Doctor Doctor – Dealer e Process

August 16th, 2010

“I play a doctor on television”……………..

……..would you let him operate on you? Probably not- yet we still see time and time again people holding “Internet Marketing, Management, Director and/or Guru” titles in dealerships who have absolutely no right being at the helm of the Internet Sales Department ship. He or she interviewed well for the job, threw around the right buzz words and was convincing enough to get an offer letter. He or she talked a good talk, but once on the job they struggle to walk the walk.

Why is that? How does this happen and more importantly what can you do to make sure that when you are hiring for your Internet Department’s Manager you know what you are looking for?

You need to know and document (job description) what experience and skills you need for the sales end of things within your internet department and then identify what experience and skill you need for the technical, operational and promotional aspect of your Internet marketing- 2 separate individuals and/or skill sets. More often than not a store hires an Internet Manager with the expectation that the manager will:

  • Provide IT support
  • Manage the store(s) network
  • Troubleshoot for end users of systems
  • Manage the dealer’s websites(s)
  • Promote the website (SEO and SEM)
  • Promote the store (merchandizing of inventory and ecommerce marketing)
  • Manage the departments staff- develop and motivate
  • Manage the CRM and its users
  • Manage Third Party lead providers
  • Manager inventor on websites such as Cars.com & Autotrader
  • Manage a pricing tool such as VAuto or Firstlook
  • Sell the appointment, and in some stores sell the vehicle

These expectations are a very tall order for one person alone to pull off. The reality is that it will be like finding a needle in a haystack to fill a job description that lists all of those performance requirements. To fill that would mean finding someone who has the ability to deliver soft skills (sales, negotiating, communicating, rapport building –people skills etc) along with hard skills (vast technical knowledge, computer skills etc.)

Don’t get me wrong, it can be done, but it is very tough to find a candidate that possesses all of the skill sets necessary to fulfill each one of these requirements. Usually if a person is strong in soft skills they have a tendency to be weaker in the hard skills and vice a versa. Not impossible, just unlikely.

We have a tendency to do what I call “easy hires” in dealerships. Here is the scenario; we like a particular sales guy or girl, she or he is just not quite cutting the mustard in the sales department, they have a knack for computer knowledge, you find yourself going to him or her when there is a “technical issue” with your network or something computer related. What do you do? Well a lot of stores take someone like this and place them at the helm of that Internet Department ship or the BDC- you give them the scalpel and sutures and tell them to get to work. Best intentions are usually at play here but a set up for mediocrity at best for the employee and the department.

Your Internet Department cannot thrive with mediocrity. If you want to own your segment of the market you have to do what everyone else isn’t doing.

If your hiring for the department is an outside job be careful that you are not looking for the “Geek Squad” guy or girl to come cruising in with a pocket protectors, radiation burns from their computer screens and a plethora of Internet Marketing and technology buzz words they throw around……this is not a sound criteria in which to decide to offer them the Internet Department Manager position either. This type will do well with your technical and operational end of things but typically fail miserably when it comes to people skills necessary for sales.

The most successful Internet Departments I ever worked with had 2 captains at the helm. They did not necessarily share “captain” title either. The Internet Manager was the driver of the department- the people driver and his or her “assistant” was the technical guru. A good Internet Manager will see to it that his or her department is structured that way. A good Internet Manager (or any manager for that matter) knows exactly his or her weaknesses and hires and develops people around themselves accordingly.

I recommend when interviewing, that first and foremost on your interview question sheet is how the candidate plans on creating a fine oiled machine. This will help you to determine with all that is needed to be done well in your Internet Department if this person has the leadership qualities necessary to identify deficiencies and find or develop their people to support them..

Dealer e Process

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Autodealer Service Websites – Dealer e Process

July 21st, 2010

I had an epiphany the other day. The number one concern that people have when doing business with a dealership is that they are going to be taken advantage of. People are afraid of the car buying process and even more concerned when bringing their vehicle in for service. My epiphany concerns the later.

Minimize the “fear” and uncertainty for a customer visiting a service department and you can only increase business. It’s that simple. Where do you start? With your website!

With a few simple steps you can not only lead the horse to water (your website/service department) but you can also dramatically increase their likelihood of drinking (setting an appointment to visit your service department).

