|
|
By Robert Moore
The shift toward Internet marketing has led many automotive industry experts to convince dealers that the way to increase their profits and get the most from their marketing dollars is to spend more on their digital marketing efforts. Yes, keywords, micro sites, search engine marketing, and search engine optimization can all contribute to successful Internet sales – but to what end? As a dealer, before jumping on the Internet-charged bandwagon, you should ask yourself, “Do I need more leads, or do I need to improve my performance with the leads I already receive?” Why invest more money driving customers to your Web site if the final result is little to no lift in sales? Before optimizing your Internet business, you should first optimize your eCommerce processes.
Internet-savvy Shoppers Call the Shots
Internet shoppers dramatically impact your bottom line, so it’s critical that you pay close attention to satisfying their needs, especially in a timely manner. According to J.D. Power (2008), nearly 70% of new vehicle shoppers now use the Internet in their shopping process. In addition to being accustomed to having knowledge at their fingertips, these Internet buyers tend to be “time-poor” and want to avoid traditional sales methods. If your Internet personnel are not responding to these leads within an acceptable amount of time, your process quickly conveys that you are not interested in doing business, and they’ll move on to other brands or dealerships. Consider your Web site an extension of your showroom. Just as you would not ignore the customers on your lot, you should not ignore the ones on your Web site.
Know Your Business and Your Processes
The most critical order of business is to determine how many leads you’re currently receiving, your lead response times, your appointments made-to-show ratios, and your sales-to-appointment rates. If these numbers are not competitive with current standards, you should strongly consider investing energy toward improving the functional aspects of your eCommerce process. Having the right processes in place will not only help you gain new customers, but it will also help you prevent damage to your dealership’s reputation and business. Without the proper foundational processes in place, spending more money on digital marketing in an attempt to drive customers to your showroom could do more harm than good.
The Internet – Make It Work as Part of Your Dealership
Ineffectively managing the leads that you already receive, and then spending money on the Internet to increase these leads, will not increase customer volume or cure your ad spending woes. Only by developing and testing a sound eBusiness sales process will you learn how well your money is working for you and achieve better business results. Remember, as demanding as today’s buyers are, if you meet their needs, you’re well on your way to drawing lifelong customers.
|
|
Robert Moore
General Manager and Senior Director
Reynolds Consulting Services
Robert has worked in the automotive industry for more than 30 years, with over 10 years experience in automotive consulting.
 |
|
Reynolds Consulting Services, one of the most skilled and knowledgeable consulting groups in the automotive industry, offers dealers a fresh perspective on common challenges. Experience proven results from over 25 unique process improvement projects, specially designed to focus on specific departments and drive results for your dealership.
Reynolds Consulting Services:
Phone - 1.888.556.7342
E-mail - consulting@reyrey.com
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Your business success is our number one priority. We’re committed to providing maximum value for your investment in the ERA dealership management system (DMS). Our focus has been on creating and improving solutions that help you address your business priorities, and that’s more important now than ever.
We continue to invest heavily in the ERA DMS, listening to what you tell us is important. We’re building new solutions and enhancing existing applications to help you save money, increase profits, get more value out of your technology, and improve operations. You’ll also get new enhancements sooner, as we’ve moved from two major ERA software releases a year to three. We’re excited to share with you several recent enhancements, including:
- Electronic Funds Transfer – You can now set up your ERA system to pay vendors via electronic funds transfer. With fewer cheques to send by mail, this feature can help lower your postage costs and reduce the risk of lost or stolen cheques. This form of payment can also help you save on forms costs since you use fewer cheque forms.
- Bank Reconciliation Process – Enhancements to ERA system’s bank reconciliation screens provide new flexibility for processing reconciliation information by source journal. These screen updates can help you identify deposits and other entries posted outside your cash receipts journal. Also, a new reconciliation summary screen can give you a clearer view of the current reconciliation, which can simplify reconciliation validation and troubleshooting.
Stay tuned for more information on new solutions in the coming months.
You’re in this for the long haul, and we’ll be here to support you. You can count on valuable products, built by people who understand your business. We’re committed to making business better.
If you would like to share feedback, success stories, or ideas, please e-mail canadian_marketing@reyrey.com – we’d love to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Jon Strawsburg
Vice President, Product Planning
Reynolds and Reynolds
|
|
|
|
Enhanced Data Backup Procedures
We’d like to remind you that new backup procedures were released with ERA Release v.8.5 to help protect your data, and they still apply to v.9.0 and subsequent releases. These new procedures include additional validation for nightly backup, reminders when nightly backups are missed, and increased cycle time between the rotations of backup tapes to help ensure your valuable data is not overwritten.
