Best Practices

There has been growing speculation about the possibility of another recession, and experts seem to agree that they aren’t entirely sure if a recession is imminent. Historically, major economic downturns have led to challenging times for many businesses, including dealers. However, dealers can learn how to prepare for a potential recession by embracing an overlooked profit center: the parts department. The automotive industry was among the hardest hit during the recent Great Recession (2007-2009). More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions have presented additional economic hurdles. Despite the financial challenges posed by the pandemic, numerous dealerships have found creative ways to boost revenue and grow their operations. A particularly effective strategy has been establishing a robust online presence for the parts department, which has not only helped overcome pandemic-related difficulties but also catered to rising consumer demands. According to NADA, in 2020, dealerships across the country saw a $6 billion decrease in parts sales. Data from RevolutionParts shows that dealers selling online saw an average increase of 27% in online parts and accessories sales during that year, highlighting how dealers can leverage online sales to offset tough economic times. So, why did RevolutionParts dealers enjoy an average increase in online sales amidst an economic downturn when many other dealers faced financial challenges? Because they were selling parts online during a time when few people were leaving the house, and most of all, because they were able to sell parts outside of their local market. Additionally, if we look at historical data, recessions often trigger an increase in parts sales. During the Great Recession, auto parts retailers like AutoZone, Advanced Auto Parts, and O’Reilly’s Auto Parts showed how resilient the parts industry is. While the stock market drastically fell by over 50%, stocks for companies like AutoZone and Advanced Auto remained steady. On the other hand, O’Reilly’s Auto Parts only dipped 10% in the beginning before seeing the start of immense growth in 2009 (see images below) and saw a massive increase in sales during this time, taking their annual sales from $2.5M in 2007 to $5.7M by the end of 2011. Why Recessions Give Auto Parts Retailers a Boost When a recession hits, the need for auto parts increases, especially for used cars, as the average age of vehicles in operation increases. This is because when people fall into hard financial times, they stop making big purchases, like new vehicles. While this presents bad news for dealers trying to sell new cars and seek a supply of trade-in vehicles, it can mean an opportunity for more parts sales. In an effort to save money, consumers are likely to hold onto their used cars longer. Older cars need more maintenance and repairs to stay on the road than newer cars, resulting in a higher demand for replacement parts. So what is different today compared to 2007? Today, consumers are more likely to shop online than during the Great Recession, a habit reinforced by the 2020 pandemic. Today, 74% of parts shoppers begin their research online, according to Hedges and Company. If another recession occurs, more people will be in need of auto parts, and the first place they start their search is online. Dealers have a unique opportunity to capture these parts buyers and drive more revenue to the dealership. Here are some key benefits to embracing your most overlooked profit center and developing a strong parts eCommerce strategy: Diversifies Revenue By expanding business operations to include online parts and accessories sales, a dealership can diversify its revenue streams and reduce its reliance on traditional in-person sales, which can be negatively impacted during a recession. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of diversifying revenue streams. During economic uncertainty, relying solely on traditional in-person sales can be risky, as demand may decline or supply chain disruptions may make it difficult to acquire and maintain steady inventory. Online parts sales can help dealerships reach customers outside their local market. This can be particularly beneficial for dealerships in areas with a small population or limited demand for new vehicles. Increases Parts Accessibility Selling parts online makes it easier for customers to purchase the parts they need, regardless of location or time of day. This can increase sales and customer satisfaction, as customers now expect convenience and accessibility when purchasing goods and services online. By offering parts online, dealerships can meet this demand and provide quality customer experience. Maintains Low Overhead Costs By offering parts online, dealerships can increase profitability without having to add more labor or fixed inventory costs. Selling parts online allows you to sell more parts with fewer staff members than the traditional in-person sales model, as orders can be processed automatically through an online platform. You also can avoid investing in a larger inventory by simply selling what you have on hand and only ordering from the manufacturer the products that have already been ordered. This can help maintain low labor costs and increase the dealership's efficiency during economic uncertainty. This can also help a dealership maintain its sales growth even when understaffed or with limited capital available to invest in additional inventory, which is needed to support traditional parts wholesale channels. Gives You a Competitive Advantage Dealerships that offer parts for sale online can gain a competitive advantage as customers increasingly expect this level of convenience and accessibility. In today's highly competitive retail market, dealerships must stand out from their competitors in order to successfully grow their sales. Offering parts online can be an effective way to gain a competitive advantage and attract customers by providing a level of convenience and accessibility that is highly valued. Ideally, dealers should offer customers the features they expect from a best-in-class eCommerce experience, including multiple payment methods such as credit card and installment options, plus delivery options, including same-day, next-day, and ground service. Provides Better Customer Insights Online sales platforms can provide dealerships with valuable customer data, including purchase history and buying preferences. By analyzing this data, dealerships can better understand their customers and tailor their sales and marketing strategies to meet their customers’ needs. They can even reach out to parts buyers to engage them with marketing campaigns for their service lane offerings. This can help dealerships improve long-term customer satisfaction and loyalty, which can be crucial during challenging economic times. During a time when vehicle owners are keeping their cars for longer and trying to save money, selling parts online and embracing your most overlooked profit center could be the key to recession-proofing your dealership. Overall, the benefits of selling parts online cannot be overstated for dealerships looking to thrive in the face of economic uncertainty. By offering an additional revenue stream, increasing customer accessibility and convenience, maintaining low overhead costs, and gaining a competitive advantage, dealerships can expect to maintain profitability during hard times.

