Carmigo recently announced the launch of its car shopping website of the same name, Carmigo.com, aimed at allowing car shoppers to shop from anywhere they have Internet access with no fee.
“When you shop through Carmigo, you build your car online, choose which dealerships you would like to engage with and then salespeople from the selected dealerships will work with you to help you find the best price,” said Michael O’Connor, the company’s chief executive officer. “You communicate through Carmigo without sharing your contract information until you choose to take the next step. This is especially important as Carmigo research shows that only 11 percent of Canadian car buyers trust a typical car salesperson.”
Carmigo showcased its offerings at the Auto Remarketing Canada Conference earlier this week. According to the company’s research, 62 percent of buyers worry they might not be able to negotiate the best deal, with women comprising the majority of those concerned (69 percent) compared to men (54 percent). Fifty nine percent of buyers find negotiation on a price is the most stressful part of working with a salesperson along with 50 percent worried about the pressure to buy additional services.
Perhaps the most telling statistic was that 74 percent of those surveyed said that they delay or put off car shopping, outline the pain point the task is for the majority of people. Which is understandable as 43 percent said they have spent 10 hours or more doing research and negotiating prices.
“We think of Carmigo as your car buyer’s best friend as it improves the car shopping experience by saving customers both time and money,” O’Connor said. “Car buyers are already going online to research their car – what we are doing is providing a social communication platform to give buyers control over the car shopping process. Dealers also benefit from Carmigo, as our data shows that after customers connect with a dealer on Carmigo, in-store visits result in sales more than 90 percent of the time.”
To find out more about Carmigo, visit their website here.
A new offering for the F&I department and service department that will help generate more revenue and potentially more used supply is about to hit the market.
MyCarIsWorthLess.com — an online diminished value calculator — is launching its Diminished Value Protection Plan, a prepaid membership based service that helps eligible members recoup their diminished value after an auto accident.
Memberships will be sold through auto dealerships alongside rust protection, gap and other F&I products when purchasing or leasing a new or used vehicle or can also be sold by service departments at any time prior to an accident.
Members also receive a coupon if they trade the vehicle back in at the selling dealer as a dealer retention bonus, a potential boon for both dealers and consumers.
Auto Remarketing Canada chatted with MyCarsWorthLess President, Viraf Baliwalla to get a handle on what this new offering means for dealers closing a deal or servicing a customer.
But first, let’s get to the root of the diminished value problem.
An ‘Easy Sell’
Baliwalla contends the new product, set to hit the Canadian market by November, will be an “easy sell” for dealers based on the breadth of the issue. The program will also be launching shortly in the U.S., as well.
Diminished value, Baliwalla explained, works like this: If you have an accident and the vehicle is repaired to industry standards properly, then that claim goes on your vehicle history report.
And automatically, that vehicle has lost value on the open market just because of the perception that the unit is not as good as a claim-free vehicles.
“All that loss is diminished value, when you are an innocent party,” Baliwalla said.
Though every driver in North America must have liability insurance, and that insurance is supposed to cover drivers for that diminished loss, Baliwalla says that is often not the case.
“It is an unregulated industry except for in the state of Georgia. And so in Georgia, regardless of whose faults it is, insurance companies have to pay diminished value. However, everywhere else in North America, because it isn’t regulated, the insurance company will pay out because of legalities, but you have to take them to court to get it,” he explained.
Consequently, in Canada, people lose $1.2 billion in diminished value, and in the U.S., that number is more than $12 billion, according to MyCarIsWorthLess.com.
Since most people will not go the extra effort to take the insurance companies to court, many choose to take the losses.
But with the new diminished value protection program, dealers can offer customers insurance that in the case of a claim through which they are not at fault, the team at MyCarIsWorthless will take care of the process for them.
In fact, this very situation acted as fuel for the new programs development.
As a result of the success of the company’s online diminished value calculator and credibility in the insurance industry as well as the car business, a few years ago, Baliwalla was called as an expert witness for a diminished value case. Though he managed to success in recovering diminished value for the plaintive, the court costs nullified the win.
“We saw a definite need out there in the marketplace for consumers who are incurring diminished value not as a result of their fault, but not having any reasonable way of being able to get it,” Baliwalla said.
Consequently, the protection plan was launched as a membership-based service. Once a customers purchases the insurances from a dealer, MyCarIsWorthless will do all the leg work to recoup any incurred diminished value, and the company guarantees to be able to recoup 80 percent of the value within 60 days without the customer going to court or the company will buy out the rights for recovery for that 80 percent.
