Comments on: Process for displaying Inventory?

By: SUE

SUE — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:47:33 +0000

I have had claims pay without submitting the disposal form. So, now I would like to go back and attach this form, how do you do that?

By: Top 10 Reasons to take your own pictures - DealerRefresh Automotive Technology forums

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:35:22 +0000

[...] Re: Top 10 Reasons to take your own pictures Great information! Fore another avenue of information, there was a thread on the blog that too is a great read. Process for displaying Inventory? [...]

By: Jeff Kershner

Jeff Kershner — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:58:54 +0000

John, that’s a lot of questions and a long conversation. Give me a direct call when you have the time.

By: john oconnell

john oconnell — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:12:00 +0000

Jeff, Maybe this is going off on a tangent but in regard to inventory and more to the point new is there a combination you would reccomend to revamp a site? I am interested in a combo for both polling and data, configurators, etc basically the whole inventory / display/ research piece. I am also curious as to who has the most or best / easist source of rebates and build data as well focus on new. As many of your pros can tell I am a “newbie so please go easy.

By: Jeff Colby

Jeff Colby — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:59:39 +0000

p.s.
I own a photos, data collection, window sticker company. So I’m not coming down on vendors but I have noticed a decline in standards over the years with competitors.

By: Jeff Colby

Jeff Colby — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:51:13 +0000

Great thread!
I would like to point out that really, there are only two major vin decoding companies out there. They both do a sufficient job. The actual problems are in two areas.
1) The software we use to obtain the information from the vin decoding company. Many times this info is passed through several software apps prior to being published i.e. DMS, IMS(HomeNet), then off for pricing analysis, then to the website or an online classified. The vin decoder may decode and be capable of sending 200 fields of info however, the software, DMS, IMS, website host etc. might only post 100 of those fields or less. Make sure the software apps that you use are capable of posting, at least, a majority options data.
Many times if a dealership requests alterations, as Jeff mentioned above with HomeNet making revisions to accomodate ADP, a software company will make the changes you need, don’t be afraid to ask.
2) Data collection is still very much a hands on process. Usually this task is delegated to the vendor or individual responsible for producing the window stickers and taking photos.
A vendor should be familiar enough with their software to know fields/options that are not decoded and be sure to note those options in the appropriate places.
The responsibility of these vendors has gone from – photos, data collection and window stickers to – photos sometimes, data collection never, (most are completely dependent on decoders), and window stickers when you complain about not having any.
Hold these vendors to a higher standard, tell them what you want. If the vendor doesn’t produce I’ll bet there is another vendor out there that will and probably at a better price.
If you are doing photos, data collection and window stickers in-house, unless you have two cracker jack associates both on long contracts, find a vendor.

By: James Posca

James Posca — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:52:28 +0000

Unfortunately the manufactures do not publish the build data on any brands that I know of except Mercedes Benz. I have been running an Inventory Management business for several years and we pride ourselves on providing our dealers with the best possible option information that is humanly possible. Yes there are those times when we just have no idea what option package a car or truck has installed but if you take enough pictures of the car, the online shopper will in most cases be able to see what options the car has. We take 25 to 35 pictures of every car and that really helps. I have been told by some of my dealers that customers commented on the number of photos and came from far distances to purchase a car because they were able to inteligently make an informed decision.

By: Derek Hammond

Derek Hammond — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:45:17 +0000

This is my second favorite topic. Joe you are dead on in that quality and accuracy is important to properly merchandise your inventory online. The device you mentioned in your post makes it very easy to get the packages correct because you can check them off right in front of the car.

You can drive as many people as you want to your site, but the question should be “Are they going to get what they came for?” and “Would they come back”? To paint this picture consider someone comparing your vehicle to another one. If you only send Price and Photos, what do you expect to be shopped on? If you send the right photos, highlighting the unique features and flaws, an emotional description i.e. “no strange odors, never smoked in”, and the proper option packages and what’s in them, people can now shop you on those highlights rather than your price. These are the things you would draw their attention to on the lot. Why would you not do this for your online marketing as well? Don’t more people see your cars online than walk your lot? Too many dealers think of their online marketing as just sending data. Would you show a visitor to your showroom the stock # and VIN to a car and expect them to get excited? Probably not, but you spend thousands of dollars per month to market your inventory this way online. And I bet you take more photos or write longer descriptions for eBay? Why? Someone please tell me.

