Digital Dealer - October 2019 - 28

C O V E R S TORY: Continued from pg. 26

You've got to catch people's attention
with your web page and a splash page.
Unfortunately, as a Chevrolet dealer, we are
homogenized because our manufacturer
requires us to use a single source, which
they provide. To help bolster our online
presence, many of us also use a second web
site. That site gives us more freedom to be
unique than we can be on a standardized
web site.
To stand out, we're doing videos. If a
customer inquires about a green Camaro,
we'll do a little video of one in stock and
send it to them. Our BDC works to engage
people. And we market a lot to our existing
customer base. We have a substantial bank
of information in our CRM, which we utilize
all the time.
Of course, mobile
platforms are
important. Your
website has to work
on a cell phone
because that's how
most people are
searching these days.
It's also why we're
doing a lot more
texting in sales and
service. Texting
seems to be the
preferred form of
communication.

OUR BIGGEST
OPPORTUNITY IS TO
TIE TOGETHER ALL
OF OUR TECHNOLOGY
SYSTEMS TO BETTER
UNDERSTAND WHAT
OUR CUSTOMERS
LOOK LIKE, WHAT
THEY WANT, HOW
THEY ACT, AND
WHERE THEY
CAME FROM."

DEALER
MAGAZINE: Which

DMS and CRM solutions and other software
tools do you use?
CARROLL: Our DMS is Auto/Mate,
and we are very happy with them, I might
add. They are at a better price point than
some other providers, but that's not the
only reason we're happy. We like working
with the Auto/Mate team because they've
been very cooperative about the things
we're trying to do. My oldest son is a bit
of a computer nerd, with two engineering
degrees, and he is on their advisory council.
Both of my sons are computer literate. They
are not a 70-year-old guy trying to figure
out how to operate the internet.
We're migrating to DriveCentric as our
CRM solution soon and look forward to
28

OCTOBER 2019

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

taking advantage of what it offers. For
managing inventory, we use vAuto, and
for generating leads, we're mostly using
CarGurus and AutoTrader. However, we
predominantly rely on factory-driven leads.
DEALER MAGAZINE: If you could
limit your store to using only one piece of
technology, what would that be and why?
CARROLL: I wish it were so simple that
we could pick just one piece, but the reality
is that it takes all of them - and the more
connected and transparent - the better. It's
the DMS, the website, the lead generators,
the scheduler, the phone system, the
inventory management system, and more.
Today, we truly cannot operate without
them all. And, when the technology solution
doesn't exist, we have developed our own.
Through a separate company, Dealerwrx,
we developed technology solutions where
one doesn't exist on the market. In fact,
my sons recently received a patent on
a technology solution we developed to
manage our BDC.
DEALER MAGAZINE: What are the
biggest opportunities as well as the biggest
challenges for dealers in general and for
Monument Chevrolet specifically?
CARROLL: The biggest challenge may
revolve around the technology space and
how a dealer can stay up to date with its
own technology. As someone who oversees
a one-rooftop store, I worry all the time
about maintaining our capability in an
extremely fast-moving, always accelerating
technological world.
Now, let me turn that around.
Technology also represents our biggest
opportunity, learning how to maximize its
potential. Sometimes we have so much data
and so much technology that we don't know
what to do with it. The chance to track a
customer lead based on what the person
looked for and where is a huge opportunity
for dealers to better manage their ad spend.
Tracking leads is one of the areas where
technology can bring focus and help answer
questions we couldn't previously answer.
Dealers like to say we waste half of our
advertising dollars, but we just don't know
which half. The digital space is similar - we
just don't know as definitively as we need to
http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM
Digital Dealer - October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - October 2019
