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Posted by venueadmin in Company News, Industry News | 0 comments
Keeping up with current technologies and staying ahead of your competition can be a bit challenging, but very necessary. Staying competitive and current will help keep your dealership strong and your customers happy. A new year should bring fresh ideas, better processes and new ways to enhance your automotive dealership.
With that in mind, here are 6 great ways to improve your dealership’s communication, enhance your overall customer service experience and customer ratings, as well as streamline your processes and productivity.
If you want to get a hold of your customers quickly and relay timely service updates, the best communication method is text messaging. And giving your customers the ability to send a quick text to their advisor to communicate with them will add to their customer experience and satisfaction.
“Providing a secure way of making mobile payments keeps both your staff and your customers safe.”
A great way to ensure your customers are happy and keep coming back is to provide loyalty rewards and incentives. Reward dollars can be earned as a percentage based on customer service spending, or you can reward dollars to customers as a thank you, incentive or adjustment. With dollars waiting in their account, customers will be sure to book future service visits or purchase their next vehicle with your dealership to take advantage of the savings.
“Communicating transportation details to customers is key to keeping everyone organized, on time and happy.”
“Providing self-led check in kiosk allow customers a faster, less stressful option to bringing in their vehicle for service.”
The start of a new year is a great time to review your dealership’s processes and practices. Doing so will help you to identify any areas where your dealership may have been lacking or areas that definitely could use some improvement. The customer service experience is what will keep your customers coming back and referring you to their friends and colleagues.
Today’s customers are busy and only getting busier, making it more important to ensure proper communication and fast and efficient service options that are convenient and flexible. Make sure your dealership and your staff are ready to embrace and tackle these challenges in 2020 with the proper tools and solutions.
For more information about VenueVision and our full line of dealership solutions, call 866.401.1300 or Book a Demo to see them in action!
Posted by venueadmin in ShuttleTracker | 0 comments
We’ve all been there, sitting in the car dealership lounge, hoping you won’t be too late for work or an appointment. Anxiously waiting for that Shuttle driver to walk in the door and call “Who needs a Shuttle?” With today’s technologies and conveniences, isn’t it time to change that experience?
Shuttle service can be one of the most chaotic areas of a dealership. Service Advisors are all taking shuttle requests and writing them down on post it notes. Then hopefully these notes will make it into the hands of the Shuttle driver upon their return to the dealership. Shuttle drivers are left to figure out who’s waiting, who needs to be picked up and to plan the most appropriate routes. Yet, for the customer, a timely shuttle ride is supposed to be part of the services that make it easier for them to get through the inconveniences of having their vehicle serviced.
With the advantage of Shuttle services, customers aren’t bound to stay and wait for longer repairs. They don’t have to rely on friends or family for a ride. More importantly, they can get on with their daily activities as needed without too much disruption to their schedule. Since your customers rely heavily on this added service, your dealership should make sure it’s not falling short on expectations.
Some of the things that can go wrong or be overlooked with Shuttle processes are:
Any of these situations could directly impact the overall impression of your dealership, plus drastically affect the level of customer service you provide. Even if the car repair went smoothly and the price was agreeable, the negative customer service experience could jeopardize the customer’s return for future service. Or worse yet, could turn into negative feedback online!
Have you experiences any of these complaints? If so, you could benefit from a proper management and scheduling solution. VenueVision provides flexible Shuttle Solutions that can work for any sized dealership and that can adapt to various processes to work with your whole team. Our Shuttle Solutions provide real-time visibility for Shuttle scheduling and dispatching that all advisors and Appointment Coordinators can have access to. Using a centralized desktop dashboard, all Shuttle requests are captured and shown in one easy-to-view location. Plus, it can be integrated with your DMS to access daily appointment information and customer details to make scheduling even easier.
Shuttle drop offs and pickups can be scheduled in a few easy steps. Riders can be assigned to specific Shuttles if more than one is available. Customers can receive automated text confirmations of shuttle requests booked and notifications of departure.
In the dealership, staff and Shuttle drivers can see a full overview of destinations on the dashboard and dispatch screens. The live-view maps show marked pickups and drop offs and full customer details listed by priority and time. This visibility will help in routing to prevent overlap and help increase efficiency and productivity. Newly added Shuttle requests or completed Shuttle rides are added or removed from screen in real-time.
