Car dealerships
Stock, enquiry and test drive systems for car dealerships
Car buyers do nearly all of their deciding before they set foot on a forecourt. By the time somebody rings you they have looked at your stock, compared three other dealers and half made their mind up.
Stock - this week
34 live · 3 added today
An illustration of the kind of screen this builds towards - yours is built around how your car dealership actually runs.
The reality
Where the time and money goes in a car dealership
Stock takes too long to get online
A car sits on the forecourt for three days before it is listed, because listing it means photographing, writing a description and typing the spec. Those are three days of a depreciating asset not being seen.
Sold cars stay on the site
Nothing annoys a buyer more than driving over for a car that went last week, and nothing makes a dealer look less organised.
Part-exchange questions come far too late
The customer has a car to trade in but does not mention it until they are on the forecourt, so the whole conversation restarts around a number nobody has prepared.
Finance enquiries arrive unqualified
Somebody enquires about a car they have no chance of financing, and everybody's time goes on a deal that was never going to happen.
Test drives are arranged by phone tag
Two or three calls to agree a time, when the customer would have booked a Saturday morning slot themselves in twenty seconds.
The approach
How we'd fix it
The stock system has to be quick to use or it will not get used. Photographs uploaded from a phone on the forecourt, spec pulled from the registration rather than typed, description written once, live in a few minutes. Just as importantly, marking a car sold takes one tap and removes it everywhere immediately, because stale listings cost you credibility with every buyer who makes a wasted journey.
The enquiry side is about qualifying earlier. A part-exchange valuation form on every vehicle page - registration, mileage, condition, photos - means you are talking about a number before they arrive. Finance enquiries capture the basics up front so the conversation starts in the right place. And test drives book themselves into real slots, which is far more likely to get a Saturday morning appointment than three rounds of voicemail.
What we build
Built for car dealerships
Stock management from a phone
Photograph, describe and publish a car from the forecourt in minutes, with spec pulled from the registration.
One-tap sold
Marking a car sold removes it from the site immediately, so nobody drives over for a vehicle that went last week.
Test drive booking
Real appointment slots by vehicle and salesperson, booked online without a round of phone tag.
Part-exchange valuation requests
Registration, mileage, condition and photos captured on the vehicle page, so the number is being worked out before they arrive.
Finance enquiry capture
The basics gathered up front so enquiries arrive qualified and the conversation starts in a useful place.
Search that matches how people buy
Filter by monthly budget, body style, fuel, mileage and transmission, because that is how buyers actually shop.
What changes
The difference it makes
- Cars are seen sooner, which matters on an asset that loses value weekly
- Buyers stop wasting journeys on sold stock, and stop telling people about it
- Part-exchange and finance conversations start before the customer arrives
- Saturday test drives fill up without anyone playing phone tag
In practice
A worked example: three days on the forecourt
A dealership was averaging around three days between a car arriving and it appearing online. Not through laziness - listing meant photographs, a written description, typing out the spec, and it competed with everything else that happens on a forecourt.
Making the process phone-first cut that to under an hour. Photographs go straight up from the forecourt, the spec is pulled from the registration rather than typed, and the description is a few lines rather than an essay. On a stock of thirty cars turning over regularly, getting each one in front of buyers two days earlier is a meaningful difference to how quickly they sell - and depreciation does not pause while a car waits to be photographed.
The systems behind it
What this is built from
Everything on this page is put together from the same handful of systems, shaped around how car dealerships actually work.
Questions
Car Dealerships - the questions I get asked
How quickly can we get a car online?
Minutes, if the system is built for a phone rather than a desktop. Photographs go up from the forecourt, the specification is pulled from the registration instead of typed, and you write a short description. The aim is that listing a car is something you do while it is being valeted, not a job that waits for someone to sit at a computer.
Can it pull vehicle details from the registration?
Yes. Make, model, engine, fuel, transmission, first registration and MOT history can be looked up from the reg, which removes most of the typing and, more importantly, most of the mistakes. You check and correct rather than enter from scratch.
Can customers request a part-exchange valuation online?
Yes, and putting that form on every vehicle page changes the conversations you have. Registration, mileage, condition and a few photos come in with the enquiry, so you have a number in mind before they arrive instead of starting the whole discussion on the forecourt.
Can we feed our stock to Auto Trader as well?
In most cases yes - stock can be exported in the formats the major portals accept, so you enter a car once and it appears everywhere. Which portals and which feed format depends on your agreements with them, so it is worth confirming before we build rather than after.
Do people really book test drives online?
Increasingly, yes, particularly for weekend slots. The alternative is that a buyer who is interested on a Tuesday evening has to remember to ring on Wednesday during working hours. Giving them a slot they can take there and then converts interest while it is still warm.
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Run a car dealership? Let's have a look at it
Tell me how things work at the moment and I'll come back with a clear, fixed quote - and an honest view on whether it's worth the money. No pressure and no jargon.