I also like Alan’s idea of having each salesperson adopt a few vehicles and tell that particular cars story. A good inventory tool should also have proper package data and allow you to distribute real content to all of your online sites, not A/C FWD like so many, and not just the package name, but what’s in the package. Out of the hundreds of dealerships I encounter in a week less than 10% are doing this. Most still do not have written descriptions or comments.

By: Alan

Alan — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:59:10 +0000

Yes,to properly merchandise both new and used takes work. Dealers, ask your salespeople that are sitting around playing “quarters” to “adopt a car”. When a trade (or new) comes in, you assign a handful of cars to each salesperson to write up great selling copy on each vehicle. Tell the story: extra equipment, warranty information, owner input, carfax info such as one owner, not wrecked, low mileage for its age, maintenence records, etc. Tell the story as if you were selling your own car, or what you would naturally say to a customer on the lot to get the sale. The key is to get the customer emotionally attached to the vehicle. Have a contest with the salespeople–whoever comes up with the best copy and sells the quickest wins, regardless of who “actually” sold the car. Gift cards, free tickets to the ballgame, whatever. It takes time and work. Next time you’re on the internet looking at similar vehicles, read what some independent stores write. They usually have the time, and pour their heart and soul into their vehicle descriptions to get them sold. P.S. you can usually get original equipment/trim package info from edmunds.com. Do the research, do the work, merchandise your vehilces and you’ll sell more.

By: Brian Hoecht

Brian Hoecht — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:07:56 +0000

We deal with this issue all the time on the new car side with my company’s shopping cart service. Early on we received (loud and clear actually) the consumer feedback, “that what exactly is it you want me to shop and buy online.”

If it helps, here is the process we teach as part of our implementation. Most dealer services use an order-guide based product to explode VINs and tell consumers what each option code is.

The process to use in your dealership to handle stock ins is to make sure that the factory options per the invoice are entered. There are tools such as from VIN Solutions to facilitate capturing these for used cars.

What you have to be careful of are the exceptions (naturally). Here is the list we know of:

1) ADP has no field for exterior nor interior color codes. We have our dealers enter those two in the options field as the first two options on every vehicle and parse them out from there.

2) The EDS DMS now owned by ADP and used by all Saturn stores only has room for 4 factory options.

3) AutoSoft only has room for 10 factory options and their export tool doesn’t allow the export of the trim code (although their CEO Charlie Prophet who I met at NADA last week has offered to correct this and automate the whole process for us)

4) Sometimes there are factory integration points to help with this. The industry standards organization run by NADA, known as STAR, has a standard around how this data is supposed to be structured and how to handle its interplay between the OEM and the dealer. Few OEMs have adopted it.

5) Reynolds is a better DMS than ADP for this since if you set it up correctly, you can get sub-option codes for packages and preferred equipment listings… but beware… some OEMs have implemented it correctly (i.e. Chrysler)… others have not (GM just uses text for the sub-option codes… text doesn’t mean much to an order guide database). Where it is not an integration point, Reynolds also sometimes has a data service you can subscribe for so you don’t need to build and maintain these tables manually… but beware… Reynolds takes shortcuts on the packages / preferred equipment groupings essentially making them useless to your web providers unless their service can look up the sub-option listings.

Which brings up the exact point to the concept we were launching at NADA for the OEMS who don’t have one of their own…

A contextual, side-by-side comparison of trim level differences and options.

As the precursor to shopping online

Be an online consumer who wants to consider the Saturn Astra. Is a configurator going to help you with what you need to know to be comfortable shopping for your Astra? Would you leave the configuration process comfortable that you had the Astra you wanted? That a better choice wasn’t available? What would you do in a configurator where you were flexible as to whether a car had a particular option or package that you wanted?

http://www.ai-dealer.com/GM-Saturn-2008-Astra-Options.html

Think about that as the entry to consumers viewing your vehicles. What should your website look like if it was built to educate them so they could shop online (vs. send you an email inquiry)?