Brand Loyalty vs. The Credit Crunch
Although the internet car buying experience is still in its’ infancy, there are some trends that we found useful to share with you – some anecdotal, and some measurable.
The Right Experience
The internet car buyer is no different to any other online customer. They expect a professional, secure, smooth transaction and some kind of incentive for taking this route to purchase. Brands who recognise this end up not only benefiting from passing on the increased efficiency of the internet, but also end up with very satisfied customers – CarQuake’s CSI ratings are far higher for our dealers than through any other source of business.
The Real Deal
Online customers also expect a proper offer and therefore ‘deal’ for their enquiry. After all, they are not choosing to take the high ticket and overhead route… they just want a decent price and not to be messed around. All other consumer products have better offers online than on the high street – why should cars be different?
So, Where Does Brand Loyalty Fit? Read more
Sphere: Related ContentNew Car Sales… Something’s Got to Give
It’s no surprise that we watch the new car marketplace carefully, and given this, that we are always interested in the gap between what is reported and what is actually the case.
New cars sales seem, on the face of it, to be rising… tell the franchised dealers the great news… or perhaps they know something that we don’t? Word on the street is that there are a lot of dealers out there with stock of new cars, having bitten the bullet for Q1 and wondering how they can achieve decent NEW business in Q2. After all every pre-reg takes a new buyer out of the marketplace.
Yes, the Pre-Registration issue raises it’s ugly head. Put simply, this is deliberate devaluation of beautiful new cars… register them to make them ‘not new’ even if they haven’t been driven. Curious strategy? Only in the motor trade… where the production lines churn out more cars out than there are buyers for them.
Sphere: Related ContentWhich? MotorTrader? Who?
It’s what we’ve been saying for a long time, and something that dealers using CarQuake know already… Customers SAVE MONEY buying online AND they prefer doing so too.
Motor Trader on the recent Which? Report
Customers save, on average 11% more… They also save their time (and patience) by shopping online for new cars… and Dealers come out poorly. In the most part, they are forced to tow the corporate line, and then they get slammed on customer satisfaction for trying to ‘do the job’ (i.e. not discounting cars).
Sphere: Related ContentHelp Needed… But Only for Dealers Who Want More Business
+++ STOP PRESS +++ STOP PRESS +++ STOP PRESS +++ STOP PRESS +++
It’s as if someone just flicked a switch… and the lights came on! January has already started off with a real explosion of activity at CarQuake.
Someone tell our visitors that the market is wobbly! We need help as we’re still looking for dealers to take advantage of the sheer volume of business we generate… so pass the message round – or just contact us.
Sphere: Related ContentNew <-> Nearly New <-> Used Car Marketing
CALLING ALL FRANCHISED CAR DEALERS
If you want us to help you manage the end-to-end marketing of your cars online, then contact us today. Soon, we will have services for more than just new factory orders… we’ll be able to also help you sell:
- New ‘on the way’ ordered cars
- Physical new cars
- Nearly new cars
- Approved used cars
There are some exciting developments we just can’t publish yet, but if you contact us, then we will definitely keep you posted on our developments.
Sphere: Related Content« go back — keep looking »