Shuttle requests can even be booked in advance. Appointment coordinators can schedule shuttle rides for customers when they are booking their Service Appointments. All the information will be in place on the day of their appointment, so your team can see in advance what their daily schedule will look like.
With VenueVision’s Shuttle Solutions, your drivers and staff will always see at a glance if there are new customers waiting, who’s already been assigned or completed, and what the best route should be. Customers can be informed of Shuttle departure and expected pick up times, and their information will be correctly and instantly relayed to the drivers.
By having the right tools to provide a more organized, efficient and streamlined Shuttle service, your customers will appreciate the enhanced level of customer service they experience. It’s important to invest the time and resources into making the Shuttle service experience more convenient and memorable. This will in turn reflect on the customer’s overall appreciation and positive dealership experience. A positive customer experience will result in increased customer loyalty and retention.
Book a demo to see all that our Shuttle Solutions can offer.
Posted by venueadmin in Company News | 0 comments
If you work in a dealership you might know us as that ‘digital signage company’, but you may not know that we have grown into a full dealership solutions provider. Or maybe you are aware that we have a texting and an e-payment tool, but you might not be aware of just how far we have grown. With that in mind, we wanted to provide a quick overview of our new tools and some advancements over the last few years. But first, let’s start with a little history.
VenueVision Integrated Dealership Solutions, based in Oakville, Ontario, has been in business since 2001. The company originally started as VenueVision Media Systems with the focus primarily on Digital Signage in the automotive industry. Since the start, our main objective was to help clients implement turnkey solutions to improve communications with customers.
In the area of Digital Signage, we are not just installers and hardware providers. VenueVision creates and manages fully branded, high-quality digital content for every OEM. Our Content Management service is one of a few differences we offer that sets us apart from other digital signage companies. Our innovative Integration technology is another feature that helps make us unique. With DMS and other dealership software integration, you can display data on dealer-branded dashboards to provide a premium customer experience.
The team at VenueVision has always been focused on helping dealerships improve their communication with their customers. That is why, over the years, the team has been listening and observing the day to day functions of dealerships, specifically their service departments. This has enabled our developers to assess areas of frustration and department processes which could use streamlining. With this knowledge, our team of designers and software developers have been hard at work building additional tools and solutions that can help dealerships improve their functionality, customer service and enhance the overall customer experience.
So, what have we been up to at VenueVision? Here are some of the additional solutions we offer and some of their recent upgrades.
Although not new to the suite of VenueVision solutions, as it was originally launched in May of 2017, our texting solution is always developing to keep up with changing needs and demands. This powerful two-way, cloud-based desktop texting solution provides all the functionality any sized dealership could need. A centralized texting solution that all staff can use and oversee all customer conversations in real time. Our autoTEXT solution has always been capable of capturing and storing full customer conversation history, sending updates with DMS integration and automated messaging, attaching images or videos for faster repair authorizations and so much more. Some of the newly added features and functionality are:
Similar to autoTEXT, Mobile Cashier has been around for a little over 2 years since its original launch in April of 2017. The main functionality of providing secure payment links to capture mobile payments for service invoices has always been streamlined, efficient and simple, and still is. You can also create payment links to send to customers for any department in the dealership. This allows staff to collect down payments for Parts or Vehicles, payments for F&I products or even for collecting payments from your own third party vendors — all in a safe, privacy-regulated process that keeps your customers’ data safe and your staff protected from privacy law stipulations.
One of the most recent additions to our dealership solutions that ties in directly with Mobile Cashier is our Loyalty Rewards Program. Show your customers you appreciate their business by providing a program that lets them earn loyalty dollars on every Service invoice they pay using your Express Payment option. They can build and use these Loyalty Dollars on future service visits, providing great customer retention. Plus, use the program as an incentive or a way of showing more gratitude, but topping up their balance or adding to their account as for a new vehicle purchase incentive.
