Transparency and Trust: How Dealers Can Improve NPS Scores

What’s an NPS?

A good Net Promoter Score (NPS) means your customers are happy and your dealership has a good reputation. And a good reputation is linked to higher trust in your dealership, increased profits, and greater customer retention.

How to Improve Your Dealership's NPS

One of the best strategies to increase your NPS is employing a modern retail strategy to make it easier and more transparent for customers to buy a car. This approach builds trust by allowing buyers to build their own deals (according to dealer-set parameters). It also allows buyers to meld the online and in-store shopping experience to spend less time at the dealership.

A faster in-store purchase process is a significant factor in achieving a higher NPS. The CDK Global 2023 Friction Point Study found that shopper recommendation and satisfaction dropped 12 points from NPS +54 to NPS +42 when shoppers spent two hours or more at the dealership. By enabling a transparent purchase process on your website and in-store, you can get customers out the door faster and boost satisfaction scores.

The Deal-Building Tool

A robust online deal-building tool is the first step to building trust. Digital retailing enables shoppers to browse inventory, structure monthly payments, and explore finance and lease options, educate themselves on F&I products, start the trade-in valuation process, and even upload documents such as a copy of the driver’s license. Visibility into every step of the process gives buyers a feeling of control that they’re working with the dealer to find the best vehicle to fit their needs and trust the path to purchase.

An automotive digital retail tool helps customers go at their own pace, doing as much or little ahead of time as the customer wants, which makes the in-store process more efficient. Mazda Roseville in Northern California, for example, implemented the CDK Digital Retail platform and doubled its efficiency while selling 20% more cars than prior years.

In-Store Transparency

Customers can spend hours finding the perfect vehicle, asking questions via email, call or text, perhaps visiting the dealership and then hopping back online to fine-tune the details. They trust the dealership to respect that time and effort by picking up the deal in-store exactly where it was saved online. A sales associate who can’t find the deal, or who tries to sell the customer something different, erodes that trust and likely loses the sale.

Instead, equip sales associates with the same tool customers are using online so everyone is viewing the same information. In the store, a customer can sit side by side with a sales associate and use a tablet to pencil the deal together. At Roseville Mazda, the team responds to every email with a virtual deal sheet and completes all of their showroom activity, from penciling to deal finalization, in digital retail platform. No more waiting at the desk for 10+ minutes to pencil a deal while the customer sits alone. Sales agents can do most of it on their own since the dealer pre-sets deal parameters. Sales agents and customers are happier with a collaborative and faster process.

Sales Associates as Consultants

When done right, a modern workflow experience naturally dials-down what customers may see as a high-pressure transactional experience and allows sales associates to become trusted consultants. This is especially important for new generations of first-time car buyers who want and need guidance, but don’t want to be sold. Communicating online, answering every question, and providing valuable information at every step of the process creates trust and lays the foundation for a better in-store experience.

In our Friction Points Study, 91% of car buyers purchased from a traditional dealer. According to the Deloitte 2022 Global Auto Consumer Study, 75% of buyers still want to go to the dealership to complete the sale. That’s where customers smell and feel the car and get the confidence in their vehicle choice. Digital tools aren’t replacing dealers. Rather, they’re making buying and selling a car faster and easier, and that results in a higher NPS. Dealers can close the gap and get more buyers to walk in their doors by implementing these tools.

Get on the Road to Improved NPS With CDK Modern Retail Suite

At CDK, our Modern Retail suite simplifies the consumer-to-dealer buying journey into one integrated, flexible solution to facilitate faster, more seamless data flows and sales. Do you want to give your customers an easy experience that leads to easier sales? Contact us to schedule a demo.