Omnichannel Everything: The New Standard for Personalization and Lifetime Value

[MUSIC] Hi, everyone. Welcome to For the Road Ford brought to you by Auto Trader and Kelly Bluebook. I'm your host, J. Tera Berry Senior Director of Strategic Planning at Cox Automotive. It is that time again to cover the automotive trends and hot topics that should be on every modern dealers or oeums radar like yours for smoother and more successful road forward. Today, we are going to be talking about not only a hot topic, the new ways to dial up and drive more ROI consumer satisfaction, and dealers get out your pens or take notes in your cell phone, because not only will you have a ton of takeaways, but you're also about to get a ton of stellar advice from this man I am joined by. A colleague that if you are a long time you or listener, you are quickly going to recognize as my partner on many of the stages at automotive industry conferences throughout the year that Cox Automotive attends. No a lead director at product consulting. Noa has a 360 degree view into our tens of thousands of clients. He meets with a lot of them every single week and is here to share the trends, tell you what needs to be on your radar to stay a step ahead of your competition in 2026. So happy new year Noah. Noah, without the mustache, I had to comment on that when he first jumped on. We are so glad to have him here and welcome back to our for the Road Forward podcast. Thanks, Jade. Yeah, new year, new me, new mustache, but I'm ready to get after it. There is a ton to talk about going into 2026. So let's get after it. You bet there is. So let's jump right in Noah. My first question to you. It is about my acronym for 2026. You know, I always have to have one. How to own the road R O A D R O I as the metric that matters. Oh, for omnichannel everything AI, not just AI, but AI application and adoption and then of course, database decision making. So today we are going to focus on the O, which is omnichannel everything. And how the dealers who win are the ones delivering one connected experience from click to close, to ownership, cradle to cradle as you coined a couple of years ago. So from your seat, what does dialing into omnichannel really look like in 2026? And why is this the moment that dealers really can't afford to be behind in this space? 100%. So I think what's happening right now is a lot of dealers think they're going omnichannel, but really they're doing multi-channel. So let's dive into that a little bit more. So multi-channel you've got all the tools, right? You got a digital retailing tool. You got a suite website. You got a CRM. You got a service scheduler. You got, you know, an automated marketing platform. But the challenge is they're not talking to each other. That's a multi-channel experience. It's leading to a lot of breakdowns, inefficiencies, poor customer experience. Omnichannel is literally, you've got all these solutions and they're all talking to each other. So they're able to enhance the overall customer experience, reduce the amount of money that you're spending, capturing those consumers, and really add a lot of efficiency to your overall process. And really just drive better return on your investment. Yeah, it's a great way to think about it. No, I love that Omnichannel, not multi-channel. And really when I say Omnichannel, everything, I mean, like we've talked about this on the consumer experience front now, for years, but it has to flow through to your tools, your measurement strategy, the way even your sales teams and your desk managers and your service drive are connected in how they're measuring lifetime consumer value, lifetime vehicle value, looking at that long tail trade valuation model. Everything has to be taken into account, looking at the big picture to truly achieve what it is that customers are looking for in today's environment. So Noah, that gets us to consumer experience. And I love how AI is already reshaping consumers expectations, not someday, but right now. So when you look across the market at the vast dealer landscape that you work with, what are the winners doing that's setting them apart? But then where do you see dealers getting stuck or falling behind in meeting this new AI-shaped consumer journey? So yeah, let's just set the baseline here and 95% of your shoppers are going to be using AI to help in their shopping process. They're using AI agents to search for vehicles, analyze deal sheets, research dealers, negotiate, they'll scan your deal sheet and say, "Hey, is this a good deal? What about these add-ons? Is this nitrogen add-on for my tires worth the extra 200 bucks?" So they're more empowered than ever. And the thing is, too, is 83% of consumers say AI is going to impact how they buy, but only 37% of dealers think that AI matters. So really, that's a gap that's creating winners and losers right now. So the winners, what they're doing right now, is embracing AI right now. So we do all these Cox Automotive studies about what dealers are doing, what the winners and losers are doing. But here's a couple of stats, right? 