Automotive News - September 23, 2019 - Best Practices Supplement - A9

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 | 9
N E W T O N N I S S A N O F G A L L AT I N , G A L L AT I N , T E N N .

Mobile app connects with customers
Service orders, inventory
views, retention are up
Published in Automotive News Dec. 24, 2018

Melissa Burden
mburden@crain.com

ewton Nissan of Gallatin, Tenn., has
found a way to connect with loyal
customers and new shoppers on
their own time, while aiming to
make their dealership experience easier.
The dealership launched its first mobile app
in February. Since then, the marketing tool
has led to more service appointment bookings and helped the dealership sell vehicles,
said Katie Rosenbaum, marketing manager
for Newton Motor Group, a four-store dealership group near Nashville, Tenn.
General Manager Ryan Martin heard about
the app, Rosenbaum said. It has allowed the
store to serve customers who have smartphones at their convenience, she said. It's also
helped retain customers by offering service appointment scheduling, loyalty rewards, coupons and click-to-call features for service and
roadside assistance. The app is powered by
vendor Mobile Dealer, formerly known as Mobile Einstein.

Katie Rosenbaum,
Newton Motor Group's
marketing manager, says
the free app, advertised
on signs inside Newton
Nissan of Gallatin, left,
offers benefits for
customers as well as
the dealership.

Newton Nissan of Gallatin, Tenn.,
says a mobile app has helped it
retain customers, make service
appointment bookings and sell
vehicles.

Additional revenue
"Pretty much every section of our website is
housed in this app, so it's just easier," Rosenbaum told Automotive News. "We already
know shoppers are on mobile, and most people who are on mobile also are tech-savvy
enough to know about apps."
As an example, Rosenbaum says that in August customers using the app made 21 calls to
Newton Nissan's service department, resulting in 11 service repair orders, two vehicle
sales and an additional $9,000 in revenue.
While service orders have been a popular
use for the app, it also resulted in more than
1,500 page views in August, mostly for vehicle
inventory.
Vehicles on the lot feature QR code stickers
that shoppers can scan to view inventory details, Rosenbaum said.
"If you're on the lot on a Sunday afternoon,
so no one's around, and you see a car that you
like and you want to know more information
about it, then you pull out your phone, download our app and then go to the new inventory
page in the app and search the stock number
to be able to see information and check avail-

ability," Rosenbaum said.
Newton Motor Group is so happy with the
results that it plans to launch an app in January for its Newton Nissan South store in Shelbyville, Tenn., Rosenbaum said.
"We're rolling it out to our Nissan store because it's bigger and the [general manager]
down there really believes in it," Rosenbaum
said.
Newton Motor later will consider launching
an app at its Ford and Chevrolet-Buick-GMC
stores, which are in more rural areas, she said.

1,700 downloads
Inside Newton Nissan of Gallatin, signs advertise the free app, and a kiosk in the service
department shows customers how it works.
The dealership, which sells about 200 new and
used vehicles a month, is averaging a steady
110 to 120 monthly app downloads, Rosenbaum said. More than 1,700 people have
downloaded it this year, she said.
Rosenbaum said Newton Motor Group considers the app to be a key retention tool in the
digital age.

"We've seen traffic with [coupons] enhanced because [customers] just bring in the
app, and it's right there on the screen for the
adviser and the cashier to see and apply to
their bill," she said. "Beyond that, there's a loyalty rewards button. We have our own code to
enter every time someone gets an oil change
into the app that provides a stamp. Once they
get four stamps, they get their fifth oil change
for free."
The app's tools are easy to use, Rosenbaum
said, and Mobile Dealer provides analytics
that tally page views, coupon redemption,
stamped loyalty rewards, referrals and events
that were shared via social media or email.
"We just really liked it from the get-go and
thought it makes things so much easier for our
customers," Rosenbaum said. "And one of the
big selling points was it links to our DealerRater page."
The Mobile Dealer app is customizable for
dealerships and includes geofencing capability,
allowing a dealer to draw a virtual boundary
around their dealership or competitors' stores
and send push notification offers to shoppers,
said Tony della Busa, CEO of Mobile Dealer.
More than 200 dealerships in the U.S. and
Canada use the app technology it launched in
November 2017, according to della Busa. Mobile Dealer charges dealerships $249 a month
for the app.
"We are helping more dealerships sell and
service cars," della Busa said. n

Automotive News - September 23, 2019 - Best Practices Supplement

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News - September 23, 2019 - Best Practices Supplement