Top 8 Reasons why Car Dealers need a Mobile App

Boosting App Engagement: 5 Strategies for 2024

by Auto Dealer MarketingCar Sales

Simply put, just having an app isn’t enough….

In today’s digital age, auto dealerships are constantly seeking innovative ways to engage with customers and enhance their overall experience. However it’s essential to implement strategies to maximize customer engagement. First and foremost it’s important to establish your mobile app must be part of your sales process. The sales team is your frontline champion for marketing the app to the customers sitting in the chair right in front of them. Contact us to learn best practices for your sales and service teams. Beyond that, to stay competitive and gain the advantage more is needed. Here are five PROVEN methods for your dealership to maximize your mobile app growth and success:

A dealership-branded mobile app serves as an excellent retention tool and has been adopted by many stores, large and small – CBT News

Mobile Site Banner

A strategically placed banner on the your mobile website can effectively promote the app and encourage downloads. This banner should highlight the benefits of using the app, such as access to exclusive deals, convenient service scheduling, or personalized vehicle recommendations. By integrating the app promotion into the your online presence, they can capture the attention of website visitors and convert them into app users. We work along with your website provider to get this implemented for you.

Push Notifications

Push notifications are a direct and immediate way to engage app users. You can leverage push notifications to alert customers about special promotions, service reminders, new vehicle arrivals, or exclusive events. By delivering timely and relevant messages, dealerships can keep their app top-of-mind for users and encourage them to return for maximum retention.

Geofence Messages

Geofencing technology allows you to send targeted messages to app users based on their physical location. For example, when a customer enters the vicinity of your dealership send them a welcome message. Sponsoring a local event? Send your customers an automated geofence message thanking them for their support. This is your opportunity to get creative here! They can receive a notification reminding them to schedule a service appointment or offering a discount on parts and accessories. By leveraging geofence messages, you can deliver relevant and timely content that enhances the customer experience and drives foot traffic to your locations.

On-Site Signage

Utilizing signage material within your dealership’s physical locations is another effective way to promote the app and encourage engagement. This could include posters, banners, or digital displays featuring QR codes or short URLs for easy app download. By integrating app promotion into your dealership’s physical environment, can reach customers at the point of sale and encourage them to download the app for specials and rewards using our build in loyalty rewards program.

Email Blasts

Email marketing remains a powerful tool for engaging with customers, and your dealership can leverage your email lists to promote the mobile app. Send targeted email blasts highlighting the benefits of downloading the app, such as access to exclusive offers, loyalty rewards, or personalized vehicle recommendations. By segmenting your email list and tailoring the messaging to specific customer interests and preferences, effectively drive app downloads and increase engagement among your audience.

With your branded mobile app you have a valuable opportunity to enhance customer engagement and drive business growth. By implementing strategies such as push notifications, mobile site banners, geofence messages, on-site signage material, and email blasts, you can effectively promote your app and gain crucial customer retention. By leveraging the power of mobile technology, you will build stronger relationships with your customers and stay ahead in today’s competitive automotive market.

Schedule a demonstration today to be part of this success!

Top 8 Reasons why Car Dealers need a Mobile App

Top 8 Reasons why Car Dealers need a Mobile App

by Auto Dealer MarketingCar Sales

Why a branded mobile dealer app is a necessity in 2024

The move to a more digital automotive shopping experience has been long coming, but, admittedly, slow moving. However, 2020 has forced the industry to finally accelerate in this area all the way down to the dealership level. Over the past two years consumers have been meticulously trained to have complete end-to-end purchase experiences digitally. With this shift, it’s more imperative your dealership is remaining ahead of the curve with a branded mobile app. 

As stated in a ‘CBT News’ article, “A dealership-branded mobile app serves as an excellent retention tool and has been adopted by many stores, large and small.”  A link to the full article is here. Let’s note some more specific reasons why your dealership needs a mobile app.

 

A dealership-branded mobile app serves as an excellent retention tool and has been adopted by many stores, large and small – CBT News

Engagement

Consumers are more and more dependent on apps today than ever. From banking, retail, food delivery, etc. Consumers simply do business on their mobile devices. A branded mobile app carves out a critical piece of digital real estate on their most used device. Push Notifications are the centerpiece of keeping customers engaged and retained. Service reminders and sales specials can be placed right on their lock screens. Take personal truly to the next level with automated geo-fencing messages that generate when customers arrive to the dealership or any related areas. 

