Car Dealers Can Help Buyers ‘Speed Through the Transaction’

Good customer engagement speeds up the car-buying process, avoiding those long stretches of time that can irk today’s toe-tapping shoppers.

That’s a point raised during a panel discussion “Engaging Customers to Speed Up the Buying Process.” The video is part of an Autoline/WardsAuto Roundtable series sponsored by Ally.

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“You set the right time expectations, you keep the customer engaged, you let them know what’s happening along the way, and it’s just a better overall experience,” says Che Shaydak, retail operations manager for Suburban Imports in Farmington Hills, MI.

Consumers are spending more time online shopping for vehicles, prices and financing, says Tom Elkins Ally’s vice president-auto finance.

“As a lender, we are trying to provide the ways we can partner with dealers to allow the customer to do more and more things (online),” such as financing prequalification, he says.

The goal is to “help the customers come into the dealership ready to speed through the transaction,” Elkins says. “In a lot of ways, it’s up to the customers to shorten that time by doing some of the things they can do ahead of time.”

Shaydak says he tells sales staffers, “If you are delivering the car (such as pre-setting radio stations on test drives) while you’re selling the car, it’s going to go that much quicker.”

Elkins foresees a day when many customers do the entire vehicle transaction online, then head to the dealership for “the fun stuff.”  

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