After writing my blog post, Where Auto Dealerships Use Technology to Drive Profitability, I received emails regarding one line in the introductory paragraph all asking, “What is an Auto Technology Specialist? Tell me more about that.”
The line that I wrote in my initial post:
Cars have so much technology packed in them that many auto dealerships now have an auto technologist on staff just to demo all the gadgets on board to the new owners.
In short, an Auto Technology Specialist isn’t on the IT or network side of technology like myself. The person in this position demonstrates all the technology in the vehicle to the new owners.
The auto technology specialist is the go-to person on the team for all things auto technology, the person that geeks out over every new feature, and knows what every button does on every vehicle on the sales lot. I can even see this person engaged in your dealership’s marketing efforts, doing videos to introduce the new tech in this year’s fleet of vehicles and social media posts about specific features.
Now, you may call this technology person by a different title like Customer Orientation or Onboarding Specialist, but the main aspect of that role is to make the customer comfortable driving their new vehicle, so they enjoy the technology instead of dreading it. Also, taking the time to point out the different features of the vehicle and all the technology onboard trains your new customer to become an advocate as he tells all his friends and family about each little aspect of his new purchase. (Plus, it probably reduces future calls wondering how to do something.)
According to DealerRefresh.com, “Some manufacturers contribute to the cost of dedicated technology specialists, [while] others do not.” If you don’t know if your manufacturer does or not, I highly suggest finding out soon. It’s not like cars will have less technology in the future. Even as buyers become more tech-savvy, they will not know about their new vehicle’s capabilities until they experience it firsthand.
Some companies have salespeople demonstrate the vehicle’s technology, but that can be cumbersome for auto dealerships that represent multiple lines of vehicles and not every salesperson “gets” technology. Besides, salespeople want to sell and as the GM, you want them selling too.
Either way, whether you have a specific person as the auto technology specialist or a team of people handle it, I encourage you to embrace the technology packed into the cars you sell.
