CRM drives car dealership revolution at Ford

System has direct link to factory so vehicles can be customised

Customers can also book a service, order parts or make queries online, with the Revolution-driven Web site.

The site not only reduces demand on salespeople's time, it captures every interaction that identifies the customer and it is logged on their account information.

Reporting capabilities in the system have allowed both dealerships to measure the effectiveness of staff and improve conversion rates.

"For example, we can identify where a salesperson isn't achieving as much success as others in the test drive stage. We can now optimise the entire sales process with all our salespeople to enhance their results and improve our profitability," Milic said.adding there has been additional savings in areas like warranty and service management, and general administration.

Milic said the automated workflow capabilities for warranty assessments and approvals has allowed the dealerships to redeploy staff.

"We have reduced total headcount by four people," he added.

"This has reduced costs by $250,000 per annum, and we've also cut our advertising spend by 30 per cent, which saves another $150,000."

Milic admits Ford customers tend to stay loyal to the brand.

"So when a new Falcon is launched we can write to customers who purchased a Falcon three to five years ago, offering a special deal to encourage them to upgrade," he said.

Revolution Software Services director, Anthony Nadalini, said the Progress technology boasts a high level of flexibility and scalability.

"We have customers all over the country, from Tasmania to remote locations in outback Western Australia, so we can't afford to work with technology that corrupts or breaks down," Nadalini said.

"Not only is the database extremely reliable, but we can scale from one user to several thousand without even having to think about it.

"The development platform allows us to provide a seamless solution by quickly and easily developing interfaces to other systems, and we can deliver updates over the Internet so there's no need to visit hundreds of sites around the country whenever we upgrade the software."

Harrigan Ford has been trading since 1907 and employs 70 staff.

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