CDK Global releases Unlock. Unite. Advance. report to help dealerships achieve a Connected Experience in 2021 and beyond

London, UK. CDK Global, (Nasdaq, CDK), a provider in automotive dealership software used in over 30,000 retail locations across the world, has today launched a new report titled Unlock. Unite. Advance: How delivering a connected consumer experience can unleash your dealership’s full potential, which acts as a guide for dealerships looking to harness today’s technologies to deliver exceptional customer experiences and relationships.

As it stands, the dealership experience is a fragmented one for customers, with disparate tools and systems used by different teams for each stage of the process. All too often this makes the car buying or servicing experience inconvenient and impersonal. In Unlock. Unite. Advance, CDK Global addresses the five key issues that its Connected Experience seeks to address in 2021 and beyond, all of which focus on a customer-centric approach and seamless digital workflows.

The CDK Global Connected Experience connects every dealership function through six key pillars: Marketing, Sales, Workshop, Parts, Systems and Analytics. This open platform is further strengthened by the International Partner Programme, which sees industry-leading partners integrate their applications to CDK Global’s Dealer Management System (DMS).

The five key themes, and how best to tackle them, highlighted in the report are:

Retail innovation: The likes of Amazon have raised consumers’ expectations of the retail experience to such a degree that this level of service – a truly end-to-end customer journey – is expected from every retailer interaction, including those delivered by automotive retailers.

Dealership challenges: Connecting disparate systems to create a single, go-to platform for both consumers and employees to access where and when they need it is key. Research shows that 29% of data held by franchised dealers is incomplete , so this a task that dealers need to focus on in the short term.

The modern consumer: Price is no longer a deciding factor for customers, who now expect a seamlessly tailored customer service both online and in-store.

Consumer-centricity: Dealers need to shift their mindset and business model from being product-driven to consumer-driven if they are to maximise their competitive advantage and boost resilience by staying in-step with evolving consumer demands.

Data and the connected experience: Businesses using data to understand their consumers saw a profit increase of 8% and a 10% reduction in overall cost , so the benefits of investing in a good data strategy are clear.

With COVID-19 social distancing and lockdown measures cutting footfall, dealerships need to accelerate digitalisation and focus on improving their efforts in the five domains listed in the report. In fact, two-thirds of consumers are now more likely to buy a vehicle 100% online following the COVID-19 outbreak . Therefore, there is now even more reason to provide an end-to-end online buying process that includes trade-in, finance and documenting, as well as contactless servicing and maintenance.

Joaquim Croca, Vice President, Commercial, CDK Global, says: “We have created this guide to be a valuable resource for retailers as they look to become more connected across their dealerships in 2021. CDK Global’s Connected Experience, bolstered by the International Partner Programme, will help dealers make the most of conducting business and operations as we move into the new year and ultimately make better and more lasting connections with customers. Harnessing technology, joining up systems and uniting functions is crucial to automotive retail success and our open platform is a crucial step in enabling dealers to achieve this.”

CDK Global will present its Connected Experience and the whitepaper in more detail during a series of webinars at the start of 2021, each focusing on a different pillar and starting with Connected Workshop and Connected Sales.

Download the Unlock. Unite. Advance report here: www.cdkglobal.co.uk/unite