For this month, something new. I’ve written this article so you can copy it and have each employee at the dealership sign it. Having written employee acknowledgments of your policies is an important part of a robust GRC program at the dealership (Governance, Risk, and Compliance). If a regulator comes to visit, having this signed acknowledgment in every employee file would help you quell any claims of “willful non-compliance.” Here is it: Regulators are those governmental agencies that have oversight of our dealer operations.   When a regulator calls us or comes to visit, it is usually the result of an unhappy customer(s) – which we have not satisfied – who complains to them. Subsequently, the regulators will ask many questions about our business practices and how we operate. They have the authority to fine us and try to impose penalties to ensure our compliance with the myriad of laws we must follow. Here is a partial list of regulators:   The Attorney General The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) A Member of the House of Representatives (Federal and State) A Member of the Senate (Federal and State) The State Police The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) The Treasury Department The United States Secret Service To understand the depth and breadth of what they look at, please see the attached page entitled “ CFPB Supervision and Examination Process .” (Page 12 of 1814.) While this is a specific page from the CFPB operating procedures, it is analogous to any regulatory agency’s daily operating procedures. We discuss this as our training this month to highlight the continuous cycle of supervision each of these agencies performs when it comes to businesses within their purview.  1. Pre-Examination/Scoping The CFPB is looking for “risks, areas of inquiry, and focus.” From their perspective, this means they are trying to examine those areas where businesses may take advantage of customers. Suppose the CFPB has reason to believe your dealership is not acting within the scope of accepted business practices. In that case, they will “Request and review documents and information needed to begin examination.” That means they will ask for your “internal policies, audit reports, training materials, recent data.”   It’s likely that if they come looking, they will find something. At a dealership and any business, for that matter, when a regulator examines a company, they find problems. Ultimately this will cost the dealership both time and money. One former dealer used to advise frequently, “When you shine a light on any one item at a dealership, you will find issues and uncover problems.” He is right.   2. Examination (offsite and onsite) This section talks about who the regulator(s) will interview and which operations they are going to examine. It further states they will “compare policies and procedures to actual practices by reviewing a sample of transactions.” Further, they will “compare the conduct to legal requirements.” No company wants a regulator to interview employees. With further examinations and this type of unwanted scrutiny, additional issues will be brought to the surface.   3. Communicate conclusions and required corrective action This is when the regulator tells you or mandates to you how you must run your company going forward. If you are not cooperative, they will “pursue supervisory agreement or formal enforcement action as needed.”   This means that the company would have to agree to a written understanding of how the company must operate on a go-forward basis. If a company declines to comply, the regulator will pursue “formal enforcement action,” which means costly court or administrative proceedings in which the company will have to spend a lot of money on attorneys to defend itself. Fines can be “nuclear” as recent dealers were tagged for more than $10 million, $3.380 million, and even a dealer in California who were fined $27 million.  4. Monitoring The regulator will periodically come back to the dealership and examine reports, transactions, and corrective actions which the company has performed in order to meet whatever agreement was reached. So, the regulators return to ensure compliance with all rules, laws, and regulations. If the dealership has not complied, they will bring the company back to court. This may subject the business to additional fines and penalties, and suspensions. This cycle may continue until the company is out of business or is compliant.  Compliance with any regulatory process is cumbersome, time-consuming, and costly, even if the inquiry is for one customer. An example of a written employee acknowledgement:   Our company is educating you as to these issues as we do our very best to run things in a professional manner while satisfying each and every customer. This also serves as a reminder that it is the company’s policy to follow the laws, rules, and regulations which have been communicated to you during your employment. If you find anything out of the ordinary, please report this to your supervisor or one of the owners. My signature below indicates that I: 1. Will comply with company policies and procedures 2. Will ensure that the company’s customers are satisfied with our dealership 3. Will communicate with my manager of one of the owners if I see items that are out of compliance with the company’s rules and regulations 4. I will immediately communicate with one of the owners if I receive a regulatory or media inquiry.  These things, I promise. _________________________ ________________________ Employee Print Name Employee Signature   January _____, 2023 *If you’d like a Word copy of this document, please reach out to me at tomk@bettervantagepoint.com, and I will be happy to send it along to you.  Thanks for seeing things from a Better Vantage Point. For more information:  Phone Number: 757-434-7656  Email Address: tomk@bettervantagepoint.com Website:  https://bettervantagepoint.com Website:  https://alwaysdobetter.com/howwehelp YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-ytHE0-c5lUJbzm0H4drog LinkedIn Profile:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/tompkline/