Statistically 83% of customers who buy from a dealership do NOT return the vehicle to that dealerships service department after the sale. That is a lot of lost service opportunity for a store.  A sure fire way to increase service traffic off of your sold units and capture some of that 83% is to drive these people to your website and reiterate to them the benefits of servicing their vehicles with you. In order to do this effectively there are a few steps you can take to lead the horse to water and to make him drink. Here are a few recommendations:

1)      48 hours after the sale have an email sent (another incentive to get this from the customer as they are buying!) from the Service Director introducing their department and directing the customer to the website for all future service needs. Provide sold customers an online incentive to visit your service department. For instance, provide that first oil change at a discounted or no charge rate, offer a free car wash, etc.  In other words, make it worth their while to come back.

2)      Remember service clinics? When was the last time you had one at your dealership? What a perfect time to cover the vehicle and its needs and explain to them the new way you do business, ONLINE.

3)      Have a dedicated web page exclusively representing your service department; better yet invest a little money in a auto dealer service website. Divert a few bucks from your ad budget to drive traffic to your service department. After all isn’t it your service department that keeps your dealership afloat during stormy weather?

4)      Make sure that you have a live chat option so that visitors can ask questions as they navigate through your service page or site.

5)      Create an intuitive experience- an experience that gives the visitor a sense you KNOW the vehicle they are driving as well as the preventative care it requires in order to be well maintained. Perhaps a Virtual Service Consultant. When a customer visits your service website and puts his or her information in to start an investigative or appointment setting process, provide manufacturer maintenance recommendations and/or dealer recommendations and services for their specific vehicle.

6)      Create a fear relieving experience for your service “shopper”. Post awards, testimonials, and community involvement information along with printable coupons and incentives to visit your store.

7)      Provide a comparative price schedule for regular maintenance needs. For instance create a matrix that outlines, oil change, tire rotation, brakes, A/C checks etc. and a list of local aftermarket shops/competitors such as Midas, Firestone, Jiffy Lube. Give your shoppers what they need so they do not have to leave your site and possibly not return.

8)      Do not be afraid to quote a price. We overcame this fear with cars shoppers and we need to do the same with our service shoppers.

It is time that we dismiss the perception consumers have regarding our dealerships service departments. Our advisors, writers, techs and mechanics are highly trained and more qualified than the aftermarket place down the street. It is time that we take back what we gave away by leading the horse back to the water and making them WANT to drink it. You can most cost effectively do that starting with your internet marketing. Make these tweaks today and watch your service appointments start to increase tomorrow.

Dealer e Process

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Redheaded Stepchild

June 17th, 2010

Recently I had a candid conversation with a dealer regarding his “weathering” of our recent economic storm. He emphasized that he was able to keep his stress level to a minimum due to his experience and forward thinking and execution of a sound plan in good times.

He shared with me that the 5 years prior to this recession he put his past experiences to work and created a plan to cultivate and maintain a strong service department. As he put it “I had seen as a young professional in this industry the power of a strong service department in tough economic times and its ability to carry a store until the storm had passed. I took that first-hand experience and when I obtained my own store made that part of my long term business plan and it worked again, just as it had in the past”

As I listened to his strategy in a nutshell; marketing, advertising, appreciation of solid service employees and follow up along with his monetary investment in building the service side of his dealership- there was not even one mention of his using his website as a service revenue generating tool. He used the standard old school techniques which in the grand scheme of things capped him from an affordability standpoint on the size of the market he could capture. Old school advertising and marketing using print, radio and mail could not reach the size audience he could have reached using the Internet. In spite of this though, he was successful. I can only imagine how much more successful he could have been had he placed priority on using his website as a service revenue generating tool.

This got me to thinking- how many dealers out there really give the marketing, advertising and development of their service departments the attention they deserve? When you take into consideration that 20% of people who walk onto a showroom floor buy and 100% who walk into a service department buy- might make sense to pay this red headed stepchild of a store a little attention.

