Introduction
Imagine this: A customer is ready to buy their dream car. They’re excited, you’re excited… but then your internet crashes. The financing system freezes, you can’t even pull up their information. The customer’s smile fades as frustration builds. They glance at their watch, then at the door. Before you know it, they’re gone, and that sale is gone with them. Poof.
This isn’t just a hypothetical scenario. It’s the harsh reality dealerships face when downtime strikes. And the cost? It’s significant. Studies show that downtime can lead to lost sales, decreased productivity, and damage to your reputation.
Even .1% internet and phone downtime can cost you thousands. Let’s make it zero.
Sales Stalls, Customers Fume
On the sales floor, downtime is like slamming on the brakes. Leads go cold as you can’t access their contact info. Potential buyers get impatient as you need help to show them vehicle specs or run credit checks. The inability to finalize deals promptly can bring the whole process to a screeching halt. Frustrated customers don’t wait around; they head straight to your competitor who is online and ready to serve them.
Service Suffers, Backlogs Grow
Downtime doesn’t just hit sales. It throws a wrench in the service department too. Scheduling appointments becomes a guessing game when your system is offline. Technicians waste precious time trying to look up parts or access repair manuals. Customers get frustrated with the lack of communication and delays. Backlogs build up, wait times increase, and customer satisfaction plummets.
Your Reputation Takes a Hit
The damage goes beyond immediate lost sales – every frustrated customer, every missed opportunity, chips away at your reputation. Negative reviews spread like wildfire on social media and review sites. Potential buyers start looking elsewhere, wary of the negative experiences others have shared.
The Solution: Rock-Solid Connectivity | Zero Downtime
The good news? You don’t have to be at the mercy of downtime. Reliable connectivity is the backbone of a smoothly running auto dealership, and that’s where Vivant comes in. Our SmartCONNECT™ technology guarantees 100% internet uptime, ensuring your operations run seamlessly even during outages from your Internet Service Provider.
With SmartCONNECT™, your sales team can confidently close deals, access customer information instantly, and provide a seamless buying experience. Service runs like a well-oiled machine, with technicians quickly accessing the information they need while customers receive timely updates. Happy customers leave positive reviews and recommend your dealership to friends and family.
Discover how our solution transformed Kian Motors by reading their Customer Success Story here. Harness the power of Vivant—the power of Zero Downtime.
Conclusion
Losing Internet and phone service for any business is detrimental, not being able to use cloud applications, answering calls, processing payments, receiving online orders, and more.
Don’t let downtime cost you another sale or damage your reputation further. Contact us today and experience the difference reliable connectivity can make for your auto dealership.
Which Dealership Systems Go Down With the Connection?
A dealership runs on connected systems, and most of them are cloud-based or tied to the manufacturer:
- Dealer management system (DMS): deal structuring, accounting, inventory, and service write-ups.
- CRM and lead management: contact history and follow-ups for the sales team.
- Finance and insurance: credit applications and lender portals.
- Service department tools: scheduling, parts lookups, and manufacturer repair information.
- Phones and BDC: inbound sales and service calls, especially if your phone system is VoIP.
- Digital retailing and website chat: online leads that arrive around the clock.
Learn more about the connection requirements of the major platforms in our guide to backup internet for auto dealerships using CDK and Reynolds.
Multi-Rooftop Groups: One Outage, Many Stores
Dealer groups often share systems or a central network. A problem at one site, or at the group level, can affect several rooftops at once. Consistent, redundant connectivity across locations makes outages easier to prevent and easier to manage. See our dealership internet and phone systems for options built for this setup.
Build a Downtime Plan Before You Need One
- Know your critical systems: list what the sales and service departments cannot operate without.
- Create manual procedures: paper forms for write-ups and a backup way to capture customer information.
- Add redundancy: a backup internet connection that fails over automatically keeps cloud systems reachable.
- Protect your phones: make sure calls can still reach your team during an outage, for example by forwarding to mobile devices.
- Test it: run a short drill so staff know what to do when it really happens.
