Imagine this…A customer walks into a dealership and is treated exactly like they are routinely treated online. They would meet a bunch of people, and it would go something like this:
Website: Hi, my name is Website. Thanks for stopping by. How can I help you today?
Customer: Hey, we are looking to check out the new 2022 Telluride, see what our trade might be worth, and get a feel for of our monthly payments to see if it works in our budget. If so, we are interested in purchasing over the next few days.
Website: Perfect, let me show you around. BTW, how did you hear about us?
Customer: Your friends, Google and Facebook, suggested you. They said your offers on the 2022 Telluride were awesome!
Website: Ok, but first just a word of caution. Whatever you and Google and Facebook discussed privately may not be the same information you get here. But not a big deal, right?
Anyway, let me introduce you to my helpful widget friends. Just to name a few…This is Chat, that’s Trade, and over there is Video. My friend Finance is awesome, VDP is my main man, and you might even get to meet Retail, but most people don’t get that far.
Let’s get started with Chat. Just so you know, she will jump around frantically to get your attention and bug you all day long, unless you just say “hi” and tell her who you are. If I were you, I would just do it, because if you don’t, she is never going away. No matter what. Seriously dude, I am not joking around. I see it all day long. It’s actually crazy.
Chat: Hey, how may I help you today?
Customer: Hi, can you start with giving me some info on the new Telluride?
Chat: Slow your roll stranger. How about you start by giving me all of your information in case you decide to leave quickly, and a member of my team needs to reach you…like maybe tomorrow, probably… or at some point soon?
Customer: Ok, I am already here though. Why can’t they just speak with me right now, before I leave? But, fine, here is all my contact info. Now can you please let me know about that new ’22 Telluride?
Chat: Hmmm, that is such an incredible question. Hang on for a minute while I check. Darn it, Customer. I am afraid a member of my team cannot answer your question, but we will try our best to call you back tomorrow, hopefully. Is there anything else I can possibly do for you today?
Customer: You have not done one single thing for me today. Literally.
Website: Hey Customer, welcome back. Just so you know I cannot see or hear anything that any of my widget friends say or do. It’s like they live in their own world. But let’s get you straight over to Trade and see what happens.
Trade: Hi there. Tell me all about your trade, and then I will obviously need all of your contact information, and then I can send you a value report.
Customer: Ok, here is all my trade information, but I literally just gave Chat all my contact info, can’t you get it from her? Don’t you all work here? It’s the exact same information she just asked for 30 seconds ago.
Trade: Listen Customer, I can see you are already frustrated because you have not gotten a single bit of useful information since you arrived and have repeatedly been asked to identify yourself. I am sorry to say that this is only the beginning. Every other widget friend will need the same information. It’s what we are born to do. We cannot share your information because technically, none of us work here. We are employed and powered by other companies. See my real logo. It’s better to think of us all as “certified” and completely independent contractors. We can only keep our job if we prove to the boss that each of us have separately obtained your contact information. It’s like our fun game. Anyway, then we send your info over to CRM. He is getting old; he still counts the leads with his 20-year-old ADF calculator. Does that make sense Customer, in some small way?
Customer: No, not even in the slightest. I came here to get information to buy a Telluride. So far, all you want is for me to give you information to send to CRM. I thought you wanted to sell me a new Telluride. Google had me so convinced I could get a great deal, and it would be easy.
Website: Hey buddy, welcome back. I get it, just keep your chin up. I am going to get you straight over to my main man, the one and only VDP. We try and make sure everyone here meets him.
VDP: Hey Customer, I promise I am going to get you exactly what you need. Sounds like someone needs a great price and a payment on this 2022 Telluride. Am I right?
Customer: Yes, thank you VDP. You seem friendly with Website, so can you please tell me how much our monthly payment would be on this Telluride, including our trade information that I just gave your colleague, Trade.
VDP: Didn’t Website already explain all that? Whatever info you gave Trade stays with Trade. Sorry, I basically need all your exact same information. Relax, take a breath, because you may or may not like this… but the “awesome offers” you first saw from Google, or anywhere else, before we met are not actually our very best price. Isn’t that surprisingly fantastic news? We have something special called an E-Price. BTW, nobody knows what the “E” stands for. I am pretty sure it’s supposed to be like our “Extra” Special very best price. But it is not here now, it’s in a secret hiding place. All I need is your information and a spot to send this extra special E-Price because you understand I cannot exactly give it you now, right? I hope you get it. Fingers crossed.