When is the last time you saw a dealership website emphasize it’s service department on the Internet and focus on driving traffic in with it? For grins, go to Google and search “oil change” or “brakes” or “automotive repair”…….if you find what I found you will be hard pressed to find a dealership on the first 1-2 pages and most likely not at all in sponsored links. You might as well have a banner in the desert at this point, considering 87% of all Internet shoppers never go past the first page, 4.4% will go to the second and less than 2% will flip to the 3rd page on a search engine result page.

When you search these keywords or key phrases you will see nothing but aftermarket service providers, Jiffy, Midas, Merlin…these are the guys that are taking your service business and doing quite well with it thank you very much. As a dealer, you have the advantage with a customer who has bought a vehicle- and statistically you keep 11% of your sold customers as service clients. REASON- the only thing the general public has ingrained in their heads is that a dealership charges more and takes more time than an aftermarket “service providers”.

Time to change that, give the attention to your service department that it deserves after “carrying” you more times than not. Market, advertise, educate consumers as to the value, features and benefits of using your service department versus one of those “other guys”….and whatever you do- USE YOUR WEBSITE…that’s where consumers are looking and from what I have seen that’s exactly where your competition is corralling them to their bays…….while maybe yours sit empty…

Just a thought.

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Don’t Be A Tiger Woods With Your Internet/BDC Dept.

May 18th, 2010

Does your store play the sales game with a style similar to Tiger Woods? Does your store “appear” to be a great professional, ethical and respectful player at first only to prove otherwise once a customer sets foot in your store? Let me ask it another way; does your Internet and/BDC department perform  like a competitive “pro” on your first nine holes of the sales game, getting them in the door- only to find your sales department causes the game to fall apart with a weak and cheap approach on the back nine of the sales round? Does a less than satisfactory number make you feel like you were chased and beat with a 9 iron?

Automotive sales are much like the game of golf: there is a front nine and a back nine to the “game”. 80%+ of the time the front nine of the game, generating and cultivating of the sales leads, takes place in an Internet and/or BDC department through an Internet lead or phone up.  When the front nine is “played” well in a store, there is an appointment set by your Internet and/or BDC department. This appointment “shows” and the back nine of the game is played out. There is either a “score” (sale) or the brutal reality that you just played an expensive round and you are a shankapotomus. When you compare the cost of advertising and doing business with today’s green fees you can see that blowing a sale in your store on the back nine can cost more than a round of golf, and isn’t nearly as much fun.

Here are 3 things to consider for increasing your stores likelihood of a playing a great back nine once the front nine has been completed:

First impressions- you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Cliché I know, but so critical in this case. Do you know how many times I have walked into a store to find an antiquated “firing squad tower” of sales managers? To the average visitor this presentation is menacing to say the least, makes one feel as though they are approaching the Wizard of Oz.

Let’s start with body language- smiles are usually at a premium in stores that have less than stellar closing ratios. I once visited 17 stores in one day and made a note of the number of stores where I was greeted by a warm friendly face. Three (3), that’s right THREE stores used smiles as part of their sales process. Not surprising to me, these were the only 3 stores out of the 17 that had sales activity underway. Coincidence? The other 14 stores sales people all looked as if they were fed the same Ex-Lax frosted brownies.

If you cannot be a welcoming environment in the first 30 seconds of a prospects visit- you substantially lower your likelihood of a sale. (Regardless of how wonderful the appointment setter is). Remembering here that a customer can drive 10 miles in either direction of your store and most likely find a like or exact vehicle to the one that brought them into your store. Customers are looking for a SALESPERSON first- car second.

Transition from Internet/BDC sales lead to sales floor opportunity- make the appointed prospect feel “expected” and special- you and I know just how “special” they are (it’s what we are all working so hard for right? The appointment?)….let them know how “special” they are, give the impression you have been waiting for them when they arrive. Appointment boards where the prospect can see it is a huge tool for this effect. A store I worked in Seattle made sure that every appointment whenever possible was posted on the managers appointment board and the vehicle of interest was prepped and sitting ready for a test drive in a designated “holding” area- cleaned, warmed up or cooled off.

