Quarter three has wrapped up, and we’re heading into Q4 with some exciting DealerRefresh topics and some much needed changes to the dealer forums on the horizon. Maybe you have a gameplan ready to go to close out the year on a high note, or maybe you’re still looking for industry insights. Either way, September saw several interesting topics on the forum that are worth revisiting. 

iPhone iOS13 Updates

In case you don’t get out much (or you live under a rock), Apple unveiled a host of new features at their Special Event on September 10th, one of which will be top of mind over the coming months for car dealers – the Silence Unknown Callers feature.

Apple devices that have access to the iOS13 software update will gain this feature that can be toggled on and off in the Settings. When activated, if a caller is not recognized in a person’s contacts, that caller goes straight to voicemail. 

What will that mean for service or sales follow-ups? Will your dealership use the Silence Unknown Callers feature as a ringless voicemail? And what will happen when customers have a full inbox and haven’t opted into alternative methods of contact, like texting?

Now is the time to make other avenues of contact readily available so that your team can get in touch with potential leads and keep those funnels full. 

Facebook Reactions & Engagement

When you unbox your brand new Apple phone, you’ll probably move all of your favorite apps over to your new device right away, including Facebook. If you haven’t noticed, the blue giant has been changing things up lately, making marketers and brand advocates work smarter and harder to keep their engagement up. 

When it comes to post content, do you think certain reactions, mainly the sad and angry options, work to push that content down in the algorithm, making room for posts that get more likes and loves? 

It’s an interesting question, and one that brought up different opinions on the forum. The key takeaway here is that social media is ever-changing, and your content should be relevant and engaging to keep your audience’s attention. 

Take a look at your best performing social content in analytics and let us know if you see correlations between reactions and reach or engagement. 

Why Should Customers Service at the Dealership?

Have you ever provided great service to a customer, offered them free oil changes for life or something similar, only to have them defect to their nearest Jiffy Lube? (The answer is yes, we all have.) 

Some great stats around service retention were posted on the forum, showing that more expensive R.O.s – tires, specifically – have greater rates of defection but that there are strategies you can implement to keep your bays full. 

Whether it be from lack of awareness, failure to establish a value proposition, transparency, or perception, there are some interesting takes on this topic and ideas around what we can do to mitigate the issue from our DealerRefresh audience – hop in and take a look.

Rivian and Cox

Rivian and Cox are getting cozy. Cox is the latest to jump on the Rivian bandwagon, joining Ford and Amazon, the latter of which has ordered 100,000 Rivian delivery vans that plan to hit the streets in 2021. 

How will this partnership affect the future of car sales? Will it negatively impact the current system, taking away jobs and shutting down local businesses? Cox could be planning to manage and operate a fleet of Rivian vehicles or sell subscriptions, moving away from classified ads and toward something that disrupts the industry in a big way. What do you think?

(At the time of writing, there is new information that Rivian is considering a subscription-based service.)

There’s also the potential that Rivian could flop, or that it could struggle in the same way Tesla has. Only time will tell, but this is certainly one topic we’ll have our eye on in 2020. 

DealerRefresh Forums

New partnerships, changing technologies, updated processes… You can find it all on the DealerRefresh forums. Join us this month for exciting conversations and get the information you need to know!

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