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Upheaval with opportunities
The automotive industry is struggling with drastic changes. No stone is left unturned. We are all afraid of leaving the so-called comfort zone. We don't feel embarrassed about our fears, but rather tackle the challenges.
Upheaval with opportunities
We journalists are the biggest hypocrites. We continually provide advice and tips on how companies should view change not as a threat, but as an opportunity. Those who don't move with the times move with the times, crisis as an opportunity, off to new shores, etc., that's how our stories, appeals and pleas read. Hand on heart, just like you, dear owner of a motor vehicle business, we journalists also fear change. We have also made ourselves comfortable in our daily work routine. We also like to do what we know and what we can do. Whether you're a car owner, a journalist or just anyone, everyone would like to make themselves comfortable on familiar and tried-and-tested terrain. The only difference is that one admits it and the other doesn't.
INDUSTRY EVENTS
In fact, we are confronted with this at every single event, training and further education in our automotive industry: no stone would be left unturned, everything would have to be rethought and, above all, done anew. The automotive industry has changed significantly more in the last ten years than in the previous three decades. And it will change drastically again in the future, whether we want it or not. There will be market shakeouts, the better will be the enemy of the good. Customers will continue to become more demanding and impudent. Those who come to the workshop or car dealership compare prices on the Internet, order online, make tough calculations and want to be courted as customers. Of course, we also do this in our role as customers. We go to “Saturn”, get advice (keyword: advice theft; we also know it from car dealerships) and then order the same product cheaper online. End consumers don't care whether the small, fine paint shop around the corner or the large car dealership next to the shopping center continues to exist or not when it comes to their own money. What I mean to say is that we need to stop blaming the “evil” and “inconsiderate” car dealership and repair shop customers. Where we are customers ourselves, we usually do not act significantly differently.
DIGITALIZATION
Back to the drastic changes in our industry. Above all, it is digitalization that requires all of our strength. Meanwhile, almost everyone knows that they have to be digitally fit. If you have a bad website, you are definitely on the sidelines. The website is, on the one hand, the company's business card and usually also the first contact with the end consumer. Today, no matter how well-run a car dealership is, it simply doesn't exist without an excellent website. The time is over when people interested in cars come to the showroom to see what's new. The visit to the car dealership is the culmination of the entire process. Everything important happened beforehand. Or to put it another way: If I have the customer in the house, I have already done a lot of things right, then I just have to close the deal. I wish you and your loved ones a wonderful, relaxed Christmas. We'll see each other at the beginning of 2019. I'm looking forward to it.
“In our role as customers, we are just as relentless as car dealership customers.”WOLFGANG BAUER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF