A Digital-First Approach to Winning Back the Trust of Car Buyers - AutoSuccessOnline

A Digital-First Approach to Winning Back the Trust of Car Buyers

Your customers want to buy cars the same way they purchase other goods and services, and that means making the transaction simpler, faster and increasingly transparent.

How to win back customers, build trust, and increase your sales.

Your customers don’t trust you. You probably knew that already, but it’s worth repeating. This isn’t entirely your fault; the car-buying experience is expensive and complicated, so any savvy consumer is going in with skepticism and reservations. But current sales practices aren’t helping, especially when a real solution is hovering right in front of you.

Technology is your entry point into a more positive dealer/customer relationship, because technology offers you a blank slate to create a totally new dynamic with your customers. So when you rebuild your identity, are you going to stick to the same practices that have been bothering your more skeptical clientele for decades?

Here’s our digital-first approach to earning the trust — and the business — of your prospects:

Relinquish Control

Thanks to the internet, your customers know more than they did 20 years ago. In fact, they know just enough to be skeptical of pushy sales tactics. Our advice? Give up control of the purchase process. Try it; it’s not as scary as it sounds.

The first step is to let your customers transact where and how they want. Your customers are already starting their purchases online, so letting them direct their own digital retailing journey through your dealership website is the natural step to get their interest and their trust.

This isn’t just our opinion. An overwhelming 86% of car buyers would choose a dealer that enabled online buying over another that didn’t.The flexibility and convenience of starting the purchase process online resonates with even your toughest customers. When you offer them control over the car-buying experience, they will reward you with their trust.

No Half Measures

Control doesn’t mean simply forcing the customer down a different, online sales funnel. Control is the customer’s autonomy to do as much or little as they want online with the knowledge that when they get to your dealership, they can seamlessly pick up exactly where they left off at home.

Customers still want a tactile experience, which makes the physical dealership an irreplaceable resource for any purchase. A true omni-channel experience is what ensures your dealership is the one consumers turn to.

Be Transparent

“When customers have all the information they need from your dealership, they don’t need to waste their time dealing with the competition.”

Transparent pricing is the norm in most industries. This transparency gives consumers control over their purchases, and that gives them the confidence they need to trust retailers. The automotive industry is already at a disadvantage due to the complexity of the product and the buying process, and that should be an incentive to bridge the gap.

With the top digital retailing platforms, your customers can assess all their options, review pricing and payments, submit an online credit application and even appraise trade-ins. The whole process becomes simple, intuitive and autonomous. When customers have all the information they need from your dealership, they don’t need to waste their time dealing with the competition.

Offer an Amazing Customer Experience

Look at it in simple terms: buying a car should be exciting and fun, but it’s often time consuming and stressful. You need to fix that; you can fix that.

Show your customers you’re working with them and for them, not against them. By investing in technology that makes your customers’ lives easier, you’re making a commitment to them that they can feel throughout the entire buying process. That’s how you begin to earn their trust.

Your customers want to buy cars the same way they purchase other goods and services, and that means making the transaction simpler, faster and increasingly transparent. Take a digital-first approach with prospective car buyers, and you will earn their trust — and their business.

Andrew Tai – Motoinsight

You May Also Like

How Dealers Can Navigate the Rising Cost of Doing Business in 2023

Risks and trends affecting your dealership — and how to work with your insurer to manage costs.

The last few years have been difficult for auto dealerships. Leaders in the industry have faced continued workforce problems, chip and inventory shortages, increased gas prices, and the effects of inflation. As you try to manage the rising cost of doing business, the idea of trimming overhead costs by adjusting certain insurance coverages may be tempting — but this could lead to more financial risk instead of savings, depending on the changes you make.

Why Digital Retailing Is Increasing Fraud, and What You Can Do About It

By introducing readily available technologies into the online and in-store workflows, dealers can save themselves a lot of headaches.

8 Questions Dealers Should Ask to Choose the Right VoIP Provider

Unlike traditional landlines, VoIP systems come with powerful features to help businesses make the right impression the first time.

Take Advantage of Super Bowl Viewership to Try New Advertising Strategies for EVs

Interactive CTV ads allow a user to click their remote to set a sales appointment or get a trade-in quote.

Top 3 Ways to Attract Skilled Workers During a Talent Shortage

Today’s companies need a game-changing way to recruit and deliver value to their greatest asset — skilled workers.

Other Posts

4 Ways Technology Improves the Car Shipping Process

New car shipping software solutions reimagine old processes, streamlining and automating routine business practices.

Turn Show-and-Tell into Show-and-Sell with Videography

Boost your fixed ops business by recording a video for your customer-facing service work.

How Window Sticker and Buyer’s Guide Generation Solutions Can Streamline the Automotive Retail Process

To help advance all aspects of the automotive merchandising process, dealers need to have access to software that can easily be accessed from a mobile device, like an iPad, to help streamline window sticker and buyer’s guide generation.

Why It’s Important to Photograph Blemishes on Reconditioned Vehicles

Whether the reconditioned vehicle has scrapes, dents and scratches on the exterior, or even wear and tear with the interior, it’s important for dealership photographer vendors to be transparent and offer to display features of these blemishes on the dealership’s online vehicle detail page (VDP) to ultimately help the customer make an informed buying decision.