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KPMG Motor Industry Services (MIS) is telling dealers that their websites have never been more important than in this time of COVID-19 shutdown and that they should be taking a regular personal interest in what their sites look like, how well they meet buyers’ expectations and how current the content is.

Joel Shashoua, a director of KPMG MIS, told GoAutoNews Premium that with so many people working from home and potentially having time to review a car purchase online, the appeal and efficiency of the dealership’s website has become paramount.

He said car retailers have reacted well to the crisis and were pointing out to their customer base that car showrooms are open for business.

“A lot of videos of dealer principals and sales managers have appeared on LinkedIn and so on telling customers: ‘We can come to you. We will sanitise our cars. We won’t sit in the cars in the test drive’ etc,” Mr Shashoua said.

But he said that in the circumstance of the COVID-19 outbreak dealers’ websites were now more important than their showrooms

“Dealers need to think about the fact that they have spent $10 million to $15 million on their showroom and they walk through that every day and they see what it is like and make sure that it is appealing to people either driving past or walking in and choosing to transact with them,” he said.

“Based on the numbers that 90 per cent of people will look at your website before they visit your dealership, the appeal of a dealer’s website has always determined whether they visit your showroom.

“But If we look at that in today’s environment, what is your online showroom presence really like?

“This is the time to start really nailing that,” Mr Shashoua said.

KPMG has a digital scorecard called ‘Live Showroom Review’ that helps dealers and general managers review their websites.

Mr Shashoua said just as dealers walk around their dealerships to make sure everything is shipshape, KPMG is encouraging dealers to ‘walk around’ their websites pretending they are a buyer working from home.

He said that dealers should look at the following things:

1: The website

What is the website like? What is the user experience like on your website? How easy is it to use? How many clicks between getting on and making an enquiry?

“So if I go onto the dealer site, how many clicks does it take for me to make an enquiry on a particular car? Is it three or maybe four? That is way too many. It should be one, by the way,” he said.

“So dealers need to look at the user experience. What steps are you putting your customers through in navigating your dealership?

“They should also look at the accuracy of the inventory on the site and the quality of the presentation of the inventory on the site.”

2: Third-party sites

“How are you integrating into your third-party sites like Carsales and Gumtree Cars? Is it live? Are you getting your cars in there straight away? What does the quality of that look like? Does it make people want to deal with you?”

3: Social media

“Look at what you are doing on social media. This is your voice online. Do you have a presence on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram which are basically the top three? Who is doing it for you and what is the quality like? Is it genuine and are you reaching the people you want to reach?”

4: Enquiries

“What about your enquiries? What do they look like? What are your response times and how do you respond? If you get back to people in longer than an hour, or if you say, ‘Call me on this number’, then that is no longer good enough or acceptable anymore.

“You have to be able to engage with people and get them to interact with you in the media that they prefer.”

5: SEO

“This is the ‘findability’ of your website. How do people find you online? That is basically your SEO (search engine optimisation).

“So, dealers need to think like a customer. And even think like a customer who cannot remember the business name and type in ‘your brand’ and southeast Melbourne. Are you front and centre in the results?”

6: Content

“Navigate to every part of the site. Is the ‘About Us’ section and the company profile up to date? Are all the contact details and contact numbers up to date?

“If you have a news section on the website, is the last article in there current or is it from 2017 or even older? How can that be kept up to date? Are any offers or prizes that are past their expiry date still online? That happens a lot.

“Sometimes dealers’ sites have news stories that stopped years ago or ticket prizes to events that are years out of date.

“Under ‘Meet our Team’ it is not uncommon to see the general manager from three years ago or image holders for the team that do not have a picture. So check the pictures and contact details.

“While people are in shutdown these potential customers are looking at this sort of thing and if they see the site is not up to date or contains errors then there is a real chance they will click away and go to another dealer.

“So right now is the time to sit down and go through the entire site map and see what people are seeing about your business. Right now your site is as important if not more important than your showroom. How easy is it to get to your business online and initiate an enquiry?

“The question to ask is how long DPs spent walking around their showrooms to make sure the dealership is well presented compared with checking the business’ online presence.

“Checking the website weekly is just not good enough. Dealers need to be checking more regularly than that and the staff responsible for the website need to know that the DP or the owner of the business are constantly reviewing the site from a customer’s point of view,” Mr Shashoua said.

Joel Shashoua

By John Mellor

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