Customers always want to pay as little as possible, right? Not so fast my friend. Customers will often willingly pay more for a product even when they can get a similar (or identical) product elsewhere for less.
While market conditions affect a significant portion of your business, the demands of customers have significantly shifted in the past few years — consumer expectations are much more focused on the online experience than they ever have been.
As other companies like Amazon and Netflix have put the customer experience at the center of their business model, consumers have come to expect simplicity, mobility and a quality experience.
Today’s car buyers are no exception. They want more transparency, and faster fulfillment. If you can gratify your customer’s desires better than the competition, they’ll usually be willing to pay a premium.
Differentiate yourself based on the experience you deliver to customers; not on the pricing of the products you sell.
One example of a dealer embracing this viewpoint is Carvana. In a recent interview, Ernie Garcia (Founder and CEO) said: “Our view is it doesn’t have much to do with the product. The customer experience is at the root.”
“We wanted to give customers more information, build a rich website experience, reduce costs and have a brand of transparency,” said Garcia. “I think what we provide is a unique customer experience that taps into the demand that’s been present from unsatisfied car buyers for a long time.”
The 2017 J.D. Power’s Consumer Financing Satisfaction Study also concluded that the range of services conducted online have the most impact on overall satisfaction.
With such disparate approaches to their websites, many auto dealers are failing to successfully capitalize on digital offerings that have tremendous opportunities to boost customer satisfaction and sales, and cut costs.
These examples highlight the magnitude of the growth opportunity before us. What if you just increased the percentage of happy online customers by 5%? For any dealer, large or small, that would be a game-changer in terms of revenue and profit.
