In Gilbert Chavez’s recent column on Mosely Automotive Group, he addresses an excellent concern that I share when consultants in the industry talk about an automated CRM system. When a dealership’s CRM is on auto pilot, who is ensuring the integrity and effectiveness of the system?

The example he cites is from when he had a colleague perform a mystery shopper experiment with one of his customers. The shopper submitted a purchase request with a specific question he wanted the dealer to answer.

Take a moment to read my blog entry to see how this experiment unfolded?

CRM on auto pilot is a ship at sea at full throttle with no one at the helm.

CRM is not a low maintenance operation.

CRM requires vigilance, diligence, effort and commitment to doing not only a great job with consumers, but with data integrity and management efforts.

CRM on autopilot is a failure of management and leadership.

There is no magic pink pill of technology (CRM or otherwise) that will compensate for bad management, bad process, bad execution, bad planning or neglect.

CRM on autopilot is a shipwreck waiting to happen.

CRM is a concept, not just a buzzword.

The only way a CRM tool could work well in a real world automotive dealership is to be 100% integrated with the DMS. Every transaction we do in our DMS has customer interaction implications, therefore a smart DMS provider would integrate their CRM solution into existing service/sales/finance applications.

Reynolds has a tool (Contact Management) that is very intense, however it requires the employee to go to the tool seperate from the transaction software, which most employees do not do.

Can you identify the CRM software you know that does integrate and with what DMSes?

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Ryan Gerardi

The NeoSynergy DMS NeoSynergy, Inc. | Revolutionary Web Applications That Connect Auto Buyers and Dealers Online. does not require a CRM system. It has one single database able to support thousands of concurrent users. It has CRM functionality everywhere and available to the users where the user is performing an interaction that touches the customer whether transactional or proactive.

So that is one approach, but it is new.

Another (for those not prepared to change their DMS to get it)... The other is to not prescribe technology solutions (like DMS integration to CRM functionality + systems) without defining how such integration would be used.

I used to be somewhat famous in teaching CRM to dealerships and implemented one of the most documented successes of it. We did have integration with the DMS (all transactional data in the CRM system, able to desk a deal in the DMS, able to push the deal to F&I in the DMS, used the CRM system to follow up all prospects, service and parts customers) including scheduling phone calls & emails with dynamic next steps scheduled according to prior activity outcome.

More importantly, dealership net profits increased 30-40% per year for the 3 years I lead this effort. Technology is no silver bullet without the people + processes to make it effective. So integration between DMS and CRM is not going to change things one iota without defining why it matters & how the process will be more effectively delivered because of it.

CRM is something that can be used to help improve our business help to increase customer relation. There are so many system out there that are helping to improve, but how many are there that are easy to use and easy to manage.

I think the CRM should be customizable, web based and does not have any learning curve. One such CRM I used was Enterprise wizard I would recomend any one who is using or planning to use CRM for there business should try it out.