Customer Experience

Bring the dealership experience right to the customer in so many ways. Allow quick and effortless inventory shopping with full images and vehicle details. Allow consumers to schedule test drives, service appointments, get prequalified, or apply for finance all directly from the mobile app. Have virtual one on one meetings with your consumers with live video calls, perfect for a virtual tour around the showroom floor or for service technicians to give consumers a live rundown of issues with vehicles that were found during the repair process. The digital retailing experience starts with the mobile app. 

Customer Targeting

With a mobile app you are able to get valuable insights from your customers’ browsing habits and act on them with analytics data from the mobile app. See what your customers like and ways you can appeal to them better for a better experience for them. Create segments of your customer base to send targeted messages to particular groups or vehicle owners. 

Retention

As stated in the beginning of the post, customer retention is a strong point of any good mobile application. Keep your loyal customers returning with a fully customizable loyalty rewards program. Fully integrated service scheduling with Xtime allows customers to make an appointment in a matter of seconds. Retention is largely related with engagement. An engaged customer is a retained customer. Leveraging all of the tools of the mobile application will keep your dealership top of mind and make sure they stay engaged and committed to your dealership. 

Customization

Being able to customize the app may not at first thought have any impact on your customer’s app experience, but customization is another critical part of keeping the customer engaged. M-Link allows dealers to make instant changes to their Home Screen and menu layout on the fly to keep up with seasonal changes, ongoing trends, and whatever customers are demanding at a given time. Having a customizable loyalty rewards program keeps things exciting for new and creative ways to earn points in sales or services. This allows for more unique marketing efforts as well. You can even create customized pages in the app for more individualized needs. Have a body shop? Create a functional accident reporting screen for customers to upload photos and/or a video of their damage, all on the fly. 

 

The global pandemic has changed the world, and many of those changes are here to stay. We’re now doing much of our business from home, and that includes working, schooling, and shopping. Smartphones have become the new shopping mall, and that’s the main reason why every retailer, even car dealers, need a mobile app of their own. 

Schedule a demonstration today to be part of this success!

Top 8 Reasons why Car Dealers need a Mobile App

Top 8 Reasons why Car Dealers need a Mobile App

by Auto Dealer MarketingCar Sales

How a Mobile App Benefits Car Dealers

The global pandemic has changed the world, and many of those changes are here to stay. We’re now doing much of our business from home, and that includes working, schooling, and shopping. Smartphones have become the new shopping mall, and that’s the main reason why every retailer, even car dealers, need a mobile app of their own. Contact us today to schedule a demonstration!

1. Attract Views

These days, “window shopping” means shopping on a Windows (or Android, or Apple) device. People are staying home; they’re not going to car dealers’ lots to kick tires and see how they look behind the wheel. No, they’re clicking the links that catch their attention. If you want your links to be the ones clicked, then you’re going to have to know your market and what they’re looking for. The right mobile app platform can help you do that with geo-targeted digital marketing campaigns. Contact us to schedule a demonstration today!

2. Convert Viewers to Shoppers

Getting prospective buyers’ attention is obviously the first step to making a sale; however, you have to convince them not only that they want to buy a car, but that they want to buy from your dealership! Again, here’s where geo-targeted marketing strategies come in. The app platform can notify your sales staff when the prospect triggers a geofence, and your salespeople can step in with a personalized pitch. Let us show you how this works.

3. Give Shoppers Information

Making the customer aware of what you have to offer is the first step, but it’s the first step in a long journey. Most of today’s shoppers want to do a lot of research before making a purchase as large as an automobile, and you want to make it as easy as possible for them to do this. A good mobile app designed for car dealers puts all of this at their fingertips. They can look up makes, models, trim lines, options, incentives, and more on their own time and in their own way. Contact us today to learn more!

4. Make the Transaction Easy

Buyers may want a specific vehicle, but they also want an easy transaction. This means that they want and deserve transparency as far as pricing, incentives, financing options, warranty and service options, and more – and a lot of them want it presented in the dealer’s mobile app so that they can review it without feeling pressure in a dealership office. Let us show you how to make that happen with a demonstration of our mobile app.

5. Schedule Service and Maintenance

Yay, the buyer has bought the car! Now you want to keep them coming back to you for scheduled service and maintenance, and the best way to make this happen is to make it easy for them. By now, your customer should be completely familiar with your mobile app, so encourage them to browse the service department menu and schedule all their service and maintenance that way.

You can target them with special offers based on the recommended maintenance schedule, and you can increase customer spending by presenting complementary offers as well. This keeps your customer in your showroom and ensures that you will be top of mind for all automotive-related needs. Contact us today to schedule a demonstration of the mobile app that can make this happen.

6. Offer Rewards and Notifications

Car dealers can set up loyalty programs through their mobile app so that customers receive loyalty points for scheduling service or completing other activities, such as writing reviews of the dealership, making referrals, or any other related activities. They can trade in these points for discounts on service or dealership swag, which is also great for keeping your name and logo visible in the community.

You can also set your app to notify customers of events such as sales, new inventory, dealership events, manufacturer recalls and notifications, or anything else that you think they’d be interested in – and the app can even help you figure out what might interest the customer! Schedule a demonstration today to see more.

7. Sell and Service More Vehicles

This is the bottom line, right? All things considered, car dealers with a good mobile app are going to sell and service more vehicles – which is what every dealership needs to improve their bottom line. Contact us today to schedule a demonstration of the most comprehensive mobile app in the automotive industry.

8. Know That You’re in Good Company

If you think that this all sounds too good to be true, read what some other car dealers think about this mobile app.

“Delivering a superior experience across our dealerships is at the very center of our digital strategy. As our customers continue to move toward a mobile-first approach, Mobile Dealer helps us to deliver the best mobile customer experience when they buy and service from our family of dealerships.” –  LAND Auto Group, Kelsey Bilyk, Group Marketing Director

 

“Mobile Dealer has boosted our inventory views by over 110,000 over the past six months which has helped us to drive more sales growth. Over 75% of buyers that visit our lots already have the app downloaded. Each time I push an offer or new listing to our app, our sales call volumes increase two fold. Mobile Dealer delivers INCREDIBLE value to our digital marketing program.” – Ohio Trucks Group, Mike Linder, Marketing Manager

Schedule a demonstration today to be part of this success!

Fact: Car Dealers Can Grow Their Revenue with Mobile Payments

Fact: Car Dealers Can Grow Their Revenue with Mobile Payments

by Car SalesMobile Payments

Mobile Payments Help Car Dealers in Numerous Ways

Since we live in such a busy world, it’s good to know that as a business owner, you can make your customers’ lives a lot easier with the use of mobile payments. Let’s face it, no one actually enjoys making a car payment, but if they can do so without a hassle, it is much easier on them. 

In fact, more and more people are preferring to make many of their payments, including their car payments, online because it is more convenient, a lot quicker, and can be completed even by people who are not tech-savvy.

These are just some of the reasons why so many car dealers now offer mobile payments option to their customers.

In the United States, there are nearly 65 million people who pay bills with their mobile phones, which says a lot about how people prefer to make payments such as car payments. If your dealership’s finance department has a simple way for people to pay their car notes through a mobile app, customers will appreciate it because even if they don’t use it regularly, they will learn to love this feature. 

After all, if they ever get close to the due date for their car payment and haven’t yet paid, they’ll appreciate being able to make a payment quickly and at the last minute, which they can do with a mobile car payment app.

Fact: Car Dealers Can Grow Their Revenue with Mobile Payments

The Right App Is Important

Writing checks and sending them to the bank via snail mail is terribly outdated, and one of the many reasons people do not like making car payments this way is because you never know exactly when that payment will arrive. You simply cannot depend on the regular mail to get your payments to the proper company on time, which is why paying bills digitally is such a good idea. 

Most reputable car dealers offer their customers this feature, but of course, the company that provides the ability for customers to make mobile payments has to be knowledgeable as well. Their apps need to be dependable and not be offline very often because this is the only way that customers will feel comfortable using this feature on a regular basis.

There are two main reasons why people choose to make payments either online or through an app: it is super easy, and it is super fast. The busier customers are, the more important this feature will become to them, and when we say “mobile,” we don’t just mean mobile phones. Indeed, making payments through a computer or tablet can be done as well, thanks to these apps, and since people generally have one of these electronic devices with them at all times, making their car payments can be a piece of cake for them.

When car dealers offer the chance for their customers to make mobile payments after selling them a vehicle, it does much more than just make it easy for those customers to pay their car notes each month. 

It also helps these dealers build rapport with their customers and build a relationship that will last for many years to come. It shows their customers that they are willing to go the extra mile for them so their lives can be a lot more convenient, and it works even better when the dealer representatives go over the app with them and teach them how to use it before they leave the lot.

No Need to Worry

For people who are concerned about the security of online payments, there is no need to worry. These days, all online payment systems are extremely secure, meaning customers will never have to worry about someone getting access to their personal and financial information. 

