden said. “This new upgrade reflects our commitment to continuing to provide innovative solutions for our auction partners. New features such as commercial account credentialing and ID verification will enhance the AuctionACCESS system and continue to strengthen the system’s data security.”
Two former Manheim executives who headed up the company’s Total Resource Auctions division recently announced the formation of Novum Auto Services.
Michael Lasini and William Coleman highlighted Novum’s patent pending technology CrashCalculator can provide cash market value (CMV) pricing to owners of damaged, disabled or otherwise compromised vehicles.
Lasini and Coleman stressed that Novum backs the valuation with an immediate offer to buy the vehicle with guaranteed funds — without requiring physical inspection of the vehicle.
“By providing consumers with accurate pricing information and the immediate opportunity to sell their vehicle, Novum empowers vehicle owners with choice — to repair or replace their car,” Lasini and Coleman said.
The founders explained Novum can offer cash market value pricing because of the objective nature of the data inputs and the certainty of the predictive results its technology provides.
In addition to significant time savings, this option often puts hundreds or thousands of additional dollars in the hands of the consumer. Lasini and Coleman contend this new source of liquidity will drive more new- and used-vehicle transactions.
Novum currently has two consumer facing brands — DamageMAX.com and CarBuyerUSA.com.
DamageMax.com buys damaged and inoperable vehicles directly from consumers “as-is” without performing a physical inspection.
CarBuyerUSA.com buys any vehicle, anywhere in the United States, picking up the vehicle from the seller and paying guaranteed funds on the spot.
Novum will launch its third consumer-facing brand, CrashCalculator, in early 2015.
The company indicated CrashCalculator is currently Novum’s internal pricing system, used by customer service agents at DamageMAX.com and CarBuyerUSA.com.
Upon launch to the public, CrashCalculator can calculate not only valuations based on immediate collision damage, but also repair-related and stigma-related diminution in value that results from the accident. CrashCalculator correlates damage-specific information for damaged cars with the most robust sales data industry wide
“CrashCalculator will provide consumers with cash market value for a damaged car and the related diminution in value,” Lasini and Coleman said.
“In addition to streamlining the process for consumers, Novum’s institutional version of CrashCalculator will help dealers, banks, title lenders and fleets make smarter decisions on repossession and remarketing,” they went on to say.
With more than 25 million accidents annually in the United States, the founders believe DamageMAX.com can serve a vast customer base seeking to sell their non-total-loss vehicles.
CarBuyerUSA.com went live in 2013 to serve consumers with vehicles they are unable or unwilling to trade or sell to a private buyer.
“With more than a quarter billion vehicles on US roads, millions of consumers are seeking a faster, safer and easier way to sell their car,” Lasini and Coleman said. “Since inception, DamageMax.com and CarBuyerUSA.com have put tens of millions of dollars into the hands of consumers.
“Novum’s technology and direct-to-consumer value proposition will continue to disrupt and transform the remarketing industry for damaged cars,” they added.
Video marketing provider Flick Fusion has announced the release of InstaVid, an automated video-production service. For dealers with video-producing needs, InstaVid is designed to instantly create and distribute video of dealer inventory.
Brian Cox, the president and chief executive officer of Flick Fusion, commented on the swift nature of the tool.
“InstaVid helps dealers move metal faster,” Cox said. “Within hours of a vehicle arriving on a lot, dealers can have videos of that vehicle all over the Internet, generating immediate video SEO. Why wait days to market your inventory when you can begin to attract video views and website visitors instantly?”
The program automatically generates a stock-photo video when a VIN is entered into a dealer’s DMS, featuring a professional voice-over and dealership-specific advertising specials via banners. Each video is VIN-specific, and keywords are added prior to being uploaded to YouTube and other third-party inventory listings.
Dealer photos and videos, once uploaded into inventory feeds, will automatically be update to the videos by InstaVid and replace stock photos. If a dealer decides not to update the photos, the stock photos will remain with the video as long as the vehicle is on the lot.
String Automotive announced today the addition of several members to its Dealership Positioning System, the company’s dealership intelligence platform.
The new members include Moore and Scarry Advertising, Pinnacle Advertising & Marketing Group, and Omni Advertising.
String’s DPS assists members of its partner program to link up to better serve dealers by providing immediate feedback on existing advertising outreach to provide dealers with accurate target marketing efforts to potential customers.
Ken Kolodziej, String Automotive’s founder and chief executive officer, looks forward to the assistance from the newly added agencies.
“We are thrilled to expand our partner program by collaborating with forward-thinking marketing agencies,” Kolodziej said. “The precise data mapped out by the DPS steers marketing resources in the right direction to ensure positive results. It takes the guess work and ‘wait and see approach’ out of the equation and replaces it with a sharp method of allocating advertising budgets.”
More information, and demonstration requests, can be found/submitted on the String Automotive website.
