Dealers now have yet another way to communicate with shoppers. Customer relationship management company DealerSocket revealed Tuesday the release of SocketTalk — a texting tool that allowing “instant two-way communication between the dealership and a customers’ mobile device,” as well as instant messaging from within the CRM to internal DealerSocket users. [Read More]

AutoShopper.com is breaking away from its old business model of print publications  to add a one-click way for dealers to promote their inventories. By adding new open source technologies from That’s Us Technologies to its dealer management structure, AutoShopper.com contends dealers will find it easier and faster to promote their used cars to buyers on […] [Read More]

DrivingSales announced Tuesday it has brought in the general manager of the nation’s top-selling Suzuki auto retailer to serve as the head of its dealer services division. Appointed to the position is Tom White, Jr., who was most recently the GM of Suzuki of Wichita. The Kansas dealership has been ranked No. 1 in sales […] [Read More]

In the same month another large dealer group unveiled its mobile app, more than 50 Lithia Motors dealerships now have a tool to reach consumers through their smartphones. Earlier today, DMEautomotive rolled out Driver Connect for Lithia stores, an app specifically targeted to help group dealerships solve the service “generation gap” and keep “next generation” […] [Read More]

Dealer chat network Contact At Once and car dealer review website DealerRater have announced a new collaboration to boost real-time dealer-buyer communications. The two companies say the partnership can enable real-time chat between DealerRater Certified Dealer partners and online shoppers researching dealer reputation and vehicles via consumer reviews on DealerRater.com. “Our third-party generated dealer reviews […] [Read More]

A new process for capitalizing on service drive opportunities was announced Monday by automotive inventory management company RedBumper. Called SmartDrive, the system allows a dealer to identify in real-time those service drive customers who are in a positive equity position. By mining data from the dealership’s sales history, SmartDrive determines the approximate payoff for any […] [Read More]

AutoTrader revealed late last week a new role for subsidiary VinSolutions president  Mike Dullea, in addition to announcing position changes for other executives. Dullea has accepted a new position within the AutoTrader group of companies, where he will collaborate with AutoTrader chief executive Chip Perry and vAuto founder Dale Pollak on "a new companywide product […] [Read More]

As the social media site prepares to sell shares in an initial public offering this Friday, one OEM made an interesting move and shared its plans to pull its paid ads from Facebook, noting the exposure has “little impact on consumers’ car purchases." The automaker? General Motors, which told the Wall Street Journal this week […] [Read More]

Car shoppers are increasingly turning to mobile technology to find local dealers’ vehicles, so it seems, as AutoTrader.com announced it just hit a major milestone for downloads of its mobile apps for iPhone and Android devices. Available for less than one year, combined original downloads of these apps, not including downloads of app updates, reached […] [Read More]

CAR-Research XRM rolled out a new enhancement to its single-source CRM solution this week aimed at helping dealers unearth a potential “gold mine” of prospective vehicle buyers and capture more sales. The company explained that “Prospecting the Household” contains scripts built right into the CRM that are designed to farm the database for repeats, referrals […] [Read More]