Dealership Support at Automotive from Two Points of View

At Automotive, our brands work very closely with car dealerships to make sure that they can offer their users a great selection and comparison of different makes and models.

Jan Schenker, Head of Sales within our Automotive portfolio, gave us a peek at the inner workings of AutoScout24’s dealership support. He explained how their processes benefit not only the sellers but also the users buying the cars. In addition, Mathias Jenny, Head of UX Research, highlighted enhancing user experience as vital for enjoying the entire customer journey.

Subscribing, Onboarding, Go: Dealership Support

There are two ways via which a car dealer will end up selling on AutoScout24: Dealerships either contact AutoScout24 or, more commonly, a representative introduces our product, its advantages, and signs them up.

After the dealership has signed a contract, the Field Service team will begin the dealership support onboarding process. The team arranges the system setup and guides dealerships in uploading vehicles and utilizing the AutoScout24 Digital Showroom. Throughout the contract duration, the dealership can list available vehicles and receive inquiries from potential buyers without constraints. Ideally, the dealership will be able to sell the vehicles online. Shortly before the contract period ends, AutoScout24’s Account Manager contacts dealerships to discuss contract extension possibilities.

Pretty straightforward, right? So what exactly are the benefits of using AutoScout24 to sell or buy a car?

The Good and the Great of AutoScout24 Dealership Support

AutoScout24 is the online car marketplace in Switzerland with the best selection of vehicles. Therefore it offers a huge range of dealerships for new and used cars with a high volume of users searching every day. For sellers this means having a high reach, with over 500 search queries being generated every minute, one new used car being advertised every minute and one used car being sold via the platform every 67 seconds! A lot of engagement and activity for one minute.

Similarly, a buyer has the largest selection of cars on one platform. Not only can a buyer find virtually any vehicle on AutoScout24, but at the same time they can find out about insurance and financing costs. To make the platform even more trustworthy, a buyer gets a useful piece of preliminary information via the supplier rating, that tells them whether they are looking at a good dealership or not.

In general, safety and trust are a huge priority for AutoScout24. The supplier rating is one measure to give a potential buyer instant feedback on the trustworthiness of a dealership. The rating is based on real customer experiences and feedback. However, should a buyer still come across a dubious ad, they have the option of reporting it to the AutoScout24 team via the advertisement check. The ad will then be manually investigated and removed if necessary. Our Automotive teams also continually invest in technical developments to keep the infrastructure and protection in terms of cyber security up to date.

It’s the (User) Journey that Counts

AutoScout24 has various features for dealership support that should make the online sale of a vehicle a lot easier. Depending on the subscription, these features can be found in their user account’s “Dealer” area. A new feature specifically intended to facilitate and shorten the sales process is the option of Online Purchase. With this option, the dealership can directly offer the vehicle for sale online. This process is very simple but maximizes flexibility on both the seller’s and buyer’s side:

The buyer can reserve the vehicle without obligation of purchase for up to 72 hours. The dealership offers this time to clarify open questions between seller and buyer.
The seller will call the buyer within one business day to discuss contract details and inform them about a variety of options, such as leasing or trade-in.
Depending on the means of payment and contract (i.e. cash purchase, leasing or other), the dealership initiates the appropriate formalities.
Once the dealership has received the payment, seller & buyer agree agree upon and complete the handover.
Should the vehicle not meet the buyers’ expectations, they can return it within seven days free of charge if the vehicle has not travelled more than 150km in that time.

This online purchasing feature removes a lot of back-and-forth communication for both parties and enables a smoother transaction.

Bridging the Gap

The teams at Automotive are also adamant about giving the users what they really need and want. The UX team at AutoScout24 interviews dealerships regularly, gathering feedback and insights for improved dealership support. This supplements surveys and sales representative inputs. On Fridays every four weeks, the team interviews three dealerships across market segments, discussing processes, prototypes, and user experience. AutoScout24 aims to foster sales-customer relationships and directly engage users and product developers, enhancing the platform’s customer-centric design.

A thank you goes to Jan Schenker and Mathias Jenny for giving us an insight into their projects!