Communication- Make sure the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. This is a leading factor of a debacle in a store that has an Internet/BDC department which creates appointments for sales people. Your departments have to be on the same page ALL the time. This starts with how you present your store, inventory and specials on your website and in your advertising.  Once a prospect gets ONE piece of information different from what he or she received from the Internet/BDC department- your credibility has taken a hit and you will spend a significant amount of time having to rebuild it in order to move the prospect along in the process. Once you have created this shake in credibility- it is very hard- if not impossible to regain control and rapport with the prospect. A critical factor; sharing of correspondence and ALL information that the prospect has received from your store prior to their visit making sure that there is consistency in your communications with the prospects across the board.

By making sure you have these few consistent policies in place you can greatly improve your likelihood of closing those much cherished Internet and/or BDC appointments. Play the whole game with professionalism, integrity and respect towards your prospects- remembering they can “play around” at dozens of other courses but they chose yours- Show em that you are truly the Jack Nicklaus of the game.

Dealer E Process

For more information on Internet/BDC Consulting, Contact Dealer e Process at 877-551-2555

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Fine Wine – Auto Dealer Aged Inventory

May 5th, 2010

Is your inventory like a fine wine aging to “perfection?” The word “age” and the word “inventory” used in the same sentence in our industry spells COST- to you!

My job is to go through dealer’s websites and analyze their web presence, the “stickiness” of its visitors and the websites general effectiveness as it relates to ecommerce efficiency and inventory management.

I have noticed over the last 2 months a phenomenon as I visit hundreds of dealer websites a week- less than 20% have advertized updated specials for their aging inventory- and typically the ones that DON’T have the oldest inventory. As a matter of fact over 50% of the sites visited had NO advertised specials at all. I found quite a few dealer sites that had large amounts of inventory that had been sitting on their lots for two, three and four hundred plus days! Yes you read that right. One particular site showed an average of over 200 days in stock for well over 40% of their total inventory

In tough times we are going to see these numbers increase- but what baffles me is the majority of stores do nothing to merchandize the aging inventory aggressively through their website capabilities or their inventory management tools. Plain and simple, they do very little if anything to get the word out to move the inventory. There is no excuse for inventory of this age in these numbers sitting on a retailer’s lot, especially in the age of the Internet.

Your website is the place to feature the inventory that is costing you money with every day that it sits there-SPECIALS.  With the features available to you through your website provider and/or inventory management systems you are only (or should be) a click away from pushing the old stuff to the front of the line so your store can wave it’s arms alerting shoppers of your eagerness to deal on these units. There are no excuses anymore for not advertising specials because it has never been easier. A well managed website, with a constant eye on inventory is all you need to tackle this problem.

Well Managed Website

This means make sure you have someone who really knows how to navigate and maximize your website from the back end and utilizing all features. This doesn’t mean that just because your cousin’s brothers girlfriend is out of a job and “is really good on the computer” she is a “really good” candidate for the job of your ecommerce. Neither is an existing porter who “wants to move up and is good on the computer”. Make sure you have the right person and then turn to your web provider to provide training and support for this person. Use this aspect of their services- it is there (or should be) and it is invaluable to you.

(Make sure that who ever is going to be responsible for the management of your website has examples through references of his or her work and involvement with past employers eCommerce and webmaster tasks.)

Quite often dealerships throw the responsibility of managing their website into the job description of their Internet or BDC Manager. Quite often these people are not qualified in the areas that one needs to be qualified in order to effectively manage a stores marketing through the website. Most of the time a good Internet and or BDC Managers area of expertise is process management and people skills (or that is where it should be). That is where their efforts need to remain. Outsourcing for the management of the website from a merchandizing and marketing standpoint quite often is the most effective approach. Allow your Internet and/or BDC Managers to do what they do- manage the various sales opportunities you hired them to manage.

I am not saying here that there aren’t people out there who possess the skill sets required to be successful Internet/BDC Managers AND eCommerce webmaster experts who merchandize and market your inventory effectively- but there are two opposite skill sets required for these jobs that are not usually found in the same person. Personality competencies alone for these two job types are typically opposite ends of the charts- so it is hard to find a person who possesses both. Not impossible, but unlikely.

Constant Inventory Management

It needs to be part of your stores daily process to review your inventory through your inventory management system. This needs to be done by sales management FIRST, with instruction to the eCommerce webmaster SECONDLY as to what needs to be moved and at what price. If you coordinate sales management (new and used) to work with your Website manager (master, administrator etc.) daily at the beginning of each shift the process will take less than 15 minutes per day once you have dialed into having specials managed effectively.

