How dealership groups are reducing missed sales during the automotive supply shortage

As automotive supply shortages continue to drag on, now more than ever, every sale counts. The trouble is, dealership groups are leaving crucial sales opportunities on the table — often without even realizing it.

Facing limited inventory, today’s consumers are no longer searching for a single vehicle make — they’re open to a wide variety. In fact, half of all consumers switch vehicle makes every time they purchase a car — and that rate has likely only increased on account of current shortages.

As a result, many of today’s vehicle shoppers are wandering around the marketplace aimlessly. And dealership groups, with a wide array of vehicle makes to offer, are uniquely positioned to help connect consumers with cars they’ll love.

Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Targeted customer engagement can be a challenge for dealerships of all sizes, but the task is particularly daunting for an operation on the scale of a mid- to large-size dealership group.

Typically, the problem isn’t a lack of customer data. More often than not, dealership groups have data in scores. Rather, the issue lies in connecting the various data sources across a group. Without a centralized brain, each individual dealer within a group is effectively operating on its own island.

As a result, consumers receive disjointed messages from different dealerships within the group, and sales opportunities across the group go unshared, allowing customers to slip through a group’s fingers and into the hands of the competition.

An expanded solution from Outsell, though, is now available to solve this problem. A leading AI-Driven Customer Engagement Platform, Outsell has helped dealers succeed by increasing service visits by 31% and average repurchase rates by 23%. Building on its proven customer engagement technology, the platform has recently been enhanced to serve the unique marketing needs of dealership groups.

Dealer Group OmniHub™ from Outsell is the first platform that enables dealership groups to effectively connect with their full customer base. Harnessing data groupwide, the tool helps prevent missed sales by connecting the dots between consumers and cars they’ll love across the group.

Through personal, continuous and automatic engagement, Dealer Group OmniHub™ unlocks the full potential of a dealership group. Specifically, the tool allows dealership groups to:

• Un-silo group data and combine store databases into a group database with a proprietary Global Consumer ID
• Create unique and proprietary business rules that can be configured specifically to a group’s business model
• Organize group members into regions, markets and inventory locations
• Develop relevant content that tells the group’s brand story to all customers

Powered by Outsell’s proprietary AI technology, Dealer Group OmniHub™ drives a meaningful impact on a group’s bottom line. Dealership groups that leverage the platform:

• Engage customers who, more than 30% of the time, have not engaged with the group member
• Enable customers to explore all available vehicle makes — clicking on inventory as often as 40% of the time
• Expand sales and service by more than 10% beyond store results

The longer the industry’s supply shortage stretches on, the greater the possibility becomes that a dealership group’s customers may drift past the point of no return. Dealership groups that engage their full customer bases, though, stand to increase retention and build long-term loyalty at all their locations. And when a dealership creates customers for life, the benefits will continue long after the current supply chain challenges have been resolved.

Additional information about AI-driven customer engagement from Outsell is available at www.outsell.com.

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