10 WAYS TO OPTIMIZE COSTS FOR A PASSENGER VEHICLE DEALERSHIP

8 min readFeb 22, 2021

Passenger Vehicle Dealerships has faced immense challenges during the lockdown and while the country is opening up and setting up the new normal standards, it becomes crucial for dealerships to ensure that their customer experiences are seamless.

The margins for car dealerships in India is not very huge and hence it becomes equally important for a dealership to monitor and control its expenditure and ensure that the mundane tasks are automated thereby enhancing the overall efficiency of the dealership.

Utilizing adequate technological methods can help car dealerships largely in saving huge spends and can also help to maintain and generate additional revenues.

1. Customer Information

Capturing correct customer information is a key to maintain the sales and repeat sales for a dealership. DMS offered by OEMs allows this function to capture the data of the potential customer to ensure that the data is available.

In addition to the availability of the data, it is crucial to have a system in place where regular follow-ups, reminders, and timeline analysis is taken into account.

Moreover, the better the understanding of the demographics of the customer is — the better the probability of turning the potential customer into a buying customer. Buying behavior of a customer would depend upon several factors and hence if we have a correct and intuitive manner to understand the psyche of the customer then it increases the chances of understanding in detail about the time when he/she is likely to buy the vehicle and the budget of the customer for the vehicle.

What can be the faster methods to capture the customer information using technology?

(a) UID (Aadhar) Number can be used to obtain Customer Info

(b) PAN Number shall help in identifying the Credit rating

(d) Gamification for obtaining multiple demographics of the customer

2. Vehicle Information

India has one of the largest Gen Y populations in the world. Also referred to as the millennial population which comprises of people aged between 25 to 40 Years, their population is estimated at 426 Million, which is approximately 34% of the total Indian population.

The millennial population is available online and is very much tech-savvy. These genres of people are more comfortable on handling electronic gadgets while going for shopping. In order to attract and create a sense of instant booking, placing touch screens/large-sized tablets alongside the displayed vehicle shall result in a higher percentage of bookings.

A variety of eye-catchy car drive videos in multiple scenarios like racing, off-roading, gentle drives, and likes shall help in making a buying decision. In addition, influencer video reviews being played alongside the vehicle will give another boost.

This kind of structure shall enable an in-store online buying for the potential customers making a delightful experience.

3. Quotation

Almost every Vehicle Dealership gets its Quotation Book and every Customer Associate (Sales Executive) is being given one Quotation Book to prepare and send the quotes against the query of the potential customer. This quote helps the customers in opting for financing from the banks and it is used for making the booking.

What is often lost by using the manual quotation practices?

(a) Sales Executive could not capture the detailed information of the Customer

(b) Other Departments of the Dealership (ex. Finance, Exchange, Accessories) come to know about the lead at a gap, or at times they don’t even get the information

Moreover, a manual quotation book is a recurring expense for the dealership which gets wasted in huge quantity when a customer demands quotes multiple times.

Transforming your manual quote to a digital one with FleetWare CRM helps dealerships to save huge costs and deliver a better experience to your customer. With FleetWare CRM, your Customer Associate (Sales Executive) is able to capture customer information instantly and even fetch the information if the customer is a repeat customer.

The quotation is generated quickly and all the discounting schemes are marked appropriately thereby leaving no room for confusion. In addition, digital quote offers your customers to process for instant booking at their ease.

Worried about additional discounting? No chance! FleetWare CRM offers a facility for CA/RMs to request for additional discount which if approved is instantly informed to the customer.

4. Up-selling from Finance, Exchange & Accessories

Dealerships earn margins by selling financing schemes, trade-ins, and OEM’s authorized accessories, and hence it is important that the information is not left in silos but circulated across the departments. With one interaction of the Customer Associate (Sales Executive), this becomes a matter of concern as not every lead information is known in every department which results in loss of revenue that could have been generated.

With FleetWare CRM, the required information is available across the departments at the very moment of generation of the quotation, booking of the vehicle.

5. Quality follow-ups

Handling loads of leads and resources is a tedious task and it might result in inadequate follow-up on a lead. FleetWare CRM manages all your leads in one place which is visible to the respective CA/RMs and their reporting managers only.

Timeline of follow-ups like a request for a quote, request for a test drive, test drive completion, home visit, and several such parameters in FleetWare CRM helps you to keep a track on every lead on which your sales force is working upon.

6. Stock Availability & Chassis Audit

For fulfilling customer’s demand quickly, CA/RMs should be aware of the availability of stock (model, colour) across all their showrooms/stockyards and the vehicles in transit from OEM. In order to check the availability, multiple of calls are being exchanged between the staff which results in wastage of good amount of time.

Give power to your sales force with FleetWare PRO to check the availability of the required model & colour of the vehicle and even get the information of the vehicle that are in-transit so as to provide the information on the delivery time.

The Stock Availability feature of FleetWare PRO not just helps CA/RMs but also helps the Audit team of the dealership to physically verify the presence of the chassis at a given location. With an upgrade coming up in FleetWare PRO, your team can undertake the audit of the physical chassis at a location in few minutes and you shall be able to tally your stock instantly.

7. Fuel Spends

A dealership, with multiple showrooms, Bodyshop, workshop, demo vehicles, maintenance service vehicles, and customer sales, has a huge monthly expenditure on fuel. While there is a huge spend on fuel, it becomes important to track the utilization in order to avoid any spillage in the fuel consumption.

With FleetWare PRO, track all your fuel spends under defined heads and ensure no spillage in the consumption. The customers (dealerships) have reported an average estimated saving of Rs 50,000 monthly per showroom.

Fuel issuances under the following heads (not exhaustive) are taken into account:

(a) Chassis Movement from one location to another

(b) PDI

(d) Bodyshop

(e) Genset

(f) Test Drive

(g) Sales

8. Fuel Bill Reconciliation

Almost every dealership has set a tie-up with fuel stations nearby its showroom/delivery centers from which they procure fuel and clear the bills on a periodical basis based upon a manual fuel slip.

Reconciliation of such manual fuel slips is quite time-consuming and at the same time prone to errors. FleetWare PRO comes to the rescue by enabling faster bill processing time with instant reports. You can reduce your fuel bill reconciliation time by up to 80%.

9. Managed Movements of Chassis

Stock/Chassis movement from one showroom/stockyard to another is a daily activity for the dealership which brings in the amount of issues, fuel issuance, and various spillage while the transfer of the chassis.

Even at times, a lot of chassis movements happen which were not required resulting in additional wastage of fuel and efforts.

FleetWare PRO offers a carefully analyzed Chassis movement management system that adheres to a workflow process and the movements are authorized and duly approved prior to the actual movement of the Chassis. Nodal Officer at each location is informed of the movements.

Movements required for test drives are also taken into account.

Drivers can be allocated the movements to be done instantly or it can be scheduled for future movement.

The accessories are checked and recorded in the system while chassis handover thereby ensures the availability of all the accessories & kits at every handover preventing losses and bringing accountability.

10. Driver’s App

Recording movement requests in FleetWare is extended with FleetWare DRIVE dedicated for Drivers which is an Android App. All the movement duties scheduled are available on the respective Driver’s App which saves the EDP/Manager (person responsible for coordinating the movements) with endless coordination with the Drivers and the Nodal (Branch/Showroom) Officers.