Make it a millennial-friendly car buying experience
Move over boomers and Gen-Xers, it’s the millennials who are buying and driving cars the most. To attract these new customers to your dealership’s lot may seem more challenging than not.
To start off with, you need to have a high quality, FAST website. Millennials often make up their minds on doing business based solely on their experience on a company’s website. Ensure your website is a great, eye-catching design and is extremely user-friendly. Make sure it’s very well laid out, easily navigable and smooth.
Increase your engagement! Not only should you have a fantastic, high-quality website but you also need to engage with this demographic. The transition from online shopping, to in-person browsing in your dealership, needs to be seamless.
As we mentioned, most people have made up their mind of what they really want in a car before they even set foot in a dealership. If your transition from online to offline is seamless, your customers will really appreciate it. Offer as much information as possible on your website. Offer very detailed specs on vehicles (engine size, fuel economy etc.) Include detailed pictures, walkaround videos, even virtual test drives.
Your dealership can even make use of 360-degree photo technology to offer customers insight into what it’s like to actually sit inside a car they’re interested in. Check out this cool 360 of the inside of a new Kia Stinger. You can even install chatbots on your site to answer the most common questions car buyers may have. All this information is essentially expected for a millennial shopper to consider doing business with you.
Don’t forget to include a contact form so your sales team can follow up with interested customers!
Trust, Transparency, And Honesty
People have come to expect superior service. If they don’t get what they’re expecting from your dealership, odds are they will go to another dealership that CAN cater to their needs. The most important things your dealership NEEDS to offer is: superior service, transparency, honesty and support. Implementing digital vehicle inspection software can do wonders in this regard. With digital vehicle inspection software like AutoServe1’s, you give customers the ability to gain real insight into car repairs.
Technicians can give them peace of mind with informative photos and videos explaining why a fix is needed. This educates the customer in a fun, new modern way that really resonates with younger drivers, technicians and even service advisors. Seeing informative photos and video explaining repairs gives customers their confidence back. When customers get their confidence back in the service department, you can see increases to your invoices!
We actually conducted a case study where we saw an average increase of 25% on average repair orders for shops that used digital vehicle inspection software.
Mine for new customers on social media
Offer top-notch customer support online. You can do this by being extremely active and engaged on various social media platforms. Set up your Twitter, Facebook and Instagram account and be sure to engage your followers. You can even leverage online resources like Facebook’s marketplace where you can post ads for cars sold at your dealership.
Show people some love on social media. Answer their questions, address their comments and concerns and you may just appeal to people more than the old school dealership down the road. You can even follow certain trending topics and respond to people looking for advice on popular posts.
Content
Increase your dealership’s online presence and evolve your brand into an industry thought leader. Develop a company blog where you can educate customers/potential customers about things like seasonal car care, details on pricing, features on certain models or something else your dealership offers. Your dealership can even post fun, engaging photos with customers, and their vehicles to show your dealership interacting with real people! *For bonus points tag your customer
A really useful tool is creating case studies/customer success stories. Highlight a customer’s buying journey and write about how your dealership helped them get the vehicle to suit their needs. Case studies provide people with some confidence in your dealership before they even set foot inside. This offers dealerships some important credibility as it shows prospective customers that you have helped people in their exact situation.
You can even promote your content through digital marketing. Easily boost Facebook posts to reach thousands of new potential customers with your informative, engaging content.
Be Your Own AD Agency
Digital advertising is set to have more ad spend than traditional means for the first time. With that said, ensure you have a great online presence. Advertise on the Google Search Network, the Google Display Network, and on Facebook.You can bid on highly targeted keywords such as +top +dealership +near +me to rank higher in the Google results. You do this to hit people actively searching for services like the ones you provide.
Advertising on the Google Display Network can hit your customers/potential customers wherever they may be online. You can target people who are actually in the market for services like the ones you offer. For example, you can target people who are actively looking to purchase a: new car, used car and more.
Have a master mechanic on retainer? Advertise to that fact. People are most likely more willing to spend more on service if you have a master mechanic working on their car. Not only will the customer get authentic dealer parts, but they will be installed by a master mechanic. That’s enough to at least really intrigue people looking to get their car serviced.