Thoughts on your CRM ???

dE members I Need help......I'm looking for a CRM for our dealership. What CRM's are out there and what do you think of the opertations,support and price/value of your CRM ? please help.

Thanks Gary Abrahams

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Permalink Reply by Kurtis Smith on November 30, 2011 at 7:54am

Gary,
Believe it or not, the application that you choose is not as important as the process that you design prior to investing. There are some valid points that have been made here, but when you approach CRM as a software, before you have designed the process that you want to leverage the software implement, then you place the power in the hands of the vendors and that is where overkill usually takes place. I cannot stress enough the need for understanding and designing the process first before you embark on investing in CRM. I have written several blog post here in Dealer Elite regrding this topic and encourage you to check them out. If I can assist further, please do not hesitate to ask.
Here is one of them, good luck

http://www.dealerelite.net/profiles/blogs/how-to-unlock-and-unleash...

Kurtis

Permalink Reply by Tom Clements on November 30, 2011 at 9:25am

Gary,

 

If customer retention is what you are after, you owe it to yourself to take a look at Dealer Wizard. It's not a CRM but it is really worth taking a look at to retain customers and increase incremental sales. Feel free to email me - tom@dealerwizard.com  I'll be happy to show you a brief online presentation of this amazing tool.

Permalink Reply by Jeff Warner on November 30, 2011 at 9:34am

Gary,

I researched CRM's for about a year before deciding on Autobase.  We have had it since 2003.  It integrates with Reynolds and ADP for your DMS and also either AAX or vAuto for your trades.  After eight years of using it you can imagine the historical data we have accumulated.  Support is good, there is no extra charge for training, they have an on-line Autobase University to train on.  Cost is very reasonable...they also offer marketing packages.  Everyone is right though, you must have a champion in the store to make it work.  I was that person at our store.  The most important part of the equation was it had to be easy for the sales team to use and have value for them.  I have looked and used the Reynolds and ADP CRM's and they are tedious at best.  We had DealerSocket in one of our other stores and we got rid of them after the first month.

No system is going to be 100% perfect, but I've recommended Autobase to many other dealers who like it as much as I do.  Good luck in your search.

Jeff Warner

Permalink Reply by Mari Duncan on November 30, 2011 at 10:08am

Check into Vin Solutions we were going to swith from ADP, but we are in a contract.  Vin Solutions has a great product

Permalink Reply by Bobby Compton on November 30, 2011 at 10:32am

Gary, give Blake Andrese a call 229-630-2236 he'e one of the Regional managers for E- leads. I believe they're in over 6000 dealerships as of current. I've personally worked with their CRM, the support is great and all the available tools needed, plus a clean multi pencil platform for desking. Just one option, but a solid platform all the way around none the less!~ 

Permalink Reply by David Blassingame on November 30, 2011 at 10:39am

Gillon,  Please send me a copy of you upcoming article when finished.  We are looking at replacing our current CRM and could use the information.

Gillon S Johannson said:

Thanks for this tremendous opportunity for me...I have an article half written that exposes at least one CRM for what it really is.  I'll be sure to send you a copy the moment I publish....

 

g~

Permalink Reply by Jeff Warner on November 30, 2011 at 12:32pm

Please send me a copy when you're finished.  Thx, Jeff Warner, jwarner@lindsaylexus.com



Gillon S Johannson said:

Thanks for this tremendous opportunity for me...I have an article half written that exposes at least one CRM for what it really is.  I'll be sure to send you a copy the moment I publish....

 

g~

Permalink Reply by Joe Taylor on December 1, 2011 at 7:35pm

We have used eLead Evolution CRM for several years. One of the biggest challenges in converting to a CRM is getting sales staff to actually use it. eLead has been exceptional in helping us in this area, and the CRM is extremely easy to use, even for our reps with limited computer savvy. It integrates with our DMS, prospect followup workflows and other aspects of the software are easy to customize, and prospecting our database is enhanced by their excellent call center. No longterm contract, either, so the company either delivers the results we want or they would be out. Consider them RECOMMENDED. Feel free to contact me directly (jtaylor@darcars.com) if you want more details about our experiences.