The pricing structure is based on the term of the membership — one to five years — and the value of the vehicle is also considered on the sliding pay scale plan.
“Through our website we have a portal that dealers will be able to sign into and can punch in the value of the vehicle, and it brings up the entire array of different price structures, and then they can show that to the customer, and the customer can choose any one they want and whichever one is affordable,” Baliwalla explained.
A Boon For Both F&I and Service
Baliwalla asserts this has the potential to be one of the most useful of all F&I products, based in part on the likelihood of the events being covered.
“The likelihood you are going to have rust corrosion in the next five years of owning that vehicle is actually miniscule. The chances of you requiring an extended warranty is pretty slim, as well,” said Baliwalla. “A lot of those types of products are not being received well by consumers, and dealerships have lost a lot of that business opportunity.”
“What this offers is covering something that has a very high likelihood of happening, such as getting in some kind of accident that is not your fault over the next five years,” Baliwalla said.
The exec pointed out F&I departments often run into roadblocks because customers prefer to take their chances rather than pay for something that covers an unlikely event.
“Well, many people have had an accident before and run into this diminished value scenario, and for especially those that have, they will think, ‘Hey I lost value the first time, I need to have that level of protection,’” Baliwalla said.
So this is something that will probably claimed, he contends, and if not, there are elements of the program that will help make it an easy sell and create dealer retention, as well.
Though the company sees the product as an F&I offering, it can also be utilized in the service department, a key cog to creating loyal customers.
“There are going to be a lot more people coming in that need body work or require an oil change, than there are customers coming into buy cars,” Bailwalla said. “Each of those departments (F&I and service) can be a revenue generator for themselves.”
Members also receive a coupon if they trade the vehicle back in at the selling dealer as a dealer retention bonus, which may serve to ramp up used supply at participating dealerships.
Why the coupon? Baliwalla explained there are two levels of diminished value.
One, is the normal retail diminished value which pertains to resale value. That’s what the courts will allocate.
However, dealers don’t provide a retail price for trade-ins; they provide a wholesale price.
So, customers will most likely incur a little bit more diminished value loss if they choose to trade the vehicle in on a wholesale basis as opposed to retail.
“So we offer this extra incentive as a coupon, so if you trade it back in over here, we will help cover some of that difference, as well, so it makes a very good reason for that customer to come back to dealerships,” Baliwalla said.
Dealers have been responding well to the product, Baliwalla said, and are looking forward to the roll out.
“The feedback we have gotten has been quite positive. Everyone likes the idea, and they are all looking for ways to generate some extra cash at the dealership level,” Baliwalla said. “We have almost completed getting the insurance underwriting here in place in Canada. We should be out there selling it in a week to two weeks.”
Hyundai Auto Canada Corp. has announced a new Signature Certification Program for dealerships in an effort to ramp up the traditional sales and service processes in Hyundai stores across the nation.
The company shared the new program is aimed at differentiating certified dealers from the competition.
First introduced by Hyundai Auto Canada's president and chief executive officer Don Romano at the recent National Hyundai Dealer Meeting, the exec explained the program is a part of a cultural shift at the company, putting more emphasis on the customer's needs.
"If we are going to differentiate ourselves, we need to become more aware of what our customers want, and exceed their expectations during what we are calling our 'moments of truth',” said Romano, who filled the position of CEO this past spring. “These moments are those critical points of interaction with the Hyundai brand, and Hyundai dealerships, when customers invest a high amount of their time shopping our products."
Here’s how the new certification program will work.
To design the new program, Hyundai commissioned J.D. Power, to help develop the parameters and outline through a market study.
The assessment phase is currently in process, and automotive retail coaches are conducting market studies and analyzing customer feedback. The company explained the certification approach will be customized for each dealership.
This feedback — which is expected to better define customer expectations — will then serve as a basis for Hyundai Signature Standards
“Training will be adapted to the unique needs of each dealer, delivering in-store coaching visits to provide concrete measures for improvement,” company officials said.
The J.D. Power evaluation results are expected to be complete in early 2015, and will serve to measure dealership improvements and see how they line up with the customer expectations identified in the market study.
Dealerships meeting the program's exacting standards will be certified as Hyundai Signature Certified Dealers.
