How to: Implementing New Tech at Car Dealerships

Digital transformation has had a major impact on automotive retail customer experience, transforming the very way we do marketing - strategizing, implementing, and tracking results in order to offer convenience and high levels of personalization to prospective buyers and existing clients.

Every new tool or process impacts workflows in different ways, and your employees are likely to be challenged in adopting them. Change takes time and effort and research shows that companies end up failing over two-thirds of the time in implementing new practices, technology and methods.

In this article, we will show you how to manage bringing about change seamlessly, at your car dealership.

Invite Inputs in Selecting Tools

It’s always a good idea to vector in the specific needs of your employees. Get inputs about the workflow of your entire team, and figure out where the gaps are.

Understanding the specific needs of your team not only massively improves the implementation process, it also enables auto dealers to purchase technology that actually solves problems and helps the dealership become more profitable.

Clarify Dealership Goals

One of the crucial steps in obtaining acceptance from your staff about bringing in change is understanding the specific opportunities at your car dealership.

These could include factors such as the need to improve your lead-to-appointment ratio, the need to boost the returns on investment (ROI) of your marketing budget, and so on.

Communicate to everyone what the required change is, why it’s being implemented, and how it’s expected to affect each of your vehicle dealership’s departments.

Invest in Training

Most often, a new product or process being introduced isn’t followed up with a solid plan for implementing it, or training the staff to actually integrate it into their routine.

Big ideas must always be followed up with clear steps to ensure the transition takes effect, and an easy way to do it is to select employees who will be using it the most, and setting time aside to train them at operating it.

Encourage Continued Learning and Feedback

Reinforcement is a huge part of implementing change.

Highlight team members who used it most successfully and those who figured out ways to optimize it. Provide a clear channel for your staff to submit feedback about the newly implemented change, and do take suggestions seriously.

In addition to making the change readily accepted, these practices have the double benefit of creating a culture of creativity and innovation at your auto dealership.