Permalink Reply by Hunter Swift on December 5, 2011 at 5:33pm

Linn,

 

I sent you an email a few days ago about your post and did not receive a reply. Please let me know if you did not receive. 

 

Confused as to why you think DealerSocket “resell(s) data from your DMS information to everyone else”.  We show that in 2009 we demo’d our product to the dealership group you were working with and one of your main concerns with our tool was DS being web-based.  You chose not to move forward and stated to our sales rep in an email: “I have looked at your software it looks like you are a hosted solution and our management policies for technology in the ###### family does not allow for that. Thank You, Linn”

 

Could you be confusing DealerSocket with another vendor? 

 

We definitely would like to clear up any confusion that your post has caused… our sales reps response to your email back in 2009 stated:

 

We DO NOT resell data from your DMS.  DealerSocket is contractually obligated to secure your data; and according to our agreement, upon any cancellation we would return and delete the dealers data on our servers.

 

We work with over 2500 dealers across the country and would under NO circumstances share a dealers data without the explicit consent of the owner.  It’s also important to mention that all of our customers data is back up and secured at 2 separate server hosting locations and is accessed through a secured HTTPS connection.

 

Data Security is taken very seriously by our company and we have proven this through our 10 year track record.

 

If anyone has any questions about this policy or would like to view a demonstration of DealerSocket.  Please do not hesitate to contact me directly at 949-900-0300 ext. 220.

 

Hunter Swift

DealerSocket



Linn Boyd said:

Garry I can't say what I think of DealerSuckit, I have no interest in this game any more, but they resell data from your DMS information to everyone else. They may say they don't but they do, you have to look at real CRM systems that are truly for the company and not the other outside vendors etc.

Permalink Reply by Kenny Atcheson on December 5, 2011 at 6:09pm

Nobody here mentioned AutoRaptor and I am curious as to why.  

At the Autostar convention in Dallas a few months ago I sat down with the owner to talk about their software and the benefits of CRM overall.  

We are discussing adding them to our Expert Panel for our 2012 CDs for Dealer Profits.  

Does anyone have experience with AutoRaptor?

Permalink Reply by Maryann Washington on December 7, 2011 at 2:53pm

I used Dealer Socket at my last dealership.  I am not a fan of DealerSocket.  They do have great support and our Dealer Rep was awesome.  It's the actual program that I found to be not very user friendly.  Especially at a dealership with not very computer-saavy salespeople!  I have also used Car-Research and found that to be a much more user friendly system.  Their support and Dealer Reps were great too.  Yes, DealerSocket could do more, but again, not user friendly.  Ultimately, no CRM will work without very strong management support.  I believe a CRM can make a huge difference on your bottom line for the better, but without management support and accountability, it's not worth the expense.

Maryann Washington

Dennis Jonsson Motor Products.

Permalink Reply by Hunter Swift on December 7, 2011 at 3:28pm

Maryann,

There is probably no greater advice to a prospective CRM buyer to have strong management buy in.  You are dead on! 

You may not have been aware, but we recently rolled out an upgraded User Interface with the goal to make navigation and daily activities easier.  We have received great feedback from our dealer body.  This was done about 2-3 months ago.

Hunter

 
Maryann Washington said:

I used Dealer Socket at my last dealership.  I am not a fan of DealerSocket.  They do have great support and our Dealer Rep was awesome.  It's the actual program that I found to be not very user friendly.  Especially at a dealership with not very computer-saavy salespeople!  I have also used Car-Research and found that to be a much more user friendly system.  Their support and Dealer Reps were great too.  Yes, DealerSocket could do more, but again, not user friendly.  Ultimately, no CRM will work without very strong management support.  I believe a CRM can make a huge difference on your bottom line for the better, but without management support and accountability, it's not worth the expense.

Maryann Washington

Dennis Jonsson Motor Products.

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