I totally agree, Alex - too many resources already invested so there's no turning back.
To Cox's credit at least they realized that Accelerate is a joke of a DR product (if you can even call it that) and came out with this new more full-fledged solution.
My 21 yr old daughter wanted a new car. I directed her to some models to review online that met what she wanted. She said to me, exactly these words, "Cars are a lot of money. I need to test drive. I'll either fall in love and the money won't matter, or I won't and I'll keep driving what I have."When pointing things like this out the marketers are quick to state "the whole Millennial and whatever blah blah blah" generation of buyers doesn't want to visit the car dealership. I think those same marketers were repping phone companies when the telephone was going to replace sales agents.
I crested the hill a few years ago, and am starting to find appreciation in the printed newspaper again. Last week, I bought my first physical paperbacks since the iPad came out. As I'm aging I'm starting to find my multitasking skills are not what they once were and I'm also beginning to appreciate less screen time.
My point is that there may be a younger generation exhibiting new buying practices, but they're going to get older one day.
…complete tangent from the viability of digital retailing, but I keep hearing this younger generation is going to make it viable. Cracks me up every time I hear it
Replying 8 months later: I agree having a real-person backstop is key. I bought a car from Carvana online, and I ended up with a question about payments -- which, as you say, is one of the commonest questions that arise in DR conversations. There was a button to press to get a Carvana "customer advocate" on the phone. As I recall, there wasn't much of a wait time and the advocate resolved the issue. I ended up buying the car. I have to add, though, that Carvana was not nearly as quick to pick up when I had questions post-sale. Go figure.
) tools out there provide the customer a rough estimation based on a self assessment of credit and then try to capture a credit app with a basic deal structure. In addition, there are dealerships that don't have a strong process taking action on these Digital Retail "Leads" when they typically provide way more insights into the customer's journey. Leveraging that extra information can be really helpful meeting the customer where they are in their shopping journey. (Reading the digital body language) Which in turn, should increase efficiency at the dealership.
