Portals Provide Peeks Into Chrysler Pipeline

Credit Chrysler with keeping up with the times, dealer consultant Mark Rikess says of the auto maker’s Vehicle Order Tracking System.

The system, which launches this week, provides Chrysler customers with Internet-portal access to track the status of their vehicles though eight production stages:

Confirmation, production schedule and shipment information also are acknowledged by e-mail.

As a result, Rikess tells WardsAuto, consumers will have ready access to the most vexing question in today’s online-focused marketplace: “Where’s my stuff?”

Rikess, principal of The Rikess Group in Burbank, CA, says Internet shopping – as pioneered by retailers such as Amazon – has raised consumer expectations.

“We’re all conditioned for instant feedback,” he says. “I’m conditioned to be able to go to a website and see where my wine shipment is. I’m always going online to find out where my stuff is.”

Web portal shows vehicle status.

The benefit for Chrysler is improved customer relations, while dealers can expect lighter workloads.

“It helps the dealer in that it lessens the phone calls that would come in,” Rikess says, noting stores sometimes can take days to respond to customer inquiries about vehicle deliveries.

Expect unions to benefit as well. Leon Rideout, president of Canadian Auto Workers Local 1285, says his office often receives calls from anxious customers.

Local 1285 represents hourly employees at Chrysler’s assembly plant in Brampton, ON, Canada, home to the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger fullsize sedans and the Dodge Challenger muscle coupe.

Rideout remembers the frenzy of phone calls his office received following the 2004 launch of the redesigned 300. “It was wicked back then,” he says. “I still get quite a few people calling me.”

Not so for one dealer, who seems unsure about the potential impact of VOTS, which features separate URLs for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram products.

Ron Wheeler, general sales manager at Buerge Chrysler Jeep in West Los Angeles, CA, says his customers typically choose from the vehicles he has in stock. “That’s certainly what we encourage them to do,” Wheeler tells WardsAuto.

But some do place orders. “It happens more on the Ford side,” he says, referring to his adjacent Blue Oval franchise.

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