Car sales might occur at the dealership, but most sales journeys start online.

Online advertising is the most significant channel to grab your potential customers attention and drive more sales. What and where you choose to advertise is what will differentiate your business from your competitors.

JudgeService has conducted extensive research on consumer purchasing habits over the decade. Most recently we have seen the number of customers who visited dealers’ websites and found cars online increase during the pandemic, unsurprisingly because customers had less opportunity to visit dealerships in person. Visits to online marketplaces also surged and, although the numbers dropped off slightly following the end of the pandemic, as people emerged from their shells the number who have become comfortable browsing websites remains higher than before the pandemic.

We expect the trend toward digital to continue, therefore, a focus on delivering a user-friendly digital experience is essential. However, it is clear since the pandemic that many customers have reverted to visiting dealerships in person, enjoying the human interaction and personalised customer service that dealers can offer. That is why JudgeService is so convinced that the traditional rules of effective customer service remain so important, adapted to a hybrid and digital experience.

Another interesting (and rewarding for us) trend is when we ask customers what made them visit back in 2018 and 2019 20% said that it was due to their previous buying experience. This dropped during the pandemic, with Q2 2020 showing a slight drop in numbers.

However, we saw an impressive increase in past experience being the footfall driver from Q4 2020 onwards. From the end of 2021 up to date the number of customers who said it was past experience that made them visit had risen toto over 24%. Whilst we will keep striving for higher scores this is a significant improvement in terms of overall customer numbers and demonstrates the JudgeService effect.

Referral rates from friends and family have fallen since 2018 and 2019, largely as a result of the pandemic and customers travelling further when buying online. Referral rates are recovering and are hugely important for driving sales and profitability. We recommend that this be a key area for focus in the future.

The change in consumer habits shown can be seen as a result of the pandemic accelerating existing trends toward digitisation. The key takeaway for dealerships, is to understand that whilst it is hard to compete on price and finance you can compete on customer service. It is this excellent service that increases your retention and referrals, putting you ahead of your competitors.

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