Live product launches have become an innovative marketing strategy aimed at creating hype around the introduction of new products and technologies to market. They have become quite the trend as more companies seek out the benefits of such an event, like creating a wider reach, increasing engagement, and optimizing marketing costs. We expect to see more industries embrace virtual live launches and adapt their marketing strategies to include a launch experience.  Whereas in the past, only industry bigwigs had access or information on the latest technology and products, live launches take these innovations directly to interested audiences, enabling buying customers to get in on the excitement directly. Live launches also allow companies to host demonstrations of the product or technology, highlighting product design, functionality, and key features so those potential buyers can see it in action. By satisfying customers' needs for both entertainment and information, live launches help facilitate better sales conversations and create a unique customer experience. Interestingly, over the last year or so, several OEMs have learned from tech giants like Meta and Apple and have also started hosting live launch events to release new major features or to create hype around a new vehicle. As this trend picks up in the industry, it will be interesting to watch and see which OEMs will dedicate themselves to creating consistency with their live launches that build excitement and hype over time. Quarterly Launch Events: Commitment to Innovation  At Fullpath , quarterly live launch events have become part of our DNA as it commits us to disrupting the industry with new technologies quarter after quarter. With each launch, we aim to release a product or feature that actively solves a pain point dealers are facing in the realm of data connectivity and orchestration. This undertaking ensures that we constantly have our finger on the pulse of the automotive industry so we can tackle the real-world problems dealers are facing in their day-to-day business management.  We held our  first launch in Q2 of 2022  with the release of our Customer Data and Experience Platform, and we have been one-upping ourselves ever since. The Fullpath product team performs intensive research in tandem with our sales and support teams to get a view from the field and to better understand the pressing needs of dealers. They then determine what the next big project should be and get to work on development and production. While they work on the technology, our marketing team sets up everything else needed for the live launch - from scoping out a location to ensuring the smallest logistical details are spoken for.  If you've seen our live launches before, you know they always deliver. From missing cookies to high-speed car chases, we try to deliver an experience along with every product launch. In case you missed our live launches until now,  here  is a quick summary to get you caught up.   Q2 Live Launch in Miami: CDXP In Q2, we launched automotive's first Customer Data & Experience Platform (CDXP), designed to help dealers consolidate their data sources and leverage the data to create seamless omnichannel marketing journeys. The introduction of an automotive-centric CDXP has shifted the way the industry thinks about data connectivity and marketing strategy. With the power of the CDXP behind them, dealers can now compete on the level of global corporate giants by providing shoppers with the personalized shopping experience they have come to expect.   Watch the full live launch  here  for a closer look at the groundbreaking technology that is the CDXP.  Q3 Live Launch in Cleveland: Data Lake In Q3, Fullpath focused on handing dealers the keys to their first-party data with the introduction of Data Lake. With the impending elimination of third-party cookies, dealers are beginning to recognize the value and importance of their own first-party data.  With Data Lake, dealers can finally analyze and dissect their first-party data and use it to improve their marketing strategy and make smart, data-backed decisions to help them build stronger, more resilient businesses.   Cookies, data, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame all feature proudly in this live launch. Watch it  here .  Q4 Live Launch in Atlanta: Service Email Campaigns  The importance of a fixed-ops strategy is clear: when a dealership has a strong, efficiently run service department, they are able to remain flexible and dynamic in any market condition. With Service Email Campaigns, dealerships can reach out to customers and previous service clients with timely engagements, extending the shopper journey and generating new streams of revenue.  If you love the high stakes of a good car chase, this live launch is for you! Watch it  here .  Our next live launch is set to take place in March of 2023, and you can bet we are already looking for ways to outdo the last one! We hope to see you there! 

