8 Min Read • April 19, 2024

Everything You Need To Know About the CDK Dealership Xperience

Everything You Need to Know About the C D K Dealership Experience.

Updated: 10/28/25

Margin compression and changing customer expectations have auto dealers working hard to find new process efficiencies to boost profits and customer satisfaction. However, despite a somewhat strong current industry focus on customer experience and satisfaction, the most recent CDK Friction Points Study found 33% of Sales Managers, 36% of F&I Managers, and 28% of Business Development Center Managers say lack of system integrations make it hard to do their jobs efficiently and deliver the faster, easier buying experience today’s customers expect.

A New Category of Dealership Software

Too many bolt-on solutions have been a problem in our industry for years. As technology has advanced, the traditional DMS just can’t keep up.

So, what do car dealers do? Buy more solutions from more vendors and piecemeal them around the DMS. But these solutions often don’t talk to each other, which leads to broken workflows, frustrated consumers and costs dealerships tens of thousands of dollars a month.

It’s time for a whole-new way to work. That’s why CDK created the CDK Dealership Xperience. Simply put, the CDK Dealership Xperience is a new category of software that unifies workflows across the dealership so that you’re running your operations better while also delivering optimal customer experiences.

Learn about the Dealership Xperience, its benefits and how you can use it for your auto dealership.

What’s the Dealership Xperience?

Introduced in August 2023, the Dealership Xperience drives digital transformation for auto dealers. It’s a single, unified platform for all the departments in a dealership. Instead of jumping from system to system with different logins, the platform seamlessly connects dealer and customer experiences to increase efficiency and improve the customer journey. To date, more than 750 dealers across the country have signed up for the proven, built-in functionality of unified workflows under a single experience. Dealers who use the Dealership Xperience observe:

Improved employee efficiency across departments
Higher employee and customer satisfaction
A shorter deal process for dealers and consumers

The Dealership Xperience Platform consists of six suites covering all areas of the dealership:

Foundations Suite (Core System for 3+ Rooftop Dealerships)
Fundamentals Suite (Core System for 1-2 Rooftop Dealerships)
Modern Retail Suite
Vehicle Inventory Suite
Fixed Operations Suite
Intelligence Suite

Why the Dealership Xperience?

Rapidly changing consumer expectations for faster and easier car-buying and service experiences demand dealers adapt to survive and thrive. You must fundamentally change and simplify how your dealerships operate. And you can’t do that with the standard combination of a DMS and bolt-on solutions.

See how this new platform that integrates workflows across all areas of the dealership delivers what you and your customers need:

1. Shorten Your Deal Process

We regularly hear that consumers want to spend less time finalizing deals in the dealership. Yet, time remains a big problem. In the latest Friction Point Study, CDK asked 1,200 new car buyers about their purchase experiences. Nearly a third (31%) of buyers said they spent over two hours at the dealership. As time ticks away, so does customer satisfaction. The more time a car purchase takes to complete, the lower a dealer’s NPS.

Shopper recommendation and net promoter score.

A unified platform helps cut the time it takes to finalize deals. It eliminates rekeying information into multiple systems and logging in and out of different interfaces. It also addresses what’s commonly a big roadblock in the process: F&I. Our Friction Points Study, also found that the top pain point for F&I Managers (36%) was a lack of full systems integration and 40% of F&I Managers use four to five systems to complete their jobs.

2. Work More Efficiently

CDK found that among Sales Managers (33%) say lack of full integrations between digital retail tools, the CRM and the DMS negatively affects performance. That number jumps to 36% for F&I Managers. If you replace disparate systems with a unified platform, it’ll allow employees to work more efficiently so they can keep deals moving while shortening time spent on the deal.

3. Enhance Accounting Workflows

The Dealership Xperience includes enhanced accounting workflows to simplify complex tasks. These workflows include vendor management, payment register, accounts payable invoicing, on-demand payments, and purchase orders. With one platform, your Accounting team can streamline processes, reduce manual errors, and enhance efficiency. This, in turn, allows them to focus on value-add activities, like financial analysis and strategic decision-making, to strengthen your overall operations.

4. Cut Costs

Fifteen percent of dealers cite having more than 10 solutions in the latest Friction Points Study. Adding more bolt-on solutions in order to enhance existing software sends costs skyrocketing. When employees are forced to swivel from task to task and log in and out of systems, it adds cost and time to every transaction. When you use the Dealership Xperience, you cut the cost of multiple vendors and wasted time as one platform from one service provider houses all the capabilities you need to run your business.

5. Reduce Employee Turnover

Data points to unproductive work environments as one cause of employee frustration and stress. In the latest CDK Dealership Workplace Study, 20% of dealership employees cited inefficient technology as a top source of stress at their job. While being fed up with systems and processes that make it hard to do the job is just one factor in why employees quit, it certainly contributes to the massive annual 39% turnover rate for all dealership positions in the industry.

