How one car dealer shows what’s best for the customer is best for business

“The whole notion of having to come to a dealership for service is outdated,” says Brian Benstock, general manager and VP at Paragon Honda, the largest certified pre-owned Honda dealership in the world. “If a customer doesn’t want to set foot in the dealership, they shouldn’t have to.”

That’s a pretty bold statement for an auto dealer, but for any marketer in any industry it reflects a new reality when it comes to meeting customer expectations.

As they have in other sectors, digital and mobile technologies have totally transformed the relationship between drivers and dealerships. People can do practically everything online that they’d do at a dealership—including comparing models and scheduling service—which has led them to expect a fast, friction-free experience both before and after the sale. “Time is the new currency,” says Benstock. “You’ve got to move at the speed of the customer. … If we don’t disrupt ourselves, the customer will do it for us.”

To meet customer expectations, Paragon Honda set out to transform its customer assistance by removing friction from one of the biggest customer pain points: vehicle maintenance and service.

“Our customers want to live their lives. They don’t have the time to drive out to the dealership, drop off their car, and wait for it to be serviced. Technology has changed their expectations, and we knew we needed to change our approach to service and marketing in order to meet those,” says Benstock.

Paragon Honda, in partnership with Team Velocity, took a three-step approach to transform the way it assists customers. The broader concepts behind this approach can be applied to almost any marketer in any industry. It comes down to considering the customers’ needs every step of the way.

1. Remove the friction

Regular or reactive car maintenance is an inconvenience that’s amplified when it requires visiting a dealership during working hours. Knowing that today’s consumers expect to get things done immediately, Paragon Honda developed an app that lets customers request to have their vehicle picked up, serviced, and returned to their home within 24 hours—no dealership visit required. That’s especially convenient in Queens, N.Y., where Paragon is based. Paragon’s seen that customers who use the Paragon Direct app drive twice as many repair orders compared to customers who don’t use it.

2. Test new technology

To make it even simpler for its customers to schedule service and maintenance, Paragon became the first dealer to build an app for the Google Assistant. Drivers will soon be able to schedule service—such as routine maintenance, oil changes, and tire rotations—quickly and easily using just their voices.

3. Optimize marketing and measurement

Research shows that when drivers need information quickly, the first place they turn is search.1 To drive awareness of its 24-hour service online, Paragon ramped up its investment in search to be there in moments when people searched “honda oil change” and “honda maintenance” in the New York market. As a result, this strategy helped Paragon grow its service repair orders by 5X in the last 12 months, according to the dealership.

At the same time, when it comes to buying a car, search is the most commonly used among all sources, including word of mouth, television ads, and even dealer visits.2 For that reason, Paragon also used search ads to drive new and used vehicle sales, but needed a way to prove its impact. Instead of focusing solely on driving conversions through lead forms, Paragon used Google store visits to measure how search ads helped generate visits to its dealership. This helped the dealer better understand which keywords and campaigns were driving people to its dealership, and, according to Paragon, revealed that search was nearly 5X more cost-effective per vehicle sold compared to other media.

By sitting in the driver’s seat, Paragon was able to transform the way it assists its customers. “I think any time you do what’s best for the customer, that ends up being what’s best for the business,” Benstock concluded.

 

Original Article

 

Team Velocity Named One of Nine Partners in Oracle’s Auto Elite Data Marketer Program

Oracle Data Cloud Launches Data Marketing Program to Help Savvy Auto Dealer Agencies Better Use Digital Data

Nine Leading Retail Automotive Marketing Agencies Are First to Complete Comprehensive Program, Receive Oracle Data Cloud’s Auto Elite Data Marketer (EDM) Designation

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., – February 21, 2018 – Oracle Data Cloud today launched an advanced data training and marketing program to help savvy auto dealer agencies better use digital data. Oracle also announced the first nine leading Tier 3 auto marketing agencies to qualify for the rigorous program and receive Oracle Data Cloud’s Auto Elite Data Marketer (EDM) designation. Those companies included: C-4 Analytics, Dealer Inspire, Dealers United, Goodway Group, L2TMedia, SocialDealer, Stream Marketing, Team Velocity, and TurnKey Marketing. Oracle’s Auto Elite Data Marketer program will help agencies effectively allocate their marketing resources as advertising budgets shift from offline media to digital platforms.

