What do dealership websites make customers do that we’d never tolerate in the showroom?

[Vochi]

I appreciate the response. In fact, it is my favorite thing I've ever read from you

Maybe a different approach for the future is worth trying? Perhaps with fewer words.

Just to be clear, me challenging claims and reasoning you have a problem with?

• Me: "I think the data says something different."
• Me: "Here's why I interpret the customer journey differently."
• Me: "How does this fit with the research?"
• Me: "If AI can do X, why couldn't a dealer website do X?"
• Me: "I think there's a missed opportunity here."

Those are arguments about the idea that I made, that I have a right to defend, however since you decided that was incorrect your have a problem with me defending myself?

Not one time did I go off topic or attack anyone....

However your sides only evidence was ""YOU said so" and when I pushed back your called names:

1. "keyboard warrior"
2. "our main troll of the day"
3. "I don't know if you're like this in real life"
4. "If you keep failing to listen..."
5. "Your an AI"

Those are direct comments about me, have nothing to do with the post I posted and you guys responded to me asking questions by calling me names, you don't see a problem with that?

And while I am not an AI, what difference would it make?

I use AI daily to push back on my ideas, the ideas are not me, someone questioning my idea is not a personal attack on me.

AI can come up with unique was of doing things and thinking about things, in my humble opinion we've got a moment in time that we could group together and build something truly unique but to do that you have to be able to question the norm.

And the second someone does calling them names is probably not the best way to grow a forum or is that not what you want to do?

 

[Alex Snyder]

Just to be clear, me challenging claims and reasoning you have a problem with?

• Me: "I think the data says something different."
• Me: "Here's why I interpret the customer journey differently."
• Me: "How does this fit with the research?"
• Me: "If AI can do X, why couldn't a dealer website do X?"
• Me: "I think there's a missed opportunity here."

Those are arguments about the idea that I made, that I have a right to defend you have a problem?

Not one time did I go off topic or attack anyone....

However your sides only evidence was ""YOU said so" and when I pushed back your called names:

1. "keyboard warrior"
2. "our main troll of the day"
3. "I don't know if you're like this in real life"
4. "If you keep failing to listen..."
5. "Your an AI"

Those are direct comments about me, have nothing to do with the post I posted and you guys responded to me asking questions by calling me names, you don't see a problem with that?

Wow. Stuff like this puts you right back in troll status.

What you fail to see is the full history of your posts throughout DealerRefresh.

 

[Vochi]

Wow. Stuff like this puts you right back in troll status.

What you fail to see is the full history of your posts throughout DealerRefresh.

No please show me the problem?

 

[The QR Code Guy]

Just to be clear, me challenging claims and reasoning you have a problem with?

• Me: "I think the data says something different."
• Me: "Here's why I interpret the customer journey differently."
• Me: "How does this fit with the research?"
• Me: "If AI can do X, why couldn't a dealer website do X?"
• Me: "I think there's a missed opportunity here."

Those are arguments about the idea that I made, that I have a right to defend, however since you decided that was incorrect your have a problem with me defending myself?

Not one time did I go off topic or attack anyone....

However your sides only evidence was ""YOU said so" and when I pushed back your called names:

1. "keyboard warrior"
2. "our main troll of the day"
3. "I don't know if you're like this in real life"
4. "If you keep failing to listen..."
5. "Your an AI"

Those are direct comments about me, have nothing to do with the post I posted and you guys responded to me asking questions by calling me names, you don't see a problem with that?

And while I am not an AI, what difference would it make?

I use AI daily to push back on my ideas, the ideas are not me, someone questioning my idea is not a personal attack on me.

AI can come up with unique was of doing things and thinking about things, in my humble opinion we've got a moment in time that we could group together and build something truly unique but to do that you have to be able to question the norm.

And the second someone does calling them names is probably not the best way to grow a forum or is that not what you want to do?

 

[Vochi]

View attachment 11621

Is it different then what I said?

 

[Vochi]

"All of them have taken a piece of the car-buying journey away from the dealership."

huh?

Without KAYAK, shopping for a flight and a car rental would SUCK. Does UNited Airlines think KAYAK is taking away the travel shopping journey from the air traveler?

Dude, stick to code, that's your domain.

A closer comparison would be hotels and OTAs like Booking.com. Hotels didn't lose their business, but they did lose the top of the funnel and now pay billions in commissions to rent their own customers back.

