Customers are the fuel to every business that keeps it moving forward. An efficient Contact Management Software can help car dealers build a strong relationship with their customers. One can keep the data of their customers organized and analyze their needs, which align with their preferences, to serve them the right car at the right time. Having done this all manually can become overwhelming in the busy day-to-day hustle of a dealership; that’s when contact relationship management software comes into the picture.
So, before we dive deeper into how it helps dealerships thrive, let’s take a quick look at what a contact management system is.
What is Contact Management Software for Car Dealerships?
A contact management software contains all the customer’s data on a single dashboard. This contact tracking software tracks a customer’s interaction with the dealership and records all the data based on their preferences.
Whether it’s about interest or where the leads come from, everything can be sorted in a matter of seconds. Sounds easy, right? Well, it is! That’s how it escapes you from such big headaches and saves a lot of time and energy. You don’t have to stress over input errors, scattered information, and delayed or missed opportunities.
Top 6 Benefits of Contact Management Software for Your Car Dealership
In a competitive automotive market like today’s, dealerships using contact management systems tend to flourish more than those who don’t.
Let’s talk about some benefits this software offers.
1. Centralized Contact Database
In a car dealership where contacts are unorganized, a boost in sales can never be seen. In small car dealerships, losing even a single customer matters. Contact management software for small dealerships or the larger ones provides an organized repository of contacts that is accessible to all the members in the dealership, giving a better customer experience.
2. Improvement in Data Organization
Manually entering the customer’s data into spreadsheets can be time-consuming and prone to errors. With the help of contact management software, it can be easily accomplished.
With this accessible data, members of a dealership can work quickly without taking hours for a piece of information, benefiting both staff and customers.
3. Customer Relationships & Communication
An efficient contact relationship management software allows dealerships to track their customers’ sources, whether from social media or a site.
Linking the social media profile and email addresses helps in monitoring their interests, allowing more personalized interaction to reach out to a returning customer or a cold lead.
4. Efficiency and Productivity in Sales
Modern contact tracking software is infused with advanced automation features that increase productivity and efficiency.
One of them can be automated reminders, which could help the team not to miss an opportunity, and also keep track of recent contact interactions.
5. Sales Performance
Using advanced client relationship management software prevents dealerships from missing out on a lead because of incorrect or scattered information.
Maintaining organized data can help dealerships keep track of activities and also improve customer experience, which encourages them to make a profitable purchase.
6. Scalability of Dealerships
In a prospering business, best practices are followed up which includes an advanced contact management software. It could help dealerships to store information about the increasing customers without compromising the efficiency and productivity of the dealership.
Core Features of Automotive Contact Management Software
Moving on to some key features of client relationship management software for small or large dealerships will please you to use it once and forever.
1. Contact Handling & Organization
In a smoothly running business, when the number of customers increases, managing their data manually also becomes hectic. That is where a contact tracking software collects the information in a single place, which can be accessible to all members of a dealership.
This helps in keeping data organized, avoids them from being duplicated, and converts a lead into a customer.
2. Integration Capabilities of Tools
A great contact management program is considered when integrated with other software which are used in your day-to-day business work, including social media channels. This relieves you from entering the same information on different platforms. These integrations can make it easy for the members of dealerships to access and use the contact details of the customers for personalised offers for customers based on their needs and interests.
3. Advanced Search Feature for Contacts
As a dealership owner, the main goal is to gain more leads and increase the number of customers to make it a profitable business. With growing customers, it becomes difficult to search for any contact manually on a spreadsheet. The contact management software allows users to instantly search for any contact or related information with a single click using the built-in search bar.
4. Security of Customer Data
Since dealerships store a large amount of customer information, they are responsible for keeping it secure. Any data breach or leak can damage their reputation and customer trust. To avoid such a mishap, contact management applications are provided with smart security features that keep the information confidential. These include multiple-factor authentication, end-to-end encryption, and strict access to only the members of the dealerships.