“As the automotive industry goes through an era of transformational change, dealers are literally where the rubber meets the road, and they need cutting edge marketing tools to help maintain or grow market share,” said Joe Kyriakoza, VP and GM of Automotive for the Oracle Data Cloud. “Tier 3 marketers know that reaching the right audience drives measurable campaign results. By increasing the data skills of our marketing agency partners, Oracle can help them directly impact and improve their clients’ campaign results.”

Oracle Data Cloud’s Auto Elite Data Marketer Program includes:

  1. Education & training – Expert training to the marketing agency and their extended teams on advanced targeting strategies and audience planning techniques
  2. Customized collateral – Co-branded collateral pieces to support client marketing efforts, including summary sheets, decks, activation guides, and other materials.
  3. Co-branding marketing – Co-branded marketing initiatives through thought leadership, speaking opportunities, and co-hosted webinars.
  4. Strategic sales support – Access to Oracle’s specialized Retail Solutions Team and the Oracle Data Hotline to support strategic pitches, events, and RFP inquiries.

“We are proud to have worked with Oracle Data Cloud since the beginning, shaping the program together to drive more business for dealers using audience data,” said Joe Chura, CEO of Dealer Inspire. “Our team is excited to continue this relationship as an Elite Data Marketer, empowering Dealer Inspire clients with the unique advantage of utilizing Oracle data for automotive retail targeting.”

“We are consumed with data that allows for hyper-personalization and better targeting of in-market consumers,” said David Boice, CEO and Chairman of Team Velocity Marketing. “Oracle is a new goldmine of data to drive excellent sales and service campaigns and a perfect complement to our Apollo Technology Platform.” According to Joe Castle, Founder of SOCIALDEALER, “We are excited to be one of the few Auto Elite Data Marketers which provides us a deeper level of custom audience data access from Oracle. Our companies look forward to working closely to further deliver a superior ROI to all our dealership and OEM relationships.”

Through the Auto Elite Data Marketer program, retail marketers learn how to use Oracle’s expansive selection of automotive audiences, which cover the entire vehicle ownership lifecycle, like in-market car shoppers, existing owners, and individuals needing auto finance, credit assistance, or vehicle service. This comprehensive data set allows clients to precisely target the right prospects for any automotive retail campaign. Oracle has teamed up with industry leading data providers to build the robust dataset, like IHS Markit’s Polk for vehicle ownership and intent data, Edmunds.com for online car shopper data and TransUnion the trusted source for consumer finance audiences.

Oracle Data Cloud plans to expand the Auto Elite Data Marketer program to include additional dealer marketing agencies, as well as working directly with dealers and dealer groups and their media partners to use data effectively for advanced targeting and audience planning efforts. For more information about the Auto Elite Data Marketer program, please contact the Oracle Auto team at dealersolutions@oracle.com.

Oracle Data Cloud

Oracle Data Cloud operates the BlueKai Data Management Platform and the BlueKai Marketplace, the world’s largest audience data marketplace. Leveraging more than $5 trillion in consumer transaction data, more than five billion global IDs and 1,500+ data partners, Oracle Data Cloud connects more than two billion consumers around the world across their devices each month. Oracle Data Cloud is made up of AddThis, BlueKai, Crosswise, Datalogix and Moat.

Oracle Data Cloud helps the world’s leading marketers and publishers deliver better results by reaching the right audiences, measuring the impact of their campaigns and improving their digital strategies. For more information and free data consultation, contact The Data Hotline at www.oracle.com/thedatahotline.

About Oracle

The Oracle Cloud offers complete SaaS application suites for ERP, HCM and CX, plus best-inclass database Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) from data centers throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information about Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com.

Trademarks

Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact Info
Simon Jones
Oracle
+1.650.506.0325
s.jones@oracle.com

Original source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oracle-data-cloud-launches-data-marketing-program-to-help-savvy-auto-dealer-agencies-better-use-digital-data-300601638.html

AutoSuccess Top 10 Companies to Watch in 2018

10 Innovative Technology Companies Who Help Dealers Dramatically Evolve and Emerge

The automotive industry continues to evolve around the way consumers research, buy and service vehicles. One thing remains the same in the highly competitive industry — dealers continue to implement marketing strategies and technologies to help drive new sales and service business while at the same time retain their existing customers.

Dealers have hundreds of companies to choose from that offer a range of services, from niche programs to full-service marketing companies. Researching and evaluating that many companies can be very time consuming and often confusing. Therefore, we are releasing the Top 10 Companies to Watch in 2018 to help identify companies that are leading the industry with innovative solutions.

