Have you seen iTap Menu?

The best thing about the DealerRefresh forums are of course all the conversations happening day in and day out. Some of the best conversations start with a simple question about a new product or offering.

Within the thread “Dealer Desking Favorites“, one of our members JamieS linked to a new desking company – iTap Menu. I was curious so I made a few phone calls and introduced myself to the founder Shawn and sat through a demo of their cutting edge product.

I like it! A alot!

Not only did I sit through a product demo of iTap Menu but also spent some additional time asking Shawn a few questions.

Jeff – Shawn, Why does the industry need yet another F&I menu?

Shawn – Because the existing providers created a product that simply doesn’t work in the manner it was designed to.

An unchangeable piece of paper full of text, first and foremost, will not convince someone to increase their monthly payment by $60-80/month. Second, the actual “structure” of the menu is not conducive to selling products.

Why are we presenting four columns labeled after metals from the periodic table and, with no real meaning to the customer, lightly decreasing each column in products and payments from left to right? And finally, 99% of the time, the customer doesn’t want one of the options exactly as created, so now what?  You can’t change a piece of paper…unless you have a Sharpie and your DMS handy to re-calculate the requested changes.

Jeff – What about the F&I Managers that use a menu and produce good numbers?

Shawn – It’s not because of the menu, I know that. I’ve been asked this before.  Thirteen years of consulting and observing F&I departments in over 500 stores confirmed it.

Talented people with a dealership committed to F&I…a culture and history of success, with solid Sales Managers, trained Salespeople, motivating pay plans, and the right set of products. That’s what has made these F&I Managers successful. The paper, four-column menu is simply a by-product of that success. Ask the real F&I professionals. They stopped using the current menu as we know it years ago. And the ones that still do essentially use it to create dialog and negotiate payments with the customer. They aren’t feature/benefit/closing.

With a four-column menu and the way it’s structured, that process isn’t possible. This isn’t my opinion. It’s a fact. Look at it. It’s ugly! Would you personally buy anything from it?  Hell no.

Jeff – How is iTapMenu so different from your competitors?

Shawn – First of all, look at it.  It’s incredible. Look at the menu screen.  It was designed by artists, not developers. Apple inspired artists at that.  100 out of 100 people would agree there’s no comparison in the visual experience vs a paper menu.

The customization is also a HUGE difference.  You can move products in and out of options with an immediate change in the payment, you can change the term and rate, increase the down payment, and discount products right on the fly on the iPad.

I envision the F&I Manager using iTap on the showroom floor or sitting next to the customer in their office and actually letting the customer use iTap.  Giving the customer some power will change how they view the F&I Manager, the dealership, and the overall experience.  And, they’ll buy more products because they’re well informed about the products through iTap’s videos and statistics AND they’ll develop a sense of trust because they are involved in the decision.  No more shell games.

And finally, the structure of the menu is different.  I laugh at four column menus and how they’re structured to decrease the products and payments from left to right.  We’re basically stating we understand there’s no way you’re going to buy the first option, so “pretty please” have some interest in one of these less expensive options.  It would be like asking someone to buy a car for $20,000 but then immediately offering them to buy it for $19,000 or $18,000 or $17,000.  Gee, wonder which one they’re going to choose?

With iTap, it simply doesn’t work that way.

Jeff – Shawn, thanks for your time today. You mentioned that you would be attending NADA 2012 but you would not have a booth. How would one contact you for more information?

Shawn – you can of course visit our website at www.itapmenu.com or give me a call at 317-696-6396

This found it’s way into my inbox over the weekend. It takes about 10-20 minutes to get through the through the 6 steps.

STEP 1 – What Do You Want To Accomplish with your Social Media Strategy?
STEP 2 – Determine Where You Are In the Social Media Lifecycle
STEP 3 – Understand & Rank Challenges
STEP 4 – Monitoring Target Audiences and Ranking by Social Media Behavior STEP 5 – Aligning Objectives and Measurement
STEP 6 – Finding the Right Tactics

Complete all 6 Steps and you’re rewarded with a PDF Strategy Workbook filled with a information, worksheets, and resources catered around your defined priorities for your social media strategy.

As good as this “Strategy Tool” is, it is exactly what it is – a tool to help you build a strategy and not so much a best practice guide. However, it goes provide links to many resources to help with this.

If you complete the 6 steps - let me know what you think in the comments.

BTW – what’s your dealerships social media strategy?

Take Six Fast Steps to Social Media Success

The best person to build your social media strategy is you. And we just made it easy.

We took the best social media research out there: Marketing Sherpa’s Social Media Roadmap and 2010/2011 Benchmark Reports. We turned it into an interactive tool that lets you create a custom strategy tailored exactly to your needs.

In just six steps, you drag–and–drop your goals, answer questions and select the route and resources that are right for you. The tool does the rest, building you a 35–page workbook with a detailed plan based on your choices. You’ll find insight, next steps, worksheets, links to resources, and data that shows you where you stand compared to your industry peers.

Explore it at your own pace, decide where you want to go, and even take away a blank workbook if you want to do it alone. You’re in control—and it’s totally free!

Share the wealth!

Last week’s announcement by Autotrader.com, combined with previous announcements by Cars.com and other

automotive website providers, shines the spotlight on live dealer live chat.

Many of us are asking questions about what this means for our dealerships, so I conducted an exclusive interview with Marc Hayes, the founder and head of products for Contact At Once! whose software powers the live chat features on both Autotrader.com and Cars.com.

Jeff: What are the implications of last week’s Autotrader.com announcement?

Marc: The broad implication is that, if live chat wasn’t already a mainstream technology in automotive retail, it is now. The momentum behind dealer chat has been building for several years with adoption by Cars.com, CarsDirect, and others. Now Autotrader.com has implemented chat. Dealers that don’t already have a chat strategy will need to develop one.

Jeff: Chat is a 15+ year old technology so, unlike other trends born of “new” technologies, such as social networking, why is chat just now trending in automotive retail?

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CarFax iPhone App

CarFax launched their new iPhone app today. Who doesnt like a new app for their iphone? Here’s one that could help at the dealership…CarFax iPhone App – so get off of Angry Birds and run a CarFax from your iPhone!

So where’s the Driod and BlackBerry App??

I’ve includes the full Press Release after the jump..

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I often get the question “How can does one get their individual DealerRater reviews posted on their Dealerships Facebook Page ?” We’re referring to your dealerships fb page “Wall” and not a tab.

I decided to cut a quick video. It’s easier to show than write about it….

I know this might be a little 101 for some, but unless you know where to look for – it’s not too obvious and you need to know where to grab the URL from.

Are you posting individual DealerRater reviews to your dealerships Facebook Wall?

UPDATE: Our good friends over at DealerRater did watch this video and quickly took action on the suggestion we pointed out in the video. Now when you post an individual customer testimonial on your dealers Facebook fan page the DealerRater logo posts as well. Thanks Chip!!

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