Planet Honda Opens $4.5 Million Showroom in Clifton
CLIFTON, N.J. & PASSAIC, N.J.--June 20, 2001--Planet Honda, the top-selling Honda dealership in the Northeast at its Union location, is taking the fun car-buying experience to higher levels at its new Clifton dealership.
A press tour of the $4.5 million showroom at 584 Route 3 West in Clifton will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, June 22, 2001.
During the tour, Timothy Ciasulli, CEO and president of Planet Honda, will discuss how sales have skyrocketed at the Clifton location. He will also introduce Planet Honda's technology initiative to equip its sales force with DealerAdvance(TM), an innovative mobile sales system that makes buying a car easier for consumers. Chris Carey, CEO and president of Stronghold Technologies, the Whippany-based company that developed DealerAdvance(TM), will be on hand to answer questions.
The DealerAdvance(TM) system uses handheld devices that have the memory and processing power of a PC to store, manage and distribute information.
"We want to send our customers a message that Planet Honda is not only using technology to create an entertaining car-buying experience," said Ciasulli. "We have gone a step further with DealerAdvance(TM) to create a smarter and more efficient car-buying experience," he said.
With DealerAdvance(TM), sales consultants, in real time, can check new and used car inventory; provide side-by-side new vehicle comparisons on all makes and models through Chrome Data, an independent information source; register customers into Planet Honda's Customer Care Center for follow-up service; and issue paper printouts of all customer information and product queries. According to Ciasulli, DealerAdvance(TM) is even helping to save sales.
"When one customer said that she wanted to visit a competitor, our sales consultant used DealerAdvance(TM) to do a complete side-by-side comparison of the Honda and competing vehicle, and gave the customer a printout. The customer was so impressed, she ended up buying a Honda Accord on the spot," said Ciasulli.
More than 300 vehicles were sold at the Clifton dealership in May, its first month of operation. The dealership moved to Clifton from its site in Passaic, which is now home to Planet Honda's Used Car Universe.
Ciasulli said he expects that DealerAdvance(TM) will boost already impressive sales at Planet Honda of Clifton. Acquired in October 1999 by Ciasulli and Tom Scialpi, new car sales increased by 95 percent in 2000, and by an additional 110 percent in 2001.
According to Ciasulli DealerAdvance(TM) is a valuable sales and customer relationship management tool because it helps dealerships track sales performance, customer prospects and follow-up, and creates a structured system for building and managing customer relationships.
For example, for those who are just browsing or plan on making a purchase in the future, sales consultants can use DealerAdvance(TM) to register these customers into Planet Honda's database of prospects, and issue a printout of a "Shopper Check." This voucher comes with a promise that Planet Honda will pay customers $750 if it does not beat any valid price made by a competing dealership. Sales consultants can follow-up with information on special promotional offers, and when customers return to the showroom, their data is already recorded and can be easily accessed, which saves a significant amount of time on the transaction process.