Customer: Whaaaat? We are standing in the middle of your showroom right now, and we are ready to buy a Telluride. I don’t get it? I already gave your widget friends all my information and I just want to know an idea of my extra special payments NOW. That’s why we came here in the first place. Is that too much to ask, VDP? I mean, isn’t this a super common question?
VDP: Chill Customer. Please don’t bounce on me. We do have one final last-ditch option, and that’s to introduce you to the biggest, baddest widget friend in the dealership, Retail. But I am warning you, once you two meet, we may never see you again. She is a lone wolf with her own unique style and has her own entirely separate way of doing things. But perhaps she just might be able to help you. Really, at this point what do you have to lose? Are you ready?
Customer: Sure, let me meet her. But first, please tell me that all your other widget friends, or you, Website, already gave her all my contact information, all my trade information, and all my shopping history. I can’t take explaining this 2022 Telluride again and again. I don’t want to answer the same questions again. PLEASE!
Retail: Hey Customer, you look beat. By the way, what’s your real name? If I am going to help you, we need to start over fresh, and I do not want to hear about your time with Google, Facebook, or Website either. That’s all in the past.
Customer: Seriously, Retail? You also need my contact information, trade information and the details of what I want, too? And why are your prices and payments different than your associates, Google, Facebook, and Website? Are you joking?
Retail: Nope. Look, whatever your name is, only 3% or so of people even get this far. You should feel great about your effort. You have worked so hard and met so many widgets. Let’s finish this thing. Now, again, what’s your name, how can I reach you later, what are you trading, and how are you paying for it?
Customer: OMG! Do you even know Website, VDP, Chat, or any of the other people I have dealt with along the way? And shouldn’t Website have been able to just give me all this basic information himself, quickly? I still do not have an ounce of information I originally asked for. It’s so maddening.
Retail: Look, I admit I do not know them well. Except we go to conferences together and party like rockstars 😊. But, just between us, I am always the last person you’re gonna meet. It’s just how it works at our dealership. Now, like I said, let’s relax and start from scratch. It’s much easier if we both pretend everything that happened before we met is erased from your memory like it never happened. Even though it did.
Customer: You have got to be kidding me.
Can you imagine if this is what the in-store experience was like?
If you know the automotive landscape, I hope you enjoyed a laugh or two, like I did while writing this. While fun to smile, we are seriously devoted to creating solutions that empower retailers to dramatically improve their customers’ experience, both online and offline.
The bottom line is this…a dealer’s sales process (inside their stores) would never mimic the online sales experience. I would argue the customer experience is currently far better, more informative, and logical inside the dealership. Online, it’s typically disjointed from the first click of an email or a digital ad all the way through to a website filled with widgets. It’s even worse on mobile devices. The current online shopping journey takes consumers from one siloed experience to another, littered with distractions along the way. This ecosystem has slowly developed over 20 years and was not designed to easily facilitate the most important result: a transaction. Dealerships cannot efficiently manage 8-10 companies, all with individual goals and technology, and expect to create a meaningful customer experience that generates a great outcome for their business.
Integration is a change already established in most other industries, but not automotive retail… yet.
I call it “Mission Improbable” because the current ecosystem was developed like separate pieces of a puzzle that were never designed to fit. Given the exceptional online experiences customers have in other areas of their lives, it’s improbable they will play hopscotch through the maze of inconsistencies in both offers and user experiences. This siloed ecosystem is unique to automotive, and it’s heavily supported by a financial model that rewards silos, OEM certifications, etc. It’s become the norm.
But what are the alternatives? I see two logical pathways to improvement. The first would be a format to share customers’ contact information and shopping data across different platforms. Real integration between various technologies. But, the chances of wide enough adoption are unlikely because the level of cooperation would require tech companies that fiercely compete to also agree. On top of that, growing consumer privacy regulations and security environments would prove challenging.
The more likely alternative is the birth of all-inclusive platforms that were designed, acquired, or both, to facilitate the entire customer journey from the creation and first click of an ad to the final click of scheduling a sales delivery or service, without any unnecessary interruptions, all originally engineered to work together seamlessly. But, platforms like this will take time to adopt because investors, dealers, and OEMs are accustomed to the current mindset. Integration is a change already established in most other industries, but not automotive retail… yet.
We are passionately committed to a better alternative that is facilitated by one, fully-integrated technology platform, designed from the ground up for all “widgets” to work together for customers and dealerships. It is how the rest of the world is already retailing, and we believe we can too.
