I know I already posted Dominion Enterprises Acquires AVV and its WebControl ILM / CRM a few days ago but the feedback being left by everyone was more about MyRide.com rather then WebControl (though that was my own fault), so I thought I would turn it into a separate posting and transfer everyones comments over here.

Autobytel Sells AVV Business for $22.75 Million in Cash – this is the press release from the other side.

Here is a quote taken from the press release…

“The sale of our CRM business continues our strategy of divesting our non-core operations as we complete our transition to a media-centric business,” said Autobytel Inc. President and CEO Jim Riesenbach. “We continue to sharpen our focus on our recently-launched flagship website, MyRide.com”

Flagship? I don’t know about you, but MyRide.com drives me crazy. I find myself easily lost on the site and always clicking on the main logo to get back to the home page. I can’t seem to grasp exactly what the site is for?…community networking, vehicle data base for search, vehicle research or what? And I don’t see how they could possibly fit any more ads on the site.

Autobytel describes MyRide.com as the…

“first vertical search experience for the automotive marketplace. “MyRide.com is designed to help Internet-savvy consumers FIND, SEE, BUY and LEARN anything automotive and BELONG to a diverse community of people who have similar automotive interests.” Vertical Search Experience?

Nice try! Hopefully they’ll use some of that money they made selling AVV and hire someone to fill in their description tags so consumers can actually find the site in the search sngines.

WTF?

AVV’s Internet Lead Management tool "WebControl" has been bought by Dominion Enterprises.

I’m sure most readers already know who Dominion Enterprises is. They own AutoTrader, DealerSkins, AutoBase, XiGroup, AutoRevenue and Data One software, just to name a few. Well it looks as if AutoBytel has finally made the step to dump and it’s WebContol ILM / CRM tool. I had heard this was in the works for sometime but was not aware that Dominion was a possible purchaser. The purchase price was $22.75 million, dammnnn!!

"Ed Braunbeck, vice president and general manager of AVV, will continue to lead the business. “We are delighted to be part of an organization that recognizes the potential of our employees and products and has shown such strong commitment to the automotive industry. Dominion Enterprises will be the perfect place for us to take the Web Control solution to the next level,” said Braunbeck."

If you’ve been on the internet side of the car business, chances are you’ve heard of or have even used AVV WebControl. It was one of the first ILM (Internet Lead Management ) tools available to dealers. I was at a Mazda dealer when they had first signed the contract to exclusively use WebControl and that has been at least 5-6 years ago. Even to this day, I think it’s still one of the better ILM tools.

I’d like to see Dominion financially support AVV allowing them to take WebContol to the next level. I overheard a few rumors about 2 years ago that AutoBytel was going to bring WebControl over to a .net platform but that obviously never happened. Well either way, this should be a decent move for AVV since AutoBytel never did anything for AVV or Webcontrol.

1. Have you used AVV WebContol?
2. What did/do you think of it?
3. What do you think of this Acquisition?

Here is the full press release Dominion Enterprises Acquires AVV, Inc. Assets

We constantly read the statistics on how our customers are using the internet when shopping for their next vehicle. Yes, we too are consumers but it’s not the same since we can purchase our vehicles in house or have a home field advantage by knowing the business. It’s easy to forget, working at the dealer day in and day out, how much influence the internet really has our customers shopping for their next vehicle.

• What websites are they researching on?
• Are they just price shopping?
• Are we really listening to our customers?
• Will a quick generic response to their request for more information be sufficient?

As much as I view DealerRefresh as a B2B blog, I’d happily welcome more feedback from consumers on the other side of the fence. So I was excited to have received an email from one of "your customers". Steve felt inspired to share with us his last experience shopping for a vehicle. Here it is in its entirety.

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Jeff,

I came across your site and like it a lot. I am not in the car business, but have recently purchased several cars. I was going to post on why I used the internet and how, but thought, I am not in the business. I did not want to post against your rules, so I will submit it to you, and you can post it for me if you would like:

I have recently bought two cars, and both times I started out Online. I read Earl Veteran’s comments and got to thinking back about how and why I had bought these cars. What I liked, and more importantly what I did NOT like.

1. I liked the internet. A LOT! Its anonymous, so its safer to make a decision. Safer you ask?  Yes, the car business is a very adversarial business, with me, the consumer as the target! And I have to say, the more I learn, the more I do NOT like it. And the more I learn, the more I prefer to make the decisions in private, as opposed to in a sales cubicle, sitting for 15 minutes at a time as salesmen shuttle in and out from the managers office.

2. I shopped price first. Why not? NO amount of customer service will make up for me finding out my neighbor paid $10,000.00 less for the exact same car from  the exact same salesman on the exact same day. I would feel cheated if that happened. (Maybe the car business should look back and wonder how high the "feel cheated" threshold is for the average customer)

3.  I found that the higher end brands were moving more toward a "customer partnership" type atmosphere than the lower end, even during the sales process. Would not a feeling of "we are in the business of providing you what you want and need" to be something you want as the first reaction of your customers, when asked about you?

