Seven tips to help service managers streamline operations, provide better service, and create long-lasting customer relationships that will greatly benefit every part of the dealership.

Thanks to digital technology, car shoppers are using more points of research — including dealer websites — to get to the source of the most accurate and timely information possible. It’s one of the driving forces behind consumer demand for transparency and accessibility. 

According to the J.D. Power 2015 U.S. Dealer Financing Satisfaction Study, overall dealer satisfaction scored 913 (out of 1,000) when using eContracting, compared to 856 when working with lenders who did not use that type of technology. The reason? Dealers are searching for higher levels of service centered around speed, convenience and efficiency.

When it comes to car shoppers, many are actually using a smartphone, or tablet, to visit your site, search inventory and conduct those all-important first purchase steps. In fact, according to traffic on the Dealer.com network, more than 40 percent of visits to dealership websites come from mobile devices.

Not using proper digital retailing tools is a bit like leaving a customer standing, unattended, in your showroom. There’s no connection made with a serious car shopper, and that frustrates customers, hurts sales and ruins satisfaction scores. 

Consumers not only spend more time online, but they want to do more of the major shopping steps before they visit the showroom. Until recently, dealers just did not have the retail-specific and dealer-controlled tools available that they needed to convert serious website shoppers into in-store buyers.

Hopefully you know that you must “run an OFAC” on every customer you do business with, both cash and credit customers. But what exactly is OFAC and what does “running an OFAC” mean?  What…