By Grant Dunning

There is no question that the internet is impacting the way consumers shop and buy automobiles. The question is: what are the rules of the game for interacting with customers in a quickly changing high-tech environment?

The internet has provided consumers with a medium that allows them the ability to access enormous amounts of information from the convenience of their home. Although the internet saves consumers endless hours of research time, it does not provide the human touch the consumers are used to. The successful businesses of the 21st century will be the companies that combine high tech with high touch.

Amazon.com has been extremely successful providing consumers with a retail website that offers a huge selection of items at reasonable prices. Even though Amazon.com based their entire business model on technology, they have realized the importance of trying to establish a bond with the consumer.

A friend of mine had recently bought a fair number of books from Amazon.com. Several weeks later he received a nice gift in the mail ( a nice coffee mug with the Amazon.com logo) thanking him for his business. Did Amazon have to send a gift to my friend? The answer is no. There is a reason that they chose to invest in sending the consumer a gift. Their mission is to capture that customer for life. They want to create a high touch relationship with a consumer whose internet buying experience involves a placing an order without any human contact via a modem.

So how does this story relate to your dealership? More and more customers are using the internet to research and buy automobiles. Current statistics state that 60% of households own a computer and over half of them are connected to the internet. It is projected that 90% of households will be connected to the internet by 2005.

In the future, whether your customers buy an automobile from you over the internet or in person, the chances are good that they eliminated a lot of the comparative shopping, that happens today, with researching the internet. As the human contact with your customers begins to diminish, their needs to be a marketing plan to build relationships with your customer. Just like Amazon.com, you need to reach out and try to capture that customer for life. If you don’t, your competition will!

In the impersonal computer world, you can separate yourself from the competition by thanking your customers with a gift. The gesture of letting your customers know how much you appreciate their business means a lot. The amount of good will that results in future business is invaluable. Make sure that your marketing strategy includes increasing the “high touch” side of your business as the industry goes “high tech”.