Dealer Socket Clients?

Michael Brairton · #1 (**permalink**) 09-27-2007, 04:43 PM

We are now well into our fourth CRM vendor in the past three years at our dealership, and are having the same misgivings about the whole process that we have had in the past. That same "itchy-twitchy" I need to do something feeling.......
Being reasonably intelligent business people that we are, I am really wondering how and where can we get the direction to change our corporate culture sufficiently so as to embrace the possibilities of CRM, rather than to see it is unwanted accountability.
Ideas?

bkcrocker · #2 (**permalink**) 11-14-2008, 10:32 PM

We have been using dealer socket for 6 months. It has a whole lot of great properties. Just kind of cumbersome in the begining.

sporty81 · #3 (**permalink**) 01-04-2009, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Brairton

We are now well into our fourth CRM vendor in the past three years at our dealership, and are having the same misgivings about the whole process that we have had in the past. That same "itchy-twitchy" I need to do something feeling.......
Being reasonably intelligent business people that we are, I am really wondering how and where can we get the direction to change our corporate culture sufficiently so as to embrace the possibilities of CRM, rather than to see it is unwanted accountability.
Ideas?

So are you using DealerSocket now? What do you think?

concours · #4 (**permalink**) 01-28-2009, 05:46 PM

Hi there,

I have been with this dealership since July 2008, and we use DealerSocket integrated with our DMS (ADP). I like the layout of DealerSocket, and DealerSocket itself is fairly easy to use once you get the hang of it, but I have been having lots of problems lately with deals pushing through to our CRM. It seems that no matter how many times I contact support, they can't figure out a permanent solution to this problem, so I continue to encounter the problem and call them at least once a week. Is anyone else having problems like this?

Additionally, I was wondering if anyone out there is using the MoneyMaker feature, and if so, how it is working for you. We are using it (in this case, utilizing the call center), but it doesn't seem to be producing the greatest results for us. Also, the calls going out don't seem to be of the highest quality.

Thanks for your input!

tavenger5 · #5 (**permalink**) 03-13-2009, 06:41 PM

How does this compare to the BZ CRM?

concours · #6 (**permalink**) 03-13-2009, 07:46 PM

I'm not sure I've ever heard of BZ. Sorry.

Tiny Malone · #7 (**permalink**) 03-14-2009, 04:53 AM

To me, BZ is a joke. Shot them at one of my stores. I am Dealersocket all the way. There is no other tool in the industry that has its capabilities. Good initial training and you are on the way to more sales. If you are having trouble with MoneyMaker...call your rep. It is instant sales for me every day. And the managers dash board RAWKS!!

sporty81 · #8 (**permalink**) 03-22-2009, 03:33 PM

VinSolutions has an amazing automotive CRM software system and their ILM/email functionality is much stronger than Dealer Sockets. VinSolutions also has very good CRM, BDC and service functionality. Not to mention they also provide inventory management, dealer websites, and pricing tools.

I would recommend contacting them for an online demo:
http://www.vinsolutions.com

bmcd · #9 (**permalink**) 04-22-2009, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by concours

Hi there,

I have been with this dealership since July 2008, and we use DealerSocket integrated with our DMS (ADP). I like the layout of DealerSocket, and DealerSocket itself is fairly easy to use once you get the hang of it, but I have been having lots of problems lately with deals pushing through to our CRM. It seems that no matter how many times I contact support, they can't figure out a permanent solution to this problem, so I continue to encounter the problem and call them at least once a week. Is anyone else having problems like this?

We have had the same issues with Dealersocket, the issue is, they are using a third party software client installed on a stand-alone PC inside our network, (Provided by us, something they didn't tell us when we signed up for the service) Unfortunately, this is not the most effective way to exchange data with the DMS, but they diidn't want to purchase the required API from ADP. The "DMSCUBE" software they use seems to crash & lockup quite frequently, and there is no way to effectively monitor it so that we can be notified when there is an issue. So far, I have not evauluated another CRM that does any better, through our chain of 6 locations, we have also used AVV, & Dealer.com. None of them have functional e-mail integration with our internal mail server, which has become a very critical issue for us, as e-mail has become our primary method of cumminication.

sporty81 · #10 (**permalink**) 04-23-2009, 01:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmcd

We have had the same issues with Dealersocket, the issue is, they are using a third party software client installed on a stand-alone PC inside our network, (Provided by us, something they didn't tell us when we signed up for the service) Unfortunately, this is not the most effective way to exchange data with the DMS, but they diidn't want to purchase the required API from ADP. The "DMSCUBE" software they use seems to crash & lockup quite frequently, and there is no way to effectively monitor it so that we can be notified when there is an issue. So far, I have not evauluated another CRM that does any better, through our chain of 6 locations, we have also used AVV, & Dealer.com. None of them have functional e-mail integration with our internal mail server, which has become a very critical issue for us, as e-mail has become our primary method of cumminication.

ADP doesn't actually have a certified interface for pushing deals. I have talked to them in the past and they are working on one currently and it will be available later this year. The problem with it though... is it is also fairly expensive.

As an automotive CRM vendor we talked to all the major DMS integration companies and NONE of them had good solutions for writing data back to the DMS. So we decided to create our own and we have had a lot of success with it. We have a lot of dealers that use it every day with very few problems. We also prefer to have the control in our own hands to take care of customers problems. Nobody wins when people point fingers at other vendors about it being someone else's problem.

If you are looking for a new CRM system I would strongly recommend at least getting a demo of our products.

Matt Watson
VinSolutions CTO
http://www.vinsolutions.com