Put Your Money Where Your Customers Are
No doubt you’re trying to reduce expenses wherever possible. Sometimes, even when you think you’ve squeezed the proverbial turnip dry, you can find an “aha!” – an effective way to cut overall spend without causing a lot of pain. In fact, you may even stir up more revenue.
One way to do this is to examine your advertising spend and evaluate the mediums you’re using. Traditional TV, radio, and print can be very expensive. Can you really measure what you’re gaining? Not usually.
Advertise Online
Studies show that the majority of your customers use the Internet in their buying process, so why not advertise online? Fortunately for you, the Internet is a cost-effective and measurable tool. By shifting your spend online, you will more than likely reduce your total budget. Plus, you’ll better reach the right consumers at the right time with the right messages.
In this issue we explore ways to leverage the Internet and reduce costs throughout your dealership. We hope the tips you find here will give you many cost-saving, revenue-building “ahas!”
Sincerely,
Trey Hiers
Vice President, Corporate Marketing
Reynolds and Reynolds
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Trey Hiers
Vice President, Corporate Marketing
Reynolds and Reynolds
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Saving and Selling in F&I
Every customer and sale is important, especially today. But every extra minute a customer has to wait during the sale puts profit and satisfaction at risk.
Waste Not
In our dealership, we realized our F&I process was costing us time, money, and customer satisfaction. We evaluated what key process areas we could improve. It boiled down to an outdated way of handling forms, which wasted precious time and money. So we asked ourselves, “If the rest of the world can do business with a laser printer, why can’t we?”
Our first priority was clear – switch as many of our forms as possible to an electronic format we could print on a laser printer instead of our impact printer.
This would simplify the forms printing process for customers in the office, reduce the number of separate hard copy forms we needed to keep in stock, and completely eliminate printing errors.
Electronic Forms
We found the right technology and implemented the switch. What a change! By going electronic with just half our forms, we are now able to spend more time selling our F&I products and less time hunting for the right form. The forms are automatically updated, preventing the accidental use of an old and non-compliant version. Even when mistakes happen, all we’ve lost is a sheet of paper, rather than the cost of a form. And, we’re able to get our customers out of F&I in 20 to 30% less time. They tell us regularly how much nicer and easier it is in our F&I office, and that satisfaction shows up in our surveys!
With fewer forms and supplies to store and reorder, we’re saving money. We’ve been able to cut down on storage space and the need to purchase extra filing cabinets and storage supplies. All in all, the F&I office is cleaner, quieter, and operating so much more efficiently, we didn’t have to hire the additional person we thought we needed. That alone has saved us thousands.
Selling More, Faster
In a time when saving money and closing the sale are everyone’s top priorities, your F&I office may hold the key to improvement. By updating your process with electronic forms and laser printing, you can save money and sell more, faster.
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Jeff Hutchinson
F&I Director
Byers Mazda Subaru
Columbus, OH
Founded in 1897, Byers Mazda Subaru was serving the transportation needs of central Ohio even before the invention of the automobile, selling horses and buggies. In 1929, it became one of the first companies to embrace automobiles and has been strong in the automotive market ever since.
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F&I eForms for ERA helps Byers Mazda Subaru reduce expenses and gain happier customers. |
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Importing Data into Contact Management
Did you know you can import customer lists into Contact Management? Doing so helps you retain the lists you purchase or receive from your manufacturer in an organized way. Then you can market to those customers using Contact Management’s marketing features. Here’s how it works:
- Use the Data Import feature under the Campaign tab and select the file you want to import. The file must be in CSV format.
- Follow the Data Import Wizard steps to set up the field mapping for the data you’re importing. Select where you want each column of data to import.
- After the data has been imported, use either the Assign Activity or Assign Bulk Schedule feature to market to the imported list of customers.
Tip: Don’t worry about duplicate entries. Contact Management will match the imported customers with any existing clients in your ERA name file.
For help importing a list into Contact Management, please review the Data Import Help section within Contact Management. Or call the Technical Assistance Center at 800.767.0080 (option 3, then 5, then 2).
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Zeroing in on Expenses with Reporting
Dealers are tightening their belts right now to combat the economy. But how do you know where to look for cost savings? Use reporting to more closely examine your spending and identify areas where you can spend less or protect yourself from unexpected costs. The following ERA solutions can help you do just that.
General Manager Exception Reporting tracks key business measurements for each dealership profit center on a daily basis and:
- Looks for transactions not meeting your established profit and penetration guidelines.
- Monitors transactions and key business measures for employees in each department.
- Reports back the next morning with a list of items you want to know about.