I started at Edmunds.com looking for types of vehicles to compare. My impression of them is that there are lots of "real consumers" willing to share their experiences. There is some chaff with the wheat, but hey, its the internet, you expect that. I can get a rough estimate of the market price, monthly payments assuming various interest rates, and a small peak into what "owning" the car was like as well as the buying process from any particular dealership. I have not owned this particular brand before, so I had no past relationships. But, to be fair, I am old, have owned others brands, and still did not repeat purchase (perhaps brand loyalty is not such a given anymore?). Then I moved to other forums dedicated to the brands I was researching.

I then emailed about ten dealers. Why not, email is free. I was willing to travel pretty far to save some real money, so I asked about the car, gave my cell phone, and waited. Calls right away! Told them exact color, model, year, etc. no trade in to worry about, no finance option yet, no payments, just a price please. And I waited.

First off, I was NOT impressed!  By how poorly most listened to what I wanted, and their energy at NOT getting back to me!  I guess asking for a car at a "reasonable price" was too much?  I told one guy I only wanted black (actually told all of them that) and he calls back and tells me he found a car for me to test drive. Tells me all about it. A green one???? He is still emailing me six months later! Some never responded.  NONE emailed me back with anything personalized to my needs.

So I am put off, but hey, its not like I wasted a lot of time driving around. This time I emailed the internet guy at the brand I preferred. The gist of my email?

"I am a poor consumer, who can probably not afford your cars, but possibly, maybe, I could.  Plus, I am a loyal customer…once I buy who will have all service work done by you"

According to Earl, this is heresy. Not worth his time to even deal with. But….charity does exist in my world!  And a pretty laid back guy got back to me, with a price I could handle, I checked Edmunds for price paid/buying experience, and the price was really, really good.  No haggling, just a good, no a great price. So I bought. Emailed him back, went in next day to pick it up.

I was deciding between the Avalon for its back seat room, and the Lexus 350 for other factors. But the key for me was the difference in the quality between the two sales forces. Guess which one called me back for the green one? Which one offered to have me drive 60 miles to test drive a vehicle I already knew completely? For me the entire process was almost schizophrenic. Why would the same manufacturer have such different processes? And if its obvious which one I preferred, why would so few other dealers imitate it?

Most of all, I wonder why so many other car dealers treat their potential customers so badly? I do feel that it seems to be "smart business" to try and corner a market if you can.  I see 30 different badges with the same ownership group in Wash, DC, and realize that their costs are way down compared to single shops due to their economies of scale.  So, why would you want to high pressure this same captive audience.  (I live in Texas now, but went in one once, way back when.  The girl was sobbing that if I did not talk to the manager before leaving she would be "fined"). On another note, why do some car dealer think the public is stupid, that we really believe some multi millionaire employs some nitwit who bought TOO MUCH inventory!

Now I am NOT saying the techniques do not work. They obviously must, right?  But what about opportunity costs?  How much are you leaving on the table by only doing it one way, the same old way?  Websites with little info, stock photos, endless quote forms? Hmm, been there, done that.  And from your end as well. Hiring the same old internet guy, and then hassling with him about pay? Here is a question for y’all?  Why pay him based on sales? Does the IT guy at IBM need to have a customer say they "bought off the web" for him to get a salary? How much quality difference is there between the head of IBM IT, and the IT head of Checkered Flag?  (Sorry Alex, but I like your thinking, and thought you could use a tweak.)  Do you pay your receptionists based on how many buyers called first?

Anyone go into a restaurant and EXPECT great service? How about just average? Does anyone think that if the restaurants just paid a decent wage, and had managers good enough to be able to tell good waiters from bad, they would increase customer satisfaction? Or lower turnover? I could have used the car model, but hey, to me the consumer, its the same.  Same lame so-called pro’s to deal with.  Same lame experience. I do NOT have the answers, but I could point to some things. Thing is…how good are y’all as a group if you cannot find them yourselves?

Kind of a challenge.

These are tough times, with serious issues in the car business. It takes serious people to accomplish this.  So, Mr. Doing-Business-As-Usual, your 15 minutes are up. I’m Joe consumer, and I AM the President! (loosely taken from "American President" (Michael Douglas) speech near end of movie)

Steve

Are you an Internet Manager, an Internet Sales Director, an eCommerce
Director, an Internet Sales Consultant, a Vice President of Marketing?  I think this speaks to all of us, but let’s forget about our positions and corporate structures for a moment.  Some of you may already have your 2008 pay plan and some might not, but that doesn’t matter right now. Let’s talk about what we think is right and fair. What is fair to you and the person paying you.

