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 Generative AI Is Impacting Auto Lending Compliance

What is often left out of recent headlines, is the extraordinary power of AI to reduce harm, including fair lending and discrimination risks.

By Tom Oscherwitz, VP of legal and regulatory advisor for Informed

Auto dealers and lenders, like leaders in other business sectors, are grappling with the current wave of excitement over generative AI. Many professionals have already seen a coworker or vendor pitch a generative AI use case. It seems as though half the room is significantly impressed, while the other half is waiting for a negative consequence or reaction knowing it was computer generated. The safe bet is that this technology will bring significant changes to auto lending.

5 Predictions for Front-Line Chat Solutions

In the next few years, prepare for a chat solution that must act like a personal greeter to every customer who visits your digital showroom.

Maximizing Fleet Uptime: A Dealer’s Guide

This guide provides actionable insights for dealers to ensure their fleets are always on the move.

Your Service Department’s Undervalued Opportunity: Streamlining RO Stories

Consider how much time repair event stories take to write. Now, multiply that by the number of technicians employed at your dealership and you could easily be wasting hundreds of technician hours every month.

Ways to Save on Credit Card Merchant Transaction Fees

A processor should lessen your workload by handling merchant processing. They should free you up to focus on the customer, while feeling confident that your processing remains compliant and safe.  

Other Posts

New Survey: Design of Dealership Important

ChangeUp surveyed 1,200 consumers in the U.S. who purchased a vehicle in the last three years.

How End-of-Year-Sales May Impact Auto Finance Digital Transformation Strategies

We still have a very paper-driven culture but we need to continue to shift focus to digitization to reduce risk and liability.

The ROI of Giving Back

The key place to begin for any type of giving-back initiative is to determine what drives you and inspires you.

5 Technologies That Have Transformed Automotive Transportation

Recent advances in transportation offer efficiencies for drivers and carriers and provide peace of mind for customers. These improvements often offer cost improvements, as well as reduce liability for the carrier.

car carrier Ship.Cars