Fixed Ops Magazine - 2021 Vol18 03 - 13

wait until a new product or technology is a proven
success before jumping on the bandwagon.
* Then, you see adoption by the late majority. This
group is made up of those who see that widespread
adoption of the new technology is now inevitable
and realize it is time to get on board lest they get
left behind.
* Finally, you have the laggards. These will never
willingly adopt the new technology but are forced
to as the larger market and economy are reshaped
around them.
This pattern has held true with every other aspect of
digitized technology - computers, the internet, mobile
devices, etc. - and the odds are it will hold true
with fully online retailing experiences as well. But most
would agree that, at this moment in time, we are still
in the " early majority " phase. New technology has a
foothold and should continue to grow, but it is far from
being accepted as the new standard business model
for automotive sales or service (yet).
It is also important to note consumers' willingness
to adapt to this new way of doing business depends
heavily on the choices dealers make. In other words, if
dealers are not enthusiastic about delivering fully online
experiences - meaning investing in a quality website,
digital communications with consumers, highly
responsive staff, etc. - then of course your customers
will prefer to do business with you in person.
So, where does that leave us in terms of balancing digital
and physical customer interactions? ... what I like to
call a " digital hybrid experience " .
THE DIGITAL HYBRID EXPERIENCE
The automotive industry, both in sales and service,
currently operates in a hybrid scenario. It is an industry
and a market in the midst of transition with partially
digitized and partially in-person processes. In this
framework, every dealership has a slightly different ratio
of physical-to-online steps in its sales and service
processes and, as a result, every consumer has different
expectations.
In other words, some of your customers prefer a mostly
online process. Some of them want to come into
the store to conduct business the old-fashioned way.
Some go through a mix of the two based on whatever
is convenient at the moment.
Take your service department, for example. From a
recent study, " The Changing Automotive Landscape:
From In-Store to Online, " Reynolds & Reynolds compiled
the following statistics on consumer behavior in
service. This perfectly illustrates the need to deliver a
digital hybrid experience.
MAY JUNE 2021
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Fixed Ops Magazine - 2021 Vol18 03

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