Data Driven — Business Intelligence Benefits Car Dealerships

Business intelligence takes business data and reorganizes it into a clear picture. Data is a valuable resource that many car dealerships underutilize.  In this blog, we learn how business intelligence benefits car dealerships.Car Dealers and Income Streams

How do car dealers make money? The obvious answer is that they sell cars but they also make money by selling services and parts. What business intelligence does is it looks at data from different angles. For example, there is the productivity of employees. Data might answer questions such as who sells the most, who produces the most leads, who converts the most leads, and who loses the most leads.

Data intelligence might also look at data that is all about customers. It can answer questions such as, of all the people who bought cars here last year, how many of those people use our service department for routine services such as oil changes, scheduled maintenance, and warranty service? This is also an example of how data empowers managers. For example, if only 25 percent of those customers who purchase vehicles use the dealer’s service department for routine maintenance, then you have a 75 percent loss of business from those customers.

Loss versus Opportunity

When data helps answer questions, the results are both a loss and an opportunity. First, data helps illustrate deficits and those deficits become opportunities. We have a 75 percent deficit in purchasers who do not utilize our car service for routine maintenance. Opportunity is the ability to capitalize on that loss. Data can help you capitalize on lost opportunities by either showing you the loss or by helping you gather the information that allows you to take advantage of opportunities. Business intelligence helps dealers by:

• automatically builds a house list of prospects, customers, and sales opportunities
• increases customer engagement
• provides information on return frequency to the lot
• shows popular visit times

If you are looking to take advantage of an opportunity to increase the percentage of visitors that utilize the dealer’s car service center, then what you are looking to do is to increases customer engagement.

The next question is, “how are we engaging our customer base when it comes to vehicle service?”

• Email — courtesy service notices, coupons, service announcements, thank you notes, and service specials
• Text — service specials, etc.
• Calling — Do you call customers to remind them it is time for vehicle service?
• Direct Mail — Do you send notices, coupons, newsletters, or other marketing material to your customers via regular mail?

Can you do all these things?  Are you capturing the right data? In other words, why are only 25 percent of customers who purchased a car from you returning to your shop for service? Data solves those kinds of problems by showing you trends.

Data offers a powerful set of tools. In its raw form, data is just a pile of numbers. It takes the right tools to turn that raw pile of numbers into a clear picture that then helps dealers to boost sales, increase efficiency, and spot deficits. That is exactly what Bloom Intelligence does. Via the Bloom Intelligence Dashboard, you gain a crystal-clear image of loss and opportunity. With the integration of Bloom Intelligence Wi-Fi, you also increase the capabilities of analytics and marketing.

Bloom Intelligence delivers a variety of analytics such as footfall metrics, loyalty metrics, engagement metrics, and business metrics. What this information helps show is —

• The average daily traffic as it pertains to potential customers.
• Shows how many people are first-time visitors to your dealership or website.
• What are the most popular times that people visit your business are.
• How many first-time visitors return
• Customer demographics.

Engagement metrics show

• How many people come to your location from promotions such as social media, ads, etc.
• Are people utilizing free services such as Wi-Fi?
• What percentage of new email or contract information your system is collecting.
• Social media performance
• Churn rates

Loss and opportunity – car dealerships have both, but can your dealership capitalize on either? They can with business intelligence and the easy way that data becomes a tool that helps managers make informed decisions about how to turn a loss into profit.