GMC’s ongoing push to create a modern and customer-focused dealer network has resulted in attractive, updated facilities and new business approaches like Pro Grade Protection, which offers two years of included maintenance for Sierra full-size pickup owners. Now, GMC is adding mobility to its leading customer experience with a new SalesAssistant tablet app.
This high-tech solution makes a sales transaction quicker and more streamlined, as well as more interactive for customers. With it, a dealership’s inventory, vehicle specs and option packages info can be quickly browsed; incentives are updated in real-time and payment estimates can be provided.
The app is available for any salesperson to download for any Android (3.1 or higher) or iOS (5.0 or higher) tablet device.
“Developing this app started with our dealers, and we will continue working with them on future updates,” said Tom Wdowik, General Motors dealer sales solutions manager. “They came to us looking for a simple, mobile solution to access incentives and inventory, and we worked with them to tailor every layout and feature around their needs.
“As the name implies, the SalesAssistant app lets sales happen quickly and easily, which translates to customers having to spend less time away from their lives to buy a new vehicle,” Wdowik said. “We’ve already had one example where a general manager and a customer used the app to sell a vehicle while watching a youth hockey game.”
The app’s most notable features resulted from dealer input. For example, each dealership has its own top-selling models, so instead of scrolling through all models in the showroom in alphabetical order, a user can set favorite vehicles to appear most prominently.
While SalesAssistant works with all GMC vehicles, it is especially valuable for Sierra fullsize pickup truck customers. There are thousands of different ways to personalize a truck, from cab and bed configurations to colors and packages. This new app details all of those choices in an easy-to-browse format. And it even has special features related to truck capability.
“We learned from one salesperson that it’s common for truck customers to come in and say ‘I need a truck that can tow my 12,000-pound boat’ or whatever the specific need is,” said Wdowik. “From that, we developed a reverse tow look-up. Using a slider bar on the screen, the app can display only the GMC vehicles capable of towing that much weight.”
The SalesAssistant app is just one way that GMC is working to create convenient and transparent customer experiences. A recent industry study ranked GMC dealers the highest among all mass market vehicle brands.
GMC has worked closely with dealers on ways to build a business plan where every decision connects back to the customer, where improving the customer’s sales and service experience is the core mission.
In this new way of doing business, best practices are shared across the dealer network, allowing sales and service staffs across the country to quickly implement a winning strategy.
“We build great vehicles at GMC, but positive customer care is the best way to keep drivers coming back,” said Brian Sweeney, vice president of GMC Sales and Service. “It’s one of the best competitive advantages we can offer, and we have a great dealer network out there developing and using new practices like using the SalesAssistant app.”