The Tasca Automotive Group started as a tiny Lincoln Mercury dealership located on a back road in rural Rhode Island and has evolved into a high volume, family automotive group with CSI scores among the highest in the nation. Tasca has done what seems impossible: increase volume, add franchises, win awards and reduce employee turnover while achieving a customer loyalty rate above 63 percent. When asked how they do it, any member of the Tasca family will tell you that as long as the focus is on serving the customer, the bottom line takes care of itself. Sounds great, but what exactly does it mean to serve the customer? The Tasca family feels that whether a customer is calling one of their stores, visiting their virtual dealership online, bringing a vehicle in for service or visiting the showroom, it’s imperative to deliver on the “Tasca Way” of doing business. For the Tasca sales team, this translates into selling the way the customers want to buy, rather than forcing the customers to adapt to an outdated, high-pressure sales process. Bob Tasca III gives us an example, “In an effort to better understand our customers, we always ask ‘How did you begin your research?’ and seven out of 10 tell us that when it’s time for a new car, they begin to look online long before ever setting foot in the showroom. To us this meant that the customer’s experience at our virtual dealership could very well determine whether or not they visit our showroom at all. And so for this reason, we were determined to create a Web site that was the best at turning traffic into leads and compelling the customer to visit the showroom. If the Internet was important to seven out of 10 of our customers, then we needed an Internet strategy that was built on the right technology, and driven by the right people, process and tools.” Bob Tasca III shared with us how he used the Internet to sell an additional 84 units.
What would you tell a dealer who is expecting to use their Web site to sell extra cars?
