06 February 2017

Travelling to this year’s NADA Convention just a week after the inauguration of President Donald Trump was a fascinating experience, from both a political and a business perspective.

There is little doubt that US auto retailers are natural Republicans and, despite some misgivings, voted for him. After all, this is an organisation whose membership (a small minority, admittedly) threatened to boycott a previous convention where Hilary Clinton – then not even a presidential candidate – was the keynote speaker.

If you’ve never been to NADA, it’s hard to understand how engaged US auto retailers are with their politicians, both at a local and national level. They never miss an opportunity to remind legislators how much they contribute to the economy in terms of jobs, tax revenues and charitable giving to the local community

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I just don’t see UK retailers being that pro-active with local or national power brokers. Raising funds for BEN is great, but supporting your local youth football team might get you more influence.

On the other hand, I don’t think there’s much the US industry can teach us at an operational level. The hard sell still prevails in many dealerships and I suspect many of their sales processes would seem intrusive to a British customer.

Once in a while the Convention does produce a show-stopper though. This year the highlight for many visitors was NADA’s Modern Dealer Experience – a walk-through demonstration of self-service kiosks.

If you’ve recently shopped in an Argos or a McDonalds (or checked-in at an airport), you’ll know how effective these kiosks can be. Put one in your aftersales environment, link it to your DMS and vehicle health check, then add 24/7 key drop and suddenly you take customer service to a whole new (post-millennial) level.

Rupert Saunders

Managing Director

Auto Retail Network

Tags: 2017 NADA Convention, aftersales, customer service, Modern Dealer Experience, NADA, self service