Introducing Interactive SweetClassifieds Performance Reports

Not so long ago I announced AutoSweet's sparkling new OneView Dashboard. (If you missed out on the introduction, find the notes in A Reporting Focus.) Today, OneView was improved on with the addition of a new report, SweetClassifieds.

You will be able to see how many eyes are on your advertisements, how much interest there is in particular vehicles, and who submitted leads. You can even listen to audio recordings of the phone calls you receive - right from your web browser.

Date Selection and Overview

The top section of the SweetClassifieds report shows a high level performance overview.

By default, we show you data for the current month through present day. In the first few days of a month, the default date range is the previous month through present day. You can report on any arbitrary time frame by using the date picker to select start and end dates. Click the Update button and the new data will be generated in a few seconds.

Below the date picker you'll find high level metrics for your SweetClassifieds account. From it, you can gauge your total SweetCassifieds performance. Many Internet Managers will find all the information they need here.

Overview Definitions

• Ad Views - The total number of times vehicle ads were viewed on all free classified sites. For example, posts to BackPage.
• Ad VDP - The total number of times users clicked through to Vehicle Detail Pages from ads. The VDP's either reside on the microsite AutoSweet creates for you or your regular website, depending on your account configuration.
• Ad CTR- The Click Through Rate from ads to VDP's.
• Microsite VDP - All VDP views that don't come from free classified sites. They could come from Google, YouTube, or by users typing in the web address.
• Email Leads - The total number of email leads received from your microsite. If we are linking your ads directly to your dealer website, this lead count will typically be zero, as we can't track leads sent from your web host.
• Phone Leads - The total number of phone calls made to your dealership through the tracking number we provide.
• Conversion Rate - The rate at which users submit emails or make phone calls after viewing VPD's from an ad.

Below the overview, you'll see your account settings. If you would like any of these changed, simply reach out to the AutoSweet support team.

Ad Views by Day

Ad views and VDP's from ads over time.

For each classified site your data is being published to, you will see a chart with ad view history by day. Note, you can click the arrow in the top right corner to expand or collapse any of these views.

Inventory Status

You will also see an inventory report for each classified site your data is published to. Each of your currently active vehicles will be listed alongside that vehicle's status on the classified site, view & click through metrics, and listing dates. If you click the vehicle name you will be taken to the actual listing on the classified site.

Each table shown in the SweetClassifieds report can be sorted by clicking a column header.

Leads

Phone Leads

The last two tables shown detail customer leads. You can use these reports to verify that your CRM is properly importing the feed we send. If you have call recording enabled, you can also listen to the call audio.

We're working hard to make OneView the best dashboard in the business! If you have any metrics your dealership would love to see, send us a suggestion to support@autosweet.com.

SweetPricing's New Look

SweetPricing Anywhere

A new look for SweetPricing

iPad, iPhone, Droid, HTC, Mac, Windows - You can now access AutoSweet's market based pricing tool, SweetPricing, from almost any device! In the past, SweetPricing worked on Silverlight compatible web browsers, which are mainly available for Microsoft Windows operating systems. While Silverlight is a powerful technology that allows for advanced user interfaces, it is just too device-limiting. Using HTML5, we have empowered Internet Managers to access the most up-to-date and comprehensive market pricing information from whichever device they are most comfortable using.

Web Leads Report

See your leads by week

Your OneView Dashboard now shows more than just inventory reports. Click the "Leads" tab to see in which ways customers have been reaching out to your sales staff. You can see everything from SweetClassifieds phone calls to web site credit applications. Not only are lead counts visible, but you can click a data point to see lead details. This is a great way to perform an audit and ensure leads from AutoSweet are making it to your CRM provider.

Transfer Vehicles to Another Store

Transfer Vehicles Button

Transfer Vehicles Wizard

When used vehicles change ownership from one dealer to a sister store, it often causes headaches for an Internet Manager. Pictures have already been taken, the vehicle description written, and window stickers printed. That process has to be completed again on the new lot - wasting valuable time and energy.

This has been vastly simplified in AIMS. As a dealer group user, when you put a check mark next to vehicles in AIMS you will be able to select "Transfer Vehicles" from the "Bulk Actions" menu. This opens a wizard that lets you select a dealer to transfer the checked vehicles to.

Upon transfer confirmation, the vehicles will move to the new account - images, comments, pricing, history - everything. In order to maintain proper dealer branding, AutoSweet's system will run the images through the processing rules the new dealer has in place. This means wraps and add-on images that may have been applied under the old account will be updated and or deleted. Also, the vehicles will now be controlled by the new dealer's DMS if polling is enabled for that account. How sweet is that?

