Is your dealership using mobile tablets yet? There are many reasons to incorporate mobile tablets into your processes, including:

• Streamlined workflows
• Conveys a sense of professionalism to your customers
• Increases employee productivity
• Reduces human error and redundancies
• Unchains employees from their desks

What is the common denominator here? All these benefits help to improve customer communications, increase transparency and build customer trust; which all lead to increased customer satisfaction.

Let’s examine how this works. Mobile tablets allow you to present visual information to the customer. Information makes the customer feel empowered to make their own decision.

It’s one thing for your service advisor to recommend a service. It’s quite another to present the customer with a picture of a part that needs to be replaced and a video that explains why that part is important and gives safety precautions. Seeing really is believing, and the sad fact is that many consumers trust information from a computer more than they trust what a human tells them.

When going mobile, check with your DMS provider to see if they recommend a particular brand. Also ask what features and functionalities will be available on your tablets. Ideally you want your employees to be able to do everything on a mobile tablet that they can on a desktop.

You also want to ensure that your information technology (IT) infrastructure and especially your WiFi will support the increased bandwidth that will be necessary. The last thing you want to happen is to have your employees looking at spinning circles, because you’ll lose their buy-in pretty quickly.

Mobile tablets should be implemented in your service, sales and F&I departments, as follows:

Service Department
Mobile tablets allow service advisors to greet and check-in the customer in the service lane, conduct a multi-point inspection, get the customer sign-off and complete the service write-up process on the go. Spending more time with the customer helps to build trust and pave the way for a better upsell process.

Customers can view service history along with any recall that may be needed on their vehicle. When a customer sees a checklist of maintenance items with a gradual progression of green to yellow to red, they feel more confident about approving a recommended repair.

Sales Department
Mobile tablets shine as a tool that can present visual information such as inventory videos, dealership videos, online reviews and other information that may be used in the decision-making process. Rather than attempt a hard sell, engage your customers by asking about their needs and pulling up information on why that vehicle and your dealership are the best solution for their needs.

Mobile tablets can also be used by salespeople to combat showrooming. This is when savvy customers come in to your showroom with smartphones and start checking out your competitors’ pricing. If you really want to be transparent, have your salespeople beat these price shoppers at their own game. If a customer starts showrooming, a salesperson could whip out their tablet and search along with the customer, all while guaranteeing the lowest price.

F&I Office
Mobile tablets can streamline the F&I process. While your customers are waiting to see the F&I manager, hand them a mobile tablet that allows them to answer questions about their driving habits, view the menu, watch educational videos about products and drag and drop products into a customized package.

The last thing customers want is to be sold something they don’t need, so let them choose what they’re interested in. When the customer is empowered they feel more confident in their own decisions, and are more likely to purchase.

If your dealership hasn’t integrated mobile tablets into your processes, now is the time.

Some employees are resistant to the idea of mobile tablets, simply because they are used to operating one way and don’t like the idea of change. But that’s not a reason to hold your dealership back.

With training and time, employees will not only adapt to but embrace using mobile tablets. Remember when we switched from typewriters to computers? Employees everywhere resisted, vowing to never give up their IBM Selectrics.

But they adjusted, and so will your employees.