David Boice
Team Velocity Co-Founder & CEO
Volvo Selects Team Velocity® as Newest Certified Website Provider
Volvo retailers can now utilize Team Velocity’s all-inclusive automotive retailing technology, the Apollo® Customer Experience Platform (CXP).
FordDirect Introduces Team Velocity® as Newest 1:1 Customer Messaging Provider
Team Velocity’s Apollo® Customer Experience Platform (CXP) is now available to all Ford Dealers and Lincoln Retailers nationwide through the 1:1 Customer Messaging Program.
FordDirect Launches Team Velocity® Platform Solution, the First Integrated Retailing Program
Team Velocity’s Apollo® Customer Experience Platform (CXP) is now available to all Ford Dealers and Lincoln Retailers nationwide through the Platform Solution Program.
Toyota Motor North America Selects Team Velocity® As the Newest Website Provider in Digital Solutions Program
Team Velocity is eligible to provide Toyota Motor North America dealers with the industry’s first fully integrated customer experience platform, Apollo®.
Toyota Dealer Success Stories
Hear from Toyota dealers who made the switch to Team Velocity.
Team Velocity® Partners with Acura as Newest Provider in Digital Dealer Program
Team Velocity announces new partnership with Acura to deliver advanced integration, personalization, and automation to Acura retailers nationwide.
Team Velocity® Announces New Certified Partnership with Mazda
Team Velocity® announced its selection as an official website and digital advertising provider in Mazda’s Digital Certified Program.
Team Velocity® Announces All-New Certified Partnership with Volkswagen
Team Velocity® announced its selection as an official website and digital advertising provider in Volkswagen’s Dealer Digital Certified Program.
AutoSuccess: Vehicle Acquisition
An Inside Look At How to Fill Your Lot & Keep It Full
Like many retailers and manufacturers worldwide, the automotive industry was heavily struck by the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic. With national chip shortages, back-ordered products, late deliveries and dwindled inventory, dealers today were forced to rethink the entire car-buying process from online transactions to proactive vehicle acquisition strategies. However, like many surprise success stories, COVID-19 provided dealers with record-breaking results despite low and scarce new inventory.
So, what has changed in this “profitable dealer’s market,” and how can dealerships stay competitive and continue to reach record profits?
The answer is simple, vehicle acquisition.
Consumer demand is at an all-time high. As vehicle prices rise and inventory declines, over 60% of consumers have admitted to not adjusting their car-buying timeline. As delays in new-car production continue to grow, the market value on high-quality pre-owned cars has increased by almost 45%. To combat market conditions today, dealers can optimize their current car-buying strategy with increased integrated online and offline efforts to ensure they are acquiring new and pre-owned vehicles at the right time, to the right person.
Team Velocity® Becomes Latest Certified Provider in Maserati Dealer Digital Program
Maserati announced Team Velocity as the newest program-certified website, digital advertising, and retention provider.
Microsoft Advertising Channel Partner of the Year
Team Velocity® Awarded Microsoft Advertising Channel Partner of the Year
WASHINGTON D.C., February 16th, 2022 – Team Velocity. Microsoft Advertising has awarded customer experience marketing leader, Team Velocity, Channel Partner of the Year for outstanding performance in digital advertising. Working closely with Microsoft Advertising over the last 24 months, Team Velocity achieved a 40% increase in YOY ad spend, resulting in increased traffic and conversions for their clients. “If you know the automotive industry, you know there are no cars to sell right now, but our technology and the tools that Microsoft provides, came through big time for us in 2021,” says Joe High, Vice President at Team Velocity.
Team Velocity offers a comprehensive digital advertising solution backed by its customer experience platform, Apollo®. Designed to support the automotive retail industry, Apollo creates and delivers dynamic, automated, omni-channel marketing campaigns to in-market audiences based on behavior prediction analytics and a consumer’s propensity to make a transaction. What sets Team Velocity’s digital advertising apart is a unique integration with a dealership’s DMS system, allowing the dealership to advertise real inventory. Supported by Apollo’s marketing automation technology, their ability to dynamically advertise inventory drastically improves ad relevance and in turn, increases engagement.
“With Apollo Ads, we have created a scalable and consistent advertising solution that ensures the way a dealer advertises on platforms like Microsoft, Google, Facebook and YouTube, matches the way they advertise on their website. For every new and pre-owned car on the lot,, Apollo creates relevant, payment-driven ads across every digital medium. These ads include vehicle payments, factor in OEM and dealer incentives, meet compliance requirements and have the same message and offer across search, social, display, video and even email and targeted mail campaigns,” says David Boice, Co-Founder and CEO of Team Velocity.
