I was hoping someone else would jump in here before me. Mostly because, surprise surprise, I take some issue when ego gets in the way of customer experience.
It seems that we live in our own echo chambers when it comes to thinking about what a customer wants. I know, I lived in my own my entire life at Checkered Flag. I had to leave the dealership to discover what it is like to be a customer! And I was SOOOOOOO WRONG as a dealer.
There is much to say about that last point, and this thread is not the place for it.
A customer, while online, needs to land on a vehicle before she wants to be sold on the dealership. It is a little backwards from our Road to the Sale training, but the online "road to an up" (I'm coining this phrase now) is:
- let me land on a car,
- then let me land on a price,
- then let me land on a value statement,
- and lastly, let me land on you.
Sure, this might not be the exact order for every person, but too many eCommerce strategies try to inject specials and selling the dealership too soon in the customer's process. This is especially apparent in watermarked vehicle images where sales and/or branding messages disrupt the customer's quest to land on a vehicle. It is a turn off.