VenueVision has offered Shuttle Tracker, a GPS-based tracking system for visibility and analytics for a few years. Our continued drive for advancement has led to the recent creation of a powerful set of Shuttle Solutions. Shuttle Manager works within our main dashboard and provides the perfect centralized map view to keep a dealership’s shuttle and transportation department organized. Combined with the real-time visibility of Shuttle Tracker, and you have Shuttle Complete. All staff can see at a glance who’s been scheduled, what time and where they need to go or be picked up from. With this solution you can assign riders to specific shuttles, send text confirmations and notifications to customers and Shuttle Drivers. Use it to schedule Shuttles in advance when booking service appointments so you can staff accordingly, create efficient routes, print off current route sheets or trip history, and so much more.
Things have definitely been busy with our team at VenueVision. To date, our digital and automotive solutions are used in almost 500 dealerships across Canada and the U.S. to promote products and services and communicate relevant information. We are always in development and looking for ways to improve or create new solutions to help dealers and their staff. Launching soon will be tools and features such as:
So, keep your eye out for more additions and updates to our growing powerful suite of dealership solutions. All of our solutions are designed to be flexible, adaptable and work in various combinations with all of our other solutions. Our tools will greatly enhance your customer communication and customer experience — whether your dealership is small or large, run by a multi-store BDC, or under an entire Automotive Group service initiative. Our focus is to connect all stages of service, sales, marketing and communication and provide your customers with an experience unlike anything they’ve had before. Contact us any time to get more information or book a free demo to see what’s new.
Posted by venueadmin in MobileCashier | 0 comments
Your customers are important to you, and you know just how busy they are. With today’s technology and busy schedules, people are using their smartphones to complete daily tasks — every day and all day. So why not have that activity include paying for their Dealership services?
An increasing number of consumers are embracing the idea of using a mobile device to pay for goods and services. It’s faster, more convenient and often can be linked to rewards and discounts. Look at the steady and rapid increase of online shopping. Customers love to buy in the comfort of their own home or at work, and on their own time. Even the introduction of ‘tap to pay’ contactless technology is becoming more common place to allow a quick payment option.
In recent studies it was shown that 72% of mobile payment users are Millennials (Ages 18-34) or Generation Xers (ages 35-50). (Source: PEW Charitable Trust survey). Did you know that Millennials represent the fastest growing segment among vehicle buyers and will likely represent about 40% of the US new vehicle market by 2020? (source: Automotive News) That is a lot of current and up and coming customers!
There’s no denying it, customers want hassle free payment and checkout processes so they can speed up checkout and get on with their busy schedules. Dealership customers are no exception. If they can reduce checkout time or pay for services without having to make an extra trip down to your dealership, why wouldn’t they? Still need some convincing? Here are 5 no-brainer reasons why your dealership should be adopting mobile payment technology.
Customers can pay their invoice from anywhere, and at a time that works with their busy daily schedule. They can pay ahead of time and then pick up their vehicle at the end of the day, hassle free, and avoiding that 5pm checkout rush. Or provide payment links for customers to pay for parts, extended warranties or vehicle deposits, without having to come back into your dealership. You save your customers a trip and your payments are received within minutes!
Mobile payments keep both your customers AND your dealership safe! With stringent privacy laws and threats of credit card fraud, mobile payments take the human element out of the payment process. Dealership staff should never be taking credit card information over the phone. You might be surprised how often that can be the case. The process of mobile payments allows customers to feel safe knowing their card never leaves their hands, and your staff no longer need to handle private credit card information. It’s a win-win.
Your customers will notice your dealership is making advancements and investments in their services. Providing customers with more payment options increases the scope of customers you want to reach. Keeping up with technology and customers’ needs is a major part of staying ahead of the competition. And staying ahead of the competition and investing in your customers is the best way to increase customer loyalty and retention.
By providing an opportunity for customers to pay at any time, you provide not only a convenient solution but an enhanced payment experience — an experience that makes your customer feel important and valued. Your customers will also appreciate the control that is put back into their hands. The quick, seamless payment process will impress, and the reduced checkout times will add to the satisfaction of their dealership experience.
