You have 6 stores?
Slightly confusing on how we count things. 3 cities - Lincoln, NE (2 locations - Ford, Lincoln, Mazda, and a separate pre-owned), Grand Island, NE (1 location, but 2 different buildings - Kia and Ford/Lincoln), St. Joseph, MO (1 location, but 2 different buildings - Kia and Ford/Lincoln). Then we have 3 closely tied-in Buy-Here-Pay-Heres in each city.
What does your web production and support team look like?
I'm lone developer, SEO, SEM, email newsletters, and do a majority of design work. I do have one other designer who's primary focus is print and commercial production who I can use for design work if needed.
What do you bring to the team?
This is a good question, but I'll try not to inflate what I do too much. In a previous position of 6 years I was a designer/developer working for vendor provided websites and CRMs for the trucking, machinery, ag, and aircraft sales industry. I was also main UI/UX designer for an in-house CRM system which we resold to those same industries. I bring knowledge of design, development (html, css, php, WordPress, mySQL), SEO, SEM, data analytics, customer behaviors analytics, as well as, commercial production.
Do you have an assistant?
Mainly budgetary and a team leader who can in contact with people and meet with them if I am unable. Our e-commerce director for group recently moved into a GM role.
How do you handle Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Internal or external?
Internal
Who does your inventory hosting? Whats that cost you?
DealerTrend. Approx. $750 per month for all locations. We do have a dedicated web server through InMotion Hosting, but cost is split up among several stores and departments. Currently, have 14 external and internal facing websites hosted there (sales, service, car wash, QuickLanes, accessories, etc).
Other than inventory, Whats your web vendor list look like (art, SEO, OEM Incentives feed, Compliance, CRO etc)?
RedBumper, Cars.com, CarsForSale.com, Haystak (SEM), BlackBook Used Value, CarFax Advantage Dealer, ContactAtOnce, DealerRater. For new we are a one-price negotiation-free dealership in Lincoln and Grand Island incentives are built into pricing.
Who else in your org gets involved with web (managers, owner)
Everyone is free to give suggestions and input. Final decisions come down to our team and GMs/owners. Main ideas originate from myself and a few others on our design team.
UI/UX?
Mainly myself with the help of some outside design forums I'm a member of. I get a lot of my data from customer behaviors from using a website call CrazyEgg.com. Sales does have input on features they would like to see used.
Vendor reviews, negotiations & contracts
This was the role of our group e-commerce director until he left to become GM. Since his departure this has become a part of of team until his role is filled or we decide what to do with that position. Currently, I am leading up hunt for new CRM system.
p.s. Look into chat, it works very well!
We use ContactAtOnce for chat. Our group site doesn't have a 'card drop-in' like our location websites, but it has a chat button at top of page, on VDPs, and on bar at bottom of site. I'm working on a side chat tab that is better displayed than what we have currently. Our customer behavior according to Crazy Egg click charts were to close that chat card drop-in (99.8% of visitors clicked close on card) and use the button at top for chat.
