Joe Chura on modern retailing for used cars

On the latest episode of Used Cars Weekly, host Jasen Rice, founder of Lotpop, is joined by Joe Chura, CEO of Dealer Inspire. Chura joins the show to discuss his background in retail automotive, the early days of creating Dealer Inspire, and the similarities between how car dealers navigated the 08′ recession and how they navigate the COVID pandemic today. 

Chura has held a position in almost every area of automotive retail including manufacturing plants, corporate headquarters, dealerships, and startups, and vendors. This gives him an interesting perspective into the unique challenges that car dealers face, particularly on the used car side of things. 

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced car dealers to change and come outside of their comfort zones. Over the past year, car dealers have faced this reality and put a lot of their efforts into improving the customer experience. Consumers want ease, convenience, and transparency. Chura believes car dealers are adapting to this consumer demand now more than ever before.  

Chura says, “99% of your effort comes into the miles you put in…If I want to train for a race, [running] might improve my performance marginally, maybe even 1%, I doubt even 1%. it doesn’t matter. What matters is putting in the miles.”

Chura goes on to explain that what he means by this is if your dealership is going to bring in digital solutions, then the staff has to commit to the tools 100%. The bottom line is if you want to compete in a marathon and have an end-to-end, digital car-buying solution like Carvana, then you have to get on board with the nuances and evolutions of that process.

Automations powered by AI or machine learning, are only going to become more common according to Chura. Car dealers will also need to rely more and more on big data and automation as time goes by. Personalization is more important to the customer than ever before. This technology when implemented correctly, will make the dealership more efficient and competitive.

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