In summary, the companies on this list are leading the industry and are helping achieve measurable results for some of the most demanding and successful dealerships, associations and OEMs
in the industry.

Read Article

Serent Capital Invests in CallRevu, Automotive’s Top Performing Call Management Solution

CallRevu, a leading provider of automotive dealer call management software that delivers dealership customers critical call performance data, has entered a partnership with Serent Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm focused on investing in high-growth technology and services businesses.

CallRevu’s solution is comprised of data-rich interfaces supported by sophisticated functionality and machine learning that helps dealership drive higher sales. Because today’s car buyer does most of his or her research online, the inbound phone call has become increasingly important for dealerships. Callers are typically high-value sales prospects, far along in their purchasing journey, and so answering these calls properly is paramount to a dealer’s success. Dealers who leverage CallRevu’s unique platform gain substantial insights into phone calls, both those that convert into sales and, as important, those that are mishandled, but can be recovered. CallRevu serves over 3,300 dealer locations and partners with twenty global automotive manufacturers.

“Since inception, CallRevu has focused on one thing – improving car buyers’ experience on the phone and in the dealership. CallRevu was first to market in this arena providing dealers unmatched services to improve the customer’s journey. Our call management solution has been critical to enhancing this experience, which ultimately allows automotive dealerships to maximize their conversion of valuable leads,” said Chip King, CEO of CallRevu.

He continued, “As we continue to scale, we wanted to bring on an investment partner who could offer the set of resources and expertise that will enable the next phase of our growth plan. We feel that the capability Serent Capital brings is perfectly suited to helping us capture the opportunities ahead, while maintaining a steadfast focus on delivering strong value and service to our customers.”

“We have spent several years looking for the right platform for investment in the automotive technology sector. CallRevu is a differentiated solution and leader in the call management space, and we are tremendously impressed by the business that Chip and his team have built. This success is demonstrated by stellar customer satisfaction, strong growth, and high retention rates,” said Kevin Frick, Partner at Serent Capital.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with the CallRevu management team to drive continued product innovation and growth.”

CallRevu’s dedication to ensure that every call to and from a dealership is a notably different and positive experience for the customer during this powerful next phase is stronger than ever. Focusing on clients and providing top notch customer service to every dealer is CallRevu’s passion. With this investment, CallRevu will be able to take their passion to the next level.

CallRevu was founded by Chip King and David Boice, the CEO of Team Velocity Marketing, which incorporated CallRevu’s services into its marketing and Apollo Technology Platform®. This seamless integration and reporting has provided Team Velocity’s dealers the ability to generate leads and track attribution to the marketing. “Serent Capital is the right partner for CallRevu’s next chapter, and we are thrilled to continue working with CallRevu to provide their call technology to our dealer customers”, said David Boice.

Serent’s investment in CallRevu represents its second investment in the automotive market, including Tricolor Automotive Group. Presidio Technology Partners represented CallRevu in the process.

CallRevu Logo

About CallRevu

Founded in 2010, Baltimore, MD-based CallRevu offers dealerships a range of quality call tracking, monitoring, measuring and lead development services. CallRevu’s key focus is to help automobile dealers measure and improve the most common contact point with their customers: the phone. CallRevu’s solutions are developed by an incredible team of individuals, who offer a broad range of experiences and whose leadership comes from the automotive world, and have an unrivaled commitment to customer service and satisfaction. For more information, visit the company’s website at http://www.callrevu.com.

About Serent Capital

Serent Capital invests in growing businesses that have developed compelling solutions that address their customers’ needs. As those businesses grow and evolve, the opportunities and challenges that they face change with them. Principals at Serent Capital have firsthand experience at capturing those opportunities and navigating these difficulties through their experiences as CEOs, strategic advisors, and board members to successful growing businesses. By bringing its expertise and capital to bear, Serent helps growing businesses thrive. For more information on Serent Capital, visit http://www.serentcapital.com.

Team Velocity Acquires Leading Video Pre-Roll Provider Car-Mercial

Team Velocity Marketing has acquired the industry leader in video pre-roll, Car-Mercial. Team Velocity will integrate the award-winning video technology into their marketing automation platform, Apollo, to further enhance customer engagement and optimize client performance.

