CBT’s own Jim Fitzpatrick sat down with Jim Roche, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Managed Services for Xtime, a Cox Automotive company, to talk about the effect of changing technology in the auto industry.
Technology has been changing fixed-ops in the auto industry across the board, and the service department is one area that is heavily impacted by this. Roche uses the impact to the service lane as an example. Giving service advisers the ability to have a tablet, become mobile, check appointments and sign-ins, and have the ability to check and process the customer. All of these new abilities have made the service lane significantly faster and more efficient.
However, without the ability to get a dealership’s employees to implement and properly utilize these new technologies they are utterly useless. Roche says the best way for dealerships to get employees on board to use new technology is to find the right mix of people to have working in your dealership with three important qualities: Empathetic, Accepting of change, and Unafraid of technology. You want your employees to be empathetic and to be people who are going to understand and communicate properly with the customer, as well as being unafraid and able to change and to adapt with the ever-changing environment of technology in the auto industry.
Other technological advances that can help dealerships would be texting, declined services, and paying online. Roche mentions that JD Power found in a recent survey that 67% of consumers would definitely return to a dealership that sent them text updates, yet only 3% reported getting text updates. Also there is a large opportunity for dealerships to capitalize on declined services, as well as enabling customers to pay online so the process becomes quicker and easier. Making sure your dealership is using technology to its full advantage in the auto industry will make sure customers are satisfied and returning to your dealership, so your dealership can improve and meet its goals.
