Dragon2000 Working Remotely To Support Car Dealers And Garages

So no doubt you’ll be aware that all businesses have been placed in essential and non-essential camps – car showrooms are told not to open, but workshops can continue to operate, to keep key workers’ vehicles on the road.

This will be reviewed by the government after an initial three week period, if the portion of the general public who have been ignoring the advice to stay at home can resist hanging out in parks or making trips to the coast and the spread of coronavirus slows as hoped.

But it is important to note that not being able to operate from your showroom premises does not mean you are completely shut down and banned from keeping the wheels turning on your business.

Obviously it is tough for all when consumers are delaying buying in a period of uncertainty – but that will change, so keeping in touch with your customers and prospects is more important than ever during this extraordinary time.

In fact, we are helping a great number of our dealer customers who are contacting us daily with adding features to their websites to take more of the sale process online – such as online checkout, finance applications and online service bookings – and also assisting with requests for advice on sending mailshots and general support queries.

We’ve already helped lots of dealership staff as they switched to working at home and given online training sessions whilst they are not as busy as usual, with many also starting to use the APPraise and Workshop mobile apps that we are offering for free until the end of June.

Whilst we’ve seen some in our industry go into a self-imposed financial lockdown in the first week – not paying suppliers and/or shedding staff, resulting in a vastly reduced service to dealers already under pressure – rest assured here at Dragon2000 we are not in panic mode!

All of our staff and suppliers were paid 100% during March to ensure that all of our services continue to operate as normal and we are able to give our usual industry leading support.

We are pleased to say that all of our supplier services are working as normal, including:

Vehicle registration lookups – to get comprehensive vehicle details in the DragonDMS
SMS Texts – to send texts individually to your customers and in mailshots
Valuations – those subscribing to CAP valuations through the DragonDMS, APPraise, or customer-facing part exchange valuations on their website
Provenance Checks – those subscribing to HPI, Experian and MotorCheck
Enquiry notifications – enquiry forms from Dragon2000 websites, Autotrader and Facebook Marketplace will still be delivered straight into the DragonDMS

We were ahead of the curve this month and executed plans to continue our whole operation with all staff working from home by the 23rd March, which has been a success – when you phone in or email us, you’ll get straight through to a human, and won’t notice the difference (except perhaps for the sound of children in the background with some of our working parents, but that is likely the same for a lot of you too!). We are extremely proud of the efforts of all our team this past couple of weeks in continuing to support our loyal customers from their homes.

Dragon2000 have been helping dealers and garages drive their businesses forward since 1995. Talk to our team today on 01327 222 333 or email sales@dragon2000.co.uk to find out how our dealer management system, car dealer websites and mobile apps can help your business increase profits and reduce costs.