Process for displaying Inventory?

[Craig Belowski]

Dan,
I agree with the statement of having the process is easy, however having the people that follow the process is a whole other game. As we all get better at adding technology or trying to better use the technology we have already been using, it becomes more apparent that training all of or people to productivly use what we have becomes the challenge. We all know that having great pictures and compelling descriptions are a huge part in being successful in todays internet driven market. It becomes easy to take for granted when times are good that we have good people. When times tighten up however it becomes more apparent how we have some of our people using what we have or the biggest mistake a dealer can make today.....having only 1 internet person or 3 internet savvy employees with cool titles. (sorry Joe) The challenge today is having everyone from the top down and yes the bottom non-believers up on board with the technology available. The market becomes more internet driven every year and for those dealers or salespeople that don't want to embrace that fact, I feel for you.

 

[Joe Pistell]

Note to the group:

I am in a beta with HomeNet assisting with mobileIOL (mobile options gathering tool). It's headed up by Jeff K's good pal Phil Penton.

We've been badgering HomeNet for months to get into the trial, but they refused to release it until it was ready.

I am use to the extra work from beta testing. You need to be organized and be a good communicator as you discover flaws and errors and spend hours working with the developers trying to create solutions.

I wasn't prepared for what happened next.
This MobileIOL has been as close to a flawless testing experience as I have ever seen. This is my 1st beta where I can count the problems on 2 fingers. (now if only my new web site was that easy, I have 64 tweaks & fixes scheduled for it!!)

Shout out to Phil and the HomeNet team for a great mobile data gathering tool and the easiest Beta ever!

Joe

 

[Jeff Kershner]

@Umer, thanks for the confirmation on that. From ADP to Rey, if I can get accurate information (or get the dealer to enter accurate information), most of the time it will sync correctly with Chrome.

The best dealers with the best process, are the dealers that have the GM dialed in on it and are holding their departments accountable for what needs to happen. To reinforce what you have said Craig.

Training on technology - keep your people trained on technology/tools.

 

[Josh Pereira]

In response to Jeff's last post, I would second his statement about entering accurate information into the DMS. The more accurate the option codes, package codes etc.. the easier it is for dealer service providers to provide VIN decoding from a "style selection" stand point, as well as to list the optional equipment translations and rich content descriptions.

As many DSP's know, when you have access to this information through DMS polling reports for current inventory you can triangulate in on styles, and reduce the amount of work that needs to be done at the IVM level whether it is self service, or full service. (I think both types of services/solutions have been mentioned here).

Alex mentioned some of the complexities of working with this data, the differences between the OEMS etc, and there is no doubt that it is complex. There is a lot that needs to be done with data transformation and rules base to handle the differences not only in OEM, but DMS available data either auto-populated, or dealer manually entered.

From an SEO standpoint, as long as those inventory pages are able to be picked up by search engines as being connected to the dealer website there is a pretty large advantage to having massive amounts of revolving content. Again Jeff describes that well.

Whether the dealer has generic model listings as stand alone, or as lead in to actual inventory, or just a "search new inventory" page - the value of investing the time to list the vehicle with as much information is very high. With so many great solution providers out there, certainly unless the particular franchise/store "owns" the local market - the more data, the more rich listings, the more SEO benefit is going to make a tangible and measurable difference. (I'll leave the quantifiable metrics solution discussion for someone else!)

 

[Chris Whitehead]

Hey Jeff, I just looked at your drivemb site. Great site, great SEO! You are definitely going down the right road with the detail pages on your vehicle listings. Don't forget to pay some attention to the listings pages. This is a great opportunity to get many more relevant pages indexed by the search engines.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

@Chris, thanks for the comments. I was no doubt headed down the right road (so I had hoped) but I have since moved on and no longer employed there. My hands are clean of drivemb.com though I do miss having the ability to dedicate time and effort to one site.

 

[philipzelinger]

The first point to address this issue is that people are always part of the process! Crap in gives you crap out and expecting a Vin-decoder to provide the details needed to exactly list all equipment is not an option since they do not provide equipment detail to that degree and they admit it; no surprises there.

That said, there is also value in recognizing that some equipment is "weighted" more than others in a car buyers mind and bogging them down with too many details might actually bury the equipment that matters and confuse their buying decision.

As a result, most vendors that rely on "automated" processes have to build in some algorithmic formula to select the equipment that has the highest "conversion" rate or interest for conusmers. Other vendor applications that tout more "granular" comparisons utilize multiple Vin-decoder applications cross-referenced to other 3rd party resources to accomplish an "apple to apple" comparison. Without naming names, I know that some are using that capability as a "differentiator" to define their application in the market because I represent some of them. In their cases, I agree - it is nice to offer more information as long as it is relevant in your application and it improves the "transparency" in the process for your online customers; be they auto dealers or car shoppers.

All of that said, a picture is still worth a thousand words and a video a multiple of that. Any "holes" left in a vehicle equipment list can often be overcome by a comprehensive picture list or video showing everything that a customer needs to know - or at least the ability to narrow down their shopping comparisons to a short list to move forward to find out. There is wisdom in giving a customer just enough information to require them to contact you to find out more! Of course, give them too little and they will simply move on to a more informative site.