- Lets you know when exceptions, discounts, or overrides happen.
Advanced Reporting 2.0 gives you near real-time reporting and helps you:
- Create custom reports on the fly.
- Modify established reports and save them to your library for future use.
- Drill into transactional details from within the report, so you see the details behind the numbers.
One of Advanced Reporting 2.0’s biggest values is its ability to create month-over-month analysis reports, helping you manage overall departmental profitability.
AutoCheck® Plus vehicle history reports go beyond encouraging customers to buy from you to helping you manage expenses in your used vehicle department. Selling a vehicle with a branded title just once costs your dealership hard dollars and risks your reputation. Use AutoCheck Plus reports during appraisals to protect yourself from buying branded titles in the first place.
Don’t leave cost cutting to chance. Know where to cut or plug profit leaks with reporting tools for ERA.
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Watch a video about how
Advanced Reporting 2.0 can
help you reduce expenses.
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Getting Ready for the Market to Come
By Adrienne Reilly
We’re all painfully aware the auto industry has been in a storm the last two years. We also know those who weather the storm will have the opportunity to come out stronger than before. But this isn’t just a matter of sitting back and waiting for the storm to pass. To survive, we’ll need to develop good habits that can lead to long-term success.
Examine Your Dealership
Begin with a comprehensive evaluation of your dealership. No nook or cranny should go unchecked; a goldmine of unidentified or misused resources can be found. We recently helped a dealership save $8,000 a month by examining outsourced initiatives and suggesting work-arounds with their current technology in just two hours. Who knows what would have been found if we had dug in deeper?
Continued in Drive Results newsletter
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Adrienne Reilly
Business Solutions Specialist, Enrollment Consultant
Reynolds Consulting Services
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Improve your operations and system utilization with Reynolds University (RU) Online’s interactive Session of the Month.
September’s Session of the Month, “Setting Up Service Campaigns,” will show you how to set up campaigns to alert your service department of impending factory recall services needed on a customer’s vehicle.
To learn more about these courses and when they are offered, log on to RU Online and click on Session of the Month along the right side.
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Weak Keywords Waste Money
By Aloysius Carl
Reynolds Web Solutions
In today’s Web-focused world, matching your keywords to the search terms consumers are using is becoming more difficult. It is critical to determine if your keywords are providing the best return on your paid search investment.
Pay for Keywords that Work
Pay-per-click ads run on keywords, or search terms. The difference in conversion rates can vary dramatically from one keyword to another – sometimes more than 200-300%! So, how do you know you are getting the most from your advertising dollars?
- Track performance of keyword-specific traffic with a good analytics system.
- Adjust your bid rates and emphasis accordingly.
- Eliminate non-performing keywords from the campaign and your monthly bill.
- Focus your investment on those keywords that produce results.
Keywords Customers Are Using
A good analytics system will help you identify keywords current customers are using to find your site. Using these search terms in your pay-per-click campaigns will help you capture new customers like your existing ones.
Use Your Analytics
Paid search can be a powerful way to market your dealership, but it’s only as good as your performance-tracking tool. You’re wasting money and opportunity if you don’t understand the results you’re getting from Web campaigns.
- Get to know your analytics system of choice.
- Daily review the information it provides.
- Modify your campaigns accordingly.
Pay attention to the results your ads are getting, including click-through rate and lead conversion. This will help you reduce expenses on keywords that don’t work and add more to your bottom line with those that do.
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CarLocate.com
Get your inventory in front of more consumers in the most cost-effective way available – online! You can now display your inventory to thousands of consumers with CarLocate.com, a nation-wide, online vehicle portal that matches consumers with your dealership based on their vehicle selection and location.
With CarLocate.com, you can:
- Display up to 32 photos for each new or used vehicle in your inventory.
- Give customers research tools like color palette display, miles per gallon calculator, and optional vehicle videos.
- Track your traffic and leads received with reporting capabilities.
To learn more about CarLocate.com, please call 800.767.7879 or visit www.reyrey.com/carlocate.
ERA Version 9.2 Is Available!
ERA Release v.9.2 is now available. Remember to queue a system backup to run the night of your ERA upgrade. Please refer to your marketing release kit for all the details or log on to my.reyrey.com.
All the information you need is convenient and easy to access. On the left side of the home page under the News and Announcements section is a direct link to the ERA v.9.2 materials available through Online Support. Here you can find enhancement information broken down by dealership department, the more detailed “ERA 9.2 What’s New Guide,” ERA user manuals, and other ERA related material.
If you have any questions, please contact the Technical Assistance Center at 800.767.0080 or access Online Support.
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