Dealer – DealerRefresh | DealerRefresh Automotive Dealer Forums

You F’ing crazy car dealers

I haven’t worked in a dealership for more than 6 years now. Today I’m a vendor; one who works closely with OEMs and dealers… for those of you who don’t know me. During that time, I have been explaining to coworkers and manufacturer representatives how to make life easier for dealers. Unfortunately, neither will ever …

Dealer ThinkTank Review 2013 with Kevin Frye

I have seen an M1 Abrams tank while serving in Desert Storm, but never a Dealer ThinkTank, so when I heard about a brand new conference that was going to have its very first event in my own backyard of Cincinnati, I had to attend. And of course, that means I am going to share …

Industry Events

Ignite! Dealer Summit

A quick reminder – the Ignite! Dealer Summit is right around the corner. Considering the vendors and speaker line-up, I should figure out how I too can make may my way to the Twin Cities… When: Wednesday September 7th 2011 8:00am – 6:00pm Where: Hilton Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport Mall of America 3800 American Blvd East …

Live Dealer Chat – Exclusive Interview with Contact At Once!

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 …

Opinions & Advice

CRM is putting your well-oiled machine back on the assembly line

CRM in car dealerships has become a way to tackle a lack of consistent process. However, it is still wholly reliant on your staff. But if you look at your Internet Department you may find the right person for the job.

Best Practices Dealership Marketing

Integration? What’s that and what do I do with it? What about my DMS?

Integration as defined on Dictionary.com: an act or instance of combining into an integral whole. Okay…that doesn’t really help. How about Wikipedia? Awesome – they have an entry for “System Integration”: is the bringing together of the component subsystems into one system and ensuring that the subsystem function together as a system. There’s a lot …

Opinions & Advice

Do we think the consumer is stupid? Or is the joke on us?

One of our GM’s sent me an email with a link to another dealership who had a welcome video on their homepage yesterday. He thought it was very good, and he was right! The video quality was good, the speaker was good, and the background looked good. It was a good welcome video. The only …

Dealership Marketing

When is enough enough? Where do we draw the line on expense cutting?

As most of you know, I am part of the third generation of Snyder’s at the Checkered Flag Automotive Group. My grandfather founded the company in 1964 after he himself was part of another third generation of Snyder’s at a department store we used to own in Downtown Norfolk since the late 1800’s (closed in …

Dealership Marketing

The death of the Internet Director

The time has come to promote the Internet Director into a much larger role It was announced yesterday that America went into a recession in December of 2007. We have now reached a full year in a down market. By now, all of us in the automotive industry are feeling it on some level. I’ve …

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Dealer – DealerRefresh

You F’ing crazy car dealers

Dealer ThinkTank Review 2013 with Kevin Frye

Ignite! Dealer Summit

Live Dealer Chat – Exclusive Interview with Contact At Once!

CRM is putting your well-oiled machine back on the assembly line

Integration? What’s that and what do I do with it? What about my DMS?

Do we think the consumer is stupid? Or is the joke on us?

When is enough enough? Where do we draw the line on expense cutting?

The death of the Internet Director