49% of what we call "thrivers" use at least one AI capability versus 32%. The people who aren't doing so high. And one of these AI capabilities, it's not just Gen AI, right? There are those 24/7 chatbots, those virtual assistants, which are increasingly more important than ever. Consumers are trusting those more than ever. We're also looking consumer behavior analysis, automated personalized offers, insight into deal sheets. So on the sales manager side, getting insight into what kind of offer you should be providing that shopper to close the deal more effectively. But also we're seeing more than just using AI, right? We're seeing the winners being more radically transparent. So upfront pricing, online info matches, the in-store exactly, right? So shoppers aren't having to re-enter info when they get into the store or they're not getting hit with that bait and switch. We're also seeing them making digitized business easy, right? So they're really leveraging their digital retailing tools and sending out digital leads to every single inbound request, whether it's an e-price, a phone call, a walk-in, they're getting them into that digitized experience. We're also seeing personalization at scale. So using those AI chatbots, that understand that shoppers browsing history and their consumer profile so they can personalize that experience for that individual, seeing them use dynamic website content to highlight vehicles that they might be interested or highlight services that might work for them. And what we also found in our studies from 2025 was that 57% of buyers said that they had an improved experience when they worked with an AI chatbot. So there's a ton happening in this space and it's really the dealers that are thinking ahead, right? Hey, let's adopt this technology and incorporate it into our processes and thinking very deeply about training their people. So not just buying something and hoping that it works but really incorporating that into their culture to take their dealership, their business to that next level. Yeah, culture is the word and it has to start at the top and go all the way down, but everybody has to be trained, understand why these tools matter to them. And then in the beginning, there also is a big piece of holding our teams accountable to get them excited and to help them really see the value for them and their customers by using these tools the right way. So Noah, talking about tools, let's give everybody just a little bit of a tease in ADA is almost here. And I know that you've been working on some big things across Amp and Dill Central. So without giving away the whole show, which I mean, we would be okay with, it's almost here. But what should dealers be getting excited about? Well, I just want to say, you know, you can't really compete against AI, it's here, right? And really have to think about competing with AI. Using AI as a tool to enhance your business and enhance your customer experience. And that's what we're doing at Cox Automotive. So let's start out with Dill Central, right? We're incorporating more AI technology into Dill Central to enhance that sales manager experience and your salesperson experience, provide a better buying experience for your shoppers. So what does that look like? Well, first off, we've got our Dill Pulse, which gives you insight into that shoppers, you know, financial profiles. So what are they comfortable with as far as their payment goes? How much would they like to put down for their vehicle? What does their trade in look like? Or, you know, what are they looking at to do whether it's financing or leasing, right? But now we're coming out with a tool called Dill Intelligence. So it's actually going to look at the deal scenarios that you're working and provide you insight into the likelihood that those deals are going to close. And also give you insight into what other potential vehicles you might be able to switch a customer into to help that deal close more effectively and get things through the process more effectively. Now when we're talking about AMP, now AMP is, you know, AI is at the core of AMP. It basically digest a huge volume of consumer data to understand where your shoppers inside of your CRM are in that buying process. And then automatically was sent out targeted messages to them via text message, email, even direct mail to get them into that buying funnel. Now where we're taking things to the next level in 2026 is with our automated offers. So we're giving dealers more really control over the process so they can build out offers coming directly from the manufacturer and then basically set it and forget it. You know, I'm borrowing the old Ron Popeel phrase, right, of the turkey bass, or whatever. But basically what that means is you've got more control over the offers that you're sending out to customers and more insight into the performance of your tool to maximize your return. So those are just two things from the Cox Automotive stable that are really going to move the needle for our dealers out there. I love it. It's going to be a great show. So now you hear from thousands of dealers every year, the excitement, the frustrations, the wish list. What is the dealer sentiment that you're picking up right now and then more importantly? And what does that tell us about where the industry's headed? and what dealers should prioritize next. - Yep, so really what we're seeing is the kind of dealer public is splitting into two camps. We've got camp one, those are optimists, our thrivers. You know, those of the folks are coming to us saying, "Hey, we've got the highest close rate "in showroom history," right? Customers are saying the process is so much better. Sales people are happier. We're not having to deal with as much administrative BS. And then we've got the camp too. Those are the people who are frustrated, they're falling behind, right? They bought tools and nobody's using. Customers are more