DealerSocket's Revenue Radar and the struggles...

[Jeff Kershner]

I have a dealer friend that likes to be one of thooose - a Lurker!

Anyway...

He wondering if anyone in the DR community happens to be a real POWER USER of DealerSocket CRM, more specifically their equity mining tool - Revenue Radar.

They installed it a few months and while they're trying to utilize it to its fullest, they continue to struggle with it. He did mention that their internal training and resources "blow". He said it, not me.

The reality is, there's only about 1000 equity mining tools available to dealers anymore. Every time I turn around, I'm being introduced to another one. From $500 a month to $5000, and they all swear they have a secret sauce the competition doesn't. Yet, most dealers struggle with ALL of them to some degree.

The question is, what exactly is he "struggling" with?

Are you using an equity mining tool that's seamless, effective and you never struggle with?

 

[Chris Leslie]

Hey Jeff, So good news, I am both a Power User and a Rev Radar user. So hopefully this helps.

Rev Radar is a stand alone product in reality. You could use Rev Radar and not have Dealer Socket is what I am saying. So with that. It works kind of that way too.

The thing with RR is that it's got a lot of moving parts to it. Especially when you get into the back end details of settings and other various knob turning.

There is an aspect that I find to be the most useful thing of Rev Radar and probably gets glossed over. But, there is a desking type tool built into it. So you could essentially have a screen pop up, show you what the customers current structure is and you get start adding various vehicles to see how they look as far as payments and so on.

But if I am honest at the end of the day. It's just another thing to manage. Anyone with a sense of running lists in DS could do the exact same thing. It isn't new tech they built as much as its just a fancy version of their list builder. If we didn't have to have an Equity Tool I wouldn't use one at all.

Thats my 2 cents. Feel free to call me if you want to know more.

 

[yagoparamo]

Taking on @Chris Leslie comment "got a lot of moving parts" I will say that the difficulties on implementation will be unique to how solid is the data, understanding, purity, etc that the dealer has. Each dealer will be a totally unique case.

Furthermore, and as a generalization for software implementation; usually fails at:

The user's side time allocation. Implementation resources. Who, when, and how long is going to take to be at full capacity?

Are you putting 100% of your time on this or 5 minutes, then go sell a car, then 5 minutes, then answer to the GSM why you didn't sell that car, then put another 5 minutes... Focus your resources--on anything!--and you will get it to work.

You should ask the vendor: How many man hours will it take to achieve full implementation? List everyone that needs to be involved from the dealer's side and what is required from them. List from the beginning everything they will need.

Understand that if we have a 30 days timeline, and I need--for example a list of customers emails at day 15th--each day beyond day 15th is a day that will add to the back of our timeline. That is best case scenario! when a software engineer or senior vendor takes on a delivery project, once the timeline is broken they must jump on another one (project management), they can't be idle wondering what day you will decide to send that email list. when you send the email list (late) it may take several more days than you think for them to jump back on your project. Sounds bad but I must deal with realities; we all (including you) have limited number of people working so we must prioritize.

Know when you need first, then stick to the timeline.

The user's side understanding of the product goals. Have a clear understanding of your goal for this product, write it down, set a time frame goal, agree to that with the vendor (and back to previous: allocate necessary resources).

Have realistic goals! and what it will take.

How many times did you buy a $399 tool, didn't appoint anyone to use it, didn't even show up for training the day it went live, then got frustrated because it didn't work?

If I had a $399 tool that will make you thousands without anyone doing anything for it, it wouldn't be $399...

How the user goals relate to the system capabilities. Can this $399 thing really solve this huge headache I have? You must truly understand the problem that you have in order to know if the new system will deliver everything you hope for or at least partially.

I see too many times that the problem is that the people managing things at the dealer are maxed out or not fully understanding how to work the tools they already have. Buying yet another system will not solve that problem.

When working on website performance with clients sometimes I leave a meeting with 5 pages of changes and ideas. I tell my clients to prioritize; what do we need to change/solve first? Too many changes and we may never know what and how it worked because at the same time it may interact with some of the other changes and have a totally different set of parameters than when we started.

Here is the good news! Software (new tool, a website, PPC, content, etc) is an old problem. This is a basic project management class for anyone that studied computer science (we are not good at selling cars--you are-- but hopefully we understand computer systems). Leave promises behind and too high goals; understand the problem and the goal, write down the path. The people you will be working with will be able to guide you.

 

[Racer X]

We're starting with DS soon on their new interface and plan to add RR at some point. Interested to see the responses here.

Surprised at the comment about the internal resources as so far we've found, at least the CRM related resources, to be relatively deep and detailed with a large library of tutorials, courses and videos, all updated for the new interface.

 

[Chris Leslie]

Yago is exactly right.. It's really depends on the resources/time you can put into it. It is an amazing tool when it can be managed the way it needs to be managed.

 

[jeffwhite]

Agree with everything stated by Yago and Chris, "you get out of it, what you put into it".....That being said, the interface is extremely difficult to figure out. I would suggest more training and hopefully the "Blackbird" release will solve the interface issue. Last time I looked at that product, I felt that it hit the bullseye with capability however it missed the bullseye with interface.

 

[Jlewis74]

Stacey Ellison is a rock start with RR, find her on social channels and reach out to her. I don't think she is a member here.

 

[Chris Leslie]

@jeffwhite I've been using Blackbird for a few months now and can say that BB is a bit of a dumpster fire right now. There is a lot that is still missing from it. As it sits, its basically a fancy way to get to reports more or less. It doesn't really work in line with Rev Radar either. Rev Radar is still its own thing.

 

[jeffwhite]

Ouch....I am sure the team over at DS will get the BB platform out fully. I would then recommend checking out Automotive Mastermind or Auto Alert, data mining is all those companies do so they have a good handle on all aspects (UI and training).

 

[Mitch Gallant]

@jeffwhite I've been using Blackbird for a few months now and can say that BB is a bit of a dumpster fire right now. There is a lot that is still missing from it. As it sits, its basically a fancy way to get to reports more or less. It doesn't really work in line with Rev Radar either. Rev Radar is still its own thing.

OUCH! We've yet to migrate. What are the missing pieces right now? I'll be dropping into a few stores when it rolls out for a day or two and would love the heads up!