As many of you will be eagerly awaiting, we've been rebuilding our existing Silverlight based Desktop Studio in HTML5.  This will give our customers huge benefits including the ability to run the Desktop on any browser (Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge, Safari etc), as well as on any device (iOS, Android, Windows tablet and devices).  This obviously means that installs are easier, and it becomes a lot more flexible for our users to jump on and manage leads at any time.

We've been working diligently on this project on/off from January, but it's been a while since we last updated all our customers on our progress towards completing this massive project.  Where possible we are pumping as much resources into this project as possible, and we are making good progress.  At present we are working on the most important part of the system - the Dashboard of the Sales Pipeline.

As you can see from the screenshot above we are making good progress on this.  The Dashboard is much faster loading and has had a few subtle improvements, whilst still maintaining all the amazing features our customers are used to.

The HTML5 version of the AutoPlay Studio for Desktop is our number one development priority.  At this stage we are hoping to get an early release BETA version out to selected customers at the end of Q1.  If this changes then we will advise you as soon as possible.

If you have any questions about the HTML5 version of the AutoPlay Studio then please feel free to email matt@autoplay.co.nz with your questions.

Last week we launched a refresh of the AutoPlay website.  The new site does a better job of showcasing the full range of products and features that AutoPlay can offer.  In addition there are now separate versions of the site for New Zealand and Australia that include customised content for each country, that more closely reflects our product offerings in each respective market.

Feel free to take a look via the links below.  We'd love to hear your feedback.

For New Zealand customers - https://www.autoplay.co.nz/ 
For Australian customers - https://www.autoplay.com.au/​

The weather may have taken a turn for the worse recently, but Lead, Test Drive and Sales activity remains buoyant.  Following a strong May, June 2018 saw the number of Leads generated increase by 6.2%, Test Drives increase by 5.9% and Sales by 1.2%.

For the second consecutive month the number of leads from the ‘Web – Dealer’ source decreased – by 1.2% from May to June.  As expected with Fieldays activity we experienced a 30.8% increase in the number of leads generated to dealers by their ‘Brand’.  After a significant increase in leads from ‘Web Classified’ sources last month, this source again accounted for the 3rd most leads and increased by 5.7% from May to June 2018.

After the volume of Test Drives from the ‘Web – Dealer’ source decreased in May, the source rebounded to increase by 17.3% from month to month.  Test Drives attributed to the ‘Direct’ source again occupied second spot and increased by 7.8% from May to June.  Test Drives from ‘Brand’ generated leads did increase – by 4.9% - but perhaps less than expected from the higher volume of Fieldays leads.  This potentially means that Fieldays activity has been a bit slow to translate to Test Drives, and potentially means we may see a proportionate increase in Test Drives from the ‘Brand’ source in future months.

In June 2018 there was a change in the status quo for Sales tracking.  Whilst ‘Web – Dealer’ retained the top spot and increased by 8.9% from May to June 2018.  However, whilst in May ‘Repeat’ and ‘Direct’ accounted for the 2nd and 3rd most Sales by source, these sources were overtaken by ‘Web Classified’ (up 27.4% from May 2018) and ‘Brand’ (up 32.9%) respectively. 

Make sure to check in next month to find out the top sources of Leads, Test Drives and Sales for kiwi dealers in July.  Lead Source reports are just one of the reports available to dealerships and OEM’s who use AutoPlay Sales Pipeline.  To find out more about the range of reports available via AutoPlay contact us on sales@autoplay.co.nz or +64 9 361 1505.

The rebuild of our Desktop Studio has now been going 4 weeks and we've made some great progress towards getting the structure and skeleton of the new system built out.  Over the coming months we'll continue to update you all with our progress.  For the moment check out the highlights from the first month of development.

1.  NEW LOGIN SCREEN & PASSWORD CONTROL
The first step for this project was to create the basic structure that will allow our users to login.  We've rebuilt the login page on the new application to work with a wider range of browsers and devices.  That means that when the new application is released users will be able to login using IE11+, Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Safari (Mac &  iOS), Opera browsers instead of just Internet Explorer.  They would also be able to login using Android tablets and smartphones and not just Desktop and iOS.

2.  PASSWORD RESET EMAIL
We've restyled the password reset email to match all AutoPlay branding, as well as cleaned up the email design and content to help users who have multiple accounts know which password they are resetting.

3.  RESET PASSWORD WEB PAGE
Like the password reset email we've rebranded the Reset Password web page to bring it in line with the look and feel of all the other AutoPlay applications.  The new page also features a count of the number of characters entered, as well as a rating on the strength of your new password - all designed to make it more user friendly for users resetting their passwords.

4.  RED APPLICATION HEADER MENU
We've restyled the header menu to work on all devices.  We've also created a new 'Profile' menu located at the top right corner of the screen.  The 'Profile' menu features some commonly used screens such as My Details and the Logout button.  We've made these changes to make these screens more accessible to our customers.

5.  MAIN LHS NAVIGATION MENU
We've also rebuilt our main navigation menu as part of this project.  If using a smartphone or tablet the menu will automatically snap shut to give users the maximum screen space, whilst on Desktop screen sizes the navigation menu will remain open to take advantage of the extra screen real estate available.  Additionally when each section is opened (i.e Emails, Contacts or Sales Pipeline) it will automatically collapse the other sections - saving a lot of scrolling from top to bottom of the screen.

