9:27 am, May 19, 2020
A website that changes depending on who is using it and how many times they’ve visited might sound like something from a digital future.
However, car dealers are using this clever technology now to target customers who keep returning to their websites to ensure they switch from browsing to buying.
In this special Car Dealer Knowledge video we chat to website firm The Whole Caboodle’s Karl Rahmani who has been busy implementing this clever software for dealers.
In the interview, Tony Denton, MD of Batchelors Motor Group, tells us how he has used the website technology to sell 20 cars online within a week of implementing it.
You can watch the full interview and hear Denton’s story in the video above, while below, Rahmani outlines some detail on what his company can offer car dealers and how the clever tech works.
How does your website platform differ from others?
Well, firstly we believe all dealer sites should include online booking and e-commerce functionality as standard – that’s a given. Ours does this too. The difference with us is how those conversions are achieved.
Firstly we use artificial intelligence, machine learning and a unique algorithm that we have developed to help increase conversions by manipulating site content. Actually showing different content on the site to different visitors.
Then we display the activity in a Lead Centre that the dealer can access and make decisions about intervening in a session or contacting a customer, sometimes when they are online.
That’s our real point of difference. Our sites aren’t brochure sites – it’s your best salesperson working 247.
So how does it work?
Through the intelligent use of data tracking. We are market leaders in detailed online tracking, we have been doing it for many years.
With our sites a dealer will be able to see exactly what their customer is looking at, how warm a prospect they might be, even their name – obviously useful when prospecting.
We use AI and machine learning to present specific tailored content on site to each visitor – content that is relevant and interesting to them. We can predict with a good degree of accuracy, what the customer wants.
The effect of this is that we smooth the way towards a conversion by making the site more relevant and quicker to navigate, that’s how you increase conversions.
So how does that work?
Let’s look at retailing. We all buy clothes online – well imagine if the site recognised who you were, and many do via email marketing techniques by the way, so I don’t know why they don’t take the next step.
Imagine if the site said something like this when you returned.
‘Welcome back – are you looking for yourself today or buying a gift? Because if you are looking for yourself we can show you everything we have in your size if you want’
Wouldn’t that be good? Think of all the time you would save and think of the positive impact on your brand – personalisation is here to stay. And to be honest fashion sites should be doing this now anyway.
In this market we can clearly identify a new or used car prospect and a used car customer from a service customer.
How can dealers keep track of what’s going on?
Using our Lead Centre a dealer can see everything the system knows about each named individual. We can see their entire viewing history, their most recent search parameters, all the vehicles they have looked at and how the system is tracking and tailoring their content for example.
We use a unique quality scoring system to identify hot leads and in market customers – and when someone reaches a required quality score an alert can go to the sales teams to follow up.
A dealer can set flags which trigger a dealer alert whenever they return to the site, useful when prospecting.
So what else can CaboodleCode do?
For customers who have visited the site many times but have not yet converted or made themselves known, we can set interventions.
These push messages onto the page and can contain some additional enticement to make obviously interested users convert – special offer road blocks, reduced priced stock – essentially it is re-marketing but on your own site – it gives you a second bite.
It isn’t intrusive and tenacious dealers can create some serious opportunities using interventions.
Who do you work with?
We have launched three such sites so far, Batchelors being one and of course our own site. We have sox further sites in development and are hopeful that they will be live by June – multi franchise sites and multiple centre ones – as well as non-car trade sites in e-commerce and property.
For more information on what the firm does you can call 01423 523000 or visit www.thewholecaboodle.com
