CRM for Automotive Vendor DealerSocket Hits 25,000 Milestone TMCnet.com | June 2008
DealerSocket, whose officials say it's the 37th fastest growing company nationally according to Deloitte (News - Alert) & Touche, is reporting greater interest in its customer relationship management (CRM) product.
"With the retail automotive industry particularly hard hit by the current economic downturn, dealerships are depending more than ever on CRM," said Jonathan Ord, DealerSocket Co-Founder and CEO.
DealerSocket has experienced quarter-over-quarter growth in both company size and client base since its founding in 2001, company officials say, adding that the company recently surpassed 25,000 users, with more than 500 automotive dealerships throughout the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia now using its CRM product.
Company officials claim "five-year revenue growth of 4,529 percent, six years of profitable quarters" and "five-year employee growth of 5X and less than 2 percent voluntary turnover," with "3,850 percent growth in research and development."
Last year DealerSocket announced the general release of a Desking Application that is an extension to DealerSocket's Customer Relationship Management platform for automotive dealers.
The application "reduces the amount of time it takes to make a deal, increases gross, links to printable forms, provides flexibility and speed in sorting deals, and directly integrates with Kelley Blue Book, CARFAX, ADP, Reynolds and Reynolds and NADA," company officials said.
The Desking Application allows dealers to compare lease to finance payment options quickly, present numbers in compliance with fair business practice regulations (similar presentations for similar credit scores), calculate trade-in value accurately and quickly, including adding and presenting reconditioning elements, easily adjusting numbers to help customers reach their desired payment or making a payment match potential vehicles.
"DealerSocket helps us stay compliant. In today's environment, that's absolutely critical," says Devin Stotts, Retention Manager at Reliable Chevrolet in Springfield, Missouri.
Since DealerSocket displays all the crucial information in one window, the sales team doesn't have to toggle between screens to work a deal, Stotts said, adding that "if a deal doesn't close immediately, the notes can be saved and easily retrieved when the customer returns. It's a much more efficient way of doing business… The level of trust goes up when you can show the customer all the available options. When the customer understands all the options, it's actually easier to close the deal."
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.
