Using Build-a-Car Tools to

ENGAGE and RETAIN Site Visitors

Michael Thelander, Chrome Systems

(Web 2.0 and the engaged auto surfer)

In This Session:

• Build-A-Car Tools: What are they, and who needs ‘em?

• Key technologies and examples from IZMO, Dealerskins,

Dealer.com, and Chrome using:

Off-the-shelf configurators

Web services

Custom tools built on raw data

• Evaluate your current an future build-a-car tools using

KANO analysis: how to separate the good from the bad

• What to expect in the years to comedays

What do we mean by “Engage”?

• To attract and hold the attention of; engross

• To win over or attract

• To draw into; involve

• To become meshed or interlocked

• To enter into conflict or battle

Think about engagement as two-way communication, as a give-and-take. See it as relationship

that can move from interest to dating to marriage.

Build-a-Car: What is it? • A tool that allows web site visitors to INTERACTIVELY

equip, price, research, and compare vehicles

• In other words, a tool that lets that faceless, invisible, valuable

consumer ENGAGE with your site and your product offerings

Who needs it? • Anyone who wants web visitors to take “mental” ownership

• JD Powers OEM Website Usability Report, January 2007:

Of 36 OEM web sites reviewed, every one had a fully functional build-a-car feature

In comparing the top sites JD Powers specifically called out the “detailed Build-A-Vehicle tool”

• Nearly 70% of consumers use the internet for research

• 2006 YAHOO study says nearly 64% of consumers visit sites where they can compare advantages / disadvantages

• Anyone who wants to ENGAGE their web visitor and turn them into a showroom visitor

Key Technologies and Examples • Framed-in configurator:

Plug-and-play mini-site embedded in your current site

• Web services toolset:

Tools kits that allow developers to create highly customized configuration, comparison and research tools on their own sites

• Sites built on raw data:

Custom implementations built from the ground up

Analyze your Build-A-Car using KANO

• A process named after ______________

• A process used by product managers to make winning products year after year

• Includes an objective analysis of your tool based on:

“Better Not Be” rules to avoid at all costs

“Must Be” things you have to have

“More is Better” features

“Surprise and Delight” features

“Better Not Be” • Slow: Perception of slowness is a death sentence

Time to load vehicles

Time to change options

“Better Not Be” continued • Difficult to navigate: The mouse is an ejection handle

What’s the next step

What do you want me to do?

• Accurate: Prices and features set a customer expectation that’s difficult (or impossible) to overcome.

• Even though visible prices often bother sellers…

Web customers require their absolute transparency

Web customers know that while price is not the only component of value, it is clearly essential

“Must Be” Continued

“Must Be” Continued • Accurate: Prices and features set a customer expectation that’s difficult to overcome

• Easy to Find: Take a tip from OEMs who place their Build-a-Car in prominent spots:

“Must Be” Continued • Directed: Provide the user with calls to action that make

sense and encourage greater engagement

“More is Better” • Pictures, pictures, pictures: A picture is more valuable

than any number of words or claims

• Editorial content: Web shoppers are independent, and are

looking for sources of non-manufacturer, non-dealer content

“More is Better” continued

• They are going to find the content they need: If you

don’t provide it they’ll go somewhere else

• They will create comparisons! Is it better that you help

them, or hide from them?

“Surprise and Delight” Features

• Those features that are capable of tipping the scales and

giving you a distinct competitive advantage. Or…

• Those features that invoke the words “I didn’t know you

could do that!”

“Surprise and Delight” feature #1• Color-change photos: Not just an image of the car in a new

paint job, but in the paint scheme the user selected when they

built it

• Added cost? Often nothing. Included with Carbook

Showroom, included with Redline.

“Surprise and Delight” feature #2• Spins and movies: 360 views and full-motion movies

• Added cost: Only $100 per month per dealership

“Surprise and Delight” feature #3• Something OEMs have figured out…

• Customers that SAVE a vehicle they’ve built are fully engaged, have begun to

have a sense of ownership, and are more likely to buy.

• 6 out the top 10 OEM web sites from the JD Power report allow visitors to save a

configuration or email a configuration to themselves.

“Surprise and Delight” feature #3

• So far only Dealer.com seems to have fully figured this out

• Our forecast: In twelve months this will be a key differentiator in dealer web sites, and the surest protection

against losing control of an interested lead to an OEM site who might then direct them somewhere else.

To Sum Up:• Your greatest e-commerce need is to engage a faceless, nameless surfer and make them real

• Unless you want to offer free access to a web-based driving game, build-a-car is your most engaging feature

• You need to pursue every opportunity to direct users and to get them to engage, from requests for more info or quotes to a Save My Vehicle feature

• There are ways to add or improve build-a-car for every type of web site, using either off-the-shelf tools, web services, or raw data products

Question and Thanks

Reach Michael Thelander at:

503.963.6415 or mthelander@chrome.com