Please note that the first backup after loading ERA v.9.0 and subsequent releases will require you to use a blank tape or an existing tape that has not been used in the past 13 days. Regularly copying data from your computer system to magnetic backup tapes is extremely important in case you ever need to restore your business data. A daily backup copies user data, program libraries, factory masters, labor time guides, and other information critical to your dealership.
To purchase additional backup tapes to add to your backup tape cycle rotation, please call 1.877.792.7677.
CallbrightTM Now Available
Reynolds is excited to announce that we now offer call management solutions from Callbright, the leader in total call management. Callbright provides real-time telephone communication management and call-response tracking to help dealerships enhance customer relationships, streamline advertising efforts, and improve management and training strategies. This Web-based solution helps dealerships gain insight on customers and prospects and the effectiveness of advertising and marketing campaigns.
Callbright solutions can help you:
- Measure advertising effectiveness through telephone call response rates to specific ads.
- Deliver pre-recorded broadcast messages, including service reminders, to customers.
- Record and monitor inbound calls to evaluate employee performance and improve training efforts.
- Track outbound calls to help control expenses and improve sales performance.
Plus, Callbright phone leads and call details integrate into Contact Management for ERA. Contact Management takes this information and can then automatically schedule appropriate follow-up and store the customer data for future data mining. Want to know more? Ask your Reynolds Account Manager for details.
|
|
|
Dealer Workshop Videos Online
Click here to watch our Dealer Workshop videos.
|
|
|
|
|
Ring up profits and efficiencies with Callbright!
|
|
 Click here to find out how. |
|
|
|
Your ERA Payroll application can now help you meet the Canada Revenue Agency requirement of switching from laser-printed Record of Employment (ROE) forms to a Web-based solution. With the ROE Electronic Interface, your payroll administrator can now electronically submit the ROE directly from your ERA Payroll application to the Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC) Web site for employees who leave the dealership.
Employers must complete the ROE when an employee leaves and their earnings are interrupted. Reasons for departure include illness, injury, retirement, training, dismissal, leave of absence, etc. Employers are required to produce the form, whether or not the employee files a claim for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits. The HRSDC department uses the information on the ROE to determine the following:
- Whether a person qualifies for EI benefits.
- The benefit rate to use.
- The duration of the claim.
The ROE Electronic Interface enhancements to your ERA system enable you to set up the directory location for your file, track mandatory ROE information for employees, and transfer ROE information to the ROE Web application. This enhancement demonstrates our continued commitment to making business better for your dealership.
If you have any questions about the ROE Electronic Interface or how to use it, please call the Technical Assistance Centre or access the Online Support tab at https://my.reyrey.com.
|
|
|
|
ERA v.9.0 Now Available!
We are excited to share with you a new process for obtaining the latest ERA release information.
Simply log on to https://my.reyrey.com,
where you can find all the Enhancement Highlights broken down by dealership department, the more detailed “ERA 9.0 What’s New Guide,” ERA user manuals, and other ERA related information.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Advisor Performance Report
Service managers can now quickly gain more information from the Advisor Performance Report (3611).
The Advisor Performance Report helps measure productivity and profitability individually by advisor and in total for the shop. The following new fields help the Summary By Advisor report provide a more informative overview of advisor performance:
- Gross Profit $ – Shows the sale minus cost for each column.
- Total Hours – Shows the total labour hours for each sale type and a total for all sale types.
- Avg. Hours/RO – Shows the average hours per repair order (RO) for each sale column and for all sale types.
- Eff. Lbr. Rate – Shows the effective labour rate (labour sale/tech hours) for advisor and other criteria, such as make and department.
If you have any questions, please contact the Technical Assistance Centre or access the Online Support tab on https://my.reyrey.com.
|
|
|
|
Reynolds offers LIVE, virtual, interactive classes through Reynolds University (RU) Online that help drive DMS utilization and integration with other Reynolds products. The online classes offer personal interaction and training with experienced ERA instructors who help you and your team learn through hands-on activities based on real-world situations, effectively and economically.
Each month, RU Online features a Session of the Month, highlighting ways you can improve your operations.
April’s Session of the Month is “Increase Service Revenue with Recommended Services.” This class will show you how to increase repeat business through customer follow-up. You will learn how to develop forecasts, postcards, and phone lists of recommended services based on your customers’ service histories.
To learn more about these courses and when they are being offered, log on to https://my.reyrey.com and select RU Online at the top. Click on Session of the Month along the right side. This will bring up the list of available courses at this time. Once you’ve selected a date and time, click Register and then Finish. You will receive a confirmation e-mail and a link to join the session.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Back to Top