DALLAS -

After releasing two new solutions for store clients, DealerSocket announced the newest member of its board of directors; an executive quite familiar with the automotive and technology worlds.

Appointed to the SaaS provider’s board is the current chief sales officer Ryder System, John Gleason, who previously was chief sales officer at ADP and CDK Global (formerly ADP Dealer Services).

“I am pleased to welcome John to DealerSocket’s board, and I look forward to working closely with him as an advisor to our company,” DealerSocket chief executive officer Sejal Pietrzak said in a news release.

“John brings a deep understanding of the automotive industry as a transformative sales leader for the past 30 years, and we look forward to leveraging his valuable perspectives and insights as we launch our unified solution that seamlessly integrates our Auto/Mate DMS with our CRM and Inventory+ products,” Pietrzak continued.

As chief sales officer at Ryder for the past 12 years, DealerSocket highlighted that Gleason has dramatically transformed the logistics and transportation company's sales organization, spearheaded the creation of an inside sales channel. He also was instrumental in driving Ryder’s revenue growth and market share. 

Prior to joining Ryder, Gleason spent 30 years with ADP and CDK Global. As chief sales officer for worldwide sales, he led 5,500 sales associates worldwide and drove accelerated growth through talent development and channel optimization while also improving market share.

“I look forward to offering my experience and guidance to DealerSocket’s executive leadership team, which has done an incredible job building a strong dealer-first culture and integrating Auto/Mate into the company over the past year,” Gleason said.

“DealerSocket is investing deeply in its products and its customer support to offer dealers a connected platform across its suite of solutions. This is the right strategy to disrupt the DMS market and offer dealers seamless and frictionless workflows at every step of the consumer journey,” he continued.

“I believe this will also lead to significant market share growth for DealerSocket. This is an exciting time to join the company and its board of directors,” Gleason went on to say.

DealerSocket to debut series of real-time integrations

Speaking of technology investments, one of the moves DealerSocket announced in recent days involved the company taking another step toward unifying its Auto/Mate DMS, CRM, and Inventory+ products through a series of real-time integrations.

Designed to improve accuracy by eliminating data rekeying and streamlining the submission of inventory, deal, and customer data into the DMS, DealerSocket explained these new, seamless integrations can deliver a deeply connected experience for users across DealerSocket's products.

The integrations are the result of significant investments DealerSocket directed toward streamlining workflows between its Auto/Mate DMS, CRM, and Inventory+ solutions to help dealers reduce transaction times, improve CSI and deal profitability and further optimize their inventory strategies in what's expected to be another strong year for the used-vehicle market.

“Our focus since acquiring Auto/Mate last year is on unifying our entire platform, so our solutions interact in a very unique way that blurs the lines of where one product stops and the next product starts,” DealerSocket chief product and technology officer Alok Tyagi said in a different news release.

“We now launch into NADA 2021 as a unified solution for all dealers in terms of data flow, our ability to serve as the digital backbone of a connected dealership, the way we can improve productivity through frictionless workflows, and how we guide the customer journey from online to the showroom. This unified experience also extends to how we service and support our customers,” Tyagi continued.

Working with customers, DealerSocket explained that it identified key data points users wanted shared between DealerSocket's CRM and Auto/Mate DMS products, including customer details such as contact information and communication preferences.

The company pointed out that this contact integration also can sync automatically each time a customer record is saved, so a change made to a customer's phone number in service through Auto/Mate's DMS is immediately reflected in the CRM, too.

Not having to confirm customer emails, phone numbers, and addresses in two systems had an immediate impact on time spent preparing sales and service campaigns for Jim Sigel Automotive, which utilizes both DealerSocket's Auto/Mate DMS and CRM solutions.

According to the DealerSocket news release, Jessie Sigel-Dean, the group's CRM coordinator, estimated she now saves anywhere from 10 to 25 minutes a day on her customer outreach efforts.

“This seamless, real-time integration has been super helpful in keeping customer information up to date without having to go into two systems. That’s huge for the service department, where having up-to-date phone numbers is essential,” Sigel-Dean said.

“We’ve been with Auto/Mate for eight years and on DealerSocket’s CRM for six years, and we were super excited about the two companies coming together. Based on what we’ve experienced so far, we’re really excited to see DealerSocket take this integration even further. It’s already made my life easier,” Sigel-Dean went on to say.