And this isn’t the only initiative the company is launching, but it is only one of a process of continuous improvement, the company says.
For example, the newly established District Customer Service Managers as Hyundai Canada will play a large role in the company’s work to exceed customer expectations, as well.
Carfax is ramping up their presence in Canada, with a redesigned vehicle history report for Canadian dealers as well as a subscription-based offering.
Now, Canadian dealers can enjoy similar benefits to those U.S. dealers have been enjoying since 2011, through the Carfax Advantage Dealer Program.
This news comes after the company hired Jon Arnett as head of Canadian operations last October.
“This is really just some updates to our service in Canada to better meet the needs of Canadian dealers and consumers,” Larry Gamache, communications director at Carfax, told Auto Remarketing Canada. “I think Canadian dealers are going to find some new tools to make our products even more valuable to them as they are trying to sell cars in the country.”
Gamache said the company is putting the finishing touches on the redesigned reports, and will be sharing the new offerings with dealers in the next few weeks.
Gamache also outlined a variety of additions and changes to Carfax vehicle history reports in Canada.
First, the company has expanded the scope of data included in the reports to include accident claims information.
“It’s all available now, in one place, you get information from 86,000 sources from across North America and new types of information specific to help Canadian dealers, like prior claims information,” said Gamache.
In addition, the company has also created a new service through which Canadian dealers can purchase lien reports from the different provinces, directly through their Carfax account.
Carfax now also offers conversion services, and for all Canadian reports, odometer reading will be displayed in kilometers.
“We do all the conversions in house. Wherever the information came from, the U.S. or Canada, we convert those odometer readings to kilometers and make it easier for dealers and consumers to see the vehicles mileage history,” said Gamache.
Bringing this all together, Gamache explained now, Canadian dealers can get all this information and more through the Carfax Advantage package.
“This has been incredibly popular for U.S. dealers, and now Canadian dealers will have access to the same, low cost subscription service through which they get all the vehicle history information they need so they can check cars at auction, use the Carfax reports as they sell the car, check vehicles at trade-in, and more, so wherever they need a carfax report, they will have ready access to it at one low price,” Gamache said.
Canadian dealers no long have to pay by report, but instead can simply pay a monthly subscription fee.
Of course, dealers do have the option of purchasing reports individually at the discounted price of $20 per report.
SIM-SST — Sales in Motion-Showroom Selling Tools — announced it has released a new hand-held tablet device which the company says “will be a boon for car dealerships.”
Customers are increasingly informed when visiting a dealership to search for a new ride, and it is becoming more and more important for salespeople to have pricing and other information readily available while showing a vehicle.
SIM-SST says its new solution is designed to ensure automotive salespeople are “equipped with a fully-loaded, customer-focused, intuitive and simple to use tablet application.”
The tool offers a fully-functional CRM, but also has scanning capabilities and an inventory management system.
“When selling a car, right at the car is where you want to be, so use this tool at the car, and on the lot, not just at the desk,” company officials said.
Dealers can scan customer identification directly into the built-in CRM system, and then display prices, leasing, and payment schedules all while showing the vehicle to the potential buyer.
Tools include, payment calculator, inventory lists, build and price functions, follow-up options, and more.
After the scanning process is complete, the company explained a variety of follow-up communications are automatically generated and sent, and all the information is simultaneously displayed on the desktop of the manager or dealer principal.
For more information on the new tool, dealers can click here.
Canadian dealers now have a new dealer management system to choose from.
Reynolds ERA-IGNITE is now widely available to Canadian auto dealers after four years in the American market.
"Delivering ERA-IGNITE to dealers in Canada is the first step in helping them capitalize on the changing retail environment of the automotive industry," said Ron Lamb, president of Reynolds and Reynolds. "ERA-IGNITE is the foundation of a retail management system that extends beyond the traditional DMS.
"It offers our customers greater flexibility and functionality to help them manage and grow their business at a time when the retailing battle is engaged consistently beyond the four walls of the dealership."
The company explained ERA-IGNITE is the "foundation" of the company's vision for Reynolds Retail Management System.
The company contends ERA-IGNITE helps dealers save time with its graphical user interface and allows dealers to "work more effectively with additional business information available at users’ fingertips."
