Well said and I too was delivering cars to homes and offices. I will say this though, by offering a streamlined process and straight up answers, honest answers and being able to substantiate those answers with explanation is the key. I suspect customers of all products, not just cars, want to avoid "going in" so they can also avoid the waste of time and bs. It's no different than appliance shopping (what a nightmare btw).
So much can be accomplished from "not in the store" now it begs the question "why bother?"
However, having said all that, I do see the other side of it and there's plenty of valid and good reasons to have the customer come in. Solid reasoning too. But, again, it starts with a proper and honest process with true and accurate explanations at that initial contact, whether it be online or on the telephone. It's hard for those of us here to make a purchase and we're in the business, what about civilians?
Someone said it earlier, if anything comes from this, we can only hope for two things: 1. dealers actually utilize the technology available to them (there's some amazing new tech out there right now that literally solves what we're talking about on so many levels) and 2. properly train the people and keep them trained. Nothing is worse than having a person "handling" a high dollar purchase (like a vehicle) get asked a simple question just to lie and cost the store yet another angry customer that will tell 100's of people....