5. Sales Tools
With the help of contact tracking software, we can keep track of our customer interactions. All customer activities, from raising an inquiry to becoming a paying customer, can now be tracked. Monitoring each interaction helps identify interested buyers, enables automated reminders for them, and filters out unqualified leads to avoid wasting time.
Tips to Pick the Right Contact Management Software for Car Dealerships?
Grabbing the right type of contact management application is crucial for a dealership to boost sales and performance. There are two types: Standalone CMS, which is easy to organize and searchable, and All Encompassing CRM systems, which serve the cms as a part of its service, including email marketing, contact reports, etc.
We have listed some points to consider before choosing the right contact management app. Let’s explore them.
1. User Friendliness for Team Members is the Key!
No matter what size the dealership is, user friendliness is an aspect that is crucial. It should be easier for the members with less tech knowledge to adopt the software, which does not require investing in resources to train new people about the software.
2. User Testimonials
Many vendors claim their customer service software to be the best, but lack in proving it, they’re all blank! Being an owner of a dealership, you are responsible for checking for testimonials and honest automotive CRM reviews by the vendor’s customers.
3. Be Sure about Growth
The perks of a growing car dealership are following honest and best practices possible. While choosing a contact management program, check if it can handle an increased number of contacts and complex categorization without compromising on performance and productivity.
4. Features Must Align with Dealership Goals
Before choosing a software for contact management, you must be clear about the main goal of your dealership: which kind of software suits your dealership. Make sure the software provides the updated features that make your tasks easy.
5. Cost-effective for Dealership
Contact management systems may require a significant amount of investment based on the technology they’re infused with. Have a look at the budget and then choose wisely.
12 Best Contact Management Software for Car Dealers
Now that you are convinced of the software for contact management and don’t go anywhere else to search for the best ones, here is a list of 12 CRM software for auto dealerships.
1. Spyne
Spyne provides a performance-driven software for contact relationship management. It is designed for a purpose that provides an end-to-end solution to a dealership to boost its sales.
| Pros | Cons |
| Automated follow-ups | Automotive specific |
| Centralizes customer data | |
| Lead capturing | |
| Personalized offers based on interest |
2. Vin Solutions
Vin solution has a productive contact tracking software that gives a smooth operation for the dealerships to improve their sales and performance.
| Pros | Cons |
| Provides a central hub for managing all contacts | It can be expensive, especially for small dealerships |
| Automated mails and follow-ups | Requires training for new users |
| Detailed reports and analytics |
3. Impel
Impel provides an AI-driven customer service management service that provides a seamless customer experience. It provides the customers with the interaction they need.
| Pros | Cons |
| An AI assistant to handle customer inquiries | Significant dependence on AI |
| Provides instant support | |
| Filters out the more profitable leads |
4. Dealertrack
A strong software that integrates many functions to increase sales and manage financial operations as well.
| Pros | Cons |
| Follow-up reminders | Requires data entry at an initial stage |
| Organizes data in a way sales team can access easily |
5. DealerOn
DealerOn provides tools to manage their presence online and interactions with customers. Helps dealerships to organize and track customer data.
| Pros | Cons |
| Personalized experience for customers | Require investments in software |
| Provides better services through communication | Staff members can require training for new systems |
| Automated emails and reminders |
6. AutoRaptor
Autoraptor serves a collection of different tools to manage the sales and build strong relationships with customers.
| Pros | Cons |
| Better collaboration between different teams | Security measures are needed for data concerns |
| Mobile-friendly to use | |
| Accuracy in organization results in better decision-making |
7. DealerCenter
DealerCenter’s automotive CRM software for client relationship management changes the way of dealing with customers, managing sales, and sending follow-up reminders.
| Pros | Cons |
| One spot for customer data | Can create complexity in integration |
| Provides understanding of customer trends | May require investing in money on software, etc |
| Helps in keeping a track of vehicle inventory |
8. Reynolds and Reynolds
It serves with a strong contact management application named FOCUS, which helps in improving business efficiency within the dealerships.
