What are the Top 3 questions shoppers ask when they arrive at your car dealership?

[ddavis]

Joe, I understand the "why buy from us" statements but I have never had a customer ask if we give free car washes.

The biggest challenge for dealerships is that many don't know how to merchandise their products and most are not willing to put in the effort. A couple of days ago, I saw a thread, on here, about actual pictures of new cars. Seriously, this is still up for discussion?

 

[Chris Cachor]

Chris,

The car shopping journey has an "internet process" and a "car dealer visit process". Once they arrive at the car dealership, many shoppers BEGIN with referring to what they saw online, but, because they have more questions than answers, they'll use the online info as a guide, or reference and let the "real decision making" begin.

Parallel EXAMPLE:
I research best 50" flat screen TV. I walk into Best Buy, see a wall full of awesome TV choices, in 5 mins after I cant find the exact one, while I am looking, I am falling in love with one I've never seen online. I pull out my phone to make sure this price is fair and #BAM it's sold.

Replace TV with a car and Best Buy with a car dealer.

This is why I asked everyone: "what are common 1st questions asked by ups in your store".

Yea I was speaking more from the experience of myself, family, and close friends. All of them share one thing in common knowing the car (new) but not the dealer but don't move off the car. Judging from the responses they are outliers, though.

 

[joe.pistell]

Your help wanted: What are the FIRST questions shoppers ask when they arrive at your car dealership?

Examples so far:

• "I'm just looking"
• "can I test drive this?"
• "Do you still have this car (I saw online)..."
• "I have an appointment..."
• "I'm looking for a [make] [model]"
• "Do you take trade-ins?"
• "Do you have a SUV under $xxx a month?"
• "I saw a [model] on TV for $xxx a month, where is it?"
• "My brother has a [model] and he loves it, can I see one?"
• "I always buy a [make/model], but, before I buy, I want to ck out your brand"

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Thnx
Joe

p.s. reading this via email? Please reply to this thread by clicking the link below!

 

[joe.pistell]

This is a great thread. Found some data to add to it...

90% of car shoppers arrive at your store, have spent weeks and months doing research. I am interested in that moment when they first arrive.

QUESTION: What are the Top 3 questions shoppers ask when they arrive at your car dealership?

I've been pounding the tables for years, the evidence is everywhere. Our Internet car shoppers are lost. They don't want a cart (yet). soooo many cube-dwelling technologists can't see this because they've never worked in a store. Too many ppl think all it takes is hanging a checkout system on a dealer's site and wait till 'they get it'.

#Fail.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

This is a great thread. Found some data to add to it...

View attachment 2918
I've been pounding the tables for years, the evidence is everywhere. Our Internet car shoppers are lost. They don't want a cart (yet). soooo many cube-dwelling technologists can't see this because they've never worked in a store. Too many ppl think all it takes is hanging a checkout system on a dealer's site and wait till 'they get it'.

#Fail.

Resurrecting this one from the dead are we @JoePistell .?.?

Every displayed answer to that question according to the chart, points to a....

A. Confused and Overly-Informed customer
B. Hank, the average over 70 Year old retiree from Missouri
C. The PERFECT AutoTrader.com surveyed shopper

I'm going mostly with C. While I agree, many consumers educate themselves into confusion, these top answers are questionable and invlove too many variables.

Hey, an informative dealership website with a hanging checkout system could and should answer all these questions while moving the customer one step closer to doing business with you.

 

[ed.brooks]

Resurrecting this one from the dead are we @JoePistell .?.?

Every displayed answer to that question according to the chart, points to a....

A. Confused and Overly-Informed customer
B. Hank, the average over 70 Year old retiree from Missouri
C. The PERFECT AutoTrader.com surveyed shopper

I'm going mostly with C. While I agree, many consumers educate themselves into confusion, these top answers are questionable and invlove too many variables.

Hey, an informative dealership website with a hanging checkout system could and should answer all these questions while moving the customer one step closer to doing business with you.

This Cox / Autotrader survey gave a very limited number of choices to the question, "D1. When you visit a dealership, which of the following activities do you want to do most?"
What if they added, "Be left alone to look at the car I'm considering" to the list?
http://dealerlearningcenter.com/cox/pdf/ip-4.pdf

 

[joe.pistell]

A. Confused and Overly-Informed customer
B. Hank, the average over 70 Year old retiree from Missouri
C. The PERFECT AutoTrader.com surveyed shopper

Dude, from my desk, the answer is A.

Regarding answer B, I know you were having fun, but, for other ppl, I am seeing this 'style of answer' too often. If you're in design "Hank from Missouri" is part of your challenge. Here's how tech savvy our customers are...

I'm going mostly with C. While I agree, many consumers educate themselves into confusion, these top answers are questionable and invlove too many variables.

Regarding Answer C, from a design strategy POV, this is solid data to work from. Yes, there are variables, but they'll live nicely in each bucket. IMO this is an industry wide epidemic. It's why shopping carts are useless to most shoppers. I dare anyone to shadow sales reps for a week and tally all 6 observations. Do the same listening to phone calls. I've done it for years. It works.

Hey, an informative dealership website with a hanging checkout system could and should answer all these questions while moving the customer one step closer to doing business with you.

GM's shop-click-drive did it and look what happened (and they're not AT shoppers).


Don't tell me SCD failed becuse their website sucked!

 

[jeffwallen]

Mary or Max starts out their shopping process thinking of a 2-year old sedan with a sunroof and low miles would be great. 6 hours later they are frustrated, enough info in their head to be dangerous and still unsatisfied. They began the process thinking of driving to work with the sunroof open but with all the information overload that changed to wanting perfection. The only question they have in their mind walking into a dealership is how they're going to trip up the salesperson to help them negotiate the price down. They have very low self-esteem at this point.

 

[joe.pistell]

6 hours later they are frustrated, enough info in their head to be dangerous and still unsatisfied. They began the process thinking of driving to work with the sunroof open but with all the information overload that changed to wanting perfection. The only question they have in their mind walking into a dealership is how they're going to trip up the salesperson to help them negotiate the price down. They have very low self-esteem at this point.

#TOTALLYNAILEDIT

 

[joe.pistell]

Looking for some help from y'all.

90% of car shoppers arrive at your store, have spent weeks and months doing research. I am interested in that moment when they first arrive.

QUESTION: What are the Top 3 questions shoppers ask when they arrive at your car dealership?

Bump to the top.

8 yrs later, we're in the best 'sellers market' of all time. Digital Dealerships are taking share. So.... how has the shopper changed?

QUESTION: What are the Top 3 questions shoppers ask when they arrive at your car dealership?

• Do they have an exact Stock number in mind?
• Do they start in used cars or new?
• Do they start with a model in mind?
• Do they start with a model & trim in mind?
• Do they start with a model & feature in mind (i.e. "looking for an A4 with Nav...")?

What are the top in-store "discussion starters"?