As new software solutions from everything to customer relationship management to digital marketing to sales management to customer experience surveying pile up, dealers are often finding themselves to be part-time software managers and administrators. Many of these solutions don’t integrate well, so they require a lot of toggling back and forth, or repeatedly entering redundant information. It takes up a lot of time and effort…and that’s when the solutions work properly.
There has been a trend in recent years to try and consolidate the number of screens dealers must look at by combining functionality onto the same platforms. This bundling of services can help cut down on the amount of time spent interacting with them and eliminate some interoperability problem. It can also help consolidate paperwork for buyers and eliminate some confusion. (The downside, of course, is that it ties dealers to one software company more thoroughly and reduces choice.)
One of the companies talking about dealer software consolidation is Phoenix-based DealerPeak, LLC, which last year integrated DriveItNow’s Shop-by-Payment digital marketing tool into its CarDog solution. The company is now announcing upgrades to CarDog in the form of what it’s calling a “complete mobile-accessible automotive car dealership CRM software solution.” The new solution was introduced at the recent National Independent Automobile Dealers Association Convention & Expo held in Las Vegas in mid-June.
The goal of the new solution, according to DealerPeak, is to help independent car dealerships and sales professionals better use their administrative time so they can focus more on selling. Another noteworthy feature is that it brings more functionality to the mobile platform. Dealership CRM platforms of the past have been notorious for tying dealers to in-house desktop computers and laptops.
“CarDog solutions can help manage nearly every aspect of a busy car dealership,” according to the company. “Everyday tasks like customer sales, communication, website management, inventory control, sales leads, SMS and MMS texting are made simple with CarDog. It is a user-friendly automotive CRM that permits users to navigate at their speed and comfort level. In fact, the CarDog platform is accessible through mobile smartphone and tablet devices, as well as desktop and laptop computers.
DealerPeak says it’s the flexibility of the solution as well as workflow streamlining that makes it highly usable for multiple dealerships tasks. Users can update vehicle inventory, upload images, and video, or edit and add content to their website directly from their mobile device.
