9:07 am, November 24, 2017
JT HUGHES Group – Shropshire and Mid Wales’ official dealer for Honda, Hyundai and Mitsubishi – is to test a new voice search function on its website.
After reviewing current consumer habits, the company has recognised the significant increase in voice search on the Google search engine – which has grown to 20 per cent of all searches – as well as the prevalence of intelligent personal assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
It is anticipated that the function will optimise the user experience for prospects looking for vehicles, facilitating quicker and simpler search. While the voice-search function will initially be trialled for JT Hughes’ used vehicle inventory only, the company is already considering rolling out voice search to other online functions.
The voice function feature is being introduced this month. After navigating to JT Hughes’ websites, visitors will be given the option to activate the mic on their PC, laptop, tablet or mobile phone.
From there, it will take just a few voice commands – such as ‘red Honda Civic’ – for prospects to be taken directly to the results which best match their request. Car buyers will be able to choose between voice search and traditional ‘type and click’ navigation.
Paul Tench, JT Hughes Group’s sales director, said: ‘We are determined to embrace innovation.
‘While we are a relatively small dealer, we have ring-fenced a percentage of our marketing budget which allows us to test and invest in new functionality. In partnership with our digital marketing agency, we are constantly looking at ways to optimise the user experience on our website.
‘With a filter-based text search, it can take between five and 10 clicks to reach desired results; we’re confident that voice search will shorten and simplify the search process for our prospects.’
MORE: Solid set of results from Cambria
MORE: Pay and commission restructured as Inchcape takes a fresh approach
MORE: A Stirling bit of business for Western Honda
On SuperUnleaded.com: Lamborghini’s Urus ‘accidentally’ revealed