As always, if you have any questions contact us at support@autosweet.com.

A Reporting Focus

It was only last week when I announced our awesomely simple Bulk Pricing Tool, but we already have more AutoSweet platform enhancements ready for release. This time, we have focused on making better reports available to Internet & Sales Managers through a brand new dashboard. But that's not all - we have added features to our window sticker QR code landing pages and AIMS sorting. Read on for the details.

Introducing AutoSweet's OneView Dashboard

OneView Dashboard

OneView Dashboard is the perfect way for an Internet or Sales Manager to quickly check the health of in-stock inventory. It is the new start page you will see when first logging in to ACE and can also be accessed via the top menu "Dashboard" link.

OneView shows an array of KPI's for your inventory marketing health, from vehicles with missing photos & comments to aging inventory that might need pricing reviews or wholesale consideration. Each report is interactive, so you can click any metric and quickly see that subset of vehicles in AIMS.

You will also find the last time an AutoSweet Agent was at your dealership to perform on-lot services and the most recent DMS or physical inventory load job and file. 

We will be adding more reports and metrics to OneView over the coming months, so if you have any suggestions leave a comment below.

Print Reports from AIMS

Report Print Button

Example Report Printout

Creating a hard copy of a report from AIMS in the past has been somewhat of a messy affair, with the resulting printout ranging from just-usable to plain-unreadable depending on the web browser. We decided the best approach to solve this was to simplify the HTML so that all web browsers could print a clean and easy to read report. We also added some items that you will find useful:

• Dealer name
• Description of filter being applied and the sort order
• Username and time the report was generated
• Color banding and page numbers (available in most web browsers)

AIMS Sorting Enhancements

You can now sort by Special Price and click the column headers to sort

For those of you who use Special Price as your primary pricing field, you'll be happy to learn that sorting is now enabled on this field in AIMS. This is a quick way to find vehicles missing Special Prices or view cars that meet the price requirements for one of your customers.

Also, the column headers in the grey bar with underlines can now be clicked to sort. This is simply a more intuitive way to sort for List, Special, Odometer, and the other column header fields.

Configurable Price Type on QR Code Landing Pages

You can now choose which price type shows on the QR Code landing page.

Those of you who use our window sticker QR Codes know how important it is to capture customer leads while your sales people aren't available. But many Sales Managers don't want to show the lowest advertised price on the QR landing page like they would on their regular website. We now allow you to show any price type you would like on this QR Code page. Just contact AutoSweet Support and let us know which you would like to use.

Lightning Quick Pricing Changes and More

Keep it simple, keep it quick, keep it predictable. The AutoSweet team has been using this mantra to improve the workflow for Sales Managers in our Inventory Management Sweet. We've listened to much customer feedback to drive these changes and we hope you are as happy with the results as we are. After a few weeks of effort, we are now ready to release the changes into the wild.

Of special note is the way SweetPricing has evolved. Now you can do more in less time with our Bulk Pricing Tool. Quickly make changes so you can stay ahead of market pressures or run a special without jumping through hoops! Read on for the details.

AIMS Bulk Pricing Tool Tutorial

How often has your dealership wanted to discount Used Pickup Trucks by $600 for a weekend sale? What about moving the price on all Honda Accords up 5% due to increased demand in your region? Internet and Sales Managers are often tasked with these types of mass pricing modifications, and their current re-pricing process probably works somewhat like this:

1. Open AIMS
2. Filter on the vehicles that need pricing changes
3. Click the price column to modify
4. Grab a calculator and do the math to find the new price
5. Enter this new price in the field
6. Repeat from step 3 for each vehicle in the change set
7. Click Bulk Actions -> Save Prices

Now this isn't terribly complex work, but it is certainly time consuming and error prone. Especially if new incentive pricing just came in for those 80 New Toyota Tundras you have in stock. There needs to be a better way - and today there is.

With our new Bulk Pricing feature, we have eliminated the need for our customers to manually adjust prices individually. Putting all of your Used Pickups on sale this Saturday now only takes a few simple mouse clicks. Even better, you can bring the prices back to their normal values just as easily.

Follow the jump to see a quick guide to help you get started and to learn about other changes to the AutoSweet Platform!

Website Facelift

We've update the look of our website.  Let us know what you think.

http://www.autosweet.com.