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Despite reports of August 2018 being a strong month for Sales nationally, for AutoPlay August was a down month with only a slight increase in Test Drives (up 0.3% from July) and a decrease in Leads (down 3.1%) and Sales (down 1.4%).  Despite Leads decreasing in August overall, Leads attributed to dealership websites increased by 1.2% (‘Web – Dealer’ increased by 1.2%). This was offset by Leads from most other sources decreasing across the board, including ‘Web – Classified’ falling by 5.5% from July to August, and Leads supplied by the dealers ‘Brand’ decreasing by 13.3% for the same period.  Test Drives were stable – likely due to the high volume of leads from previous months. Test Drives that originated from dealership website leads increased by 6.0%, and leads from the ‘Brand’ source increased by 5.1%. Conversely, Test Drives attributed to the ‘Direct’ lead source decreased by 11.8%  After an extremely strong July where the top 3 sources of Sales each increased by double digits, less Sales were recorded in August than July 2018. Sales attributed to the ‘Web – Dealer’ source decreased by 7.8%, ‘Repeat’ decreased 5.4% and ‘Web – Classified’ decreased by 6.6%.  Make sure to check in next month to find out the top sources of Leads, Test Drives and Sales for dealerships in September 2018. 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 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.
AutoPlay divides the customer contact lifecycle into ‘Out of Market’ contact nurturing, and ‘In-Market’ Leads requiring active in-dealership Lead management. This philosophy supports a mixed vendor ecosystem and maximises the integration possibilities. Dealer Management Systems (DMS) have been the backbone of dealerships since the inception of automated systems and processes. Over time the footprint of the DMS has increased to cover basic Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) to allow for the integration of many back-office services and applications. In recent years there has been a demand to include simplistic customer contact management as the pricing of full Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have been prohibitive. With the availability now of fully functional SaaS based CRM’s off the shelf at low per user price points, and many other low-cost marketing automation tools being accessible. Dealerships are now reverting to using their DMS for solely ERP services and investing in dedicated Lead management, CRM and marketing automation platforms. What Are The Contact Lifecycle Segments?1. Out Of Market Customers Nurturing of customer and prospect contact information remains the domain of CRM applications. This allows for a coordinated customer contact plan and centralising of all marketing activity to ensure prospects receive clear and not conflicting market messages. The interaction between the CRM customer activity and marketing automation is based on customer interaction or engagement, and optimises marketing spend and effectiveness. Once a customer prospect is driven across a predefined threshold a Lead is created and passed to the in-market domain for Lead management. 2. In-Market Customers For in-market customer lead management, time is the key factor in completing a successful conversion to a sale. The customer contact information including all collected background profiling data needs to be clearly made available along with the enquired-on vehicle or request. Based on the premise that people sell to people, the allocation of a lead to a sales agent needs to be efficient in order to allow for a timely first customer contact. Once in the hands of a Sales Agent it is important that there is a defined and adhered to digital ‘Road to Sale’ (RtS) process. 3. ERP Services On the completion of a successful sale the customer journey must remain seamless as the management continues through the BAU business processes. This includes the completion of the finance and delivery processes and the ongoing service requirements being met. As the customer remains active and engaged with the dealership it is important that this information is in turn fed back to the customer nurturing process that is provided to ‘Out of Market’ customers.  API's & Standards One of the major enabling technologies has been the maturing of real-time interfaces and API’s and a number of middleware vendors providing integration development and support. This has seen a rapid move away from the file transfer interfaces of the past. This has greatly opened up the choice of vendors available to provide highly effective ‘Pont Solutions’ to improve overall customer experience and management. Example AutoPlay Deployment AutoPlay Lead Flow Best Practice
Contact Support@autoplay.co.nz to order your own managed services Test Drive Kiosk
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).  Ah good ol’ new year’s resolutions. Most of us set them……and unfortunately most of us don’t follow through. Despite this there’s nothing wrong with a little self-improvement. A recent newspaper article stated that after 4 years of record growth in new car sales, 2018 is likely to be a flat year for kiwi dealerships. With that in mind now’s the perfect time to think about how you currently utilise AutoPlay, and set some new year’s resolutions about the role AutoPlay will play within your dealership in 2018.  1. I WILL BE BETTER AT TRACKING MY LEAD SOURCES AND CAMPAIGNS Some dealerships are fantastic at tracking the source of their leads and the campaigns that generated them. These dealers have a fantastic understanding of how both their own, and their brands marketing is affecting in dealership activity (not just sales!). On the flip side if you are only capturing lead sources for 50% of your leads then you are only seeing half the picture. Capturing lead sources and campaigns is easy and as of 17.4 you can now hide sources you don’t want to see. In 2018 managers need to take control of this process to ensure their sales teams are capturing this valuable info. Some AutoPlay clients make it part of sales KPI’s for their team, whilst others simply make the fields compulsory. However, it’s achieved, one of your biggest lead management goals for 2018 should be to increase the rate at which you are capturing Lead Sources and Campaigns.  