With mobile payments, all transaction details and confirmations are digitally captured in one location, eliminating data entry and avoiding the end of day backlog of invoices or receipts. All transactions are recorded and batched by the system, so once again, removes the chance for any human error. Digital receipts sent to customers are also environmentally-friendly as they eliminate the need for paper receipts, so choosing mobile payment technology will help in your dealership’s green endeavours.
Adapting to mobile payment technology is extremely valuable for your dealership. In today’s technologically advanced times, businesses are encouraged to embrace mobile payments to provide customers more payment options. With increasingly busy schedules, customers are looking to pay as easily and as quickly as possible, with the flexibility to pay throughout the day when it works with their schedule.
Keeping up with modern technology is also key to targeting the growing and changing customer landscape. The group of Millennials and Gen Xers that make up the current 72 percent of mobile payments users “are especially compelled by the option to receive rewards, discounts, alerts, electronic receipts, and are the most likely age groups to say mobile payments are faster and easier than other payment methods.” (source: Pew Charitable Trusts survey). If you want your dealership to provide a higher level of customer service that appeals to your ever-growing customer demographic, you need to provide the services and options they are looking for.
In short, the Mobile Payment market has a bright future, as will forward-thinking dealerships looking to stay ahead of the competition and continually improving the customer experience.
VenueVision’s Mobile Cashier can help your dealership provide this higher level of customer experience and keep your customers and your dealership safe!
Posted by Nicole Diemert in Case Study | 0 comments
The Applewood Chevrolet dealership came on board with VenueVision as part of the Humberview Group, one of Canada’s largest automotive groups. The Executive team at Humberview, signed on with VenueVision at the end of 2018 and launched the suite of innovative solutions at their dealerships across the GTA and southern Ontario. Applewood Chevrolet was one of the first in the group to start the rollout.
The management and staff at Applewood are no strangers to providing a customer service experience that stands out from the rest. Take for example their restaurant-style customer café and lounge, with full complimentary meals for waiting service customers and unlimited hot and cold drinks. Adding VenueVision’s dealership solutions to their daily communication processes and functions enhances this level of specialized customer service even further.
Paolo Glorioso, Fixed Operations Manager at Applewood, saw the benefits of these tools instantly. “Overall, a very positive change. It’s straight forward and easy to follow along and adapt to the new processes.” Paolo comments that the staff were able to quickly learn the new tools and integrate into their daily functions and communication with the customers.
Applewood’s Service department, managed by Phil Glorioso, has 30 service bays managed daily by 7 advisors, 5 Service Consultants and 2 Appointment Coordinators. All of these employees have access to the full set of tools, which include autoTEXT, Mobile Cashier and Shuttle Manager, to help them increase their level of Customer Service communication. Phil was really excited about the addition of Shuttle Manager and Shuttle Tracker to help with the daily coordination and transportation of the busy dealership’s Service customers. Applewood chose to also implement tablets with the Shuttle Manager system to give their drivers even more visibility and control when they are out on the road. “Shuttle is working fantastic! The Shuttle drivers are really taking to the tablets. I also like all of the information that I can pull from Shuttle Tracker, regarding Idling, seatbelt, speeding, etc. Great to help monitor the vehicle usage and driver activity.”
Dianne and Nicole, who work as Appointment Coordinators at the dealership, are sometimes the first point of contact that customers have. Once appointments are scheduled, customers will receive an Appointment Reminder notification by text the day before their appointment, and if they book ahead for a Shuttle, they will also receive a confirmation of that Scheduled pick up. “Customers really like it, they like being notified.” Says Nicole. “This Service Department is really busy, so this helps keeps everyone organized.”
As Appointment Coordinators, Nicole and Dianne also work closely with the Shuttle drivers to coordinate the trips to and from the dealership. Applewood has 3 Shuttles and 5 Shuttle Drivers who all drive throughout the day on varying schedules, so keeping them all organized can be a tough job. The Scheduling screen, which is located behind the Appointment Desk, helps the drivers and staff see right away when a customer’s shuttle request has been added. And with each driver paired with their own Tablet, they can use this device to assign and claim the passengers they will be taking. Everyone can see who’s been assigned or if there’s anyone still waiting, and all changes are shown in real-time.
