The Future of The Dealership’s Web Presence

[Marc (blog)]

Kyle, great post.  I come from a varied background of B2B and major retail B2C, so I get the perspective from both sides.  The "online" experience is all about personalization and personal choice.  We're a small company trying to push through in the auto dealership world, and the tools we produce are all about making the web and purchase experience more personal.  But hand and hand with that is the need of the dealer to understand that a two-way conversation is so much better than a one-way.  It seems the paradigm is still heavily favoring a "push" model albeit on a new communications platform.
 
The cookie issue will hurt re-targeting strategies.  Consumers are wiser to this issue than some would like to believe.  In a proprietary study I worked on for a digital marketing company, consumer who noticed they were being followed immediatly cleared all tracking cookies.  The percentage was over 80%.  But re-targeting and following are still one-way conversations . . .
 
I really appreciate your thinking and understanding that what we do can and should be different than what we had been doing.

 

[bwood]

You had mentioned third party tools that can help with website personalization.  Do you have any examples?  I was looking at Reedge.com, they talk about personalized content based on past visits.
 

 

[Kyle Suss]

 @bwood I think it really depends on the situation/CMS/etc. In the article, I was referring to something like the Google Prediction API:
 

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developers.google.com

 

[JoePistell]

Kyle S!  A brother from a different mother!  We're on the same page and you nailed it!  
 
To expand on you theme,  optimizing a site for lead counts only satisfies the HIPPO. Forget the HIPPO, optimize for the shopper and you'll set your hook deep so they'll keep coming back.
 
WAKE UP HIPPOS!
*Prior to buying from you...
Less than 1% of you buyers sent you a lead 
-vs-
64% of your buyers were at your site a minimum of 3 times
 
More Returning visits = More Sales.
 
Why do we optimize for Leads when filling out a form not that important to the shopper?
#1). Because we can.
#2). Because we're neanderthals in the Internet world.
#3). Because HIPPOs have been paying for ads for generations and can finally SEE ROI (and they want more ROI!)
 
It's time to move our game past lead counts as "the" hall mark of success.
 
 
*http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/uncle-joes-make-over-diary-1683-13.html#post19931
 
We're on the same page Kyle.  You're going to want to watch what I am doing over the next 12 months (you know I'll always be watching you! http://www.suss.net/

 

[JoePistell]

 @Kyle Suss  At this hour, I am not a fan of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve the user experience.  IMO, our sites User Interface (UI) is not satisfying our Users. We need to optimize the User Experience (UX) first, then bring in AI.
 
Example.
I did an audit of chats on my site* and 44% of my site visitors are looking for a "search assistant".  Nearly half of the visitors are looking to create a complex, layered search and can't find the tools needed to make it happen.  This produces a shopper stuck in a cycle of scanning SRPs and trying to avoid clicking into a VDP that may not be relevant. 
 
I've watched HOURS of shoppers using my site (Clicktale Is Now Contentsquare - Explore Our Combined Platform) and what you'll see will piss you off and challenge your core beliefs.
 
 
All I am trying to say is that if the shopper can't narrow their choices because the UI blows, then the AI gets bad data and now the AI's success lives or dies on it's ability to parse out bounced VDPs.
 
We're going down the same road Kyle, Keep your eye on where I'm going!!
 
*Is Your Dealership Chat Used or Abused? – DealerRefresh

 

[terrencegordon]

Kyle, excellent forward-thinking post, and a good debate!   I'm going to disagree slightly with your prediction...on prediction
 
As much as I love to see dealers adopting the newest "real world" technology, sometimes it simply doesn't apply.  Dealer websites and the entire vehicle shopping process is a completely different animal from traditional e-commerce. 
 
Yes, Netflix has amazing AI / UI, but the difference is users come back to the site weekly (maybe even daily) for the purpose of getting something new/different each time.  It is Netflix's duty to deliver content that evolves to my likes/dislikes because that's what I'm coming back there to get.  The more I visit Netflix, the more data they have to predict my behavior. 
 
The vehicle shopping process is not the same. These days most people know what they want before they visit the dealer's website (think ZMOT), but more importantly there isn't enough frequency from the visitor to deliver predictive content.   Just because a shopper looked for a black SUV on Monday doesn't mean she isn't interested in a white sedan on Friday after talking with her husband. And what happens after she buys the car and comes back a month later to book a service appointment?  
 
I think there is room for behaivor-related content, but as long as the vehicle purchase remains "offline", a dealer's website will never be a Neflix...or Amazon...etc. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[Kyle Suss]

Hi Mark. Great feedback. I look forward to the future of the dealer's web presence and hope to bring some new ideas to the table in the process.
 
The cooke issue is interesting. I wonder if there is some data regarding generation gaps in how people react to cookies. Personally, I appreciate a customized experience and know that many others my age feel the same way. Do older generations feel differently?

 

[Kyle Suss]

 @JoePistell By HIPPO you mean "Herbivore Induced Plant Protection Odor" right?
 
Haha had to look that acronym up and there were several choices.
 
Measuring success for an Internet department is a difficult situation as you described. Traditionally, it has been done based upon lead counts & closing ratios -- but what else is important? Like you said, more returning visits = more sales. I know it to be true, as do you. But would a management team feel that their money is being spent wisely if an Internet department focused on getting time on site increased? My guess is that it would only matter if leads increased, and the hope would be to increase leads if time on site increases. However, like you said, most people have no interest in filing out a form.
 
I'll keep my eyes on the used car king as well!

 

[Kyle Suss]

 @terrencegordon Hey Terrence. I understand your position. Let me create an example for you.
 
Say Mark comes to my site on Tuesday and is interested in a black sedan. We may not have one that he is interested in. Maybe on Wednesday he talks to his wife and they decide on a white sedan so he comes back to our site. While he still has the option to search for a white sedan when he comes back, what if we presented him with options that are similar to a black sedan that he might not have noticed before? Isn't that fairly relevant to his experience on our site? Maybe he doesn't want those items, but he doesn't have to click them. It's not as if we're taking away from any experience/options that he had previously.
 
What if we just got a new car in stock that is very similar to something Mark has looked at in the past. When he comes back to our site to continue research, wouldn't he want to see that pop up automatically? Would he find that vehicle if we didn't show it to him? Surely we are automating processes here, no?
 
Sometimes we get phone calls from older people that aren't very familiar with the Internet -- they need help searching for cars. How much easier would their experience be if we could help them find a car based upon what they've already looked at?

 

[terrencegordon]

 @Kyle Suss  By all means, I am an advocate of making the entire shopping experience easier and more relevant.  I think there are ways to do it (we show recommended vehicles based on their search), and your example above makes perfect sense.
 
I'm a fan of targeting more macro trends. So if 70% of a dealer's shoppers are looking for used cars, and 30% of those are looking for SUV's then the website's inventory search should be prioritized accordingly.  Or if 30% of your Google visits are service-related, then 30% of your homepage should be designated to service. 
 
These are easy fixes and conduits to the next level you speak of.  
Good stuff.