2. I WILL IMPROVE MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE AUTOPLAY REPORTING SUITE Besides improving accuracy and efficiency across dealership processes, one of the real cherries on top of the AutoPlay pie is the huge amount of reporting we make available to dealerships at no additional cost. AutoPlay reports are designed to be easy to understand and digest, however like anything gaining true understanding requires work. In 2018 whether you are a salesperson, sales manager or dealer principal you should focus on really understanding some of the data at your fingertips. If you already have a basic understanding of AutoPlay reports then your focus should be on understanding what that data means. An example of this is knowing that 50 leads in awaiting action is likely to translate to 25 Test Drives and 10 Sales at your normal rates of conversion. This represents the next level of understanding over your reports which can help take performance and decision making to the next level.  3. I WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE TOOLS I HAVE ACCESS TO As a rule, most dealers use AutoPlay Sales Pipeline well – capturing leads, scanning driver’s licences and business cards and completing digital Test Drive, Appraisal and Write Up forms. With AutoPlay we don’t charge per lead entered, or per form completed. Most of our services follow a ‘fill your boots’ model – meaning users can really focus on taking advantage of the tools available to them. One aspect that can yield real benefits is the new Live Leads process which makes it easy to build a database from your captured leads, and automatically funnel any resulting follow up activity back against the customer and lead in the Sales Pipeline. AutoPlay will typically send one of these emails on behalf of each dealership who wants it, however we place no limits on how many Live Leads eDM’s each dealership can send if they create and manage the campaigns themselves. As the emails are templates with your branding and vehicle videos it’s incredibly easy to build these emails. If you are not taking advantage of this already jump on board.  4. I WILL MANAGE MY OVERDUE & STALLED LEADS One of the most common issues we see at dealerships is their response to Overdue or Stalled leads. Overdue leads are those that were due for action -3 to -20 days ago but have not been diarised forward yet. Stalled leads are more than 21 days overdue without being diarised forward. These leads are easily filtered to and management is alerted via Daily Health Checks and other reporting. However, what we commonly see is dealerships paralysed by fear when it comes to this data. For some reason many dealerships see huge value in their Overdue or Stalled leads and seem unable to make the decision to close the leads as lost. It sounds redundant, but there is no value in these leads unless you action them. There are several approaches to handle Overdue & Stalled leads. a. Allocate them to another salesperson – nothing is more effective at motivating salespeople to update their system than threatening to give those leads to another, more motivated salesperson. You can do this individually or in bulk using the ‘Bulk Allocate’ function. b. Close the leads as “Lost” – you don’t need to be scared of the word “lost”. In AutoPlay’s context all “lost” leads are still visible in the Sales Pipeline and can be easily found using the search filters. Closing leads as “lost” helps keep your dashboards manageable. c. Use AutoPlay Live Leads to retarget these Overdue or Stalled Leads by emailing them with Live Leads. You can do this by selecting Close Lost if you had previously do so, or alternatively you can use the other filters to isolate these Overdue or Stalled Leads. If the customer is still in the market the lead will be updated accordingly – saving time communicating individually with customers who may be more than 6 months overdue.  5. I WILL USE THE CALENDAR EFFECTIVELY The calendar built into the Sales Pipeline enables users to diarise leads forward for future follow up. As the default AutoPlay dashboard is set to only show activity due in +/- 3 days, this means that you only see the leads you need to be focussing on right now. A good habit to get into at the end of handling each lead is treat the Sales Pipeline like your manager - tell us where you got to, and what you are going to do next. In practice this means updating the Lead Progress, then setting a Calendar event for follow up. This serves multiple purposes; a. Keeps your Dashboard clean and makes finding leads easier b. Minimises the number of leads falling through the cracks into Overdue or Stalled and being forgotten about c. Ensures the Morning Meeting Report contains accurate information about what is happening within the dealership d. Ensures the Overdue Lead Report and Daily Health check provide management with an accurate reflection of salesperson activity Sticking to these 5 new year’s resolutions can be an effective way to get better at using the AutoPlay Sales Pipeline, however they are not the only ways to make positive changes. We encourage all our customers to sit down, review their own usage and commit to 5 of their own lead management resolutions. If you have any questions about AutoPlay products & services, or wish to book training you can contact AutoPlay on support@autoplay.co.nz
 The end of the year is here and with it the AutoPlay team takes a well deserved break. Our last day before Xmas is Friday 22nd - we will be wrapping things up around 1pm (pun intended!).
As always AutoPlay will be closed over the stat holidays. Over the 27th, 28th and 29th December the office will still be closed, however for any emergencies you can email support@autoplay.co.nz. This email will be checked a couple of times a day for any issues that is critical (i.e wrong price on Trade Me). Any improvement requests or non critical issues will be addressed when the full team is back on board. The office will reopen with a skeleton crew on the 3rd of January, with reduced hours of 9am to 4pm. The full team will be back on January 8th, 2018. FULL XMAS HOURS Friday 22nd December Closing at 1pm ------------------------------- Monday 25th December Closed ------------------------------- Tuesday 26th December Closed ------------------------------- Wednesday 27th December Office Closed. Email support@autoplay.co.nz for emergencies ------------------------------- Thursday 28th December Office Closed. Email support@autoplay.co.nz for emergencies ------------------------------- Friday 29th December Office Closed. Email support@autoplay.co.nz for emergencies ------------------------------- Monday 1st January Closed ------------------------------- Tuesday 2nd January Closed ------------------------------- Wednesday 3rd January Open 9am to 4pm ------------------------------- Thursday 4th January Open 9am to 4pm ------------------------------- Friday 5th January Open 9am to 4pm ------------------------------- Monday 8th January Full AutoPlay Team back on board - business as usual ------------------------------- If you have any issues over the XMAS and New Years break please email support@autoplay.co.nz and we will get back to you as soon as possible. |
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"AutoPlay Sales Pipeline is a pre-sale lead management tool"