The Shuttle drivers like the addition of the Scheduling screen. “The scheduling board is a good visual, helps you see the quickest route based on the markers.” says Shuttle driver Russ. He also likes the advantage of having the information on his tablet. “I have found with the tablets that there are a couple of ways to do things, which is great. I can find out what works best for me. I can add information like ‘closest intersection’ in the notes field, which also makes it very easy.”
Russ points out that the information that you need is all in one place. “Sometimes I need to know what advisor that customer has been working with in order to tell them something, and it shows it all right there.”
Sue, another of Applewood’s Shuttle drivers, was really looking forward to the addition of a management tool. “I think it’s a great way to go and to stay ahead. It’s better than the note paper and the dry erase board that we have been using. It was doing the job, but this will definitely be so much better. Being able to see the jobs pop up when I’m out on the road will be great.”
With the new solutions, the Service Advisors at Applewood now have the ability to text customers throughout the day, right from their desktops. Customers also like the consistency of the automated messages that go out to welcome them in for Service or to let them know their vehicle is complete. And the option to pay ahead of time on their phone is a great advantage for busy customers. Service Advisor Zeljko, has found autoTEXT has been really beneficial for getting quick repair authorizations. “It’s much easier to show the part or area with a visual then trying to explain it over the phone. This allows the customer to see it in real-time, and they are more agreeable to go ahead with the additional repair.”
Similar to Russ, Zeljko has found the tools to be really flexible and have multiple uses and benefits. “I used it to help order some third party rims for a customer. I was able to add the Supplier as a customer and he could send me images that I could then forward on to our customer. It was a perfect set up and everyone was happy, and the transactions happened quickly.”
“I also like that we can schedule a Shuttle for even the next day, ahead of time,” Zeljko continues. “I might forget to do that the following morning, but, for instance, today, when I logged on, there was the Shuttle request for 9 am that I had scheduled the day before, and my Shuttle driver was already on it!”
Service Advisor James Foley, is really glad they can now text their customers, and without having to use their personal cell phones. James points out that the customers like receiving the texts, with customers letting him know they find it very impressive and modern. “I love the texting. It’s so quick for the customer’s replies to questions or information that we needed to send. Being able to schedule their shuttle right from autoTEXT is great as well. Very helpful.”
Not only can customers now text the dealership and receive service updates and notifications by text, but they can now also pay by text. With the addition of Mobile Cashier, customers have the option to view their invoice online and pay for their services through a secure and quick payment page. This can really speed things up at the end of the day when they’re picking up their vehicle. But the benefits of Mobile Cashier don’t stop there.
Any department in the dealership can take advantage of creating and sending secure payment links for any dealership service. The Parts department at Applewood uses it to collect down payments for large parts orders. This allows them to receive the down payment first before they order the part, and it saves the customer a trip down to the dealership to make the payment.
Kezro, a pre-owned vehicle sales advisor, has been using it almost daily to collect vehicle deposits. He says it gives his customers confidence, and the ability to secure a vehicle over the phone without having to come down. “It’s really efficient, quick and streamlined. It gives my customers peace of mind as they don’t have to give their credit card information over the phone or email it in, as they would have done in the past.”
When it comes to reconciling the payments, the Accounting Department at Applewood has only positive things to say about the system. “I absolutely love it! It’s so effective and quick. There’s a lot of information that is there, all of the info that you need for accounting.” says Dorothy, the dealership’s Accounting Manager.
Dorothy noted that the Accounting department has also benefited from having Mobile Cashier. She now uses it to collect her monthly invoices from suppliers and even for overdue accounts. “It’s very smooth to use. The vendors that I send the payment links to really find it easy and safe, and very user-friendly. They used to want to pay by credit card over the phone, but were still wary about giving their details over the phone – they would always reconfirm that I was going to destroy any paper that I had written the credit card number down on. Now they don’t have to do that. I let them know I don’t see their credit information, only they do, and they control it all. They love it.”
Overall, the implementation and transition to the new tools at the Applewood dealership has been quite seamless. “When we had a couple of questions at the beginning, the support team at VenueVision were fantastic. They were very quick to respond and very helpful,” concludes Paolo. The whole dealership is really starting to see the benefits of these streamlined customer service tools and new processes.