Your inventory control system should provide you with all that you need to monitor and track every aspect of your inventory. Reports are but a click away as is the ability to feature inventory that needs to move. If everyone is doing their jobs correctly, all data is being entered as it should be, every shift should be looking at real time available inventory and specials that are designed to get the inventory off the lot. Once a week a queue can be done to run a report to see what worked as far as how things were “specialized” and what didn’t work. Moving forward, you will have a plan with proven successes behind you to put into place each time a vehicle hits that “dinosaur” status.

Incentivizing your sales, BDC and Internet personnel is also an effective way to move old product. Spiffs that make it worth while for a rep to “feature” a special when talking to a customer will dramatically shorten a vehicles shelf life. If you have a sea of vehicles on the lot and no one knows what is 200 days old- then how can you expect people to emphasize a “special”.

An Internet shopper can more easily be appointed if during communication with him/her your people are able to stress to them that the “special” advertised on the website is on the lot ready for them to see. Then make sure you have a sign on that “special” vehicle coordinating with what was said about the vehicle on your website. The days of mystic secrecy of “Internet Deals” need to come to an end. They are confusing to your staff, the customer and counter productive for your store as a whole. How many times have you heard either a client OR one of your employees say “I didn’t know that this vehicle was offered as a special on the Internet?” If you are going to advertise specials then advertise specials- so everyone knows, not just the Internet shopper and the Internet department. Lack of communication is what causes discrepancy within a dealership with both disappointed shoppers and employees. Loose loose.

To sum this all up, a bit of familiarizing or re-familiarizing yourself as well as your sales employees with your websites capabilities in merchandizing and inventory control through the help of your website provider is key to moving old inventory.

Committing to a 15 minute daily regime with the joint involvement of your Webmaster, Internet/BDC and Sales Management staff will allow you to create the consistency required to manage inventory and greatly reduce the problem. Using the features of your webs eCommerce capabilities, along with pulling your staff together you can painlessly correct this problem with resources you have available to you at no additional cost.

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7 Deadly Sins Of Live Chat On Auto Dealer Websites

April 29th, 2010

A poorly executed live chat solution plus a non existent or weak visitor engagement plan will take potentially one of your most powerful Internet sales tools, live chat, and turn it into a disappointing expense very quickly. We have seen these committed time and time again so here they are:

SIN #1

WAITING FOR THE VISITOR TO APPROACH

Keeping in mind that proactive chat produces 500% the visitor engagement and therefore opportunity for your department to build rapport and cultivate a true sales lead- use a proactive approach to engaging with your Internet shoppers. Do not wait for the “WebUp” to approach your representative.

SIN #2

NOT HAVING COVERAGE TO GREET VISITORS-

If you do not have a dedicated representative to engage in your live chats then why do you have live chat? Statistically 27% of Internet shoppers are online shopping during your off hours (after 9 pm and before 8 am)…that is a lot of opportunity to miss! If in fact this is a problem in your store consider a chat provider that provides 24/7/365 coverage.

SIN #3

NOT KNOWING WHAT IS BEING COMMUNICATED TO VISITORS

Take the time to create a communication “flow sheet” so your representative(s) have a game plan as they engage in dialogue with visitors. Make sure periodically that you “sample” your own website chat to make sure that the process is in tact and you are being represented in the most effective way- consistently. There is nothing worse than dead space and/or poorly delivered information on a chat. Maintaining control of the chat in such a way that the customer does not feel intimidated or pressured is critical to building trust with the visitor allowing your store to have a shot at converting this to a true sales lead.

SIN #4

COMING OFF AS “SELLING”

Nothing turns a shopper off, Internet or not, more than an aggressive pushy sales person. This applies to Internet shoppers more so than any other type of “up”. An Internet shopper can and will “click” you off faster than a walk in or even phone up customer will-because it is easier- you are nothing but a screen and a curser to the visitor until such a time you have earned “human” status within their psyche through the rapport you successfully built.

