There are business models that got hurt by the pandemic and then there are those that got absolutely wiped out.
Car purchasing was one such method.
Think about all of the now-potentially-fraught interactions that go into buying a car: talking to the salesperson, touching the car (that many other people may have touched), the test drive, etc.
All of that had to be changed during the pandemic.
There are lessons here for how your company can be better equipped.
Communicating Online
If you’ve ever bought a car before, think of how many questions you had for the person selling you the car.
So, now you do it online.
You can do it through various video platforms.
This can get around the “pushy” salesperson stereotype. Instead of having someone come right up to you while you’re looking at a car, you have time to examine the car (through the website) and then decide to talk to someone.
Speaking of “examining the car through the website,” that’s one big step that many car companies took during the pandemic: they improved their website.
Realizing that it, in a very real way, was going to be their showroom for the foreseeable future, they gave it the same kind of care and attention that they would their physical showroom.
Car dealerships, of course, have to sell cars.
They don’t have time to have people just come to the site and then leave without actually approaching them, seeing where they are, etc.
That said, you can’t just have a salesperson digitally teleport to them to talk to them about the car.
One solution: chatbots.
However, for many dealerships, these aren’t the annoying chatbots that so many of us have seen at one site or another.
Instead, they’re there to answer questions car buyers might have, such as anything about rebates, discounts, trade-ins, and so forth.
Improvement for Your Company
You may not have a car dealership that you’re looking to grow. By that same token, chatbots (even very well constructed, non-annoying ones) might not be the right solution for you.
But, every company can do something to move forward during this time. Maybe it’s improving your website. Perhaps it’s boosting your digital marketing budget, or something else.
To help find what’s right for you, Danny’s got your back. You can talk to him for a remote marketing consulting in Los Angeles session at (213) 457-3250.
