It’s no secret that to today’s tech-savvy consumers, the act of buying a car can sometimes feel antiquated– an unfortunate-but-necessary relic of the past full of stale air and desperate salespeople in bad suits. Many dealerships realize this, and like Mancuso, have invested in clean, modern spaces and adopted policies that result in a stress-free car-buying experience.
But many dealerships still lag behind when it comes to providing the customer what they actually want when it’s time for the sale. Oftentimes, customers come into the door of a car dealership with a specific idea of what they want to buy, whether it’s a specific make and model, or simply a long list of requirements they need their car to have. One of the main points of frustration for business and consumer alike is when such a customer comes in, and after a great conversation, it becomes clear that the car the customer wants isn’t on the lot. The customer is frustrated that they’re going home empty handed, the business just missed out on a sale, and both of them have wasted precious time.
Little annoyances like these are part of why car buying is still seen as an ordeal, a stressful time sink that must be endured, not enjoyed. So what is there to do? Luckily, there’s a relatively easy fix for this specific problem.
The Key To A Frustration-Free Experience
Most businesses in the automotive industry are already equipped with TVs or displays that show vehicle specifications or advertisements. With the help of an Mevato, these displays can easily be set to display a live feed of the business’s current inventory as it is updating. This way, customers are informed the exact moment a car is sold, and salespeople avoid the embarrassment of telling a customer a car is in stock when in fact, it was sold earlier.
In addition, mounting one of these displays on the window of the business offers a great opportunity for businesses to advertise current stock to passers-by and set expectations on what they can and cannot walk out of the door with if they were to come in and buy a car right on the spot. Dealerships can also list other cars that might not be immediately available, but that are eye-catching and held off-site so that the customer knows that they have a wide array of options. These displays can be used as multi-taskers, as they display not just general advertisements, but can be set to display specific ads and specifications for only the cars currently in stock at that location, or even for interesting cars that are off-site. It’s a classic example of a win-win scenario, as the customer’s experience is hassle-free and free of snags, while the dealership is able to target their advertising specifically to what is in stock, and avoid selling cars they do not have.
The feed of inventory itself is also fairly easy to set up– a good thing, as it is the crux of the whole digital media strategy here. An RSS (short for Rich Site Summary, or sometimes, Really Simple Syndication) feed is a live, editable web feed that can easily be set up to update when a car arrives on the lot, or rolls off the lot in the hands of a happy customer. These feeds can be made accessible by all employees if businesses so choose, so the editing happens in real time as the sale is made, or as new shipments arrive.
Then, it’s a simple question of linking up the feed to the displays powered by Mevato’s platform, and tagging advertisements, videos, and specifications with the correct information so that they only appear at relevant times. After that, the displays become a self-sufficient ecosystem– only needing input when the RSS feed needs to be updated. Again, all this can happen in real time.
Changing Perceptions
In order to survive in a time at which customers expect more out of a car buying experience, it’s important not to lose sight of making the actual buying experience stress free. It may sound trite, but making sure everybody is on the same page concerning what cars are and aren’t in stock is a huge part of that. These live displays can do a lot to alleviate that problem, and prevent customers from spending an afternoon at a business only to go home empty-handed and frustrated.