| Pros | Cons |
| Improved data organization | May get disturbed by overloaded information |
| Enhanced target marketing efforts | Can be expensive |
| Improved customer experience |
9. Hubspot CRM
Hubspot offers a contact management program and many more features that improve customer experience and increase collaboration among the team.
| Pros | Cons |
| Can be integrated with other tools | Require investment for upgrading features |
| Free of cost for users | |
| User friendly |
10. Agile CRM
Agile CRM works with a perspective of both customer and sales improvement. It has a collection of tools that focuses on marketing, managing sales, and customer relationships.
| Pros | Cons |
| User friendly | A restricted number of contacts on the free plan |
| Schedules appointments on its own |
11. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM helps with the scaling of dealerships by providing new features absolutely free.
| Pros | Cons |
| Personalized call and email time | Only 3 users are allowed for the free plan |
| Easy integration with free Zoho apps |
12. Salesfare
Salesfare offers contact management software for small dealerships that want to grow and automate their customer relationship management.
| Pros | Cons |
| Fit for small dealerships | Not fit for larger dealerships due to a lack of advanced features |
| Less manual work, which reduces time for data entry and managing | Lack of detailed reports and analytics |
| Easy-to-use and implement things |
Are there any Limitations of this Software?
Contact management software has come a long way from storing information on paper to managing it on software.
Even though advancements have been made in the software, it still cannot match the capabilities of a full-fledged automotive CRM, making it unfit for complex business models.
Now, businesses are making the most out of it by storing not just names and phone numbers but also their interaction, preferences, and service issues, giving a complete overview of the customers. From first interaction to final purchase, it monitors the entire sales progress.
From Contact Management to CRM: Automotive Software Evolution
A simple software for contact management has evolved into an efficient customer relationship management system. This is the result of two developments that happened:
- The focus of dealerships shifted from only storing information to building relationships with the customer.
- The individual spreadsheets are shifted onto shared desktop databases, which the team could access across the dealerships.
Earlier, teams stored contact details in spreadsheets, which captured only basic information. Now, with modern CRM systems, they can track every interaction, manage sales, schedule follow-ups, and keep the entire team connected.
Why is Spyne’s Contact Management Software Ideal for Your Car Dealership?
When we talk about car dealerships, Spyne can be your go-to friend. Spyne’s contact management software can do much more than store names and numbers. Spyne’s Retail.ai focuses on building a strong relationship with its customers.
1. Grabbing Leads
Spyne plays distinctly in this fast-paced car dealership market. It aims to have a user-friendly interface for the members of the dealership to help them stay organized and connected. Also, it sends automated follow-ups to customers to never miss an opportunity.
2. A Complete Customer View
By using Spyne’s contact tracking software, you would never get snowed under with customer data ever. From the first interaction to buying another car, the team always knows everything about the customer.
3. AI-Enhanced Call Bots
You don’t have to worry about after-hours missed leads that could have been profitable to you anymore. Spyne’s AI-powered call bots actively attend to customers after working hours and schedule appointments to boost sales.
4. Customer Experience
Storing data on a shared desktop, for any member of the dealership to access and interact with the customer without repeated explanations, enhances customer experience and builds trust.
5. Automated Follow-ups and Reminders
Spyne does care about its customers and always checks on them by generating automated follow-ups and reminders for consistent engagement.
6. Friendly User Interface
New members don’t need to worry about using the software as Spyne provides a user-friendly interface that is easy to understand for those with less tech experience.
Conclusion
I hope you understand how importance of contact management software and how to choose a CRM system for your car dealership. It is the backbone for any dealership to boom. From storing information to managing it, building strong associations with customers, and turning more leads into profitable customers. Be ready to see your sales and performance soar to new heights by making use of the contact relationship management software in your day-to-day work. Book a demo with Spyne today!
