As my calendar app nears its slide up from November to December and the foliage beside the augmented reality in Pokémon Go turns all manner of gold and brown, it occurs to me to reflect on the good things for which I am grateful.
This was yet another year of great change. Whereas we at DealerSocket spent 2015 welcoming a cornucopia of new acquisitions in DealerFire, FEX, AutoStar, and Inventory+, we spent 2016 getting our hands dirty integrating it all into one comprehensive solution for our end users. Speaking of our end users, we also finally brought to market our latest platform, called Blackbird, which features a fantastic new user interface and user experience (also known as UI/UX). Our first Blackbird unveil came in the form of the new DealerSocket CRM, which we revealed in October at our User Summit in San Antonio to great feedback from a thirsty industry. We’re very excited about and thankful for this release and where it will take us from here.
According to J.D. Power (and covered in our 2016 Dealership Action Report), the use of technology, specifically the use of tablets during the payment presentation process, improves customer satisfaction ratings significantly. Positive satisfaction ratings top out at 8.12 (somewhere between “Outstanding” and “Truly exceptional”) with tablets, while verbal and handwritten negotiations trail by more than a full point — 7.08 and 6.92, respectively. What does this mean? It means that people trust and enjoy the experience of negotiating their car deals on a tablet. When you hear us use the phrases “integrated platform” and “UI/UX,” a major part of that effort is creating the best possible presentation on the latest devices that incorporate every function of your dealership. It’s what we envision as the end-all, be-all technology solution; the only one you’ll ever need.
Imagine that Utopia. It’s something we can all give thanks for.
Again, we’re very thankful for and excited about where our latest innovations will take us: we at DealerSocket and all of our valued clients. We’ve got even more exciting breakthroughs brewing for 2017 — the first coming as soon as NADA 2017 in New Orleans. Please schedule an NADA demo and drop by Booth #937 to see where we’re going next. If you can’t wait, jump on the train now by scheduling a demo to see our fully integrated platform and industry-best UI/UX in action for yourself.