DealerSocket, Inc. recently unveiled more than 20 new innovations across its suite of products. The new enhancements are the result of significant investments DealerSocket has made over the last year in its software, which includes customer relationship management (CRM), equity mining (Revenue Radar), digital marketing (Precise Price), websites and digital marketing (DealerFire), inventory management, and its independent-geared dealer management system.
“DealerSocket has made significant investments in our software and service over the past year,” said DealerSocket President and CEO Sejal Pietrzak. “Our goals have been to focus first and foremost on our customers and their needs, and to create enhancements and innovations to our products that help our dealers generate more profit and grow their business. ‘We Are Automotive’ is more than a tagline for us; it represents the very ethos of how we live and do business, standing side-by-side with our dealers and partners to be their trusted advisors. The enhancements we (released) at NADA are a testament to our focus on innovation and our partnership with our customers.”
Enhancements and innovations include:
Inventory Management
DealerSocket has completely transformed its inventory management solution into an enterprise platform, complete with a new responsive design and smarter navigation controls. The restructured solution also offers expanded reporting capabilities that allow dealer group operators to manage inventory by region, performance, OEM brand, highline stores and much more. This new reporting structure will also facilitate additional innovations slated for release later this year.
Under the company’s enterprise management approach is bulk pricing, a new feature designed to allow dealers and dealer group customers to identify new and used vehicles across their operations by age, trim, make and other attributes and then adjust pricing by dollar amount or percentage. This enhancement is especially useful for dealers hoping for one last shot at retailing aging inventory before sending them to auction. DealerSocket is also making it easier for dealers to appraise vehicles, allowing them to perform a value analysis and get purchase recommendations based on retail market and historical dealership data from a single, configurable screen.
DealerSocket has also reinvented its “Ideal Inventory Model” (IIM) to match today’s market conditions. The new model uses advanced data algorithms to recommend a vehicle stocking mix that will increase a dealer’s profit per vehicle profile. This builds on the philosophy of profit rather than turn on which DealerSocket’s inventory management tool was built many years ago. This year, two of the main drivers of DealerSocket’s profit model — TrueScore pricing and its associated pricing band — have been re-envisioned and upgraded to provide users with an even more accurate view of their core inventory, also launched at NADA.
CRM
DealerSocket’s CRM has been retooled to give dealer groups the option to have an enterprise view of their customers. The solution’s new innovative and proprietary matching algorithm is one example of the changed approach. It is designed to address a major consumer pain point by allowing dealership groups to pull up all customer communications records, including trade information, credit applications, group loyalty, open sales opportunities and linked accounts across multiple rooftops.
The CRM also gets a major workflow improvement with the addition of a new credit compliance portal, which offers dealers the ability to prequalify customers via a soft or hard credit pull, perform the required compliance checks, and tee up more profitable F&I “turns.”
In addition, DealerSocket is announcing major upgrades to its CRM’s add-on tools, including SocketTalk and Revenue Radar. SocketTalk, which is a text communication tool fully integrated with its CRM, now offers the ability for dealers to send their customers photos and video text messages that will be seamlessly integrated into the company’s CRM. DealerSocket’s equity mining tool, called Revenue Radar, is launching integrated marketing services, including professional print services for direct mail campaigns, supplemental email communications, landing page development, and appointment-booking services. Revenue Radar customers will also be assigned a strategic performance manager for process development, training, and to ensure users are getting the most out of the technology tool.
Digital
DealerSocket’s Digital and Websites (DealerFire) offering is also making a big splash. The company announcing at NADA its new integration with Facebook Marketplace – DealerSocket has been selected as one of only a few software companies to offer dealers the ability to market their inventory to a wider audience of potential buyers.
The company’s Engine 6 website platform is announcing that it boasts industry-leading load speeds and a revolutionary website editor that puts dealers in control of their virtual showroom. Also launching is inventory advertising for dealers on DealerSocket’s inventory management solution, as well as the ability to layer in incentive data. DealerSocket is also announcing that it has unhooked its digital retailing platform, called Precise Price, from its DealerSocket / DealerFire websites, which means dealers can have any website and still utilize the company’s digital retailing platform.
Independent-Geared DMS
DealerSocket’s web-based dealer management system and loan serving platform for independent dealers is announcing several finance-related upgrades for 2019, including a seamless digital credit application workflow and more robust functionality around F&I products and accessories. Also new at NADA are key features for greater fraud prevention and compliance, including CBC’s enhanced Red Flag algorithm, an electronic closing process via SecureClose, and enhanced credit reporting.
In addition, DMS is debuting advancements in automated payment processing via OpenEdge’s full-featured payment solutions and the ability to accept payments via interactive voice response (IVR). Lastly, core reporting for both static pool and 20 Groups take a leap forward along with the launch of seamless integrations to DealerSocket products including CRM, inventory management, and websites, making DMS the most automated on the market today.
Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning
DealerSocket has made advances in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) and will be showing how ML is powering its Revenue Radar equity tool by using cross-platform data (CRM, Digital, DMS) to predict a customer’s propensity to buy, thus allowing dealers to focus their efforts on closing high-probability buyers. DealerSocket is also collaborating with companies like Carlabs.ai, the auto industry’s first enterprise-grade conversational AI platform, to help dealers deliver scalable one-to-one consumer interactions. By incorporating Carlabs.ai’s intuitive AI capabilities into DealerSocket’s suite of products, dealers will improve website conversion, lower customer service costs, and improve the overall customer experience while gathering unprecedented buyer analytics.
“The automotive market is changing rapidly, and new intelligent software will have a huge impact on a dealer’s ability to evolve and effectively compete now and into the future,” said Brad Perry, co-founder and chief product officer at DealerSocket.
Link: DealerSocket