If your representative takes the approach to every live chat that is a first time introduction and not a “sale” this will create the opportunity to truly establish rapport allowing the customer to start to trust. Once trust has been established and the customer truly feels that they are buying and not being SOLD anything, then and only then will they give you permission to guide them along YOUR process as an assistant in their BUYING experience.

SIN #5

NOT HAVING QUALIFIED PRODUCT/INVENTORY KNOWLEDGE

This is a short one! Nothing makes a live chat a dead chat quicker than not having or being able to answer the visitors question. Knowledge of a vehicles availability, specs, and comparatives to similar makes and models is a must- your representative needs to know your inventory and your product line(s). A solid inventory control system preferably one that is accessible “real time” to your Internet chat representative is imperative.

SIN #6

NOT HAVING THE CAPABILITY TO EXTENSIVELY INTERACT WITH VISITOR

AND THE ABILITY TO PUSH PERTINENT INFORMATION TO THEM

Chat capability is not enough. Competition is fierce and if you cannot provide information to the visitor without them having to ask, or search themselves you are really not doing anything to earn their business. It is very important to “give” to your visitor before you ask to be given anything, i.e. asking them without having “given” them anything such as additional contact information, permission to call, appointment etc. If you have the ability to provide helpful information to the visitor proactively as you are chatting with them, this now causes the experience to feel more like a relationship rather than a blind Q & A session.

For instance, if you are chatting with a client who stresses how much they would like a 2011 model but cannot afford one, and you provide 3-4 used options this send the message that you are not all about the $$$$$/sale, but rather the “assisting them with a purchase that is best suited to their needs”

SIN #7

NOT TRACKING AND NOT FOLLOWING UP WITH THE CLIENT AFTER A CHAT

If you have taken the time and have incurred the expense of implementing a live chat solution and you fail to follow up with these leads- you are not only throwing perfectly good money out the window but you are also sending a message to the shopper about your customer service standards- whether they buy from you or not! Create a follow up game plan and make sure it continues at least 6 months past the original chat date- then engage every six months via email with special offers etc.

For more information on Pro Active Live Chat, Contact Dealer e Process at 877-551-2555

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Does Your Dealership Ignore Customers?

April 23rd, 2010

Would you feel comfortable letting shoppers mull around your lot or your showroom without ever being greeted, welcomed or offered assistance? What would the impact be to your bottom line if your sales people took such an approach with your walk in traffic and waited for the customer to approach them?

As disturbing as this is, this is exactly how most stores handle their web traffic. According to Google Analytics, if you do not take the opportunity to engage with your Internet visitor within the first two minutes they are on your site, 98% of the time you are missing the opportunity to capture and convert these shoppers to sales. This means that your website becomes nothing more than an “informational site”.

As a retailer you invest in building the best website you can afford, pump large sums of money into advertising and marketing it in order to drive traffic to it. What is your current website doing to engage visitors within the first two minutes?

Live chat, done right will provide a simple cost effective solution to engaging your customers within those first two critical minutes. When you take into consideration that a chat lead typically costs a dealer less than $2 dollars per lead as opposed to $21 per third party lead, it quickly becomes apparent that a live chat lead offers a better bang for the buck. A lead generated from chat is a more substantial sales lead because it is YOUR lead not a lead that you paid for.

There are two types of chat capabilities, proactive and reactive. Statistically, proactive live chat generates five times as many leads on a dealer’s website than on a reactive live chat. Proactive chats will engage the visitor within the critical two minutes of their visit.

There are a few important factors to consider when choosing a live chat provider:

  • Proactive live chat capability versus reactive
  • 24/7/365 live chat coverage
  • Ability to handle multiple chats simultaneously
  • Ability to deliver chat transcripts in real time
  • Ability to push individual pages to the consumer i.e. lead forms
  • Ability to send chats to correct dealership departments

Without an opportunity for a live chat you are in essence allowing the prospect to gather information on your dime only to “drive off” to the next site loaded with questions they got while visiting yours. You can trust that your competitor’s eager live chat agent will seize the opportunity to answer those questions and therefore generate a lead and earn their business. The longer you wait to incorporate proactive live chat on your site to help you cultivate these sales leads, the longer you will continue to be a great lead generator for your competitor.

