Last October, CarWoo! officially launched. In the year since, we’ve learned so much about what the marketplace meant for car dealers and car buyers. We’ve come to understand, even more, the challenges car buyers face when negotiating for the best deal on their new car. We’ve also learned about many issues that prevent car dealers and car buyers from engaging on an even playing field.

Today, we’re announcing a completely new side of the CarWoo! product that will enable dealers in the CarWoo! Marketplace not only to create the best possible experience for their customers, but also to turn “I’ll be back” customers into satisfied car buyers. CarWoo!’s freemium model debuts with Dealer Plus. 

While the CarWoo! MarketPlace remains (and will always be) free for dealers, and all dealers will still be notified of buyers in their area who have paid to participate in the MarketPlace, CarWoo! Dealer Plus participants will likely see additional buyers who select them because of their improved star ratings.  Key features of CarWoo! Dealer Plus include:

• Dealer Plus Engage:
• Unique signup URL for Be-Backs  and Internet Leads offering CarWoo! at no charge to the buyer and complete transparency to the dealer
• Enhanced dealer and dealership profiles which support unique marketing copy and photo uploads
• Review reconciliation by a dealership expert (i.e. the dealership’s Customer Service Specialist) – this gives dealers a two-week time window to contact buyers who left bad reviews (through CarWoo!, of course) and try to reconcile the issue. These buyers will still remain anonymous, but dealers will have a chance to improve their ratings by explaining or fixing mistakes.
• Advanced training and achievement distinction – We’ve been cranking out CarWoo! engagement training videos like nobody’s business
• CarWoo! personal courtesy action reminders – i.e. – you get your own, personal DHR. Check out this awesome team!
• DealerInsights throughout the product providing:
•  Actionable information as to how to improve performance and ranking
• Specific information about which deals are about to close and which offers are most interesting to the buyer (the “InterestBar™” and “Deal Heat™”)
• Account Owner, Salesperson, Reputation Management and other roles providing different in product views
• The ability to flag suspicious offers to eliminate less reputable dealers from the MarketPlace – that offer for 40% off MSRP from a competitor on an impossible-to-find car just doesn’t look right to you? It’s like football; flag the deal, and we’ll take a closer look
• The Be Back saver to allow retention of hard to close price shoppers by providing an online shopping solution for the buyer – in other words, you finally get the chance to recapture the “be back” buyer who wants to take a tour of five other dealerships and earn their trust

Screenshots

What does this mean for CarWoo! dealers?

What does Dealer Plus mean for CarWoo! buyers?

The buyer side of the product will remain largely the same. What will change, however, is the buyer experience. The CarWoo! Marketplace has already shown us that buyer-rated “5 Star” dealers receive those accolades because they know how to respectfully engage a buyer. As more dealers sign up for CarWoo! Dealer Plus, buyers should notice more and faster offers and more engagement when they’re ready to make a decision (thanks to Deal Heat™.)

What’s Next?

This year has been an amazing one here at CarWoo! We’ve spent countless hours studying our product and dealer and buyer interactions in order to make it an even better experience for both sides. I want to give my upmost appreciation to all new car buyers and new car dealers who have used the CarWoo! Marketplace in the past year. It’s thanks to your excitement, effort, patience and feedback that we’re able to continue making something that people want. There are always more great new features up our sleeves, so stay tuned to our blog to learn more CarWoo! updates as they roll out.