Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine is the daily operations publication serving the retail automotive industry. This automotive publication serves dealer principals, officers and general managers with the latest best practices.
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INDU S TRY SPOTLIGHT build here, we can fgure out how to put the social hooks in to get it News Feed distribution, or use it to poll your friends or bring your own personal identity to the shopping experience," Rather noted. Te need to interact with Facebook users came to light this past January when Facebook rolled out Graph Search. Te search en- gine provides users with a way to sif through the social network's one trillion connections to locate useful information about businesses, games and more. Te new tool, which is being beta tested in select markets, will also include ratings and reviews. A recent study conducted by DealerRater suggests that four out of fve customers special finance leads 100% Guaranteed Exclusive Organic Leads Month to Month Commitment No Sign Up Fees automotive direct mail 100% Exclusive Lists Custom Credit Scores Bankruptcy Mailers All Direct Mail programs include our free call center. We set your appointments and do the direct mail follow up. triggercomplete™ 100% Turnkey for Dealers We make the calls We set the appointments We do the follow up next generation lead service new & used car leads Free Inventory Listing Click to Call You: No Bad Phones 100% Guaranteed Exclusive 20 AUTO DE ALE R MONTHLY • M AY 2013 won't move forward with a purchase based on a negative review, making Facebook's Graph Search all the more important to the industry. GOING MOBILE Te shif toward smartphones and tablets was another hot topic. Event organizers even provided teams with mobile app development assistance. Emerging among the surplus of mobile-geared entries were teams Grease Monkeys and Cartell, which fnished in second and third place. Te Grease Monkeys' creation focused on the ownership experience. Team members proposed an in-vehicle device that could send real-time vehicle diagnostics straight to a driver's smartphone. Team members stressed that alerts should be "jargon free" and recommended that consumers should be able to get repair quotes from multiple shops. Team Cartell pitched a mobile app optimized for tablets, which would allow users to connect with other car buyers with similar interests to locate the best deal on their desired vehicle. Te approach is far from futuristic, according to a study conducted by eBay Motors. Analysts found that more than one-third of 18- to 35-year-olds use a smartphone to compare vehicles during their dealership visit. One in fve respondents even said they'd consider purchasing a vehicle using a mobile device — a realization that's causing change at DARCARS. "We're sort of migrating away [from the isolated Internet department] because such a great majority of our customers are going on the Internet before they come into the dealerships," DARCARS' Darvish said. "Everyone in the dealership needs to be educated to handle these customers." ALTERING PERCEPTIONS Darvish is well aware of dissatisfaction among car shoppers, and, like most dealers are doing, she's exploring all avenues to improve the experience. "I thought [Hackmotive] would be a great opportunity to learn about others' views of our industry," she explained, adding that many complaints may be rooted in the industry's past missteps with consumers. "I think the biggest problem with the consumer-buying experience is their perception of what the experience is all about. … We're