The Channel Partner of the Year award comes on the tails of Google recently awarding Team Velocity a 2022 Premier Partner.
“Congratulations to our Premier Partners for being among the top 3% of Google Partners in the United States. These companies stand out based on their commitment to developing product expertise, building new client relationships, and helping their current clients grow. We look forward to supporting them as they help their customers succeed online.” says Davang Shah, Senior Director of Google Ads Marketing.
Microsoft announced its award winners on Thursday, February 10th, with an exclusive virtual video award. Microsoft Advertising Partner Awards recognizes elite and select partners for their work across multiple categories in 2021. The Channel Partner of the Year award embodies a company that focuses on volume, business scale, innovation, and creativity at the highest partnership level.
For more information about the Microsoft Advertising Partner Awards, please visit this link.
For more information about Google Premier Partners and their requirements, please visit this link.
About Team Velocity
Team Velocity is revolutionizing the automotive industry with technology that digitizes the car buying and vehicle ownership processes. Made by dealers for dealers, our Customer Experience Platform (CXP), Apollo, provides a suite of integrated applications that make, manage and measure frictionless consumer experiences, from the initial engagement to a final transaction. Apollo empowers dealers to own the entire customer journey by delivering hyper-personalized campaigns across every touchpoint, maximizing ROI and lifetime revenue.
For more information, visit TeamVelocityMarketing.com
AutoSuccess: Embracing the New Reality
How Paragon Finished #1 in the Nation
Since 2020, the automotive industry has changed for better or worse. Automotive companies, retailers, and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are now forced to rethink the entire car-buying process. Two years later, enterprises and consumers worldwide have felt the pandemic-induced changes firsthand — empty store shelves, back-ordered products, late deliveries, and dwindled inventory. So, with this “new normal,” as we have all heard the state of the world being referred to as, how have automotive dealers stayed profitable and competitive during this time?
The answer lies in the dealers that have fully embraced the new reality.
AutoSuccess: The Future of Integration
Connecting the Dots for a Better Customer Experience
See how dealers across the nation are unlocking the power of true performance, personalization and integration with customer experience solutions.
Today’s automotive ecosystem is being reshaped by seamless integration, digital adoption, technological advancements and empowered consumers. Thanks to companies like Amazon and Netflix, consumers no longer strive for personalization, convenience and speed, they expect it.
“It’s astonishing — dealerships today utilize about 10 to 15 different technology applications to communicate with customers. Like separated pieces of a puzzle that were never designed to integrate or fit with one another,” says David Boice, CEO of Team Velocity. “This siloed system leaves the customer more confused and frustrated than ever.”
Just in these past two years, we have seen the industry lean into a new digital and integrated era more than ever before. Companies regardless of industry are searching for new ways to stand out from their competition and provide the best possible customer experience across both online and offline mediums.
AutoSuccess: The Sky is Not the Limit
The Sky is Not the Limit
New Technology Changes the Future of the Customer Experience
Thanks to companies like Amazon and Netflix, consumers are demanding highly personalized online shopping experiences. Automotive websites have been slow to adapt to meet these new customer expectations — until now. Spurred by necessity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, dealerships have been offering better online services, including appointment scheduling, online transactions, repair reminders, upgrade offers, car pick-up, delivery and more.
“Instead of finding ways to bring the customer to the dealership, it’s how to bring the dealership to the customer,” Eric Frehsée, president of Jeffrey Kia, says. “That’s not something that any dealer can do on their own or something that any manufacturer can do on their own. It’s an evolution.”
In this ever-changing digital world, finding ways to bring the dealership to the customer in a personalized and automatic manner is the key to staying relevant and profitable. Customers’ needs have changed and as a result, the customer experience needs to change as well. “Personalization is no longer a ‘nice-to-have,’ it’s a must-have,”says Brian Benstock, Vice President and General Manager, Paragon Honda and Acura.. “Amazon’s model works because Amazon knows its customers. Dealers need to look at their website the same way. Customers don’t want to go through the hassle of filling out a form to schedule a service appointment because they expect you to already have all their information. If they are shopping for a new car, they expect to easily find out what upgrade options they have and what their payment would be. The data is there, it just hasn’t been used in automotive websites until now.”
Mission Improbable: 2021
Imagine this…A customer walks into a dealership and is treated exactly like they are routinely treated online. They would meet a bunch of people, and it would go something like this:
Website: Hi, my name is Website. Thanks for stopping by. How can I help you today?