The bottom line is that people must inspect what they expect in most of today's inventory posting applications and consistent labeling of equipment is still a dealer focused priority when selling across multiple franchises but tomorrow promises to be better as vendors and OEM's recognize the importance of providing more comprehensive vehicle information online that can be carried across multiple verticles and online channels.

 

[bhoecht]

We deal with this issue all the time on the new car side with my company's shopping cart service. Early on we received (loud and clear actually) the consumer feedback, "that what exactly is it you want me to shop and buy online."

If it helps, here is the process we teach as part of our implementation. Most dealer services use an order-guide based product to explode VINs and tell consumers what each option code is.

The process to use in your dealership to handle stock ins is to make sure that the factory options per the invoice are entered. There are tools such as from VIN Solutions to facilitate capturing these for used cars.

What you have to be careful of are the exceptions (naturally). Here is the list we know of:

1) ADP has no field for exterior nor interior color codes. We have our dealers enter those two in the options field as the first two options on every vehicle and parse them out from there.

2) The EDS DMS now owned by ADP and used by all Saturn stores only has room for 4 factory options.

3) AutoSoft only has room for 10 factory options and their export tool doesn't allow the export of the trim code (although their CEO Charlie Prophet who I met at NADA last week has offered to correct this and automate the whole process for us)

4) Sometimes there are factory integration points to help with this. The industry standards organization run by NADA, known as STAR, has a standard around how this data is supposed to be structured and how to handle its interplay between the OEM and the dealer. Few OEMs have adopted it.

5) Reynolds is a better DMS than ADP for this since if you set it up correctly, you can get sub-option codes for packages and preferred equipment listings... but beware... some OEMs have implemented it correctly (i.e. Chrysler)... others have not (GM just uses text for the sub-option codes... text doesn't mean much to an order guide database). Where it is not an integration point, Reynolds also sometimes has a data service you can subscribe for so you don't need to build and maintain these tables manually... but beware... Reynolds takes shortcuts on the packages / preferred equipment groupings essentially making them useless to your web providers unless their service can look up the sub-option listings.

Which brings up the exact point to the concept we were launching at NADA for the OEMS who don't have one of their own...

A contextual, side-by-side comparison of trim level differences and options.

As the precursor to shopping online

Be an online consumer who wants to consider the Saturn Astra. Is a configurator going to help you with what you need to know to be comfortable shopping for your Astra? Would you leave the configuration process comfortable that you had the Astra you wanted? That a better choice wasn't available? What would you do in a configurator where you were flexible as to whether a car had a particular option or package that you wanted?

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www.ai-dealer.com

Think about that as the entry to consumers viewing your vehicles. What should your website look like if it was built to educate them so they could shop online (vs. send you an email inquiry)?

 

[Alan Bechler]

Yes,to properly merchandise both new and used takes work. Dealers, ask your salespeople that are sitting around playing "quarters" to "adopt a car". When a trade (or new) comes in, you assign a handful of cars to each salesperson to write up great selling copy on each vehicle. Tell the story: extra equipment, warranty information, owner input, carfax info such as one owner, not wrecked, low mileage for its age, maintenence records, etc. Tell the story as if you were selling your own car, or what you would naturally say to a customer on the lot to get the sale. The key is to get the customer emotionally attached to the vehicle. Have a contest with the salespeople--whoever comes up with the best copy and sells the quickest wins, regardless of who "actually" sold the car. Gift cards, free tickets to the ballgame, whatever. It takes time and work. Next time you're on the internet looking at similar vehicles, read what some independent stores write. They usually have the time, and pour their heart and soul into their vehicle descriptions to get them sold. P.S. you can usually get original equipment/trim package info from edmunds.com. Do the research, do the work, merchandise your vehilces and you'll sell more.

 

[Derek Hammond]

This is my second favorite topic. Joe you are dead on in that quality and accuracy is important to properly merchandise your inventory online. The device you mentioned in your post makes it very easy to get the packages correct because you can check them off right in front of the car.

You can drive as many people as you want to your site, but the question should be “Are they going to get what they came for?” and “Would they come back”? To paint this picture consider someone comparing your vehicle to another one. If you only send Price and Photos, what do you expect to be shopped on? If you send the right photos, highlighting the unique features and flaws, an emotional description i.e. "no strange odors, never smoked in", and the proper option packages and what’s in them, people can now shop you on those highlights rather than your price. These are the things you would draw their attention to on the lot. Why would you not do this for your online marketing as well? Don’t more people see your cars online than walk your lot? Too many dealers think of their online marketing as just sending data. Would you show a visitor to your showroom the stock # and VIN to a car and expect them to get excited? Probably not, but you spend thousands of dollars per month to market your inventory this way online. And I bet you take more photos or write longer descriptions for eBay? Why? Someone please tell me.

I also like Alan’s idea of having each salesperson adopt a few vehicles and tell that particular cars story. A good inventory tool should also have proper package data and allow you to distribute real content to all of your online sites, not A/C FWD like so many, and not just the package name, but what’s in the package. Out of the hundreds of dealerships I encounter in a week less than 10% are doing this. Most still do not have written descriptions or comments.