Five Tools to Enhance Customer Interactions and Experiences During COVID-19

As some states are lifting their shelter-in-place orders, many individuals are worried about carrying on as normal. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 80 percent of respondents still favored strict shelter-in-place restrictions, with many refusing to leave their homes. As a result, many small businesses, including dealerships, may have to continue to conduct online sales and limit the time customers are spending in the showroom.

Your dealership is going to need to have and use the right tools to keep this going in a longer-term situation. You may already be using some solid options. Nevertheless, this article is meant to be a guide to help you select the right types of apps that can help you more easily interact with customers and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

So, what should be in your CX and communication tool collection? See the tools that you should add to your CX stack below. 

Video Conferencing

Let’s get this one out of the way now if you were already using this, great! However, you may only be video chatting with colleagues at this point. Alternatively, this is also a great way to connect with customers. Whether you are showing a vehicle, taking them through a repair, or walking them through the F&I process, video chat tools like Zoom, Skype, or an encrypted solution like Wire can help you add convenience to dealer-customer interactions, even after this pandemic is over. 

Related: What Your Building Design Says About Your Dealership – Nicholas Berndt, AMSI

Project Management/Task Delegation 

Do you want to make sure those customer inquiries and test drive schedulings don’t fall through the cracks? One of the best ways you can ensure your CX improves is by having an organized method of delegating tasks to your various departments (especially sales). A solution like Trello allows you to delegate tasks with the help of Kanban cards. Asana and Todoist enable you to develop more traditional to-do-lists, create tasks dependencies, and utilize an overall calendar view. Some even have integrations with video conferencing solutions. Again, you want to make sure all client interactions happen, and a project management and task delegation tool allow you to do this. 

Meeting and Event Scheduler 

You may already have an online scheduler that integrates with your dealership homepage. Nevertheless, you need to ensure that any scheduling tool you have is efficient and can integrate with other apps to add some ease to your workday. For example, apps like Calendly and Freebusy connect to most major email client-based calendars (Google, Outlook, iCal, and others). So, instead of having to go into a website portal to see meetings that customers may have scheduled, these apps can sync up to your email calendars, task delegation apps, and even to your video conferencing tools. Again, this makes it harder for meetings to fall between the cracks and removes some work for your team to stay in touch with clients. 

CX and CRM Software

While you may already have a CRM software option, you may want to look at another solution that can provide an even more dynamic experience. Today, premier CRM systems can do everything from allowing you to reach out to customers on multiple communication platforms to offering AI-enabled chatbot services for potential buyers. Since most of your interactions are going to have to occur digitally, it is crucial that you find a robust system that allows you to keep track of every interaction and makes it easy to reach your audience, whether on social media or email. Salesforce and HubSpot are good options for this category. 

Social Listening 

In this age, you have to meet customers where they are, especially during a time when customers can no longer walk into your showroom to make the first interaction. You want to know when customers are speaking about you on forums like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You also want to hear about when your customer base is discussing topics that allow you to offer your dealership services as a solution. Social listening is an excellent way to stay up on current dialogue and interact with potential customers or handle complaints. Programs like BuzzSumo, HubSpot, Sprout Social, and Keyhole allow you to be notified of when your dealership is being discussed. It also enables you to keep an eye out for relevant topics that you can participate in.

Related: Unleash Your BDC to Capture Pent Up Demand

The Right CX Tools Can Make All The Difference 

While this is a difficult time for all companies, dealerships are having to uniquely navigate a world where showroom interactions were vital to making the sale. Even though the strategy may have to change, technology can help you mimic those interactions and add some efficiency to your outreach efforts. Take the time to find the tools that work for your dealership, experiment, and develop strategies around them. Before too long, you may find yourself having the same success out of the showroom as you did within it.

Did you enjoy this article from Chanell Turner? Read other articles from her here.

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