You have no choice but to care about whether your website is accessible for people with sight impairment because the law tells you that it must be so. If your site is configured well for assistive technology (think website readers that read text out loud or make text larger), then you're good. But say your website is not configured properly, then what happens? Simply put: You are at risk of violating the  Americans with Disabilities Act  (ADA), and that puts your dealership at risk of a lawsuit.  _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This article was written by Adam Dennis, Principal at SurgeMetrix and Tom Kline, Lead Consultant and Founder of Better Vantage Point. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Facts We like facts. Facts aren't opinions. They don't have feelings. They tell you what's up and, when used properly, inform good decisions.   As we've discussed in previous articles, we've analyzed over 35,000 dealer websites for a variety of performance issues as well as demographic and digital market data to set a context for the industry and individual dealers who want to see how they rank relative to their competitors.   In this article, we are reviewing the Accessibility of a website as per Google's algorithms. Now you might look at the data and conclude it means nothing to you, but the reality is that with Google being the dominant force in the search market and recognized authority of website performance, you can't ignore their conclusions. So let's look at the facts. Of the 35,444 dealer websites we analyzed, we could not match 5,930 of them due to a range of issues, from configuration problems to software setups that retard Google's ability to analyze certain data about a website. Consequently, our actual surveyed total was 29,514; a not-too-shabby number all by itself. When Google ranks a site for its technical Accessibility, it does on a three-part colored scale out of 100. The sweet spot you want your website to occupy is the 90-100 bracket. This rating is the best and indicates that your website is technically very well constructed for people with sight limitations to be able to read and for those people who use assistive technology, to be able to understand the website as well.   The other two ranking categories stake out in brilliant clarity those websites that do not perform well in terms of their technical configuration for meeting accessibility requirements. The yellow category covers sites with ratings from 50 to 89/100. This is a nether world where you're meeting some, but not all, of the ADA requirements. The lower you are, the greater the risk. Finally, if you are in the red zone, you are in potential trouble. Simply put, you are broadcasting to enterprising lawyers that you could be sued. The red zone covers ratings from 0 to 49. What did we learn? We found the following results with 1.8% of the websites in the Red, a whopping 76.5% in the yellow, and only 21.7% in the green.    That big yellow area was concerning, so we broke that down even further into 10% chunks giving us 50-59 for the first chunk, 60-69 for the second, and so on. We did this because we still see a risk for dealers in the yellow area, especially if they are in the lower ranges. Here is what we discovered: Would you want to be in those lower ranges with an Accessibility rating of 68 or 72? I wouldn't; I have faith in opportunistic lawyers. If I were a dealer who wanted to mitigate risk, I would ask my website vendor to improve my performance: at the very least, to the high 80s.    The Risks According to the Seyfarth law firm, ADA website accessibility lawsuits filed in federal court were up fourteen (14%) percent from 2020 to 2021. This translates to 2,895 cases, an increase of 372 actions. These numbers do not account for the following: Demand letters that were sent and/or settled; State court actions; or Mobile application lawsuits were accounted for differently Just as there are attorneys specializing in suing dealers in the automotive industry, there are plaintiff lawyers specializing in ADA lawsuits. The  Center for Disease Control (CDC)  cites these statistics: "Approximately 12 million people 40 years and over in the United States have vision impairment, including 1 million who are blind, 3 million who have vision impairment after correction, and 8 million who have vision impairment due to uncorrected refractive error. As of 2012, 4.2 million Americans aged 40 years and older suffer from uncorrectable vision impairment, out of which 1.02 million are blind; this number is predicted to more than double by 2050 to 8.96 million due to the increasing epidemics of diabetes and other chronic diseases and our rapidly aging U.S. population. Approximately 6.8% of children younger than 18 years in the United States have a diagnosed eye and vision condition. Nearly 3% of children younger than 18 years are blind or visually impaired, defined as having trouble seeing even when wearing glasses or contact lenses." These are large numbers. Unless you have addressed website ADA accessibility, you open yourself up for exposure to these enterprising lawyers who make a living from ADA-based lawsuits. As with any compliance topic, "willful non-compliance" opens you to higher settlement numbers and further unknown liabilities, and other unintended consequences.  Willful non-compliance  is a term we use to describe a situation where a business lacks a robust Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) program. In short, a GRC program follows the outline of what a "prudent business person" would do in a similar situation. This entails having written (and acknowledged) policies and procedures with your employees, which are then checked by someone performing an audit function. Remember, you manage what you monitor.   