Ian Reilly, vice president of sales in Canada for Reynolds, said, "We are excited about bringing ERA-IGNITE to the Canadian market. Initial customer reaction to ERA-IGNITE from both our pilot installations and our road shows has been tremendous. We plan to continue touring across major Canadian cities in 2014 so dealers can experience first-hand the advantages of ERA-IGNITE and our other retail management solutions."
A bad customer review can spark fear in the hearts of most any business owner. And dealers have their own set of issues to navigate when trying to secure reviews from happy customers. Mobials Inc., a new mobile software development company which launched this week, aims to turn the tides and help put the control back in the dealer’s hands.
James Hayes and Brad Hanebury, co-founders at Mobials, believe in thinking differently about the problems dealers face with reputation management. They say that the existing online review systems that dealers are forced to work with add little value and in some cases are quite dealer hostile.
They explained to Auto Remarketing Canada this summer that their new offering is designed to “create a innovative reputation management and review eco-system” — one that is inclusive of the consumer, the dealership and the dealership’s publishing partners.
Mobials, which stands for “mobile testimonials,” is a response to what Hayes sees as a series of problems with the current review systems. Hayes contends that traditional review systems are broken and failing dealerships in two fundamental ways.
The first issue that pushed Mobials development is the obstacles dealers face from online single-source review sites, Hayes explained.
“Syndication is key. These (traditional) review sites hold dealers hostage to drive users and reviews to them individually by remarketing dealer brands without the dealerships permission. And because they don’t share reviews, they cause confusion in the market. One of the biggest problems in reputation management for dealers is single-source review services,” Hayes said.
Also, Hayes contends that dealers should be focusing dollars spent on pushing reviews on auto portal sites.
“We believe auto portal sites are where they should be focusing their review services; any site that acts as a car service or purchase influencer. The average car shopper is spending 10 plus hours researching their purchase before the even step foot on the dealer’s lot,” he said.
Hayes asks: “Where does your car shopper research their purchase? Where do you advertise your inventory?”
With customers spending more and more time searching through classified sites, Hayes contends that they need to see something that sets your dealership apart, such as a review, while in the process of comparing similar vehicles.
The second issue that pushed Mobials development was the low review counts from consumers on traditional online review sites; a problem Hayes says can be remedied by introducing a mobile tool in lieu of more traditional review capturing processes.
“The traditional tools that the dealerships are using are dated; they aren’t easy for both the dealership and the consumer to use, and we believe that you need a mobile tool in order to capture more reviews from a broad spectrum of your customer base,” Hayes continued.
Hayes explained Mobials is designed to increase review feedback by making it easy for the dealership to ask for a review and for a consumer to complete and share a review.
“When you go into a dealership, there is a disconnect between asking for a review and asking for word of mouth. If you have a positive brand experience, you ask customers to tell friends and family. But what they don’t have is a tool to make it simple and easy to share the experience they had, whether it be a picture; a picture and a testimonial; or a picture, testimonial and a call to action that can be posted on their social networks,” Hayes said.
In an effort to address these issues, Mobials was created.
How it Works
Very early on in the Mobials development the partners worked with dealers to find out what they were struggling with. What we heard was that they wanted more than just a reputation management tool. They wanted a tool that could deliver real ROI in their sales and service departments, a mobile tool that could drive retention and referrals through solid reputation management.
The team at Mobials has created a easy to use mobile application for capturing reviews that is to be used by sales and service members and is a new communication tool for the dealership.
The application is currently available for Apple products and is soon to be available for Android as well.
In conjunction with the mobile application, the company has developed a web-based software platform for reputation monitoring and response, and review syndication to automotive publishers looking to enhance their site or app by adding dealer reviews with our freely available API access.
Currently, the reviewer has the option of sharing their experience to Facebook. Twitter and Google+ will be added to the application in the coming months.
Hayes explained the Mobials review process is a way to grow referrals and also a means to “create a retention method between sales and service.”
After the review process is done, the reviews are syndicated across all of Mobials publishing partners, which today include: Canadian Black Book, Auto123, Carsgone, AUTOandTRUCK.ca, Leasebusters and CarCost, with other publishing partners soon to be added.
Hayes added that in addition to dealer-initiated reviews; consumers are also able to complete reviews of dealerships independently on the company's partner sites, and these reviews are shared transparently across the entire system.
“If we can get dealers to work together with their publishing partners and drive a new ecosystem of review and reputation management, then I believe we can change the existing dealer hostile review process — but only if we work together as an industry,” he concluded.
For more information see the Mobials website here.
