Whenever investing in their business, owners must question the overall value of their investment. A dealership management system (DMS) is one of many investments that dealers of all types will need to consider.
As your business grows, a DMS will help with the difficult task of managing a growing list of customers and transactions. Many dealer management systems help you organize all your business into a single place and cut down on labor hours by streamlining their day-to-day tasks.
However, the question remains: If you are considering a DMS, what is the actual value of the software to your dealership?
1. Customers now demand speed and efficiency
"The business world is rapidly changing," has become a 21st-century cliché. That's not without reason.
It wasn't long ago when consumers were much more patient and forgiving. They wanted to do their business face-to-face. Many enjoyed the process of buying a vehicle.
These trends have shifted as the generations who grew up in the Internet Age (Millennials and Gen Z) are coming of age. Dealerships are expected to give fast responses to all customers and individually customized service with minimal interaction.
"We're at this really interesting nexus in the consumer buying cycle, and how dealerships operate, and what dealerships have access to technology-wise," EverLogic Sales Manager Ryan Winter said. "We're at this point where those three things are converging. What it means is we can provide a better customer experience now through software. I can get that software affordably, without breaking the bank. And through that same software, I can run my dealership in a more efficient and effective way."
The right DMS will allow you to stay on top of these changing trends. With a DMS, you will have greater flexibility to meet the diverse demands of your customers' needs. Your team will spend less time doing the tedious tasks it takes to run a dealership. They will have more time to focus on your customers.
"It's a no-brainer to use software to meet those needs," Winter added.
2. Get the full value of the DMS software and integrations
Software is like an energy resource for your dealership: To gain the full value of it, you must harness it for all it is worth.
For example, EverLogic's integration with QuickBooks keeps you from having to enter accounting data once in our software and a second time in QuickBooks. This seemingly simple integration saves dealerships hours of time (and thousands of dollars in labor costs) every year.
For hundreds of years, people marveled at the might of the Colorado River. Yet, the full potential of the river was not truly realized until the government invested in building the Hoover Dam. The power of Colorado helped Las Vegas go from an obscure railroad stop to the City of Lights almost overnight.
Like the Hoover Dam, a DMS holds enormous power to help grow your business.
EverLogic offers features, modules and integrations all designed to increase your dealership's efficiency.
EverLogic Mobile allows technicians to do virtually their entire job without leaving their workstations. You save many more hours of labor when your technicians do not have to walk to the computer, manually upload pictures for warranty jobs or endlessly search for a part whose location is not clearly marked.
Our software is integrated with Kenect. It is a chatbot that allows a customer to talk to your dealership without having to step foot inside the building or pick up the phone. This gives you a distinct advantage by catering to customers who want to do as much of the buying process in the comfort of their own home.
Both of those features, despite their differences, are functions that add monetary value to the DMS. EverLogic Mobile's value is the sum of money you save in labor hours and the increased efficiency of your service department. Meanwhile, integration with Kenect opens your dealership to an entirely new customer base.
When considering a DMS, you should consider the benefits of every feature of the software and its capabilities can bring to your dealership.
3. Organizing your data in a DMS helps you know your business better
When you look at the report above, it shows exactly how productive this single technician was by listing every service job, when the job was completed, how many hours were billed for the job, how much the parts were for the job and more.
This technician productivity report helps you better understand your business. Reading the same report for each of your technicians helps you understand the service department. Reading similar, targeted reports about your sales department and accounting helps you better understand your entire dealership.
You can never obtain all the knowledge from these reports until your data is accessible in one central location.
"You need to know how much money you have right now, how much you're going to have 30 days from now, a year from now. So being able to budget and forecast easily and at a glance is really important," Winter said. "You can't do that in any business, especially a dealership, unless you have a single information hub where all your financials in and out are being tracked."
A DMS allows you to do this by keeping track of the many facets of your dealership. A DMS logs all of your vehicle inventory and the associated costs with keeping them on your lot. It notes your repair orders, and the parts needed for them. It will keep track of your customers and their transactions with your dealership.
EverLogic has an entire section dedicated to reports alone with more than 100 different reports you can see. Some of the reports you will be able to view are:
- Profit Reporting
- Commissions by employee
- Inventory history
- Trade-In Liens Due
- Parts by top selling
- Technician clocked time
- Transactions
"With a program like EverLogic, you truly can do every single step in the process of bringing a vehicle in, or bringing a part in, selling it to a consumer then tracking your financials and reporting on them," Winter said.
4. Consider implementation, training and customer service as part of your purchase
As a dealership owner thinking about whether to invest in a DMS, you should ask yourself what you are getting back beyond the technology. Onboarding, training and customer service are among the factors where you see the true value of a partnership with a DMS company.
"When you purchase software, especially software like EverLogic, you need a trusted partner," Winter said. "You need a software vendor who is not going to be absent when you have an issue you need to resolve."
After you purchase a DMS, your next step will be implementation. It is the process that transfers your dealership information to our software. You will want this process to be as quick as possible while also giving you the one-on-one attention you need through the transition process.
EverLogic will guide you step-by-step, from inputting inventory into the software to uploading important documents. With the right combination of urgency and patience, we expect to have you ready to fully transition to our software in 30 days.
The next step of our partnership is training. With you and your entire staff having to learn new software, you should expect comprehensive and convenient training.
EverLogic offers multiple free training options to allow customers to learn the software in a way that is most comfortable for them:
- Live interactive training via daily webinar
- Watching previously recorded classes
- Knowledge base with articles and videos on specific topics in EverLogic
- One-on-one training by appointment
Even with a seamless transition and quality training, there will be issues along the way. No matter what DMS you buy, your dealership will inevitably run into issues. So, it is important that you receive effective customer service when you need it.
EverLogic's customer service staff is available between 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST. The response time on tickets during business hours is within 60 minutes. Customers may also call the support line for any issue needing immediate attention.
Customers are also encouraged to join and interact in the EverLogic Growth Hub. It is a community forum with more than 60 members where dealership owners can discuss with each other and EverLogic staff about the software or any other issues with their business.
If you want to see for yourself how EverLogic can add value to your dealership, fill out the form below to watch a demo.