Before Cars.com/Autotrader, the dealership was the discovery layer. The customer's first meaningful interaction was with the dealer's own lot, own website, or own ad. Now, the discovery happens elsewhere, and the dealership pays to get that customer back as a lead.

My point isn't that third-party sites shouldn't exists, it's that dealership websites missed the boat on capturing intent early. When 70%+ of buyers start their journey somewhere else, whoever owns that discovery phase owns the customer. Right now, that's Google, Reddit, YouTube, and aggregators instead of the local dealership website.

 

[KennySmithAutoUnite]

Not all car shoppers think alike.​

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Slide 3 is a secret weapon to see into the behaviors of shopping audience and this fires off creative, fresh, new merchandising experiences, all focused on the shoppers JTBD.

Joe, I think this is probably the part that makes the most sense to me.

We don’t treat every customer the same when they walk into the store.

Some show up with the stock number and basically want to know price, availability and how fast they can get it.

Others walk in and say I need something for three kids, I tow occasionally, or I need to stay around a certain payment. They’re still real buyers. They just need more help getting to the vehicle.

I think the website should be able to handle both without making either customer fight through a bunch of different tools.

If they know the car, get them there fast.

If they don’t, help them narrow it down.

The bigger thing for me is once they tell us something, don’t make them keep telling us again. That’s probably the part of the online experience I would fix first.

 

[joe.pistell]

The bigger thing for me is once they tell us something, don’t make them keep telling us again. That’s probably the part of the online experience I would fix first.

I see the logic Kenny, but to brag just a touch, two of my three patents touch on your topic, but I think there's much more opportunity higher in the funnel.

• MOST shoppers that don't use the SRP filters
• shoppers that don't use the save this VDP feature on VDPs

Meaning we've got friction in the shopping system that's ahead of some of the more sophisticated concepts that you're talking about.

I'm a visual thinker, I built this chart while I was working with Alex Snyder at Dealer.com. I was trying to communicate the spectrum of users and the time it takes to build experiences that satisfy the spectrum of users.




My message was that the overwhelming majority of users are low- and medium-quality and have low expectations of what they want from the internet. To execute and optimize the system for them first will still be used and appreciated by most-demanding users.

 

[KennySmithAutoUnite]

I see the logic Kenny, but to brag just a touch, two of my three patents touch on your topic, but I think there's much more opportunity higher in the funnel.

• MOST shoppers that don't use the SRP filters
• shoppers that don't use the save this VDP feature on VDPs

Meaning we've got friction in the shopping system that's ahead of some of the more sophisticated concepts that you're talking about.

I'm a visual thinker, I built this chart while I was working with Alex Snyder at Dealer.com. I was trying to communicate the spectrum of users and the time it takes to build experiences that satisfy the spectrum of users.


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My message was that the overwhelming majority of users are low- and medium-quality and have low expectations of what they want from the internet. To execute and optimize the system for them first will still be used and appreciated by most-demanding users.

Joe, this is probably the part that changed my thinking the most.

I agree the basic path has to work before we start getting fancy. If a customer knows exactly what they want, get them to the inventory as fast as possible.

The only part I would push back on a little is calling the people who don’t use filters low quality.

I see plenty of good buyers in the store who are not car people and are never going to learn how we organize inventory online. They just know what they need.

Three rows. Under $40k. Not 80k miles. Good in bad weather. Enough room for the family.

That’s plenty for a salesperson to start helping them in the showroom, so the website should probably be able to start there too.

Maybe the answer isn’t adding more tools. Maybe it’s making the first step easier.

If they know the stock number, get them there.

If they only know what they need, help them get to the right cars.

That feels a lot closer to how we actually sell cars in the store.

Your chart definitely made me rethink the order of this.

 

[joe.pistell]

calling the people who don’t use filters low quality.

Kenny, you missed my context...

​

I'm at Dealer.com talking to leaders about product design strategy, telling them why Digital Retailing was going to fail.​

If you look at that chart...

...you'll see it state that the low-quality user (meaning low quality as far as product creation and sophistication) is a low-expectation user. They have no intent to use complex or sophisticated analysis or comparisons. They're here to be motivated, and they move into action quickly.

I told the team at DDC that Digital Retailing was going to FAIL due in large part that the majority of car shoppers are the low-expectation to medium-expectation users, and if you don't have the bedrock of car shopping solved for them, then adding digital retailing to an already shitty website produces little to no e-commerce sales.