Dealership inventory shortages during the beginning and peak of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a shift to “transactional” buying, said Samantha Splane of Sterling Automotive Group.

“You had the vehicle and you sold it, most times at a premium price,” said Splane, who is marketing and customer experience director for Sterling.

Now, she said, “we’re going to have to refocus our attention on developing relationships with our customers and becoming their only choice for sales and service.”

Splane will discuss issues like that during Used Car Week 2023, which will take place Nov. 6-9 in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Splane will participate in a panel titled, “Top CX Strategies to Set Dealers Up for Success in 2024.” The CX strategies session will cover topics such as using data to drive targeting, responding to customers with trade-in values, and using technology to handle customer follow-up.

Among other sessions, another Used Car Week panel also featuring dealers is titled, “Modern Inventory Redistribution: Acquire & Thrive.” That panel will discuss topics such as methods to redistribute inventory within a group while maximizing profit.

Other dealer panels will tackle such topics as the role of the used-car manager and certified pre-owned strategies.

Top CX strategies: Challenges and opportunities

Splane said panelists at the CX strategies panel would discuss “improving customer satisfaction, and that’s going to be through using your own database technology, social media, reputation management and most importantly, your own internal team.”

She said the panel members would discuss challenges that their companies have faced and how they have overcome them, and she said dealers should move toward relationship-based buying. That must start with a dealership’s own internal customer base, she said.

“Are you mining your customers? Are you caring for them? Are you seeing what their needs are? That’s something that we have an internal team that’s working on every single day,” she said.

She mentioned a mechanic shortage as another challenge.

“We’re going to need to develop and implement career paths for future mechanics and our own internal mechanics, especially as we’re beginning to see more EV vehicles in our repair facilities,” she said.

As for opportunities, she said dealers can work to provide customers “the experience that they want at the pace that they want it using the method that they most want.”

“Being flexible in how we operate and work with our consumers is going to be pivotal on how we move forward in the industry over the coming years,” she said.

So how is Splane’s dealership, Sterling Automotive, providing the experience customers want at the pace that they want and the method that they want?

She said the dealership uses tools to allow the customer to communicate over the phone or through e-mail, text or video chat.

Sterling Automotive offers free delivery up to 250 miles, a warranty on all used vehicles and what she describes as “a true return policy.”

“Because things do change, and minds do change, and so we want to make sure that our consumers feel good about their purchase [and] they feel protected in their purchase,” she said. “We’ve put plans in place for our consumers to feel good about their purchase and feel protected in it and know that we are there for them from the time they purchase all the way through the life cycle of that vehicle.”

Other panelists for the Top CX Strategies session include Rebecca Coates-Lapidario, who is GM assistant for Bob Stall Chevrolet in La Mesa, Calif.; Erika Maley, who is director of marketing for Don Hattan Dealerships in Wichita, Kan.; and Jeanette Pendas, who is BDC director for Vara Chevrolet in San Antonio.

Alexi Venneri, who is co-founder and CEO of DAS Technology, will lead the panel, and she said the dealers on the panel are open to innovation. The panel will cover topics such as how dealers need the right tools to effectively engage and communicate with consumers on trade-ins and buybacks.

“We want to ask them, how are you engaging? How are you being more targeted one to one to get those consumers to raise their hand and act? What strategies have you been employing that have worked for you?” she said. “So there’s just some really interesting things dealers are doing right.

“I think they’re even getting back to what kind of perks or experiences at the dealership can draw people in, very targeted messaging. Are you running specific programs if you live near military bases? Are you looking at college grads? It’s all about again that consumer having a great experience.”

Modern inventory redistribution

Tim Scoutelas, director of major accounts for ACV/MAX Digital, will moderate the modern inventory redistribution panel, and he said in written responses to questions from Auto Remarketing that he looked forward to moderating the panel because actual dealers will discuss their challenges and pros and cons of all facets of inventory redistribution, including what works and what doesn’t.

Those dealers on the panel are Nick Johnson, director of operations, Penz Automotive; Matt Hubiak, director pre-owned operations, Swickard Auto Group; and Tim Stevons, director of pre-owned operations, Hendrick Automotive Group.

Scoutelas stated that pre-owned inventory acquisition and the all-time high cost to market are top challenges for dealers.

“While there are many traditional and non-traditional sources of inventory, savvy dealers are thinking outside the box — and maybe more like big-box retailers — by optimizing the inventory and acquisition opportunities across their entire group to ensure the right used car for your core inventory is never missed,” Scoutelas stated.

“We’ll explore what’s in the box and what’s outside the box and how data can help you acquire the right car or redistribute the wrong car for your store to the right dealership within your group.”

The description of the session includes several “learning objectives,” and one of them is that the session will “explore using technology to help dealers move inventory to the right location while leveraging big data to make informed acquisition and redistribution decisions.”

Asked to discuss that learning objective, Scoutelas asked, “How many times has a used-car manager taken on a retail unit from a source they did not trust?

“Either a wholesaler or buyer assigned to them by the company sends a unit their way, or some other decision-maker moves a unit to their location because it’s time to ‘give that unit a new life,’ aka, reset that clock to turn the unit,” he said.

He continued, “They’re then stuck with a unit that isn’t right for their rooftop. And the wrong car, priced right, is still the wrong car. But that’s not to say there’s not a ‘home’ for this unit that will benefit another store.”

He said dealers will learn that tools are available to help used car managers “feel like they have skin in the game when it comes to deciding on redistributed inventory.” Those dealers will learn about tools that offer insights based on market performance and sales data as well as live auction bidding that allows them to inspect the unit and bid accordingly.