As car buyers downsize to smaller cars and cross-overs, their appetite for personalizing their ride is still as large as their traded-in SUVs. Dealerships are scrambling to satisfy their customers’ desires for individuality through customization using innovative web-based tools and discovering a financial boon that is helping to offset an otherwise dismal economic climate.
“Dealership customers have come to expect a high level of customization and vehicle personalization,” says David Stringer, president of Insignia Group a provider of web-based accessory cataloging systems. “Just because the vehicle is smaller, doesn’t make it less attractive to personalize.”
However, dealers traditionally have found the customization process to be difficult and accessories sales to be a hassle. Poor cross-departmental communication practices frequently resulted in pricing and information inconsistencies. These inconsistencies complicated the accessories sales process, making it difficult to motivate dealership staff to offer customers personalization options. Just ask Mark Polasek, parts manager at Ehrlich Toyota in Greeley, Colo. “Giving our customers the ability to customize their vehicles at the time of sale or service is a big part of our dealership’s offering,” says Polasek. “What we struggled with in the past is making that process easy for our customers and our staff.”
Polasek grew tired of trying to use out-dated paper catalogs, so he turned to the web and found Insignia Group. Using Insignia’s web-based accessory cataloging system, Polasek says that his sales and service staff have the information their customers want at the click of a mouse and can track what a customer wants through the car buying process. Polasek continues, “The web-based cataloging system is a pivotal component in our retail customers’ sales experience and complements the Toyota Signature Process in our dealership.”
Here’s how it works: After a customer goes to a dealership, he or she is offered an array of accessories through an electronic catalog and sales system that is available in every department. In the showroom, accessories are presented at the time of purchase as an affordable option for personalization. In the service lane, accessories are presented as upgrades and performance enhancers. In the parts department, accessories are offered as a way to extend life and resale value of the vehicle. As part of the new vehicle sales process, accessories are rolled into financing. Once the customer fills an online shopping cart and submits an order, either at the dealership or from home, processing starts. Customers receive a coordinated response from all departments, with availability status and installation schedules. The system makes communication between departments seamless and fully tracks the sales process from start to finish.
According to the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA, the industry body of vehicle accessories), personalization is big business - $36 Billion in 2007. Yet dealers are only scratching the surface of this marketplace: roughly only 10 to 17% are going through dealers, according to SEMA’s data. One of the barriers for dealers to this marketplace has been access to consistent information and the ability to price it accordingly. With web-based systems, this barrier is removed, and dealerships are able to put customers in the driver’s seat with personalization.
“Because customers like to be in control of their purchases such web-based systems give them the power to make choices without any added pressure from a salesperson,” said Mike Banaag, a parts consultant at Murray and Holt Motors in Bend, Ore., who uses the Insignia service.
“Dealerships and vehicle manufacturers are really searching right now to find ways to communicate with their customers,” says Stringer. “Web-based accessory tools do just that: allow the customer to dictate to the dealership how they want to personalize their vehicle, whether that’s at the time they purchase it or while it is getting serviced.”