Customer: Hey, we are looking to check out the new 2022 Telluride, see what our trade might be worth, and get a feel for of our monthly payments to see if it works in our budget. If so, we are interested in purchasing over the next few days.
Website: Perfect, let me show you around. BTW, how did you hear about us?
Customer: Your friends, Google and Facebook, suggested you. They said your offers on the 2022 Telluride were awesome!
Website: Ok, but first just a word of caution. Whatever you and Google and Facebook discussed privately may not be the same information you get here. But not a big deal, right?
Anyway, let me introduce you to my helpful widget friends. Just to name a few…This is Chat, that’s Trade, and over there is Video. My friend Finance is awesome, VDP is my main man, and you might even get to meet Retail, but most people don’t get that far.
Let’s get started with Chat. Just so you know, she will jump around frantically to get your attention and bug you all day long, unless you just say “hi” and tell her who you are. If I were you, I would just do it, because if you don’t, she is never going away. No matter what. Seriously dude, I am not joking around. I see it all day long. It’s actually crazy.
Chat: Hey, how may I help you today?
Customer: Hi, can you start with giving me some info on the new Telluride?
Chat: Slow your roll stranger. How about you start by giving me all of your information in case you decide to leave quickly, and a member of my team needs to reach you…like maybe tomorrow, probably… or at some point soon?
Customer: Ok, I am already here though. Why can’t they just speak with me right now, before I leave? But, fine, here is all my contact info. Now can you please let me know about that new ’22 Telluride?
Chat: Hmmm, that is such an incredible question. Hang on for a minute while I check. Darn it, Customer. I am afraid a member of my team cannot answer your question, but we will try our best to call you back tomorrow, hopefully. Is there anything else I can possibly do for you today?
Customer: You have not done one single thing for me today. Literally.
Website: Hey Customer, welcome back. Just so you know I cannot see or hear anything that any of my widget friends say or do. It’s like they live in their own world. But let’s get you straight over to Trade and see what happens.
Trade: Hi there. Tell me all about your trade, and then I will obviously need all of your contact information, and then I can send you a value report.
Customer: Ok, here is all my trade information, but I literally just gave Chat all my contact info, can’t you get it from her? Don’t you all work here? It’s the exact same information she just asked for 30 seconds ago.
Trade: Listen Customer, I can see you are already frustrated because you have not gotten a single bit of useful information since you arrived and have repeatedly been asked to identify yourself. I am sorry to say that this is only the beginning. Every other widget friend will need the same information. It’s what we are born to do. We cannot share your information because technically, none of us work here. We are employed and powered by other companies. See my real logo. It’s better to think of us all as “certified” and completely independent contractors. We can only keep our job if we prove to the boss that each of us have separately obtained your contact information. It’s like our fun game. Anyway, then we send your info over to CRM. He is getting old; he still counts the leads with his 20-year-old ADF calculator. Does that make sense Customer, in some small way?
Customer: No, not even in the slightest. I came here to get information to buy a Telluride. So far, all you want is for me to give you information to send to CRM. I thought you wanted to sell me a new Telluride. Google had me so convinced I could get a great deal, and it would be easy.
Website: Hey buddy, welcome back. I get it, just keep your chin up. I am going to get you straight over to my main man, the one and only VDP. We try and make sure everyone here meets him.
VDP: Hey Customer, I promise I am going to get you exactly what you need. Sounds like someone needs a great price and a payment on this 2022 Telluride. Am I right?
Customer: Yes, thank you VDP. You seem friendly with Website, so can you please tell me how much our monthly payment would be on this Telluride, including our trade information that I just gave your colleague, Trade.
VDP: Didn’t Website already explain all that? Whatever info you gave Trade stays with Trade. Sorry, I basically need all your exact same information. Relax, take a breath, because you may or may not like this… but the “awesome offers” you first saw from Google, or anywhere else, before we met are not actually our very best price. Isn’t that surprisingly fantastic news? We have something special called an E-Price. BTW, nobody knows what the “E” stands for. I am pretty sure it’s supposed to be like our “Extra” Special very best price. But it is not here now, it’s in a secret hiding place. All I need is your information and a spot to send this extra special E-Price because you understand I cannot exactly give it you now, right? I hope you get it. Fingers crossed.
