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Dealer IT must be up-to-date
Page 67
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Truck dealerships could be losing business because of outdated levels of customer service.
Dealer management system (DMS) specialist Pinewood warns that IT systems that are more than 10 years out of date stop dealers offering customer services like effective online credit card processing, text notification of services and advanced methods of marketing data mining.
This view is echoed by salesmen at two franchised dealerships who told CM a lack of investment and development in DMS makes their jobs harder, with the main loser being customer support.
Pinewood MD Neville Briggs says:"For many years, motor manufacturers specified to dealers exactly which DMS systems they could use.As a result the leading DMS providers were handed an effective monopoly, soon became complacent and eventually failed to innovate."
Scepticism
Dealers came to expect little from their DMS and it was seen as nothing more than part of the cost of running a franchise, he claims.
Dealers who previously invested in IT and got little in return are sceptical: There have been times when limitations with DMS has led to management decisions to update [systems] but it's always at a cost and not seen as a vital move," said one. •