Importantly, depending on how the allegations are crafted in the lawsuit, your garage insurance may not cover any of the allegations. If that is the case, settlement indemnities will come from your dealership's bank account.   What To Do This is a simple one, folks, with just three steps to get you compliant.   Step 1, have the website reviewed for accessibility compliance using a tool such as Google's  PageSpeed Insights  tool. The tool has an "Accessibility" section that, when selected, will give you the issues that will need to be addressed.   Step 2, once you understand what needs to be fixed, buy a tool to install on your website to help make it ADA compliant very quickly. We really like Userway ( www.userway.org ) as the interface is simple and clean. Its pricing starts at $490 per year for up to 100,000 website page views per month, to $3,290 per year for up to 10 million page views per month. Finally, for Step 3, test your website again with PageSpeed Insights to see if you have improved. Our experience is that most dealer websites will quickly go into the green. If not, then ask your web provider to use the PageSpeed Insights data as a guide to improving performance. It's that simple. Test, buy Userway, install it, test again to validate (and fix anything that remains), and then eliminate this risk. Don't make it easy for the attorneys.

Creating connections with customers is vital for any business to thrive, whether you are trying to acquire new customers or sell to existing ones. By selling parts online, the dealership can connect to a wider customer base that expands across the country. This can provide additional revenue and help it build loyalty for the dealership and the OEM brand. The sales department often comes to mind first when we think of establishing connections with customers and building relationships. If a dealership wants to drive new opportunities, it will need to seek new ways to make connections with a broader customer base.  The parts department is often one of the most underutilized departments in the dealership when it comes to making connections with new customers. The dealership can expand its reach to customers nationwide through the parts department, breaking through localization barriers. It can do this most effectively by becoming the center for online sales.  The online parts market is thriving. In fact, it’s expected to reach  22 billion dollars by the end of 2023 , according to Hedges & Company. Despite the high demand for online OEM auto parts, most dealerships do not have an online parts business. As a result, many of these dealerships have difficulty establishing a strong network of customers. Connect Nationally by Selling Parts Online Adding online selling channels helps your parts department connect to more customers outside of your local market. Creating an online parts business also opens up new revenue opportunities and helps future-proof your department against local and national economic challenges. Dealerships may also find it valuable to sell through today’s biggest online marketplaces, like Amazon and eBay. Dealers that relied solely on brick-and-mortar sales took a major hit during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. According to NADA,  parts departments across the United States lost 6 billion dollars in 2020 . The business that came through their typical in-person buyers had plummeted.  However, dealers who sold parts online with RevolutionParts saw a  27% increase in online parts sales . When most parts departments were experiencing layoffs, dealers partnered with RevolutionParts were hiring more staff to support their additional sales growth. The flexibility of selling online allowed them to grow their customer base at a low cost. These dealers were able to increase their business because they were able to make convenient connections with a wide scale of customers. They were also able to provide a safe shopping experience for their customers, helping them establish a trusting customer base that would continue to grow long after COVID restrictions were lifted. Build Strong Local Connections for the Entire Dealership Aside from establishing a parts web store or uploading inventory to online marketplaces, dealers should sell parts through their dealership website. This is valuable for local retail and wholesale customers.  Local consumers can go online to evaluate prices, see availability, and order OEM parts without needing to call or visit the parts department. Offering convenient pickup or delivery options can help further secure business from your local customers.  This can be especially effective for growing your wholesale customer base. Make it easy for them to view your online inventory and more, help them get quotes on prices instantly, and check for part availability without having to pick up the phone. By providing a convenient shopping experience, you help both your department and your customers save time.   Giving local customers a positive online experience can build loyalty for the entire dealership. Those that purchase parts online will be more likely to return to the dealership for parts installations and other services. Getting that customer to the dealership increases the likelihood that they will return to purchase their next vehicle, leading to more revenue and a higher absorption rate for the dealership.  Don’t Overcomplicate Online Connections It’s expected that over  274 million Americans  will make online purchases in 2023. If your dealership is not selling parts online yet, you should make it part of your overall strategy to grow revenue, build brand loyalty, and expand your business. It’s time for dealerships to invest in parts eCommerce to drive connections for their local and national parts buyers. 

