Every day, there seems to be some new, innovative technology marketed to tire dealers. With these advancements, it can be hard for dealers to focus on the tools they already have and keep them updated.
“It can be easy for dealers to maintain ‘business as usual’ and not take advantage of newer, modern technologies and features that are being introduced by point-of-sale system providers,” says Ashley Hopkins, director of enterprise operations, ASA Automotive Systems Inc.
Hopkins says a dealer’s point-of-sale system should make tasks “simpler and faster” and dealers need to “find a system that helps solve their core business challenges.”
David Andreoli, president of Andreoli Software, agrees that it is easy for dealers to “choose point-of-sale systems that do not benefit their dealership’s main problems.
“We have seen some dealers choose a new system to handle a process they perform five times a week more effectively, but does a poor job of handling a process the dealer (encounters) 100 times a week,” he says.
Texting communication is a feature that has been popping up on enhanced tire dealership point-of-sale systems.
Jay Adams, president of MaddenCo, says it is important for dealers to understand best practices when it comes to texting customers.
“A user should understand texting limitations and have a feel for when a phone call or in-person meeting is required, so that there is no misunderstanding between the parties,” he explains.
John Fischer, vice president of sales and marketing at Kerridge Commercial Systems, says a good way to build trust with customers is to not have the first communication be a quote on what a service or product will cost.
Representatives from point-of-sale system providers agree that systems also will have to keep integrating and connecting with other software and tools to maximize their effectiveness.
They also have more to say about effective point-of-sale system usage - including texting - and more.
MTD: What do dealers need to know about modern retail point-of-sale systems and how can they utilize system features more efficiently?
Andreoli (Andreoli): When investigating a new system, it is important for a dealer to focus on the processes that occupy most of their day and their biggest challenges. A new system should make these tasks faster and easier, while solving the biggest challenges faced by the business owner. Analyzing a system by a list of features can be overwhelming and can lead a dealer to make a poor choice. Do not buy with a feature checklist. Find a system that makes sense to you. Find a system that is going to make the bulk of your day more efficient. Find a system that helps solve your core business challenges.
Hopkins (ASA): Point-of-sale products that have been available to the industry for many years should still be evolving year to year with the latest version updates. With current updates come new features that typically can be configured to fit a dealer’s workflow process. It can be easy for a dealer to maintain business as usual and not take advantage of newer, modern technologies and features that are being introduced by point-of-sale providers. An annual account review with the provider can help maximize the value of the system in place and educate the dealer about new features that have been added and how to use them efficiently.
Fischer (Kerridge): Modern retail point-of-sale systems should have an option to run as a true cloud-based native application. This means that the software can run within an internet browser without requiring any software to be loaded on the client workstation, tablet or smart phone. Most modern point-of-sale software provides a feature to connect to all tire and parts suppliers in the supply chain for inquiries, ordering and back-office reconciliation. It is a feature that in many dealerships is not used frequently enough. Many of our customers have put together training programs with our help and have offered incentives to staff to encourage this new type of workflow. When successful, the dealership has improved profit margins, lowered costs and improved the return process of products not sold.
Adams (MaddenCo): First, the data input into the system must be good. A modern point-of-sale system will not make up for incomplete or inaccurate data input. A modern system can help and it can lead the user to put in accurate and complete data, but in the end, the user has to do his or her part. Second, moving away from data, I would note modern systems can allow a tire dealer to go paperless, which greatly improves efficiency. Also a modern system can help with business analytics, such as identifying the type of customer walking in the door, what the customer wants and is willing to pay, suggesting add-on services and recommending service intervals based on vehicle service history analytics, etc. Again, that requires good data input to get a quality result.
MTD: Does your product offer a feature that allows dealers to communicate by text with customers? What are some best practices dealers should use or employ when communicating with customers through texting?
Andreoli (Andreoli): Yes, via a few different third party-integrated products - the most used being AutoTextMe. It is most important not to abuse your customer’s trust by using their mobile number for mass marketing text messages, unless the customer has specifically opted in for marketing messages. Text communications are best used while a shop is actively servicing the customer’s vehicle. These types of texts provide value to the customer by answering customer questions, alerting the customer to the status of a repair, providing a quote or providing a payment link.
Hopkins (ASA): Yes, we do. Texting should provide two-way communications, outgoing and incoming, with the ability to store the communication in a customer’s historical records. Texting can be expanded to send reminders of upcoming appointments, status updates during a day (i.e., parts on order, vehicle is ready), allow for text-to-pay with a secure link to credit card processing and automated thank you messages at day’s end. Dealers should also give customers the opportunity to opt out of text.
Fischer (Kerridge): Yes, Our VAST software and CarSide inspection tool offer the ability to text customers the result of inspections, send quote totals and even allow customers to pay via text-to-pay. We train our customers to text the inspection results, showing what has passed and describing what your dealership recommends. Your service writer or salesperson will see within the point-of-sale software when the customer is viewing the (vehicle) inspection. At that point, you should call your customer since they are already looking at the text, so you can discuss the results.
Adams (MaddenCo): We offer texting capabilities within our point-of-sale module and our service bay scheduling module. Best practices would include not overusing the texting functionality. That said, real-time and automated texting capabilities can keep customers informed and allow a dealer to get feedback on the customer experience and send (customers) future promotions.
MTD: What will be the next frontier in tire dealership point-of-sale systems?
Andreoli (Andreoli): Point-of-sale systems will continue to require further integration into other systems to support the business. A new frontier in our industry is smarter machinery in the shop. Today, there are actually robots changing tires. Point-of-sale systems of the future will need to communicate with the smart machines being leveraged in the bays. This will be increasingly important as shops continue to have struggles finding qualified workers.
Hopkins (ASA): Data mining with business intelligence tools will continue to grow in importance and expand with features prompting sales staff at the counter with recommendations for services due to individual customers. But the next frontier is always adapting to consumer habits and how they shift over time. With the increasing trend of retail consumers in general looking for less personal engagement with businesses from shopping and quoting to scheduling appointments - the connection from point-of-sale to consumer-facing web portals and the sharing of data to streamline transactions will be critical.
Fischer (Kerridge): It will be critical for modern point-of-sale software to provide public application program interfaces (API), which in essence are plugs that allow the point-of-sale system to connect easily and much quicker to other software, equipment and Internet of Thing devices. Today, with most providers, (when) dealerships want to interface to another product, the software company needs to be involved. With point-of-sale software and public APIs, the dealership can work with the third party to plug into the API without the software company being involved. Some examples of connected software would be credit card processing, online calendars showing tire information on your website, etc.
Adams (MaddenCo): There will continue to be a move to having all things cloud-based or hosted in some fashion. On the commercial side, there will be more integration between tire dealer point-of-sale systems and fleet maintenance systems. This should make the servicing process more streamlined and lead to less manual data input. Business analytics will become even more important to tire dealers. Finally, I think you will see more tire dealers offering customers access to invoices and allowing payments via web portals.