“Team Velocity Marketing is excited to offer best-in-class videos to enhance our dealers’ digital marketing strategies. As Google has documented, video is the fastest growing consumer medium,” said Joe High, Senior Vice President, Team Velocity Marketing. “Both Car-Mercial and Team Velocity share a vision of simplifying marketing efforts through marketing automation technology. Integrating dynamic videos into our clients’ digital strategies will engage more online shoppers with relevant, offer-driven content, resulting in higher conversion rates and an extraordinary customer experience.”

Utilizing the Apollo Technology Platform®, Team Velocity will provide video pre-roll products with dynamic content to complement their current hyper-personalized approach to marketing. Apollo’s proprietary algorithms provide the ability to automatically produce nearly 30,000 payment and inventory based ads monthly across paid search, online dynamic display, and now dynamic video pre-roll. This industry-leading approach generates significant increases in leads and ROI attribution on digital marketing spend. Team Velocity will continue to support Car-Mercial’s current dealer clients as part of the acquisition.

“The Car-Mercial technology platform is perfectly suited to integrate with our Apollo Technology Platform®. We recognize the industry is heading in the direction of videos as a primary medium to communicate with consumers and we want to be ahead of the curve. Car-Mercial and Team Velocity will lead the industry with dynamic video pre-roll ads, something that has never been done before,” said David Boice, CEO, Team Velocity Marketing.

The transaction was an asset purchase, with Team Velocity acquiring the technology developed over 12 years by Automotive Webmercials, LLC, d/b/a Car-Mercial. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

FCA Approved!

Team Velocity Marketing is excited to announce all online and offline products are 100% PAP Fund Eligible! We take out the middle-man. Our partnership is directly with FCA, meaning more dollars spent on your marketing and less spent on agency fees. Even better, Team Velocity is the only full service marketing agency to be recognized as both a Google Premier Partner and a Bing Elite Partner.

 

CEO David Boice Featured in AutoSuccess Magazine

Our CEO, David Boice, shares shares his thoughts with AutoSuccess Magazine on how dealers can create a personal customer experience by leveraging innovative technology at the dealership.

“Why market to your customers and send them to slow public Websites where they can’t log in, and you can’t track them or do anything special for them? Can you imagine going to Amazon and starting over every time you wanted to buy something?”

 

Automotive News Meets Apollo @ NADA100

Automotive News dropped by the Team Velocity booth at NADA100 in New Orleans to #MeetApollo! Meagan Murray, marketing communications manger with Team Velocity Marketing, poses as an astronaut alongside Todd Crabtree, general manager of Jeff Haas Mazda in Houston, at the marketing agency’s booth.

The Top 10 Companies to Watch in 2017

The automotive industry continues to evolve around the way consumers research, buy, and service vehicles. One thing remains the same in the highly competitive industry – dealers continue to implement marketing strategies and technologies to help drive new sales and service business while at the same time retain their existing customers.

 

Team Velocity Boosts Its Automotive Marketing With New Xerox iGen 150 Presses

Press release from Xerox

Team Velocity Marketing, a full-service marketing company that is focused on the automotive industry, has acquired two Xerox iGen®150 Presses to meet growing demand from its clients. The new presses replace two of their existing Xerox iGen4® Presses, giving the company a fleet of four Xerox digital presses to tackle print volumes that have grown to four million pages per month.

Team Velocity uses the presses to produce data-driven targeted mail as part of multi-media campaigns orchestrated with personalized software from XMPie, a Xerox company, to gain and retain automotive sales and service customers.

“Xerox has been a great business partner of ours,” said Joe High, senior vice president, Team Velocity. “We started this business seven years ago with a printer and a vision. Today with Xerox products and services and Team Velocity’s vision we’ve grown into a multimedia campaign-driven organization that helps our customers reach their goals and the business results that keep them coming back.”

The iGen 150 prints at speeds as fast as 150 pages per minute and provides enhanced image quality with 2400 x 2400 dpi print resolution, multiple line screens for improved detail and matte dry ink for improved quality. The press is supported by advanced automated color management capabilities that help ensure excellent color quality and consistency, while the automated press setup and operation enables industry-leading press availability. The new presses also print on larger sheet sizes, extending highly productive multi-up printing capabilities.

Team Velocity Marketing is a multi-channel agency that is dedicated to serving automotive organizations in the United States with a 360-degree sales and service marketing program. The firm improves upon traditional mass marketing by giving automotive dealers a single, fully integrated solution that enables them to attract, sell, service and retain more customers at a lower cost. Team Velocity has been a Xerox customer for seven years and is based in Herndon, Va.