When it comes to marketing on the Web, dealers are often limited to what their providers are doing for them. With website providers, dealers are typically limited to the effectiveness of their provider's conversion tools which are often online forms that users must completed. With CRM providers, dealers are often limited to email campaigns and auto responses. With portal classifieds, dealers are limited to lead generation. While these are all useful tools in the general marketing efforts of a dealership, they are difficult to tie together and measure from a collective effectiveness standpoint.

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Ryan Gerardi

You're right. Everyone has a different idea of what CRM is and too often it is pieced together and not very effective. Last year I ran into a gentleman (playing golf at Celebration Golf Club in Orlando, FL) who was from the UK. He is the CIO of a huge corporation and his job is to dismantle CRM systems after companies spent millions with little or no results. He told me that he sent a survey to 200 Presidents and CEO's of various companies asking them for their definition of CRM. He said that no two answers were the same. What percentage of CRM initiatives fail?

In the car business CRM used to be called follow up. Plain and simple. Follow up prospects and then stay with customes after they buy. Send them Thank you letters and Birthday cards, etc.

Then, about 2000, came CRM! It was supposed to be the magic ticket.
About 3 companies did what might be considered CRM/Customer Follow Up in 1998. By 2003 there were 61! All claimed to be CRM companies. Dealers and managers would ask me, "Are you a CRM?" I would say, "What exactly are you looking for?" No one could tell me what they wanted. They just wanted CRM because that is what everyone else was supposed to be getting.

There are 3 main problems with most CRM's (I am sure there are others)
The #1 problem is user acceptance. If the managers and sales reps don't embrace it, the dealer just wasted a lot of time and money.
The #2 problem causes the #1 problem. Most are too complicated for the user. Programmers and Salespeople are two distinctively different breeds. Salespeople are lazy and not too many are very computer literate. If it seems like "make-work" then they will find their way around it. So, programmers built a system that managers and sales reps consider alien, difficult and not likely to make them any money.
The # 3 problem. They don't address all the areas of customer contact and follow up and bring it all together in a very easy way. From Phone ups to Internet hit, to floor prospects, sold/leased customers, service visits, everything has to be done to make it as easy as possible and ensure the greatest impact on the dealer's bottom line.

Here's the truth: It doesn't matter what CRM the dealer uses, if it isn't creating a relationship with the customer then it's just another computer system/desk ornament.

It should be effective and quick in getting the message out (letter, email, phone) about service, rebates and incentives, sales and offers, etc...
Dealers, managers and sales reps aren't programmers. Customize the solution to the individual dealership and their management style and use the K.I.S.S. method and it stands a greater chance it will get used.

Well, there's my 2 cents...

That's great perspective DCG. Your timing on responding to this thread is peculiar...

BDC and CRM have become big aspects in our work with dealers and interestingly that is not what we originally set out to do. We were selling website promotion but this evolved into also helping dealers use the tool set, i.e. the Web 2.0 tools, for interactive marketing purposes.

The net result is that by incorporating proven list building techniques into our promotion methods we are essentially providing a business development tool chest for dealers that is more conducive to today's consumer market.

We are not replacing their CRM software but we are creating a layer of customer relationship mechanisms that are not subject to the dealer's sophisticated BDC process.

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Ryan Gerardi

DCG you're right on your points.

I would also add that it is up to the dealership to define the processes and the CRM is just a tool to assist in managing those processes. Dealerships should not be limited by their CRM systems. So many dealerships simply don't have good processes in place. But having good processes in place is a problem for all businesses, not just car dealers.

CRM to a dealership is much more than it is for other industries if done correctly. It includes integrations with multiple vendors and other software tools. The only company I have seen to do this completely is VinSolutions. They have way more than a great automotive CRM. They have an excellent suite of products that handles problem #3 you mentioned.