New App to Increase Profits and Productivity for OEM's & Dealers

MELBOURNE - Sept 25, 2013: The newest smart phone and tablet app set to revolutionise the automotive industry has just hit the App Store.

Known as ‘Dealer Drive’, the app is designed to support dealerships by automating the process of conducting test drives and managing loan vehicles.

‘Dealer Drive’ is the result of two years intensive research and development by automotive industry executives, Michael Webb and Paul Willson. Collectively, Webb and Willson have over 30 years’ experience in the industry are the masterminds behind this innovative app.

Webb is a former Mercedes-Benz Australia Pacific Regional Sales Manager and more recently held a senior position with an MBAuP-owned dealership in Melbourne. Paul Willson has extensive business experience and is one the founders of EPH Group of companies.

Dealer Drive works by capturing important vehicle and customer data, allowing OEMs and dealerships to extract relevant, timely reports on the status of vehicles – including who is in a vehicle at any point in time. The app also has a built-in customer satisfaction tool that provides valuable feedback on the performance of sales staff and vehicles during the sales process.

“Dealer Drive enables dealerships to track and measure their operational effectiveness, reduce costs and improve sales. It also allows OEMs to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, identify sales training opportunities and monitor the overall performance of the dealer network”, says Webb, Co-Founder of Dealer Drive.”

The process begins with the salesperson entering the customer’s details, logging that information against the vehicle being driven. The customer’s license is also photographed and saved to the application and the vehicle being test driven or loaned.

For test drives specifically, ‘Dealer Drive’ electronically records the details of the drive including route and time taken – from the moment the vehicle leaves the dealership until the time it returns. A similar process applies to loan vehicles. By electronically logging who is in a vehicle at any point in time allows the dealership to cross-check the routes – including dates and times – enabling infringement notices to be easily assigned to the relevant person.

Using the smart phone or tablet’s camera, photographs can be taken of any vehicle damage before the test drive commences or vehicle is loaned, as well as on conclusion of the test drive or return of the loan vehicle. These photographs are logged against that vehicle and customer assigned to the vehicle at that time.

When all information has been entered, the customer digitally signs the dealerships terms and conditions directly onto the sales persons device – acknowledging the information entered against the vehicle is correct.

On conclusion of a test drive, ‘Dealer Drive’ automatically sends an email to the customer requesting feedback on the test drive.

Another feature allows the dealer to send emails to all potential customers who have driven particular vehicles in order to gauge their current level of interest.

The more the app is used, the greater the data capture. All test drives and loan vehicles logged in Dealer Drive provide the dealership with intuitive reports; helping them to identify the success rate of test drives – if longer test drives yield greater sales or fewer sales, the individual performance of sales staff, as well as the customer’s overall rating of the vehicle.

Dealer Drive allows OEMs and dealerships to monitor allocation of company vehicles – specifically, who is driving what vehicle and when; once again, helping them to manage traffic infringements more efficiently.

According to Webb, Co-Founder of Dealer Drive, “The range of benefits Dealer Drive offers OEMs and dealerships is enormous. The significant time and cost savings, reduction of manual handling, sophisticated level of reporting, and the sheer ease of accessing much needed customer and vehicle data, significantly outweighs the cost of the app itself. This product was developed as we identified an opportunity to help OEMs and dealerships improve their operations and overall business reporting and performance. The feedback we have received to date from our customers has been really positive and we are excited for what the future holds”.