Customer: Whaaaat? We are standing in the middle of your showroom right now, and we are ready to buy a Telluride. I don’t get it? I already gave your widget friends all my information and I just want to know an idea of my extra special payments NOW. That’s why we came here in the first place. Is that too much to ask, VDP? I mean, isn’t this a super common question?
VDP: Chill Customer. Please don’t bounce on me. We do have one final last-ditch option, and that’s to introduce you to the biggest, baddest widget friend in the dealership, Retail. But I am warning you, once you two meet, we may never see you again. She is a lone wolf with her own unique style and has her own entirely separate way of doing things. But perhaps she just might be able to help you. Really, at this point what do you have to lose? Are you ready?
Customer: Sure, let me meet her. But first, please tell me that all your other widget friends, or you, Website, already gave her all my contact information, all my trade information, and all my shopping history. I can’t take explaining this 2022 Telluride again and again. I don’t want to answer the same questions again. PLEASE!
Retail: Hey Customer, you look beat. By the way, what’s your real name? If I am going to help you, we need to start over fresh, and I do not want to hear about your time with Google, Facebook, or Website either. That’s all in the past.
Customer: Seriously, Retail? You also need my contact information, trade information and the details of what I want, too? And why are your prices and payments different than your associates, Google, Facebook, and Website? Are you joking?
Retail: Nope. Look, whatever your name is, only 3% or so of people even get this far. You should feel great about your effort. You have worked so hard and met so many widgets. Let’s finish this thing. Now, again, what’s your name, how can I reach you later, what are you trading, and how are you paying for it?
Customer: OMG! Do you even know Website, VDP, Chat, or any of the other people I have dealt with along the way? And shouldn’t Website have been able to just give me all this basic information himself, quickly? I still do not have an ounce of information I originally asked for. It’s so maddening.
Retail: Look, I admit I do not know them well. Except we go to conferences together and party like rockstars 😊. But, just between us, I am always the last person you’re gonna meet. It’s just how it works at our dealership. Now, like I said, let’s relax and start from scratch. It’s much easier if we both pretend everything that happened before we met is erased from your memory like it never happened. Even though it did.
Customer: You have got to be kidding me.
Can you imagine if this is what the in-store experience was like?
If you know the automotive landscape, I hope you enjoyed a laugh or two, like I did while writing this. While fun to smile, we are seriously devoted to creating solutions that empower retailers to dramatically improve their customers’ experience, both online and offline.
The bottom line is this…a dealer’s sales process (inside their stores) would never mimic the online sales experience. I would argue the customer experience is currently far better, more informative, and logical inside the dealership. Online, it’s typically disjointed from the first click of an email or a digital ad all the way through to a website filled with widgets. It’s even worse on mobile devices. The current online shopping journey takes consumers from one siloed experience to another, littered with distractions along the way. This ecosystem has slowly developed over 20 years and was not designed to easily facilitate the most important result: a transaction. Dealerships cannot efficiently manage 8-10 companies, all with individual goals and technology, and expect to create a meaningful customer experience that generates a great outcome for their business.
I call it “Mission Improbable” because the current ecosystem was developed like separate pieces of a puzzle that were never designed to fit. Given the exceptional online experiences customers have in other areas of their lives, it’s improbable they will play hopscotch through the maze of inconsistencies in both offers and user experiences. This siloed ecosystem is unique to automotive, and it’s heavily supported by a financial model that rewards silos, OEM certifications, etc. It’s become the norm.
But what are the alternatives? I see two logical pathways to improvement. The first would be a format to share customers’ contact information and shopping data across different platforms. Real integration between various technologies. But, the chances of wide enough adoption are unlikely because the level of cooperation would require tech companies that fiercely compete to also agree. On top of that, growing consumer privacy regulations and security environments would prove challenging.
The more likely alternative is the birth of all-inclusive platforms that were designed, acquired, or both, to facilitate the entire customer journey from the creation and first click of an ad to the final click of scheduling a sales delivery or service, without any unnecessary interruptions, all originally engineered to work together seamlessly. But, platforms like this will take time to adopt because investors, dealers, and OEMs are accustomed to the current mindset. Integration is a change already established in most other industries, but not automotive retail… yet.
We are passionately committed to a better alternative that is facilitated by one, fully-integrated technology platform, designed from the ground up for all “widgets” to work together for customers and dealerships. It is how the rest of the world is already retailing, and we believe we can too.
David Boice
Team Velocity Co-Founder & CEO
AutoSuccess: The Top 10 Companies to Watch in 2021
Learn more about Team Velocity and the other 9 companies to watch in 2021: