Data integration by Hunter, Dealer-FX aimed at helping shops work better, sell more

Service departments at new-vehicle dealerships are swimming in big data. Shops use the information that multiple vendors provide about customers and their vehicles to help boost profits, enhance retention and improve fixed ops efficiency.

But service operations that don't marshal information technology effectively risk drowning in data instead. Failure to "tame the IT monster," as a popular ad campaign portrays, can waste the money dealerships spend on software products, disrupt shop productivity and drive away annoyed customers.

That's why innovations such as a new effort by Hunter Engineering and Dealer-FX to integrate the data they provide service departments are so vital. Dealers need to keep encouraging suppliers, as happened here, to ensure their products are fully compatible with technology from other vendors.

Hunter makes inspection equipment such as Quick Check, Quick Check Drive and Quick Tread. When customers enter a dealership's service drive, these systems automatically measure vehicles' tire tread, wheel alignment and battery life, enabling service advisers to share the results instantly and propose needed maintenance, repairs and parts such as new tires.

Dealer-FX sells the ONE Platform, which manages the service process from vehicle check-in, to preparation of a repair order for a shop technician, to customers' drive-away and the next scheduled visit. A digital dashboard allows advisers to call up and record data about a vehicle on a tablet computer while they conduct a walkaround inspection with the customer.

Now the companies are putting the chocolate and peanut butter together, so to speak. The 500 or so U.S. dealerships that are customers of both the ONE Platform and Hunter equipment will get Hunter inspection data added automatically to the Dealer-FX system. They won't pay extra for that integration.

Hunter and Dealer-FX executives told me they expect the combination to save time at check-in (no manual data transfers on the fly by a busy adviser), make the inspection process more consistent and thorough, offer more transparency in the service work they recommend to customers and streamline communications between advisers and techs.

"It speeds up the process, reduces the effort to sell and makes it easier for the customer to buy," says Dealer-FX CEO Gary Kalk. "You create a smoother customer experience, and that leads to increased sales and higher satisfaction."

Alan Hagerty, Hunter's product manager of connected services, notes that alignments are among the most profitable jobs a dealership service department does. Selling more alignments and other work by giving customers credible reports based on objective data means higher shop revenue, he says.

"We're focused on using our data tools to present safe and reliable information as fast as possible," Hagerty says. "It's less footsteps, less clicks for the service advisers. If we can help customers identify and communicate their needs, they won't go down the street."

Kalk says his company and Hunter engaged in months of "mutual discussions" about the data integration after a number of their dealer customers asked for it. Once a pilot program affirmed its value, the companies rolled out the program last month.

Gary Crossley Ford in Kansas City, Mo., took part in the pilot effort. The dealership's CEO, Todd Crossley, says that in just the past few months, the number of alignments his shop sells, for about $99 apiece, has increased from a half-dozen to 25 on a typical day. That isn't the only advantage of the Hunter-Dealer-FX combination, he says.

"It takes multiple systems and makes them accessible at one point," Crossley says. "It's seamless, and that's hugely beneficial to a store my size."

Crossley adds the combination also is helping the dealership's sales department by accommodating further integration with AutoAlert, a supplier whose software enables salespeople to make personalized trade-in offers to service customers. "It's a trifecta," he says.

Hunter and Dealer-FX say they're looking at other ways to work together on data integration, in areas they're not yet ready to talk about. Meanwhile, there are plenty of other heartening examples throughout the industry of dealers and vendors collaborating on integration strategies, enabling service departments to work better.

There need to be a lot more. The alternative to better integrated data, when systems don't talk to each other, can include service work that gets done more slowly or not at all, missed opportunities for sales and poorer communication between a shop and its customers.

"It slows things down and makes things frustrating for employees and customers," Crossley says. "So the idea of adding new systems for dealers can be painful."

Kalk adds: "In this connected world, dealers have a lot of systems they've got to process in dealing with customers. We're working hard to simplify a complicated work flow and make it easier for dealers to exceed customer expectations."