Technology is an area that can be controlled and directly impacts your employees work stress. You can improve processes by streamlining systems on one platform that’ll lead to happier employees and reduce talent attrition.

Dealership Xperience Features

Core to the platform is the Foundations Suite. This suite extends your dealership’s ability to operate your entire business on one platform while increasing control over the customer’s digital retail journey from start to finish. It includes CDK’s most popular technology found in the DMS as well as highly sought features for service and modern retail. The Foundation Suite helps you:

Win in the Back Office with powerful accounting capabilities
Increase consumer engagement with seamless online to in-store workflows
Simplify desking to keep deals moving
Capture digital signatures to speed up buying
Manage forms and documents digitally
Offer online service scheduling

For independent, used and one- to two-site franchise dealers, CDK offers the Fundamentals Suite, which is a scalable solution that empowers dealers to streamline operations with the powerful Dealership Xperience Platform. Learn more about the difference between the Foundations and Fundamentals Suites.

Tailored Solution Suites

When you want to arm your teams with even more transformational technology, you can add on advanced solutions suites. These suites can expand your business potential, accelerate performance and further enhance the customer experience.

The Vehicle Inventory Suite

Vehicle inventory management is the heartbeat of your dealership and managing it effectively is key to driving profitability and customer satisfaction. CDK Vehicle Inventory Suite delivers powerful automotive inventory solutions that help take control of your inventory strategy.

Fifty-three percent of dealers are struggling with multichannel listings, making it harder to maintain consistency and control across platforms. This suite is designed to solve that challenge by helping dealers:

Gain real-time vehicle inventory tracking across multiple rooftops
Optimize pricing and stocking decisions with data-driven insights
Accelerate time-to-market with automated vehicle listings
Enhance automotive inventory merchandising with detailed vehicle descriptions
Streamline appraisals and acquisitions with integrated tools

The Modern Retail Suite

In the latest Friction Points Study, 41% of car buyers said they felt “frustrated” or “annoyed” when asked what word best describes how they felt doing the same thing twice at the dealership. With 84% of dealers citing that prioritizing the customer experience was their top strategy to implement, it’s critical to keep customers from repeating steps and maintain an easy car-buying experience.

The Modern Retail Suite connects the consumer-to-dealer buying journey into a single, unified transaction for a more satisfying experience across the board and helps you:

Buy and sell more simply with intuitive workflows
Empower buyers to transact however and wherever they wish
Keep data flowing with an integrated back end system
Grow relationships with fully integrated, easy-to-use CRM tools
Speed up trades with a remote trade-in appraisal process

The Modern Retail Suite includes:

CRM
Digital Retail
Lead Response
Trade-In Appraisal
Credit and Compliance
E-Contracting (Digital Finance Tools)
Sales Doc
Menu Selling

The Fixed Operations Suite

Fixed Ops is your best bet for a steady revenue stream no matter what the market is doing. A smooth repair process leads to higher customer satisfaction, repeat business and more referrals to friends and family.

According to CDK Service Shopper 4.0 study, 78% of respondents had their vehicle serviced at the same dealership where they purchased it. And the more positive the service experience, the more respondents said they’d purchase a car from that dealership in the future — creating a cycle of repeat business and revenue.

The Fixed Operations Suite helps you:

Sell more service with service recommendation videos
Send instant real-time updates
Maintain pricing consistency from check-in to check-out
Anticipate potential vehicle service opportunities with AI-driven Predictive Service

The Fixed Operations Suite includes:

Technician Videos
Vehicle Tracking
Service Pricing
Predictive Service
Connected Vehicle
Service Lane Check-In
Multipoint Inspection

AI and the Intelligence Suite

For years, CDK customers have leveraged AI-powered features to better engage with customers and enhance business operations. In CDK’s AI in Automotive study, 68% of auto dealerships report that AI has positively impacted their operations, helping them achieve financial objectives, enhance customer satisfaction, and improve internal workflows.

Now, we’re introducing even more powerful tools in the Intelligence Suite. We know there’s a lot of hype around AI and new entrants are debuting solutions every day. Only CDK has 50+ years of experience and intellectual property to apply across every part of your dealership so you can:

Prepare for the future with predictive forecasts and competitive benchmarks.
Deliver better customer experiences with a virtual phone and text assistant 24/7.
Set goals for hundreds of key performance indicators and automatically track progress.
Pull targeted reports to make profitable decisions across departments.
Use Hybrid Intelligence to accelerate workflows, enhance decision-making, and empower your team to work smarter.

The Intelligence Suite includes:

Reporting
Summary and Drill-Down Dashboards
Notes and Messaging
Benchmarking
Trend Analysis

Transform Your Business With the Dealership Xperience Platform

Technology has transformed the automotive retail industry and now it’s time to take another big step forward. The Dealership Xperience bridges the deep functionality needed to bring the customer and dealership employee experiences together to change and simplify how your dealership operates. No more frustrated buyers. No more swiveling from solution to solution. Put simply, it’s transformational functionality to help your business reach its pinnacle of success.