How to choose a dealership CRM in Canada

What a dealership CRM does

A CRM, short for customer relationship management system, keeps one record for each customer: every enquiry, text, call, note, appointment and deal, with who handled it and when. Whoever picks up the phone can see what was promised.

A dealership CRM adds what a store needs on top of that: leads from the sites where you advertise, rules for who gets which lead, a clock on how long each one has been waiting, your inventory, and the deal itself. A general sales CRM can store contacts, but it does not know what a stock number, a trade-in or a bill of sale is, so stores that start with one often end up with a spreadsheet beside it.

Eight checks for a Canadian store

Put these to every vendor, in this order. Each one has a question you can ask in the first demo.

1. Lead sources you already pay for

List every source: AutoTrader, CarGurus, Kijiji, Facebook, your website forms and walk-ins you key in by hand. For each, ask how the lead arrives (an email in the standard ADF/XML format, an API, a form) and what the vendor does when a source changes how it sends leads. A lead that never arrives cannot be answered.

2. Speed to lead

Look for assignment rules, such as round robin or balanced by workload, a visible response clock and a warning when a lead is late. Ask to see what the sales manager sees when a lead from 10:42 has not been touched by 10:57.

3. One page per customer

Texts, notes, appointments, deals and consent should sit on one page in time order. Ask what a salesperson sees when a customer calls back and the original salesperson is off that day.

4. Texting with consent built in

Texting is regulated in Canada, so the system should record consent with its source and time, check it before a text goes out and honour STOP. Our guide to CASL and texting customers explains what to look for.

5. A deal desk that knows Canadian tax

Tax rules, and the way a trade-in reduces the taxable amount, differ by province. The desk should work out tax for the province where the vehicle is delivered. In Ontario, ask how the system helps with OMVIC requirements such as disclosures and all-in price advertising.

6. Inventory that is published once

Ask whether you key a vehicle in one time and have it appear on your own website and on each listing site, and whether you can choose per vehicle. Ask what the system checks before a used vehicle is advertised.

7. Access by role

A salesperson needs their own leads and customers, not the cost of every vehicle in the store. The owner should be able to decide who sees what, and change it without calling the vendor.

8. Reports you will read

First response time by source and by salesperson, gross by salesperson, aged inventory and overdue follow-ups, on a dashboard that updates as things happen, with an export to CSV for your accountant.

Questions about the contract and your data

A good product with bad terms is still a bad purchase. Ask these before anything is signed:

• What do I pay per user, per rooftop and per text message, and is there a setup fee?
• Is the plan month to month, or am I locked in for a term? What does cancelling involve?
• Where is my customer data stored, and which other companies handle it? A vendor should be able to give you a list.
• Can I export my customers and inventory at any time, in an ordinary file format?
• Who answers when something breaks on a Saturday afternoon, and how do I reach them?
• How are staff logins protected, and can I turn off a former employee's access immediately?

Canadian privacy law (PIPEDA, or the provincial law in Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia) puts duties on you as the business that collects customer information, even when a vendor stores it, so these are your questions to ask, not the vendor's favours to grant.

How to test one properly

A demo shows the vendor's best afternoon. A trial with your own data shows yours. Plan one week and do these four things:

• Take five real leads from last week and send them through the system. Time how long it takes from arrival to the first text.
• Give it to your least technical salesperson, on their own phone, with no help.
• Desk one real deal for each province you sell into, and compare the tax and payment with what your accountant would produce.
• Export your customers. If that is hard in a trial, it will be harder when you want to leave.

Where DealerStation fits

DealerStation is dealership CRM software built in Canada. It brings leads from AutoTrader, CarGurus, Kijiji, Facebook and your website into one queue, assigns each by your rules and starts a fifteen-minute response clock. Customers, texts with recorded consent, the deal desk with provincial tax, inventory and reports hang off the same record.

There are two plans, prices are shown before you pay, and every new store starts with a free trial. The home page has screenshots of each screen.