I was reading the “Myth of the Dealer Web Site Conversion Ratio” article, by Mitch Turck, and started thinking deeper about Mitch and Joe Pistell ‘s rebuttals to cross-comparing site conversion ratios between industries. When Mitch posted some actions a customer might take after visiting a dealer website (call an untrackable local phone number, visit the store, etc.) it made me think: he’s right and how silly is that! We don’t give credit to some online ventures that are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do – mainly our own website. We do this because it isn’t easily track-able. Of course, we did this to the traditional medias as well, but keep reading….

If your paycheck is directly tied to what can be proved as a clear and concise contact history inside a CRM, is this fair to you? Did you send your customer an email, or a series of emails, with value proposals? Did you leave a voice-mail saying something about the latest deal on the lot? Did that customer ask for you when he or she walked in the door, but an old “Earl” salesperson gave the customer a reason why he or she should deal with him instead? Did Earl say the customer was a “drive by”?  These scenarios are also untackable. I wonder if we’re paying our Internet personnel on the wrong principles?

In that same “Myth” article, T.J. posted some advice for Joe on three methods that have helped him boost Internet sales (Instant Chat, Online Coupons, and a trade appraisal). T.J. – please don’t take offense to this, I could be on the totally wrong track here, and we’ve all done it ourselves. This got me thinking about how we are putting our customers through hoops because our pay plans are structured toward “Internet sales”. It has been my experience that customers can’t stand trade appraisals – it creates a confrontational environment before they even show up. Online Coupons are an annoying pop-up and most intelligent customers know they could have negotiated that amount off anyway, so all it does is knock another couple hundred dollars off every deal. However, I am a fan of instant chats! Anyway, our pay plans are driven to create more conversion so we have more customers to talk to. They drive us to take advantage of ventures that may upset the customer or not be in the dealer’s best interest because we’re working a pay plan.

Working a pay plan is good if you’re in a traditional position, and can be if you’re in an eCommerce position as well, but I’m not sure we’ve structured these things in everyone’s best interest yet. My point is, we are in positions to influence online advertising ventures for the dealer. The dealer has based our pay plans on track-able “Internet sales”. What advertising ventures are we influencing? Are these ventures fair to the dealer? Is your pay plan structure fair to you?

First off, let me say that I’m excited to see Managers and vendors even discussing the matter of conversion percentages on dealer web sites. Another step in the right direction. But just as we always get caught up in the simplicity of misleading national statistics, there seems to be a lot of people adopting of the rule of the “2-3% conversion ratio” as the primary measure of success on dealer web sites. That’s a bad habit to get into, and I’ll tell you why.

First off, you’re making the grave mistake of thinking all dealer web sites bring the same types of traffic. Whatever gave you that idea? Just because two dealerships have matching stats doesn’t mean their sites are performing equally. Do their visitor stats exclude internal traffic? Are they getting visits from new buyers only, or do they have users coming back again and again? Are the leads being generated by marketing efforts from outside sources (like big billboards and newspaper ads directing traffic to the site), or is the site making magic on its own?

A second point of concern is search engine presence. Take two dealerships with identical visitation stats. Web site #1 has zero search engine presence, where the only people who make the leap from Google to their site are the ones querying the dealer name specifically… it’s only by sheer luck that they get substantial traffic numbers, because they’re a well-known dealership in the area. On the other side, web site #2 has true long tail presence and is heavily optimized, reeling in search engine traffic for such off-the-wall queries as “ford mustang replacement headlight”. Site #2, having such great visibility in search engines, is bound to have a lower conversion ratio than Site #1, simply because Site #2 has successfully marketed to prospects who are less likely to be in the market for shopping at that dealership. So we reprimand the latter site for having a lower conversion ratio? If they stopped optimizing for search engines, their conversion ratio would skyrocket… tell me that makes any sense.

And what about all the social network marketing some of us are doing? If you run a blog that is well-indexed by search engines, you already know how many eyeballs you’re getting from people in other cities, other states, even other countries. If you’ve set up a MySpace or anything else where you’re shamelessly promoting your dealership, do you really expect that incoming traffic to convert into a lead at a 2-3% clip? Again, it’s your ingenuity and forward thinking that’s causing a low conversion ratio on your dealer web site… that doesn’t mean you should stop social marketing, does it?

You get the idea. It goes on… sites that do a great job of converting to phone leads vs. emails, sites that drive users to other conversion tools like Black Book Appraisals or another store in a dealer group… there are plenty of reasons to ignore the magical 2-3% conversion standard. Don’t let the statistics alarmists of this industry trap you in that mindset.

Guest Posting by Mitch Turck
Mitch is the Internet Director for JelMAC Auto Group
He can be reached at 201.385.3600