Dealership technology is often outdated and used incorrectly, putting many retailers behind the curve on digital retail. However, with consumers conducting more and more of their business online, the retail automotive sector will need to move quickly if it hopes to continue providing high levels of service.

To learn more about the latest dealership technology driving engagement and sales across the industry, CBT News anchor Jim Fitzpatrick met with Steve Roessler, chief evangelist officer of DriveCentric, at this year’s Digital Dealer conference. DriveCentric is a data management platform that empowers retailers to form meaningful relationships with consumers both online and offline. Apart from his work with DriveCentric, Roessler is a sought-after automotive visionary who has dedicated his career to helping dealers succeed in a changing industry landscape.

Key Takeaways

1. While dealers and their employees have become more adept at handling digital interactions, Roessler stresses the importance of building relationships with consumers through “conversational commerce.” This can be done through dealership technology platforms that allow retailers to manage their data effectively.

2. Tools that employ artificial intelligence present both efficiency and cost-saving benefits for automotive retailers that few today have fully taken advantage of.

3. Many dealers neglect to use their customer relationship management software and often rely on outdated tools. Knowledge of emerging solutions and the ability to quickly implement new dealership technology across operations will be crucial in the years ahead.

“Everybody is trying to do more with less, and that means responsibilities go up. So we have to back off on some of the things normally they were doing. We’re going out there, focusing our dealers on new ways to operate; work smart, not hard.” — Steve Roessler