While the Internet changed how a dealer sells cars and how a customer shops for a car, the smartphone has completely revolutionized the car shopping and ownership experience.   Customers are empowered with information and options in the palm of their hands.  Dealers however, are also empowered with more targeted methods of attracting new customers and selling more vehicles.     

Consider the use of mobile apps in the car-shopping phase.  A dealer with a mobile app can attract consumers by simply advertising their app and sending out push notifications with lease specials or specific vehicle information.  With advanced customer targeting technology, dealers can target specific customers. 

While browsing your inventory via your mobile app, if a customer saves a vehicle as a favorite, the dealer can custom tailor specific messages to persuade that customer to purchase a vehicle by sending out a notification based on that saved vehicle type about a price change or a new color. 

With the My Garage feature of an app, a dealer can tailor a message based on year, make or model.  For example, the app administrator can select all 2012 Nissan Maxima owners and send out a notification about the 2015 Nissan Maxima Lease special.  With a read rate of close to 100%, you can expect to have a better response from these types of messages.  It takes the customer through an entire purchasing journey, via the branded app even before they walk into a dealership.    

Other data entered into the app by a customer in My Garage or in the user profile can also be used for other types of notifications.  This is one of the differences between a mobile site and a mobile app.  Local notifications are app specific.  If your app allows a user to enter their insurance renewal date or inspection reminder date or lease expiration date, by using local notifications technology, automated notifications can be sent out as friendly and useful reminders. 

There is so much data that can be captured in an app and tracked by Google Analytics.  This data is extremely powerful for dealers to attract and sell to more customers.  Smartphone app data allows you to have a better understanding of where your customers are located, what they are in the market for, who they are and when they might be in the market to purchase or trade in a vehicle.  Your dealership needs to have an app in order to take advantage of the utilization of mobile data segmentation. If your dealership does not have its own branded mobile app, then you are missing a great opportunity!