Integrating Digital Retailing: Get a handle on deposits and lead duplication

Read this blog post in French.

Welcome back to Integrating Digital Retailing, a series that helps you determine the best solutions for your ecommerce store. In this second segment, we explore two more vital questions from Shane’s ten-point checklist. These questions will get you to think about how to integrate your pre-existing departments, like sales and financing, with your digital process.

3. Handling deposits
A third consideration is online deposits. In the dealership, you already have an outlined process for deposits. You take their credit card, run it through the machine, attach the deposit to the deal, and it’s done. Everything is clearly defined and outlined exactly as it should be. But with digital retailing, the sales process will probably involve online deposits. You need to track the deposit, build a paper trail, and know where that money is going. When you deposit the money into your bank account, it needs to be identified with a deal number and invoice. You need to work with your accounting department to develop this process so they can figure out how to identify these sum amounts and how to return them to the client.

4. Duplication of leads
You may duplicate leads if you don’t integrate your tools and databases. Some solutions like AutoVance are fully integrated with the Quorum system, which makes things very easy. But what if you wanted to use a CRM tool like Reynolds Contact Manager plus a digital retailing engine like Roadster? This can cause confusion and friction because you don’t have a streamlined solution to keep track of all of your leads in one place.

You may have a client already in the system, other new clients using your digital solutions, and yet even more potential buyers who are purely showroom customers. How can you keep track of who’s who? This can confuse and frustrate your potential clients as well. A consumer who spent a lot of time filling out their information online believes that they’re saving time when they walk in the door to your dealership. Their perception is you should know who they are when they come in. If you develop a process that allows your team to keep track of all of your leads, no matter the source, you gain the opportunity to build trust with your customers.

As you piece together ways to merge your digital process with your pre-existing sales process, you’ll want to consider tools that help make this integration easy and seamless. We hope this series illuminates the importance of choosing the right tools that fit your particular business. Check back next week for our third blog post, where we’ll ask some more integration questions, like: how do we handle pre-existing customers, and are there any legal barriers to handling a sale entirely online? Stay tuned to find out the answers.

Did you miss the first part of our Integrating Digital Retailing Series? Read it here.