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Which CRM Do You Like and Why?

Can anyone who is happy with their CRM tell me which one you are using and what you like about it?:hello:

Happiness in an automotive-process-pushing technology walks a fine line, but I can say that we're happy overall with iMagicLab at this point. It has been a long road for us to really get behind it, as a group, but I'd say we're finally getting it together after almost 2 years.....and I should mention that is our fault - not iMagicLab's. I don't feel there is anything out there that could make us this "happy". I can say that I am personally very happy with it. I've watched it grow for years and recognize the huge potential in their vision. I just hope one of the big nasties doesn't buy them out before that vision is sealed.

What makes me happy about iMagicLab aside from the philosophical approaches (in my opinion my responses are going to be very basic):


  • Accountability through reporting and everyday resources of our people. It is very easy to tell if someone is doing the job you want them to.
  • Call and email tracking/recording. Once you get past the "babysitting" aspect of a CRM, it is time to invest in taking things to the next level. If you don't have the tools to see what you're people are doing, you can't go to the next level. iMagicLab allows us to easily make seeking the next level a daily routine.
  • It looks good. As silly as that sounds, the perception of a simple user-interface goes a long way with people. It is so presentable that it makes you want to turn your computer to the customer which makes it that much easier to capture ALL of their contact info.
  • Separation of contact points. It is very simple to see what was a phone call, what was an email, what was a response from the customer, etc and when you're going through old records this is crucial.
  • Automatic notification of certain activities over the user's choice of mediums. Knowing when a customer opened your email, when a salesperson marked a customer lost, etc (there are tons more examples) so you can immediately act on something whether you're at your computer or on the road.
  • Web-based so I can do anything and everything without having to be tied to a desk at the dealership.
  • THE BIGGEST REASON for me: Action Plans. This will border on the philosophical a little because the action plans go hand in hand with how iMagicLab builds things. Keith Latman approaches code with the perspective of a sales agent. He doesn't task his engineers to just make the code - the code has to work for the most basic user. The Action Plans were designed to be very general and very precise all at the same time. You can go into them and setup something very basic or get detailed down to the point where you have a separate follow-up plan for customers who walk in on Tuesday with a Redskins jacket on and have a Yahoo email address. Yes, you can do this with other CRM systems as well, but I have yet to see a system that makes it as easy to build these action plans as iMagicLab has done. Like I said, it is a credit to the core philosophy - the engineers never run the show - the dealer does. The Action Plans allow you to make iMagicLab function as well as you can innovatively use its potential.
When you partner with iMagicLab, you're going to get a great system, but it won't be perfect - as is the case with any technology platform. It is a heavy website and if your dealership is running on really old computers, you might have some struggles. It is very robust and can be too much to handle for an organization that doesn't have its act together - this CRM system has certainly exposed quite a few of our flaws. But if we didn't have iMagicLab would we have ever discovered these flaws and turned them around? It will absolutely help you bring your Internet department into the showroom's process and vice versa - it will force your showroom to get better at Internet and your Internet department to get better at understanding the showroom. If you're full of traditional sales managers, then they're going to hate that part - better have a strategy together on how to combat them. It is going to create accountability that you can chose to enforce or not. If you don't, don't waste your money on this CRM - you're better off going with something really basic like AutoBase or HigherGear. iMagicLab is going to make you work, and you'll be better for it!

Single point stores can wrap their arms around a new CRM install faster than a dealer group. It has taken us about 2 years to really get effective with iMagicLab CRM utilization. When we were with AutoBase they gave us a 93% utilization score and ADP CRM told us we were the top users in the country. Maybe that will give you an idea of how much more robust iMagicLab is....2 years, and I'd finally give our entire organization a B- average on utilization right now - keep in mind that we're doing way more than we ever were with the other two systems.

There is a lot more I'm "happy" about, but I just don't have the time to put everything into this post. CRM is complicated and vital. A thread on DealerRefresh cannot do your decision justice. Sure, it might help hone your search, but please don't take any of this as the end all be all.....and I'm sure you wouldn't ;)