AutoPlay are pleased to announce a partnership with Customer Radar.  Customer Radar allows your customers to provide feedback quickly, easily and directly.  

HOW DO CUSTOMER RADAR SERVICES WORK?

VISIT https://www.customerradar.com/ TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT CUSTOMER RADAR.  

 WHAT IS NPS (NET PROMOTOR SCORE)?
​The NPS is a globally recognised management tool that is used to gauge the loyalty of a businesses customer relationships.  Knowing that promoters churn less means you can invest more in creating an amazing customer experience that turns more 'Passives' and 'Detractors' into 'Promoters'. Detractors are your biggest headaches. Work on reducing the percentage of defectors to improve your NPS and grow your business.
 
WHY DO I NEED TO BE WORRIED ABOUT MY NPS SCORE?
- 96% of dissatisfied customers don't complain. For every 1 complaint you know, there are potentially 25 others that haven't complained.
 - 66% of consumers who switched brands did so because of poor service
- 85% of customer churn due to poor service was preventable.
- 11% of customer churn could be prevented by simple company outreach.
- 67% of customer churn is preventable if the customer issue was resolved at the first engagement.
 - Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable compared to companies that are not focused on the customer.
​- Research shows that 55% of consumers are willing to pay more for a guaranteed good experience. 
- 86% of consumers are willing to pay more for an upgraded experience. Air travel and hospitality are examples where upselling better experiences can generate incremental revenue and bolster customer loyalty.
- 84% of consumers are frustrated when the agent does not have information.
- Customer frustration leads to the following: 13% tell 15 or more people if they’re unhappy. Conversely, 72% of consumers will share a positive experience with 6 or more people.
- 67% of consumers site bad experiences as reason for churn.
- 50% of customer experience natural occurring churn every 5 years.
- Only 1 out of 26 unhappy customers complain. The rest churn. A lesson here is that companies should not view absence of feedback as a sign of satisfaction. The true enemy is indifference.
- 91% of unhappy customers who are non-complainers simply leave.
- It is 6-7X more expensive for companies to attract new customers than to keep existing customers.
- 65% of companies are able to successfully upsell or cross-sell to existing customers.
- Only 12% of companies are able to successfully upsell or cross-sell to new customers.
- 75% of brands do not know what engagement means - but are measuring “it”

​Contact sales@autoplay.co.nz to find out more about Customer Radar services, pricing and how to sign up.

​What would a new year be without a "trends for 2018" article?  To save you time reading them all we've scoured the web for all the best trends the experts are saying will be big in 2018.

Mobile will dominate digital interactions
71% of all digital interactions occurred on a mobile in 2017 and this is only likely to grow in 2018.  In the US this means not only mobile responsive sites, but also mobile apps.
·         66% of people use mobile apps
·         41% are likely to download a dealer or manufacturer app as part of their pre-purchase research
·         36% find manufacturer apps useful in making a decision
​ (Rebixit, 2017)

Local searches are vital
Most car shoppers are searching for information on their local dealerships including;
·         54% search for business hours
·         53% search for directions to their local store
·         45% search for availability of product at a local store
(Rebixit, 2017)

Video will be the biggest disruptor
Video marketing brings the highest ROI and 4x as many customers would rather watch a product video than read about it (Rebixit, 2017).  Social video sharing is predicted to be very impactful with 69% of people watching Youtube when buying a car reporting they were influenced by it (J&L Marketing, 2017).  It’s reported 1 in 3 online visitors watch car videos at least once a month (Izmocars, 2017).

VIN specific campaigns
In the US they refer the them as “VIN specific campaigns” but you might not recognise them by that name.  These adverts are vehicle inventory specific adverts that display on Facebook and other websites after someone visits your website and views the content.  The adverts are highly relevant which generally translate to better results.  After three months, dealerships experience an average 41% increase in clickthrough rate (J&L Marketing, 2017).

Voice Optimised Search becomes a thing
In 2015 over 20% of online searches were conducted by voice search (Search Engine Land, 2017).  By 2020 it is predicted this will increase to 50% due to services like Siri, Google Voice, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon Echo Alexis (Entrepreneur, 2017).  In 2017 marketers will start to focus more on voice searchable content – meaning more full sentence answers and conversational copy.

Digitise the car buying process
Increasingly car manufacturers are taking advantage of technology to introduce digital aspects to point of sale such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).  Overseas retail space can be scarce or costly so it is not unusual to see dealerships with only a handful of cars on display and supported by digital selling tools like vehicle configurators and 360-degree explorers – the new Audi Virtual showroom in London (Entrepreneur, 2017).  In NZ we’ve seen large format digital screens in airports and shopping malls for a few years now and this is only expected to grow as technology becomes even more entwined in our lives.

Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace launched in October 2016 and overseas there has been a large up swell in the dedicated vehicles category.  In late 2017 Facebook announced further improvements in the US with used car values pulled from Kelley Blue Book, and inventory listings from Edmunds, Cars.com, Auction123, CDK Global and SocialDealer and expanding search options to include transmission and vehicle types (The Verge, 2017).  When customers show interest in a dealer-listed car on Marketplace they are prompted to contact the car dealer directly via the Facebook Messenger App – giving car dealers a new tool to speak with potential customers on a one-on-one basis (Stuff, 2017).