According to the latest customer journey data from AutoDeal.com.ph, car buyers spend up to four months researching vehicles online before they purchase and on average, typically request a quote or schedule a test drive around 45 days before they buy. Online automotive marketplaces give access to relevant information, such as lifestyle fit, price range, special features, and vehicle comparisons — particulars that consumers can conveniently find on AutoDeal.com.ph. The online vehicle platform garnered a record-breaking site visit of 3,000,000 in January 2020.
AutoDeal.com.ph has been serving as a reliable go-to platform for car buyers in the country. Backing up this trust is the brand’s more than 350 partner dealers and more than 2,000 participating sales agents nationwide who are committed to delivering quality customer service in the digital space. In recognition of the hard work of their partners and their abilities on digital sales, the AutoDeal Awards recently cited its best performing dealer, brand, and sales agents for 2019.
The AutoDeal Awards program started in 2017 to recognize outstanding customer service in the Philippine automotive industry. Awards are given under three categories: Sales Agent of the Year, Dealer of the Year, and Online Customer Service Award. Awardees are determined purely by AutoDeal.com.ph’s online customer data which indicates who excelled in converting online sales and provided the very best digital customer service experience through the AutoDeal marketplace.
“The awarding process scores sales teams on how well they interact with customers and how efficient they are at closing sales. Metrics like inquiry response time, lead-to-sales conversion, and feedback from thousands of confirmed buyers are tracked through the AutoDeal system and used to determine the winners of the AutoDeal Awards,” AutoDeal.com.ph Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer Christopher Franks said.
For the latest iteration of the awards, AutoDeal accorded the Sales Agent of the Year to Arline Aguirre of Chevrolet Batangas. Ms. Aguirre tallied 1.72 hours in reply speed and 11.32% rate of conversion.
For Ms. Aguirre, the online vehicle platform has helped her achieve her sales target. “AutoDeal has a big contribution in the car dealership industry. As a sales agent, it opens a lot of doors and I get to know a lot of clients from different places,” she said.
Eunice Kaye Ravanera of Nissan Cagayan De Oro ranked 2nd place; while James Benedict Dima of Ford Pampanga ranked 3rd. All the top sales agents have a perfect 5/5 average review score.
In 2019, more than 28,000 car buyers used AutoDeal to make their purchase; the most popular vehicle categories were the pickup truck, subcompact car, multi-purpose vehicles, and mid-size SUV categories. While market leader Toyota accumulated the highest-grossing sales; mid-market brands like Nissan, Ford, and Suzuki also remained firm favorites among buyers shopping on AutoDeal.com.ph. When it comes to efficiency and customer service though; it was the smaller and more premium market brands like Mazda and Chevrolet who proved to be the most efficient — combining a high sales conversion rate with a highly customer-centric approach to online sales.
Chevrolet Batangas received the Dealer of the Year Award for its remarkable scores of 1.72-hour reply speed, 11.32% conversion rate, and 4.9/5 average review score.
The Customer Service Award, given to the automotive brand with the best overall performance, was won by Mazda, which garnered a reply speed of 3.55 hours, a conversion rate of 8.93%, and an average review score of 4.9/5.
This annual recognition of AutoDeal for its partners serves as a motivation for them to perform better and more consistently. But on top of these accolades, the added reach and publicity they receive from the company’s external communication efforts further promote their business and consequently drives more customers to shop directly from the agent or their dealership.
“Through these efforts, we extend the winners’ recognition among their peers in the automotive industry; hence, their stories will serve as an inspiration to their colleagues and partners,” added Mr. Franks.
Connecting and supporting partners
Right from the start, the company is very supportive of its partner brands, dealerships, and agents.
“AutoDeal specifically partners with manufacturers, importers, multi-branded dealership groups, and individual dealerships who subscribe to sell on our platform,” Mr. Franks explained. “These partners then enroll a select number of top-performing sales agents to connect with prospective car buyers who inquire through the AutoDeal marketplace.”
Aside from helping generating sales for its partners, the online vehicle platform also helps automotive companies recognize sales teams who excel in the specialized field of digital sales.
“We help train and orient our partners on the best processes for generating digital sales and provide a regular feedback loop on the performance of dealerships and agents in relation to metrics such as inquiry response time and lead-to-sale conversion. We also provide quantitative and qualitative feedback from confirmed buyers who purchase with their sales teams via our platform,” Mr. Franks said.
Likewise, the company has a dedicated team that travels from dealer to dealer to train sales teams on how to use the platform and drive digital sales.
AutoDeal’s comprehensive real-time online data analytics suite helps partners monitor their agents’ performance across multiple dealerships, and it enables manufacturers to better understand their consumers through a wide variety of automated reports.
Much of the company’s data culminates in a regular Industry Insights Report that covers the latest trends in customer behavior, market segments, and new developments. Among the data it gathered from 2019, AutoDeal tracked more than 28,000 industry sales that occurred on the platform, accounting for around 7% of all industry sales. “With that said, since a large volume of our sales often go unreported, we estimate that our total industry impact is more in the region of 15-20%,” Mr. Franks pointed out.
As it keeps providing its reliable services to automotive consumers, the online vehicle platform shared that it will welcome several new car brands as partners on their platform. It will also initiate enhancements to their technology to maximize engagement levels on the dealership and sales agent levels.
Moreover, AutoDeal looks forward to additional growth coming from its recently launched motorcycle counterpart, MotoDeal.com.ph, as well as from enhancing its auto-loan, auto-insurance, and used-car business units.
