Evaluating Your CRM: Is it Time for an Upgrade?

In today's highly competitive automotive industry, customer relationship management (CRM) systems play a vital role in streamlining operations, improving customer experiences, and driving sales. However, with technology rapidly evolving, it's crucial for automotive businesses to periodically evaluate their CRM solutions and consider upgrading to a more efficient and feature-rich platform. This blog will guide you through the research process for a new automotive CRM, highlighting important questions to ask, signs indicating it's time for a change, key features to look for, and the significance of a reliable support team.

Signs It's Time for a New Automotive CRM:

Before diving into the research process, it's important to recognize signs that indicate your current CRM may no longer meet your needs. Consider the following indicators:

• Outdated User Interface: If your CRM's interface feels clunky, unintuitive, or lacks modern design elements, it may hinder user productivity and frustrate your staff.
• Limited Functionality: If your current CRM lacks essential features required for effective customer management, sales tracking, marketing automation, or integration capabilities, it may be holding back your business growth.
• Inflexibility and Customization Challenges: If your CRM doesn't allow customization to match your specific business processes or adapt to changing requirements, it can hinder efficiency and restrict your ability to provide personalized customer experiences.
• Poor Integration with Other Systems: If your CRM struggles to integrate seamlessly with other key business tools, such as inventory management or finance software, it can lead to data inconsistencies, duplication, or manual workarounds.
• Lack of Mobile Access: In today's mobile-driven world, having a CRM that offers robust mobile access and functionality is essential for sales teams on the go. (see our blog on mobile CRM here)

Important Questions to Ask:

Your dealership’s CRM goes a long way to improve the efficiencies of your daily activity and helps to elevate your business to the next level. With an emphasis on choosing a CRM that can do both those things, it’s important to ask the right questions during the research phase. The following are questions to ask  the company when researching for a new CRM:

• What specific challenges does your CRM aim to address in the automotive industry?
• Does your CRM offer customizable features and workflows to align with your unique business processes?
• How intuitive is your CRM's user interface? Is it easy to navigate and learn?
• Does your CRM integrate seamlessly with other essential tools and software we use, such as DMS, inventory, or accounting systems?
• What level of security measures does your CRM employ to protect customer data?
• What reporting and analytics capabilities does your CRM offer to track sales performance, customer behavior, and marketing effectiveness?
• What level of training and onboarding support does the CRM provider offer to ensure a smooth transition?
• What level of ongoing support does your CRM offer?

• What sets your CRM apart from the competition?
  
  

Important Features to Look For:

It’s important that your new CRM offer the features your dealership needs to improve your customer’s experience, as well as offer the tools and ease of use to make it easy and encouraging for your team to use. When researching new automotive CRMs, consider these essential features:

• Lead and Contact Management: Effective lead capturing, organization, and nurturing capabilities are vital for converting prospects into customers.
  (explore our Genius)
• Sales and Opportunity Tracking: The CRM should provide tools for managing sales pipelines, tracking opportunities, and monitoring sales team performance. (explore our Pipeline)
• Engagement/Communication Tools: Look for a CRM that has the engagement tools built seamlessly into the platform - Video, text, call, email, live video chat, emojis, and GIFs. (explore our Conversations platform)
• Inventory Management: For automotive businesses, CRM integration with inventory management systems helps streamline sales processes, track vehicle availability, and manage stock levels.
  (explore our Inventory feature)
• Analytics and Reporting: Advanced and up to the minute reporting and analytics features enable you to gain valuable insights into customer behavior, sales performance, and marketing ROI.
  (explore our Reporting)
• Mobile: Having a mobile app that is user friendly and includes all of the essential features to perform your job efficiently and with ease (while having fun doing so).
  (explore our mobile app)

Your dealership salespeople have already established a selling approach that resonates with potential buyers - selling to buyers in the manor in which they want to be sold. DriveCentric's suite of CRM and Automation tools meet your salespeople in that same selling space, making the selling process remarkably effortless. Amplified by DriveCentric's ease of use and intuitive features, your sales/BDC team can and will want to work out of the CRM. And by doing so, managing your team in real time with up to date analytics just became incredibly more efficient and easy.

In addition to simplifying the selling process, DriveCentric excels at creating exceptional customer experiences that surpass expectations. With tools like video, we guide customers back to your dealership's digital showroom, while also notifying your sales team. Our suite of interconnected products and features forms an ecosystem that benefits both your dealership and your customers.

At DriveCentric, we understand that switching CRMs is a significant decision for any dealership, and we approach this transition with the utmost seriousness. When considering a change to an automotive CRM, think beyond the limitations of a traditional CRM. Let DriveCentric show you what's truly possible, as we redefine your dealership's CRM experience.