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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Website Design/Provider
eBizAutos, a company that has been a very strong player in past years, won its first-ever Diamond Award in the category. "Website results and top per- formance are paramount for dealers … The trust and confidence clients have with our dealership websites and serv- ices, combined with the results dealers see year after year with using eBizAutos, sets us apart from the crowd," stated Derek West, vice president of advertising and communications for eBizAutos.
Dealer.com, another consistently strong performer in this category over the years, walked away with the Platinum Award for 2012. "Dealer.com's ability to innovate is driven from an intense understanding of consumer purchasing behavior and industry trends and influences, coupled with a deep expert- ise in technology," said Eliza Kelly, vice president of marketing for Dealer.com. "We are incredibly grateful and proud to be recognized by the industry for our commitment to innovation and dedication to our clients. We look forward to maintaining this momentum for years to come as we continue to create innovative solutions, develop forward-thinking marketing strategies and provide award-winning customer satisfaction."
Chat Provider
Client~ConneXion jumped from last year's Gold finish to grab its first Diamond Award. "We are humbled by winning the Diamond Award for chat providers. We work hard to not only provide the best auto dealer chat
win a survival award because the providers in this category endured the subprime
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market demand issue, but many dealers have been frustrated over their ability (or inability) to acquire the quantity of used inventory they want at the price they are willing to pay. This frustration may have spilled over into the voting in the Traditional Auc-
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tion category, which saw the lowest group average of this category since the Awards' inception.
solution, but also to maintain a close relationship with all … the people that use our Chat~ConneXion on a daily basis," stated Tim Brick, CEO of Client~ConneXion. "We are constantly looking for ways to improve our product and our service so that our dealers can assure success with our chat solution."
The battle for the top award was extremely close. There was only a tenth of a point between the Diamond and Platinum Award winners. The Platinum Award this year went to ActivEngage, also an award-winner last year.
Online Inventory Marketing Tools
Returning to Diamond status this year after last year's Platinum finish is eBizAutos. "As technology gets better and better every year, we're always looking for ways to improve our
he Special Finance Lead Provider cate- gory should probably
meltdown. In order to survive, these providers had to buckle down and make sure they were delivering solid leads for dealers. Those left in the segment are all the stronger for it. This category
veryone knows that auctions don't control the price of used vehicles. It's a
category's first in the Awards. Showing improvement already, the group average was nearly 10 points higher than last year. The Chat Provider segment is interesting in that the majority of the market is held by only a handful of companies. In fact, some of the vendors that dealers perceive as their chat providers are not truly the source of the chat service, but instead have allied agreements with true chat providers.
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dealership products and after-the-sale support," said Derek West, vice presi- dent of advertising and communica- tions for eBizAutos. "Everybody here at eBizAutos feels extremely proud, excited and thankful to have won the Diamond Award … We're especially appreciative to the dealer community and would like to thank all the dealership employees for making time in their day to vote for us."
This year's Platinum Award in the cate- gory was claimed by Auction123, which has won an award in this category four years in a row. "We have always stood behind the philosophy that our dealers know best when it comes to what tools they need to succeed. Our solutions have grown with the help of our dealers," stated Ray Basha, CEO of Auction123, Inc. "We are so grateful that our customers have taken the time to vote for our services in these awards four years in a row. Being a recipient is truly an honor."
also got a shakeup among the winners this year with some familiar faces (Dealerlink and Auto Credit Express) returning to claim top honors.
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hat Provider is still a fairly young category in Awards; last year was the
