Team Velocity announces the release of its powerful new website platform, Apollo Sites. Fueled by the Apollo Technology Platform, Apollo Sites fully integrates with dealer DMS systems to deliver a personalized online customer experience.
Team Velocity first debuted Apollo Sites at NADA with the launch of longtime client Paragon Honda’s website, ParagonHonda.com.
“I wanted to have a website that would be unique to Paragon’s customers to give them a more personalized experience, and Team Velocity got it right,” Brian Benstock, VP and general manager of Paragon Honda and Paragon Acura, said. “For the first time ever, our website is sitting on top of our DMS, making use of the first-party data to serve our customers better. It’s taking the friction out of scheduling service and car buying because it’s easier than ever for our customers to transact. It’s like we gave our customers each an Amazon Prime account for their car, and they love it.”
Thanks to companies like Amazon and Netflix, consumers are demanding highly personalized online shopping experiences. However, automotive websites have been slow to adapt to meet the customer’s expectations.
“Personalization is no longer a ‘nice-to-have,’ it’s a must-have. Amazon’s model works because Amazon knows its customers,” David Boice, CEO of Team Velocity, said. “Dealers need to look at their website the same way. Customers don’t want to go through the hassle of filling out a form to schedule a service appointment because they expect you to already have all their information. If they are shopping for a new car, they expect to easily find out what upgrade options they have and what their payment would be. The data is there, it just hasn’t been used in automotive websites until now.”
Apollo Sites harnesses the data goldmines within the dealer’s DMS to provide every customer a unique, personalized, Amazon Prime-like experience. In addition to a public-facing website, Apollo Sites creates a personal website for every customer, dynamically customized to their unique information, including vehicle history, equity position and shopping activity. Apollo Sites even generates personalized upgrade offers, recommended vehicles, service coupons and recall notices, all based on unique customer data. These progressive sites also include interactive features like texting and service scheduling, and in the very near future, will offer the ability to complete the entire vehicle purchase process online.
“Throughout the past two decades, dealers have been plagued by ‘Mission Improbable’ — the impossible task of creating a seamless, personalized, omni-channel customer experience across every marketing channel — due to the numerous vendors and technologies on the market that simply do not integrate,” Boice said. “The vast majority of all consumers visit a dealership’s website before they purchase or lease a vehicle but are immediately put off by the huge discrepancies between the offers they receive via mail, email, or even what they see on Google, and what they see on the dealership’s website. Apollo was designed to solve these integration challenges and make it easier for the dealer to provide the best consumer experience possible. The evolution of Apollo to include websites has brought that vision full-circle.”
Apollo Sites unlocks the unbridled power of true performance, personalization, and integration. Paired with other products like Apollo Ads, Video, Email, Mail and Text, Team Velocity now offers a one-of-a-kind, fully integrated solution for customer retention, advertising, websites and retailing.
Recently, OEMs – most specifically, Mitsubishi – have overhauled their current website and digital marketing programs to focus on the power of consistency through integration. In a recent interview with Automotive News, David Baum Jr., general manager of Lewisville Autoplex, discussed his store’s success with Apollo Sites, noting the unique ability to track customer activity and interaction on his website in real time, allowing his team to tailor their engagement with the customer to drive a service visit or sale.*
“In the past, I always had service coupons on my website, but I can think of only a handful that were ever presented,” Baum Jr. said. “With digital coupons pushed to customers through their accounts and through email, just last month, we had 286 coupons redeemed from service customers.”
Apollo is the only integrated platform that makes, manages, and measures all your automotive marketing. With its unique offer management system, dealers can price out all vehicles on lease, buy, and finance options daily and deliver those offers across all mediums. This includes websites, email, mail, search, video, social, and more.
“We are so excited and grateful for the abundance of momentum we are having with dealers and OEMs who are signing up and endorsing our platform,” Justin Byrd, president of Team Velocity, said. “It is proof positive that our industry understands the demands of the customer and is rapidly moving forward with companies like ours who are helping to fulfill that frictionless and personalized customer experience.”
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