Page 13 - On The Move - Volume 18, Issue 1

not every vehicle sale is a discretionary Dealers spoke resoundingly and clearly. For many dealers, factory image programs
purchase. Tens of thousands of cars and In fact, NADA received more than 11,000 are costly and burdensome even on good
trucks break down, get totaled in accidents dealer responses from the questionnaire, days, with little evidence that they ever
or need to be scrapped every single day in which was fielded between July 6–30, had a positive influence on a customer’s
America. Those that can’t be repaired need 2020. car-buying experience.
to be replaced, so auto dealerships must
be able to conduct vehicle sales in some First we asked dealers: “Which, if any, of But particularly now, as the digital retail
capacity no matter how bad conditions the following business adaptations do you experience evolves even further, most
are on the ground. plan to continue post-crisis?” dealers believe OEMs need to rethink
their costly and ever changing image
Which brings us to another lesson: Auto Eighty-two percent of dealers said the programs to better align with the evolving
dealers are more willing to embrace digital sales process is here to stay, 73% consumer—a customer that places a
change and disruption than most people said home test drives and home delivery far higher premium on flexibility and
give them credit for. will continue, and 65% said home pick-up convenience than they do on rigidity and
and delivery for service appointments is opulence.
In the early days of the pandemic, dealers here to stay permanently.
scrambled to create an entirely new way Finally, we asked dealers to identify where
of doing business that was safe for their This doesn’t mean that these digital they’d like to see additional focus from
employees and customers, compliant with services will work for every customer in their OEMs post-COVID.
local health regulations, and convenient every instance. We shouldn’t think that
and flexible for the scores of customers way because it’s false. The number one area, by 11 percentage
that simply needed to purchase vehicles points, was to simplify incentives to
or have vehicles serviced. In fact, while we know the pandemic support digital retailing. In fact, 64% of
accelerated customer adoption of a fully franchised dealers said this has to be the
I personally am so proud of the resiliency, digital sale, we also know that many, many top item their OEMs focus on in order
innovation and determination that customers will still want to do what they’ve to effectively embrace and harness the
America’s franchised auto dealers have done before, which is start the sales and change that is happening in customer
shown on behalf of their brands and their financing process online, but come to preferences all across America.
customers. Dealers see these adaptations the store at some point to complete the
as overly positive to their operations and transaction. And the reason is simple: Because to
their customer interactions, which is be successful and credible with digital
why I have no doubt that this innovation But it does mean that dealers must have retailing, dealers have to be able to offer
and flexibility will endure long past the the capability to make these services work a sales process that is transparent to the
pandemic. for every single customer who wants to consumer. For this reason, OEMs should
capitalize on them. And most dealers are work even harder to make dealership
What concerns me, frankly, are the lessons well on their way to making their own incentives as simple and non-complex as
that should have been learned, but that digital retail tools second to none. possible.
haven’t been.
Next, we asked dealers to evaluate on a Throughout 2020, dealers have done a
As part of the Summer 2020 Dealer Attitude 1-10 scale the importance of six different tremendous job working to meet their
Survey, NADA asked dealers a series aspects of the physical store in a post- customers where they are comfortable—
of questions designed to gauge dealer COVID environment. physically and logistically—and to provide
sentiment specifically on conducting those customers with the flexibility and
business and operating a franchise during The most important aspect was location transparency they so need and desire.
the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. and convenience for customers, scoring a
7 out of 10. In the middle of the pack fell Dealers will continue to do so. The services
We wanted to hear from the dealers size and capacity of their service center; they provide to their customers—and to
themselves about what changes to auto co-location of sales and service facilities; the nation—are too important.
retailing were here to stay in a post-COVID on-premises customer amenities; and
world, and about what changes needed overall facility size. It is my hope that the rest of the industry,
to be accelerated to keep up with rapidly including automakers, heed the lessons
changing customer expectations. We also Ranking last was OEM facility image already learned, and truly listen to what
wanted to know what dealers believed programs. their own customers are telling them about
their automakers should be focused on— the importance of convenience, flexibility,
and what they shouldn’t—to support their This tells us that for most dealers and transparency, and fairness in the vehicle
dealers with this evolution. their customers, what was important as sales process.
far as facilities at the start of the year has
changed significantly in the intervening
months.
On The Mo
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