By Paul Muers
13th September, 2019
Integrating technology enables organisations to make better use of the data available to them, improves accuracy and enables more intelligent decision-making.
Imagine, for example, an organisation which has integrated its customer relationship management (CRM) system with its accounting solution. This enables financial processes such as invoicing to be closely tied to customer information, so account managers can quickly determine things like which customers are more likely to pay promptly and which are overdue.
Integrations between CRM systems and contact centres are another example that helps ensure that when customers contact an organisation, their previous contact records can be immediately accessed by the call handler and the call is more informed and efficient.
Yet despite these obvious cases for an integrated technology approach, many dealerships have systems that are disconnected.
Integration in automotive dealerships
What does integration look like in automotive dealerships? One of the most common – and important – technologies used within dealerships are dealer management systems, or DMSs. These management information systems developed specially for industry help dealerships handle functions including sales, finance, parts, inventory and administration.
While a DMS is clearly functional in isolation, it becomes more powerful when integrated with technologies that support other customer-facing activities across the dealership environment.
Linking aftersales technology in this way is one such example. Integrating with an electronic vehicle health check platform, such as an autoVHC, allows the DMS and eVHC system to communicate at various stages depending on the level of integration achieved.
This enables improved customer communications and a better flow of information between sales and aftersales teams. For example, a customer’s vehicle history can be viewed as one complete record, starting with the initial vehicle purchase and including all subsequent aftersales visits.
This enables dealership teams to identify specific services that might suit the customer and develop tailored approaches where appropriate. Better integration of information also enables an array of useful business intelligence which can help improve how both sales and aftersales opportunities are converted.
autoVHC: an integrated approach
At autoVHC, we are proud to have developed our eVHC solution to integrate seamlessly with a range of different automotive technologies. This includes being a member of CDK’s Global’s partnership programme. Integration between The CDK DMS and autoVHC creates an end-to-end process enabling dealers to seamlessly transfer data relating to jobs, parts, stocks, prices and more between the two platforms.
Why not get in touch with us today to learn more about building an integrated approach to technology in your dealership?
Blog