Two-thirds (64%) of car dealers expect their sector to invest heavily in technology to help deal with the continued growth in car sales – with a focus on customer service.

New research from EDM Group, the information management specialists, shows that dealers expects the main area will be automating/ digitising the sales process and becoming less reliant on paper-based documents.

The second area for improvement is doing exactly the same for the aftercare service proposition, and the third is making greater use of data analytics to identify better opportunities to contact customers - both existing and prospective.

Areas that car dealers expect the industry to make improvements in over the next few years to improve customer service Percentage of car dealers interviewed who believe this 
Automate/ digitise sales process

75%
Automate/ digitise aftercare service 55%
Greater use of data analytics to identify better opportunities for contacting customers 48%

Introduce more customer loyalty benefits

 38%
Offer wider range of finance products and services 33%

Offer wide range of after sales products and services

 30%

 

Matt Collinge, associate director – automotive at EDM Group, said: “About six in 10 car dealers say that more than half of their work is paper-based, and 44% expect the amount of paperwork they deal with to increase, so we are not surprised to see so many in the industry anticipate a huge shift towards the digitisation and automation of sales and customer experience processes.

“EDM is working on a number of projects in this area at the moment, and expect this part of our business to grow significantly over the coming years.”

EDM Group currently generates around 10% of its UK revenue from the automotive sector but because of the current challenges facing the industry, the firm is forecasting significant growth from the automotive sector over the next few years.

Survey: 51 car dealers were interviewed during March 2015.