Marketing, customer-dealer interaction, and even your website are more than just the sales process, it is engagement with your community. Are you engaging in your language or your community’s language? For your dealership, engaging your community is the best way to grow your business and gain new customers.  There is a great deal of focus on engagement and experience, without covering how you need to engage with your community. If you are like most dealerships, you are focusing on the sales process itself, your reviews, and driving traffic, not thinking about how your website, marketing materials, and even customer interactions can help you grow your business. The car business must go beyond the goal of selling cars—you must connect with people. And when you do so in their own language, they will feel more comfortable buying from you. Brands across the board have been pushed to recreate their marketing strategies and focus efforts on building relationships that are driven by two-way communication.  One of the big questions is how to keep consumers engaged so that when they need your products or services, you are their first thought. To accomplish this, we need a shift in thinking to “Whose interests are being served?” For example, when you are posting on social media, are you posting content that drives butterfly effect engagement from your audience, or are you posting about the product only? By butterfly effect engagement, I am referring to the type of engagement that draws in people your audience is connected to and drives them to engage as well, allowing you to create a brand community. Consider that many potential customers will visit your social media pages before initiating the purchase process, reviews and content can impact the decision process in your favor. Putting out content that is of interest to your community is paramount, an example is Meta marketing content that is solely based on product and deliveries versus what interests your community. If you can scroll through your feed and cannot find anything that supports your local community regularly, you are not building your brand community. Remember, you are recruiting volunteers to champion your business, inundating consumers with sales purchases, and product places hoping to see results is simply disruptive marketing that desensitizes consumers and does not promote conversation. Unlike traditional advertising, which is primarily focused on getting new customers, a community marketing strategy is about connecting and engaging with people to build long-term relationships. It is about making customers feel seen, heard, and important. This type of strategy bridges the gap between the people driving your business, your team, and your customers. A vehicle purchase is no small thing, growing a sense of connection, support, and service within your community allows you to start building relationships before the sales process even begins. Providing value to your community is a great place to start What questions do customers most commonly have during the car buying process, what are some challenges you have helped others overcome, and what do people on your team specialize in? Sharing the details of how you serve and how it benefits the community paves the way for conversations. Participate Your community marketing strategy should take you outside of the virtual world of social engagement and participation in your community. Can you help educate young consumers on how they qualify for their first auto loan, how credit affects a large bandwidth of life or the ins and outs of the buying process? Getting involved early and giving young consumers the tools, they need as they move forward in life is a wonderful way to expand your value in your community. Consistency and accessibility are key Consistency is the foundation for trust, accessibility allows that trust to grow. How easy are consumers able to reach and converse with your team, do your internal processes allow for ease of communication or is there a backlog of calls to be returned and messages to answer? One large component of customer satisfaction is communication, the ability to reach contacts at the dealership amid the sales process, or even worse after delivery, is beyond frustrating to customers. This is a big part of the experience customers will remember when it becomes time to purchase another vehicle or service their current vehicle. Creating ways to engage with your audience in a way that works for them is crucial, whether by phone, text, email or messaging services - being accessible builds trust and impacts customer retention. Tell a story and use images Interaction on your social media posts gets on average 160% more interaction when you use relatable images, take this a step further and focus on telling the story behind the image. Consumers trust and value other consumers' opinions and experiences, share those success stories! Share other sides of your dealership, service, parts, community outreach, and team members - give your content an individualized touch. Consumers want to know who they are working with and look for connections and common interests on which to build relationships.  Over and above long-term benefits in customer loyalty and retention, executing a community marketing strategy can help to reduce your dependency on traditional advertising, often a large chunk of the dealership budget. While not necessarily immediate, this type of strategy will snowball as you continue to grow your audience and engagement. The use of social platform engagement isn’t going away, what you begin building now will impact your future sales and retention. Over the last few years, we have experienced a shift in consumer value, a shift that focuses on people and the community. Building value and creating relationships within your community is a powerful way to engage your customer base and community, create loyalty and trust, and grow your sales and retention - that is if you choose to accept the challenge before you.