difficult to please. They don't know how to compete with tighter margins. So what we're seeing is, you know, those frustration themes come down to a couple of different things, right? Number one is they're drowning in tools and starving for integration. So going back to that multi-channel thought where, hey, we bought a bunch of tools, they're not working together. So they're starving for that integration and that's really going to separate the halves from the have-nots. We're also seeing customers being more demanding and less loyal. So you got to really step up your game when it comes to the in-store process and guiding people through that buying journey. And another thing is dealers don't really know what to prioritize. There's so many different options out there and their people aren't using their tools because they're not training them, right? There's so much going on here. But what we're seeing is the sentiment is telling us a lot about the future, right? That great separation is accelerating. So those drivers, the people who are doing really well, 73% are adopting that kind of seamless, omnichannel approach. 49% of them are using AI and 91% of those tools that you're using are meeting their goals. So that gap is widening based on a dealership's willingness to fundamentally change their process. We got to get away from the old school, just bring them in mentality. It is dying. Now the other thing too is that technology is going to be table stakes. It kind of already is, right? 65% of shoppers want to do most or all of the purchase online or digitally. We see Gen Z, they're aging into that kind of prime buying years, they're getting some money, they're starting their careers, they're starting to enter the buying public and they want things more digitized than ever. And by the end of 2026, digitized retailing, omnichannel retailing, it's going to be table stakes. It's not just going to be a competitive advantage. You've got to do it or you're going to fall way behind. Now the customer experience, that bar is raising fast, right? 53% of shoppers are saying they're spending way too much time at the dealership waiting for paperwork. 30% to 40% of their time is spent idle at the dealership. And customers, they're comparing your dealership experience to Amazon, to Tesla, to Rivian, to other dealers. So if you can't kind of pull your strategies together, get your tools to work together. Maybe they buy that first car from you, but they're not going to buy that next car from you. And that's really what we want to do is kind of sell in the first car, but sell them the next car is most important. So what's the priority list for our dealers? Number one, we want to fix our data flow. Make sure that everything is talking to each other, right? So you're not having to re-enter data when that person comes in, which is happening about 90% of the time. We want to train our people on the tools that you have. So really take the time to take advantage of the training tools that your vendors have and get those people in the store to train your people on how to use them. You want to get more people into your DR workflows. So we see, you know, hey, you're not getting a whole lot of DR leads from your website. But they close it a higher rate. They generate higher gross profit. And you've got happier customers. So that tells me, hey, let's get everybody into DR. So send them a link into the digital retail tool every single time. We want to invest in AI now. We want to focus on that hybrid experience. However that person wants to buy, we got to flex our process to meet them. And we got to measure what matters. So we want to look at our close rates, our traditional idle times at the store, DR engagement and our satisfaction scores. So we're really kind of at an inflection point. Dealers who are embracing this moment, they're going to thrive. Dealers waiting for normal aren't going to make it not because they're bad, but because the customers have all passed them. Now here's the exciting part. Tools they exist right now. You just have to decide to change and commit to that new process. Yeah, incredible stats, incredible advice. What I hear, the big takeaway there is they're going to be big winners. And then there's going to be all the rest. Either you are moving towards the future or you are losing in today's environment. So I want to zoom out for just a second. Now when we talk Omni Channel, we continue to default to the sales side. But the real competitive mode is end to end ownership. So with all the things you just talked about, DDC, AMP, Vincolutions all working together, integrated inside of the CAA ecosystem, it's really giving dealers this true category of one advantage. How do you see that playing out in fixed ops, retention, lifetime consumer value, and even AI powered targeting that keeps customers loyal from cradle to cradle and click to close. Love it. So most people there are going to hear Omni Channel and really kind of focus on just sales, right? And that is just the old mindset. It's really kind of killing us. It's really leaving about 80% of your value on the table. And like you said, the real moat is going to be that cradle to cradle ownership. So that old thinking is optimizing for sales and then kind of the relationship fading, like hoping that they're going to come back in. Maybe send them a couple of emails saying, hey, you should get an oil change with us, right? Really the new thinking is sales is just the beginning of, maybe a 10 or 15 or 20 year