Thanks to a new licensing agreement, fleet management firm LeasePlan Corporation N.V., announced that it will expand its North American service offering to include Canada in January 2014.
LeasePlan and Canadian fleet management company Foss National Leasing Ltd. have entered into a licensing agreement whereby FNL will operate its newly-formed subsidiary, LeasePlan Canada, company officials said.
Jeff Hartley will be president of both Foss National Leasing and LeasePlan Canada.
With the agreement and formation of the new company, LeasePlan's North American reach now consists of LeasePlan USA, LeasePlan Mexico and, in 2014, LeasePlan Canada.
LeasePlan, which manages more than 1.3 million vehicles and provides services in 31 countries, said the ability to have a comprehensive North American solution in place solidifies the company’s position as a global leader for fleet management and driver mobility.
"LeasePlan has a proven track record of expanding into new markets and growing to market-leading positions,’ said Karen Foss, chief executive officer of Foss National Leasing. “LeasePlan Canada will provide innovative products, value for money and superior service to meet the needs of multinational clients, especially those with a presence across North America."
The Foss National Leasing brand and operation will continue to service the domestic Canadian fleet management market, as it has for close to 50 years.
In an effort to connect with clients, CarProof Vehicle History Reports held its first Client Advisory Board meeting earlier this month.
Held in Blue Mountain, Ontario, the company invited 40 of its top dealer, auction and corporate customers to attend the meeting.
“Our loyal partners provided us with valuable insight that we intend to put into action beginning in 2014 and beyond,” said Marty Meadows, vice president of data acquisition and strategic partnerships.
“Our dealer, auction and corporate accounts are crucial to our business and we want to ensure that they have a role in shaping the new products and services that CarProof will offer in the future. We appreciate the time our customers spent with us last week and look forward to hosting the event again in 2014,” he continued.
And the three-day event also touched on new products and advertising in the pipeline.
Meadows told Auto Remarketing Canada, “We came into the event with two objectives. One was to showcase our sincere gratitude to our customers. And Secondly, we wanted to showcase our new product Roadmap to our clients and get their insight as we move forward with the proect.”
Meadows described Roadmap, which is set to launch in Q1 of 2014, as a “give-back for the dealers.”
“The biggest takeaway from Roadmap discussions during the event is that CarProof is entering the valuation market, and Roadmap is going to allow us to be a significant player in that area,” Meadows said.
CarProof will also be launching co-branded, co-operative advertising strategies with many of its loyal customers to build consumer confidence and awareness in used car buying transactions.
Joe Varkey, vice president of communications and marketing at CarProof, said, “Anything you do that is customer/client facing, the first thing you need to do it get the voice of the customer and get an idea of what their needs are and what they like, as opposed to using just what we think is neat. We wanted to get their feedback.”
Varkey said attendees were "excited" to hear that CarProof plans to spend on national branding campaigns in 2014.
“In addition to the obvious impact on retail sales, it is really great for our OEMs, dealers, and auctions. Everyone wins when our brand identity is increased,” Varkey added.
It seems the company may be furthering its advertising strategy, planning to focus more on educational advertising in 2014.
“We have focused on B2B almost exclusively for the past five years because we wanted to build traction in the B2B market, and that has gone really well. Now what we want to do is educate Joe and Jane on the street and around the country why they need a vehicle history report,” Varkey concluded.
CarProof Vehicle History Reports revealed today a new resource to help used-car buyers and sellers.
The new 2013 Used Car Selling Guide, designed to help private sellers prepare their cars for sale, may prove beneficial to dealers, as well, since tight used supply is pushing many stores to try and secure inventory from private sellers and classifieds.
A more informed private seller may prove easier to work with through transactions.
The company contends the new 2013 Used Car Selling Guide provides “a new resource to help consumers sell their used car quickly, and with full transparency.”
The free guide includes information on how to prepare a car for sale, how to determine the asking price, how to negotiate with a potential used-car buyer, ways to finalize a private used-car sale and more.
“Research has shown that buying a used vehicle can be an overwhelming experience, and the information in CarProof's Used Car Selling Guide can make that process easier for both the seller and the buyer,” the company said.
The Used Car Selling Guide encourages private sellers to provide buyers with as much information as possible throughout the buying transaction, to help alleviate any doubt and uncertainty.
To download CarProof's free Used Car Selling Guide in English or French, click here.
