Lois Burak Automotive Digital Sales Manager |LocalIQ Automotive
Video messages with vehicle walk around, and customizable landing page will exemplify frictionless car buying, designed to close that gap between trigger and purchase.
PHILADELPHIA (PRWEB) June 09, 2021
Recent inventory shortages are causing auto dealers to cut back on their advertising. Technology is currently available to increase traffic to a dealership's site along with acquisition tools to help with the high demand for used cars.
A change in consumer behavior and rising demand combined with the desire for a frictionless auto buying experience is what Google reports is revolutionizing an industry that is over 100 years old. Lois Burak is proud to be part of that revolution with innovative video merchandising and messaging tools created specifically for retail automotive.
It might be a far reach for some, but Lois' perspective is one of an opportunity to combine, media, entertainment and brand building all in one space, driving transparency and inclusivity to help automotive dealerships succeed in the 21st century.
Dealers found it necessary to scramble when competing during the pandemic. They were faced with closures as well as restrictions causing them to enter the online retailing business just as their nemesis Carvana and those providers like them. Most were slow to move even after Carvana’s rapid success, and they were reluctant to follow the countless data that illustrated how consumers prefer to car shop and view their brands in general.
With the growth of online ratings most of the dealers' focus has been on cleaning up their reviews, but they’ve failed to change their sales processes to accommodate to the unavoidable change that surrounds them. Lois' biggest challenge is how to help dealers understand that this way of doing business can no longer be considered a fad, like many once thought about using the internet over other forms of advertising to sell their wares. From what she's experienced, it is apparent that auto dealers have a reputation for only changing when they absolutely have to. Her view is that this mind set creates hurdles for them when going up against their competition and hurts their bottom line in the end.
Despite the push back, Lois has still been able to rank high in her company when it comes to new sales as well as receiving recognition from her peers by raising the bar. She does battle within the market ready with the tools that exemplify frictionless car buying and are designed to close that gap between trigger and purchase.
1. First you must ensure brand presence so your product or service is strategically “front of mind” while your customers explore.
2. Employ behavioral science principles intelligently and responsibly to make your proposition compelling as consumers evaluate their options.
3. Close the gap between trigger and purchase so that existing and potential customers spend less time exposed to competitor brands.
Today's consumer has far more information and choice at their fingertips. Once auto retailers come around to offering a more meaningful and engaging experience with their brand and then implemented during the customer journey, the impact is game changing.
With this in mind - along comes Dealer Video Suite; A video messaging tool that allows a sales associate to record picture in picture personalized messages within a vin-specific vehicle walk around, right from their desktop computer.
A walk-around clip launches within the program and the customer has a virtual experience with the vehicle right on their personal device.
Painless to them...advantageous to the dealer. The days of only using still pictures of a dealer's inventory to entice a potential buyer are long gone and video technology's influences moves far beyond just placing a YouTube link to a moving picture on a website.
Dealers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on branding campaigns but miss the piece that is the essence of what a brand is.
Author Marty Neumeier wrote “A brand is in short - a result. It's a person's gut feeling about a product, service or company. It's in their heads and in their hearts. A brand is your reputation.”
It’s not impressions but rather the impression you make that matters most to your brand. The solutions continue to evolve for those struggling in the paradigm of car buyers.
The key to achieving brand loyalty long after Covid is how well you make that connection with your customer. How did you make the process different than the dealership down the road?
After conducting an experiment as a secret shopper, Lois asked multiple dealerships in the Philadelphia market for a walk-around video of a car picked from Auto Trader website. She received multiple emails all asking for her number, despite having her email they failed to send her a video of the car desired. Emails that appeared to be spam arrived instead.
Lois sums it up this way - Learn to listen to your potential customer, focus on their needs, and you'll not only make the sale but learn to lead in the process.