relationship capturing value at every stage. So rather than a lifetime value of a customer being $3,500 gross profit, that's a killer deal. Instead, let's turn it into $30,000 of gross profit from that customer because they keep coming back and buying more cars and servicing their vehicle with you. So what it comes down to is that data goldmine that Cox Automotive offers you, right? So auto trader/KBB, you know, touching a vast majority of shoppers entering that buying funnel and giving us a deep understanding of who that shopper is, right? dealer.com giving us insight into how they engage with inventory, what their browsing patterns are and their intent signals, right? With AMD, we get their finance profile, their what payments they're comfortable with, what their credit situation is, what their down payment is. Now that jumps right into the CRM, the installation. So that gives us every interaction. They're purchase history, their communications preferences, their lifecycle stage. Now, okay, that sales. But let's jump into service. Okay, we sold the car. So that's where we can pull an X time like the service appointment patterns, whether or not they showed up, but their preferred times are what their satisfaction scores are. We connect that together, we get that complete understanding of their automotive life. And that gives us that competitive mode as a dealership so we can really go from that striver to being a thriver in our market and really kind of expand our business. So that's how I kind of see things playing out. We got to be proactive, we got to use the data that's available to us and we got to go omnichannel and have everything speak to each other. So we can keep that shopper inside of our ecosystem for their entire automotive lifetime. So instead of getting $3,500 bucks once, we're getting income for the rest of that person's life. - Action packed with great advice there, Noah. So as we wrap up, I'm gonna ask you, you know it, my favorite end of episode question, especially as we all seem to already be going a hundred miles per hour into the new year. So everybody stop what you're doing, listen to Noah's answer to this one. If a viewer listener is hearing this and thinking, okay, I really wanna dial in my plan and focus for 2026. What is your biggest piece of advice? What's the one big thing to gain a measurable edge in today's competitive market, Noah? - Okay, this one's easy. I've been saying it for a little while now, but I'm gonna say it again, stock treating digital retelling like a lead source, right? You wanna start treating it like your entire sales process. So the mistake that most dealers make is they think, "Hey, we got tools on the website. Somebody wants to use it great." Okay, maybe they look at their lead reports, you know, 60% of them are coming from the phone, 25% from forms, 10% of chat, 5% DR and they say, "Well, nobody really wants DR, so it's not really worth the investment." That's really not the right question to be asking. So you gotta think about how many people could we get into the DR workflow if we made it our default process? 'Cause remember, we've got the stats when somebody enters digital retelling. Higher close rate, higher gross profit, higher satisfaction. That's awesome. So, instead of, you know, somebody coming in and calling you and saying, "Hey, you know, is this vehicle available?" You shouldn't be saying, "Hey, just coming for the numbers, we'll talk to you. Let me get a salesperson." You wanna send them a link to that deal for that particular vehicle. Instead of, you know, "Hey, is, you know, they come in and they pointed a vehicle." I'd like to buy that today. Instead of saying, "Let me get you a salesperson." Boom, pull it up on your tablet. Get 'em into the deal process. That's how we wanna do things. And you're gonna increase your close rate. You're gonna see happier customers. You're gonna see higher gross profit. I mean, it is kind of the secret code to retelling in 2026. So, send them a digital retelling like every time and treat that as your sales process. Now, instead of just a lead generation source. 'Cause that is old school thinking. - Well said, right on. Now, as we wrap up this amazing conversation with Noah, I wanna thank you for giving us a sneak peek into the hot topic, the Owen Road Omni Channel, everything as well as what you're gonna be debuting at NADA. So, take his stellar advice, friends. Noah, we appreciate you being here and for sharing your brilliance as always. - Thanks, Jade. Always appreciate it. - And that wraps us up for today. And a huge thank you to all of you for watching or listening to For the Road Forward. Whether you're listening on your favorite streaming platform, such as Spotify or Apple, or watching on our Auto Trader B2B homepage, we share our glad that you're here. And don't forget to come see both of you. of us at NADA 2026 in Las Vegas at the Cox Automotive Village. And if you'd like to be a subscriber to this podcast, where you'll be the first to hear when new episodes release as well as to receive subscriber-only bonuses throughout the year, go to b2b.autotrader.com/forthoroughword. As always, I'm your host, Jade Teraberry. Be sure to tune in next week, 'cause we'll continue the unjaded conversations with industry leaders, champions, and disruptors on what they're seeing, doing, and forecasting. Is coming next on the road ahead for all of us in the automotive industry. As always, we're cutting through the noise to drive real results for you. (upbeat music)