Car dealers – Keep up to date or miss out

It is reckoned that somewhere around 80% of all used car and maybe many new car enquiries are generated via the internet.

The challenge therefore for car dealers is not only keep up to speed with the latest technology and bigger and better imagery and quality of descriptions, but also to ensure that the website is always up to date and accurate.

One of the most frustrating things for potential customers is to locate a used car on a dealer’s virtual showroom, complete all the price research and decide that the car fits their criteria only to be told, when trying to further the enquiry, that the car has already been sold. Car dealers, when keeping up with the demands of the modern car buyer, need to understand that by not keeping their websites right up to date and providing accurate information they may not get a second chance to even engage with that buyer who already probably feels let down by the fact that a car is being advertised when it is no longer for sale.

How likely is that customer to want to use that dealer when their confidence in them has already been eroded? Many car dealers will have used this as a kind of marketing technique in the past – as a “loss leader” – if they have an unusual or unique vehicle they may leave the car on the site even after it has been sold as a way of generating more leads and testing the popularity of the vehicle. However in today’s modern world the internet user does not want to engage in dialogue with a dealer about a car he can no longer buy, even with the promise that the dealer will attempt to locate a similar model.

The way that modern cars are marketed is designed to speed up the decision making process by giving as much info about each car as possible, so that the only aspect not covered in detail is the final price and a physical inspection. As a result it completely defeats the object if the data is not relevant and up to date and is more likely to lose customers than gain them.

Dealers are increasingly combating this by having a dedicated resource whose sole responsibility is to keep the website up to date, ensure accurate information and that the imagery is spot on.
It is far cheaper for dealers to advertise in the modern world and therefore a person employed specifically for this role should provide great value for money if we are accept that the vast majority of classified car searches are generated via the internet.