- May 1, 2005
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- Jeff
Way to find an outside of the industry tool to help in the Service Deoartment. I like that!
Favorite Non Auto Technology/Software?
- Thread starter JessicaRuth
- Start date
Way to find an outside of the industry tool to help in the Service Deoartment. I like that!
I use Nitro PDF for creating and managing any document I need in a PDF format. I also think Google Drive, Docs and Cal are all very important. No need for a shared drive anymore and it can be accessed from anywhere on any device! PDF Expert for you Apple people is a must have also.
- Apr 22, 2009
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- Ryan
Hey Rob -- Thanks for this. I check out their site and it looks pretty awesome for the price.
Here's a question for you:
Believe it or not, there are still a lot of smaller dealers that do not have/use a CRM. Do you think you could use setmore.com as a very basic way for a sales manager to track sales appointments? Reps could input their appts through the software and at least the owner would have line of sight on what is happening on the floor.
Cheers!
Ryan
- Feb 23, 2016
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- Rob
Ryan,
Yes, very much so. Part of the reason I went with this solution was the following:
1) We had less than 20 users logging in, so the product was free for us.
2) We created two Administrators (Our Service writers) and 11 service techs. The Admin's could see everyone's schedule for that day on one screen. When the tech's logged in, they were only able to see their schedule for the day. Of course they could change the day and see what they had schedule out in the future.
3) It was able to integrate with our website, allowing customers to "block out time" on our techs future schedule. Of course this time had to be double checked by the Service Writers who would call them back to "confirm" the appointment.
4) It keeps a record of all the customers, so it was our poor mans CRM for the service department.
So I think for a solution for Sales it could be equally powerful. You could have your owner & Sales Manager set as admin, they would be able to adjust or schedule appointments for any of the Sales persons. Not only that, they could log in the customer comments what type of vehicle, price range, or payments they are seeking. Which would be vital information for them. You could even allow the customers to "schedule a time" for a demo, or test drive right from your website.
My personal 2 cents:
I guess the management in me, I would require all the Sales persons to log each up they would take in Setmore daily with rough times (including calls). This would at least allow the Owner/Sales Manager to track and see which sales persons are actually attempting to sell themselves and the dealership, or those just there for a 'paycheck'.
I'm more than happy to answer any other questions you would have about Setmore. It was a great solution for that dealership at the time.
Yes, very much so. Part of the reason I went with this solution was the following:
1) We had less than 20 users logging in, so the product was free for us.
2) We created two Administrators (Our Service writers) and 11 service techs. The Admin's could see everyone's schedule for that day on one screen. When the tech's logged in, they were only able to see their schedule for the day. Of course they could change the day and see what they had schedule out in the future.
3) It was able to integrate with our website, allowing customers to "block out time" on our techs future schedule. Of course this time had to be double checked by the Service Writers who would call them back to "confirm" the appointment.
4) It keeps a record of all the customers, so it was our poor mans CRM for the service department.
So I think for a solution for Sales it could be equally powerful. You could have your owner & Sales Manager set as admin, they would be able to adjust or schedule appointments for any of the Sales persons. Not only that, they could log in the customer comments what type of vehicle, price range, or payments they are seeking. Which would be vital information for them. You could even allow the customers to "schedule a time" for a demo, or test drive right from your website.
My personal 2 cents:
I guess the management in me, I would require all the Sales persons to log each up they would take in Setmore daily with rough times (including calls). This would at least allow the Owner/Sales Manager to track and see which sales persons are actually attempting to sell themselves and the dealership, or those just there for a 'paycheck'.
I'm more than happy to answer any other questions you would have about Setmore. It was a great solution for that dealership at the time.
- Apr 22, 2009
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- Ryan
Thanks for the reply Rob. I love the "poor mans crm" reference. At minimum it would be perfect for appointments only. If I have any questions I'll ping ya.
All the best!
Ryan
- Feb 11, 2015
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- Alex
There are far too many good ones to mention these days and frankly, it can be overwhelming and it depends on your focus but:
My two automotive based tools, but vastly different:
- http://www.gshiftlabs.com (best SEO software alive, smashes MOZ)
- https://www.adyapper.com (eliminate unseen ads, ad fraud & bot traffic in display, mobile, and video campaigns, so your digital ads generate real business, etc.)
- https://www.seopowersuite.com
- http://webkite.com and http://webkite.com/cars
- http://www.marinsoftware.com
- http://kenshoo.com
- http://www.acquisio.com
- https://basecamp.com
- https://trello.com
- http://www.buzzstream.com
- http://buzzsumo.com
- http://sproutsocial.com
- https://hootsuite.com
- http://motors.lotvantage.com
- https://wordpress.org
- http://www.backlinks.com
- http://www.guru.com (for small contractor projects, very helpful if you find the right guy)
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/scribe (was absolutely fantastic, but they killed it)
My two automotive based tools, but vastly different:
- http://autostride.com (Smart TV automotive marketplace)
- http://drivingpins.com (a true Automotive Social Commerce plaform, which will pull in Edmunds API data, uses EVOX images, will have many unique hooks for generating leads and an advertising platform, etc. Developed with women buyers in mind)
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I won't debate that they're much better than MOZ, but we had huge data inaccuracy issues with them about 12 months ago and after 6 months ended up leaving. Google changes were really affecting their ability to track our keyword rankings and we constantly found that the reports were flawed. For example, a store that constantly showed up #1 for "CITYNAME FORD" would be ranked #3 on their software, even though their tech team noted that this was incorrect and a bug in the system. It caused too many issues with clients asking why they were losing rank, fluctuating, etc when really it was just poor reporting due to things like map results, paid results, etc.
The rest of the list looks great and very familiar. We're big fans of Sprout Social - it's loaded with features for the price, it's just got a bit of a complicated user experience flow to it.
- Feb 11, 2015
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- First Name
- Alex
Interesting to run into an automotive head that has used them and thanks, I've had nothing but pleasantries with them. I just love the way their interfaces are laid out and their reporting tools are second to none. I do think gShift's system is set up to support automotive dealers and agencies very well. I believe you and I might have a lot in common or think the same Craig. BTW, I see you are from Ontario and so is gShift, I believe.
I am from Ontario and so is gShift. I was introduced to them by another Canadian SEO company who loved their tools. For reporting it doesn't get much better, but when accuracy faltered we basically just wrote our own version of the tool that only did the features we needed (rank checking,l and high level reports).
- Feb 11, 2015
- 2,492
- 764
- First Name
- Alex