The makers of these apps take this responsibility very seriously, and this is yet another benefit customers can gain through this feature. If you are a car dealer and wish to offer some type of mobile app to your customers, you can even use it to notify those customers when the service department has their vehicle ready because these apps are good for more than just making car payments.

Car dealers who offer ways to make paying car notes a lot easier will instantly win the favor of their customers, and if you’d like more information on offering a way for these customers to make mobile payments that is both fast and simple, you can contact us and we’ll help get you started. 

The automobile industry is ahead of its time when it comes to offering customers the latest technologically advanced tools that are guaranteed to make those customers’ lives a lot easier, and these mobile apps are just perfect for today’s super-busy people. 

If you’ve never used them in your own business, it’s time to change that. Once you’re used to offering your customers an easy way to make their car payments, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without this benefit.

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How Car Dealers Can Use a Mobile App to Keep Customers Engaged

How Car Dealers Can Use a Mobile App to Keep Customers Engaged

by Auto Dealer MarketingCar SalesMobile App Development

Mobile phones and their mobile apps are the most popular way for people to search for the services they want and need.

This offers dealers an enormous opportunity to establish relationships with customers and leads, and they can communicate directly with customers and people who might use their services. If you are looking to increase your engagement and build loyalty with your customers, creating a mobile app is a great idea.

Your Mobile App Creates Brand Recognition

When a customer finds your site, you should have an offer to download your mobile app. This way, the icon with your name is on the screen of their smartphones each time they look at it. This helps to create brand recognition so that when they need an oil change or want to look for a new car, they will think of your dealership. If the app is user friendly, they will use it before doing an online search. Your dealership name will stand out in their minds and they will refer you to their friends and families.

You Can Offer Promotions and Other Discounts

Another way to keep customers engaged through your mobile app is to offer promotions and other discounts. For example, if you have a promotion, it can show up as a notification on the app. Your customers will open the app to find out what it is. As long as you are offering promotions that your customers want, you will increase your revenue this way. This helps you to stay engaged with your customers, which helps to develop a relationship and build trust.

If you have a dealership, creating a mobile app for your customers can help you engage with them.

You Can Compile Data on Your Customers to Improve Your Business

When you have a mobile app, you get valuable data on your customers so that you can learn more about them. You can custom tailor your services and promotions to improve your customers’ experiences. The key to customer retention is making sure that they feel appreciated and valued, and when you have data that helps you to understand their needs, you can do this more efficiently.

How Car Dealers Can Use a Mobile App to Keep Customers Engaged

You Can Boost Engagement to Help Improve Your Business

In addition to offering promotions and discounts, you can conduct surveys and polls. You can find out what customers prefer, including size of cars, styles, colors, trunk space, how many people it holds, and more. This gives you more specific data on each customer so that you can send them information and offers that relate directly to their interests. This is a great way to build a relationship and create trust with potential customers.

You Can Entice Your Customers with High Impact Videos

Customers love to see videos of a test drive, interior features, and close looks at the exterior of vehicles. This gives them an opportunity to virtually experience a vehicle before they come in to make a purchase. You can include these types of videos so that customers can gather more information on cars they are interested in purchasing or leasing. This might help them to take that next step of coming in and test driving it or purchasing it.

You Can Use a Mobile App to Personalize a Customer’s Experience

Another benefit to a mobile app is that you can personalize your customers’ experiences. You will be able to address them by their first names, and you can customize the information they receive by tracking their preferences. You can simplify the process of selecting a car for them by helping them remember what they are interested in, and you can let them know when you offer incentives to purchase the model they like best.

You Can Create a VR Test Drive Experience

Virtual reality is becoming more and more common, and you can use it to provide your customers with a virtual test drive of the vehicle they prefer. The technology is similar to what you use in a video game, and your customers will enjoy seeing what it might feel like to drive the car they want to buy. This also gives you an opportunity to develop your brand name and engage with your customers.

Your Customers Can Build Their Dream Vehicles

Another feature that you can include is one where your customers can build the vehicle they desire. This allows them to see the car they want before they come in. They can match their version with cars you have available, and they can save it for future reference. They can make changes if they change their minds, and they can see the car they want to buy. This may help to give them the push they need to come in and see the real version.

Final Words

If you have a dealership, creating a mobile app for your customers can help you engage with them. This builds brand recognition and customer loyalty so that they will come to you when they are ready to purchase a car or need services performed.