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Dealer e-Process wins Top Rated Website Provider 2009 Award from DrivingSales.com

February 19th, 2010

Dealer e-Process (www.dealereprocess.com), the fastest growing auto dealer website solutions company, has won the Top Rated Dealer Website Provider 2009 Award from DrivingSales.com. Dealer e-Process was the only company to receive the award in that category with 100% recommendation.

Of the 38 reviews submitted on behalf of Dealer e-Process regarding its products and services, all 38 reflected a recommendation of 100%.

Dave Page, Partner and Director of Dealer e-Process, was thrilled by the news. “We [Dealer e-Process] are excited to be receiving this award. The caliber of companies considered in this award category is quite high, so to be singled out as a Top Rated Website Provider is both humbling and exciting.” “Coming on the heels of our ASMA award for SEO, this award feels like icing in the cake. We work hard to provide optimum products and services to our clients, so it’s nice to be recognized for our efforts.”

About Dealer e-Process

Dealer e-Process, an LLC company, is a leading provider in online marketing solutions for auto dealers. Its primary objective is to improve internet solutions for car dealerships.

Dealer e-Process specializes in the production and maintenance of auto dealer websites. Dealer e-Process boasts a robust suite of online marketing tools include Web 2.0 integration, real time inventory promotion capability, complete social networking integration, call tracking integration, YouTube integration, custom dashboards (powered though Google Analytics), automated specials, transcript integration and more.

Dealer e-Process

Internet Solutions

877-251-2555

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Rapid Response – Stop The Clock Service by Dealer e Process

January 13th, 2010

Are you having trouble stopping the clock or answering leads when the dealership is closed?  Introducing Dealer e Process’ Rapid Response.

With Dealer e Process’ Rapid Response stop the clock service, we are on…. while you are off.  All inbound emails leads are answered with personalized email responses by live operators. Our average response time is under 10 minutes and we work with all CRM’s.  If you are a General Motors dealership this product will allow you to sleep at night as we will take care of all your leads and “stop the clock” while you are closed.  With many manufacturers tying internet bonuses to effective and timely responses, there has never been a better time to have Rapid Response in your corner.

If you are looking to dominate your area online while having the fastest response time, then Rapid Response is for you. Call us today at 877-551-2555  for more information or to get started or visit us here today!.

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Google Caffeine – Auto Dealer Websites

December 23rd, 2009

What is Google Caffeine?

Google Caffeine is the name of Google’s next algorithm update that will take place sometime in early 2010. Unlike previous updates, Google Caffeine will be a complete overhaul of Google’s current search engine; it will most likely change the way Google evaluates and ranks your dealer website.

What are the major changes associated with Google Caffeine?

While Google has not released the specific details associated with Google Caffeine, some possible factors that could play a role in Google’s new evaluation (and rank) of your dealer website include:

  • Website speed: Slow loading websites will most likely get lower rankings on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).
  • Broken links: Websites with broken links will most likely get lower rankings on Google’s SERPs.
  • Links from Spammers: Websites containing links to/from known spammers already lowers their ranking in Google SERPs; Google Caffeine will most likely intensify this scenario.
  • Over-all quality of your website: Google Caffeine will most likely take a closer look at the overall quality of websites. For instance, websites containing optimized content, strong website design, easy navigation, solid links and low bounce rates will most likely be rewarded with higher ranking on Google’s SERPs. Additionally, the number of social bookmarks (such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc.) will likely play a role in the ranking process.

Do I need to adjust my dealer website to stay relevant with Google Caffeine?

Yes.  Although Google Caffeine has not been released yet, it is a good idea to optimize your dealer website in advance in order to get a jumpstart on the competition. Some simple steps you can take to ensure that your website performs well within Google’s new algorithm structure include:

  • Removing all spam elements from your dealer website (including links, embedded text, etc.)
  • Making sure your website design is both clean and professional
  • Making sure your website’s navigation is easy to follow
  • Including links from several social bookmark sites

How can Dealer e-Process help my dealer website stay relevant when Google Caffeine is activated?

Dealer e-Process is well versed with current search engine optimization (SEO) best practices and continues to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to understanding algorithm updates such as Google Caffeine. In fact, websites build by Dealer e-Process already adhere to many of the best practices recommended with Google Caffeine.

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