Like the CRM, DealerSocket mentioned that key data points for managing inventory were identified for the real-time integration between DealerSocket’s Auto/Mate DMS and Inventory+, including retail price, advertised price, mileage, and certified and title flag.

The company said the result is reduced double entry, increasing the accuracy of the data shared between the two solutions by removing the opportunity for human error.

DealerSocket will also demonstrate during the 2021 Virtual NADA Show a key integration that will unlock critical new features and functionality slated for 2021. Dubbed Unified Users, the integration can allow for a single sign-on experience across DealerSocket’s entire platform of integrated solutions.

“Unified Users represents a crucial part of DealerSocket’s infrastructure capability, enabling new admin controls so administrators at a dealership or across a dealer group can change access rights or disable users across the platform,” Tyagi said.

“It also means enterprise analytics that allows dealers to access data from multiple solutions on a single screen across our products, which then unlocks other capabilities like applying machine learning to those analytics to make the data and insights more predictive,” Tyagi added.

Details of DealerSocket’s next-generation mobile CRM

And in yet more technology investments by the company, DealerSocket also made a move in the mobile space, too.

DealerSocket recently launched its next-generation Mobile CRM app, which the company said sports a modern, easy-to-navigate user interface and streamlined workflows for an ultra-efficient, tap-and-go experience designed to save users valuable time and make accountability management easier with anywhere-at-anytime access to critical data.

Completely redesigned to accommodate the unique processes and preferences of sales, BDC, internet, and management teams, DealerSocket highlighted that its Mobile CRM is available on iOS and Android and can work seamlessly across any device to ensure accurate information across platforms.

The company indicated that dealers should experience an increase in closing ratios with the mobile app’s tap-and-type email and sales opportunity editing, an updated task interface with advanced filtering options and scheduling features, and enhanced customer and inventory search capabilities.

“When car shoppers submit an inquiry, they want instant gratification. When they’re on the lot and want to know what else is in inventory, they expect immediate answers. COVID-19 only accelerated the need for dealers to meet that demand via digital accessibility,” said Darren Harris, executive vice president and general manager of retail solutions at DealerSocket.

“Eliminating barriers to the sale and ultimately improving the customer experience by making the CRM accessible anytime from anywhere, our new Mobile CRM provides users with — as we like to say — the best of socket right in their pocket,” Harris continued in another news release.

DealerSocket said that the tool’s sleek new interface is apparent the moment users click onto the Mobile CRM’s home screen, which features more simplified workflows for accessing important menus and locations within the CRM.

An updated opportunities widget is designed to provide users with an immediate view of the last 20 recently accessed customers, along with filter options that mirror DealerSocket’s desktop CRM, and a global search feature that allows salespeople to look up opportunities by name and phone number.

The company went to mention the updated tasks interface blends workflows from the Mobile CRM’s prior version and the desktop CRM.

Additionally, the mobile tool’s updated inventory look-up feature can provide a new search bar offering search-by-feature functionality.

Furthermore, DealerSocket said the mobile app’s driver’s license scanner workflow also gets a new look and a more condensed click path for onboarding customers into the CRM, while the tool’s VIN scanner makes it easy to add a trade to a sales opportunity. Salespeople can also use the VIN scanner to search inventory.

The new Mobile CRM also can allow users to edit notification settings and switch between dealerships if part of a dealer group.

“COVID-19 confirmed what we always believed — that the CRM needs to be the central hub of a dealer’s retail strategy,” Tyagi said. “That’s why our focus when it comes to our award-winning solution is on streamlining workflows and allowing sales teams to do more from one system.

“The launch of our new Mobile CRM is an extension of that, freeing managers and sales teams to operate within the CRM anytime and from anywhere,” Tyagi went on to say.

The company shared that Zanchin Automotive Group implemented DealerSocket’s new Mobile CRM at four of its 30 rooftops. According to that news release, the impact was immediate.

BDC director Angie Terzic said lead-response times at those locations are down to 10 minutes or less, with team members even using the app to enter new opportunities into the CRM after store hours. Terzic said she likes it because she can address potential issues before they become problems.

“I use it all the time, even when I have access to my desktop. I don’t even take my laptop home with me anymore because I have everything I need on my phone,” Terzic said in the news release. “Now, more than ever, customers don’t want to come into the store. They can do everything online from their phone. Now, so can we.”

For more with DealerSocket, see the episode of the Auto Remarketing Podcast below, which features an interview with Tyagi and Harris.