Establishing trust with your customers is the foundation for generating website leads. In this edition of DealerOn University, we break down the ways vehicle price transparency can instill trust in your customers.
Trust is a cornerstone of any commercial relationship. But too often trust is overlooked, if not outright neglected, in the pursuit of short-term profits.
A car is one of the three largest purchases the average person will make in a lifetime, and modern car buyers have many options available to them. The average new car buyer spends an average of 5 hours and 22 minutes researching their purchase online. That makes establishing trust with your website visitors critical.
Trust can be the difference between buying from you or your competition. And because cost is at the forefront of most purchases, price transparency is a perfect place to build trust, and even better, it will bolster your bottom line.
Building consumer trust doesn’t just inspire shoppers to purchase a vehicle with you. Building trust encourages them to return to your service department, recommend you to friends and family, and leave glowing reviews on your site.
In short, trust is an investment you make in your dealership.
The cost of losing trust
Trust should be at the core of business calculations. Yet every day there is a story about a corporation betraying the trust of customers and suffering for it.
The “trust thermocline,” a new term in business theory, was coined to describe that moment when a company violates the trust of the consumer beyond repair. Unsurprisingly, the term came about after several businesses had crossed that line.
Building consumer trust doesn’t just inspire shoppers to purchase a vehicle with you. Building trust encourages them to return to your service department, recommend you to friends and family, and leave glowing reviews on your site.
The recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is a prime example of a business crossing that line. The bank failed to communicate to customers that their funds were safe after recent investment losses. A panic and bank run ensued that resulted in the failure of the 40-year-old financial institution.
When your customers lose trust in your business, you lose their business.
The automotive industry knows this fact better than most. The trope of the unscrupulous car salesperson still lingers in the minds of the public. That means you’re keenly aware of the need to foster trust with your customers.
But you may not be aware of the importance of building trust in a digital environment, or of exactly how to do it.
Establishing trust in a digital environment
One of the best ways to establish trust with your customers is by giving them transparency in the car buying process.
A shopper interested in a car is more likely to convert to a purchase when they create the offer themselves. Give them the power to design a vehicle offer with all of their available financing options clearly presented to them. By giving customers the option to create the offer themselves, they become much more likely to finalize the purchase with your dealership.
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Vehicle pricing is more complex than on any other consumer product. It’s not as simple as a single number; there are a variety of fees, rebates, incentives, and taxes that add up to the number on the sticker. Breaking the pricing down in a way the customer understands is a level of transparency many customers need but don’t know how to ask for.
Transparency in the sales process shows your customers there are no mysteries or surprises when they finalize their purchase. Every decision they need to make and every dollar they need to spend is crystal clear and readily available to them.
Apex Digital Retail
Apex Digital Retail is a native, customer-first vehicle financing application. The easy-to-use interface allows shoppers to select any vehicle on your lot and design a vehicle offer tailored to their individual needs. The application combines the convenience of shopping online with the clarity of a face-to-face meeting with one of your sales representatives.
Apex Digital Retail gives your customers a simple, step-by-step vehicle financing tool that provides clarity to the sales process.
The process of building a vehicle offer fosters trust as consumers see how each of their individual decisions are reflected in the final offer. This process used to be mysterious, and customers often became irritated and confused as the final price was different than the one they expected.
The clarity and transparency that comes with Apex Digital Retail ends all the confusion.
Predictive incentive selection, smart payment calculation, live credit pulls and F&I suggestions create a smooth, clear financing process for your customers. An intuitive trade-in application using your choice of KBB or Autotrader lets them factor in their current vehicle’s value.
The Vehicle Accessory Menu (Powered by Insignia Group) lets your customers view, price, and add new vehicle accessories in real-time. They even have the option to try out their purchase with a home test drive using our Draiver Home Test Drive Integration.
Transparency in the financing process fuels the all-important foundation of trust. By giving your customers the power to build and craft their own vehicle offers, you gain their trust. They know exactly how they got their final vehicle offer, because they created it themselves.
PriceStak Payments
The high relative cost of a vehicle purchase means that price is at the forefront of your customers’ minds. PriceStak Payments gives your customers a window into the entire pricing process, showing them where every cent of a car’s cost comes from, and where they are saving.
PriceStak Payments gives your customers a clear view of all the initial vehicle pricing available to them, including customizable incentives and rebates.
PriceStak Payments will showcase lease, cash, and finance offers on every vehicle in your inventory. Line-item Incentives give you the ability to show a customizable view of all available rebates and incentives. Your dealership will gain complete control over the rebates and incentives you want to show on your vehicles.
Combined with Apex Digital Retail, your customers will have all the pricing data they need. They can now make an informed purchasing decision and build the perfect vehicle offer for their needs. Even if you already have a digital retailing tool, PriceStak can match calculations with any existing digital retailing provider.
Give your customers a window into vehicle pricing by creating a transparent shopping experience with PriceStak Payments. When you show your customers where they will be spending, and the ways they can save, you’ll gain their trust.
And when you gain their trust, you gain their business.
Build trust in your dealership with DealerOn
DealerOn’s Apex Digital Retail and PriceStak Payments are two exceptional website add-ons that generate leads by building trust with your customers.
Apex empowers shoppers by allowing them to create a custom vehicle offer for any vehicle on your lot. PriceStak breaks down vehicle pricing by cash, finance, and lease inside each vehicle pricing stack, with incentives and rebates readily available. With these two products working for your dealership, your customers will know exactly what their purchasing options are, and how each option fits into their budget.
Both products provide much needed transparency in the process that lays the groundwork for a trusting relationship with your customers. Schedule your demo today to see firsthand how both Apex Digital Retail and PriceStak can supercharge your sales.
Your content is a great guide for anyone who is considering purchasing an automobile. I appreciate the emphasis you place on the benefits of buying from a dealership, and the importance of doing research and asking questions to ensure a quality purchase.