Monday, 26 September 2011

Making the move to Mobile - that's Progress...

Did you know that Progress offers mobile ready websites at top value and quality?
With mobile web traffic rising steadily month on month, it’s more important than ever for dealers to provide a streamlined, Smartphone -optimised experience for users looking for car dealers within search engines. Figures from Ofcom’s most recent industry report in August 2011 show that more than a quarter (27%) of adults own a web-enabled smartphone, and 28% of people use their mobile phone to access the internet. Further research produced by Performics.com, shows that 84% of regular mobile users use mobile search to look for information on local retailers, such as opening hours, address and contact details. 73% find a specific product or manufacturer website. 32% said they use mobile search more than search engines on their computers. 
We have now produced a number of mobile ready websites as dealers gear themselves up to the growing trend in mobile use when searching for vehicles.

  • Compatibility - Mobile websites are cheaper and quicker to produce than mobile applications, and what’s more, only one site is needed to cover all mobile devices. Progress ensures that all sites are cross-browser tested to ensure compatibility across Apple, Blackberry and Android devices.
  • User Accessibility - The sites are free for users to access, and accessible simply via the built-in web browsers on phones.
  • Routing - The mobile traffic is automatically picked up and redirected to the mobile site by Progress WebBuilder Mobile software.
  • Reporting - Full reporting is provided on source of visits, time on site, enquiry conversion and other key site metrics allowing marketing staff to determine trends and adjust campaigns accordingly.
  • Bespoke features - Sites are custom conceived, designed and built and range from simple used car stock locators, to advanced sites that enable users to book services, view new car range images, prices, download brochures and see model’s green credentials like MPG and CO2 emissions.
  • Find my nearest - Dealer locators can be provided to easily locate the user’s nearest dealership, with intuitive links to Google map locations.
  • Quick contact methods - Whether it is simple email forms or ‘click-to-call’ phone numbers, meaning you can simply tap the phone number to prompt your phone to call the number. No need to copy/paste, memorise or write down!
  • Used Car locators – Progress offers market leading technology which does not just provide a simple route to your used car stock.
Progress also offer more powerful features such as:
o    Quick model searching with dynamic stock and price counts ’43 Used Volvo S40’s from £6,995’
o    Advanced searching via mileage, age, price, model, variant or transmission
o    The ability to add ‘favourites’ to an area for user reference at a later date
o    Email PDF function to send the car’s details in PDF format to a user’s email
o    ‘Email a friend’ to send a link in an email of a specific car
o    Easy result filtering – by price, model or age

Friday, 5 August 2011

Online Booking - who's first to market?

It was interesting to see advertising from one of our competitors recently. They claim they are first to market with 'true' online booking! We guess by using the word 'true' they mean their newly launched feature is not simply an email request form that puts you through to a receptionist, happy to book your vehicle in for the next service.
'Online booking' launched by Progress back in March 2011 is far more than that. In exactly the same way that a user might book theatre tickets online, or book on to a flight, they can now book their vehicle directly into your workshop and choose various options at the same time such as valet and tyre check.
Berry BMW Heathrow were the first to use the feature with their unique offering 'Service While You Fly' - which allows their customers to book their car in for a service while off on holiday or a business trip. Very innovative.
At Progress we are working hard to be first to market with many ground breaking products that our customers can use to jump ahead of their competition and make more money. Looks like we were there first with 'true' online booking too!

Monday, 18 July 2011

Motor Trader Awards

What a fabulous night we had last Thursday! A great success as we took our finalists and some other special guests to the final awards ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel.
The 4 finalists were Porsche Hatfield, JCB Ashford, Berry BMW Heathrow and Sytner BMW Leicester.
The other special guests joining us were Edd China (TV presenter, Wheeler Dealers), John Dean (Car dealer best practice consultant), James Titchener and Christopher Turnbull from Enterprise Hire Rental - one of our valued new customers.
Katan Wara of Porsche Hatfield won the 'Highly Commended' award for 'Service advisor of the Year'. Well done to Katan. And Peter Vardy Motherwell, our highly valued WorkshopPro customers won 'Workshop of the Year' award - we like to think it was partly down to the use of our WorkshopPro software!
Here's a photo of some of us at the awards - thanks for coming everyone...



Left to right - Neil Stewart (Progress General Sales), Edd China (Wheeler Dealers), Imogen China, Mrs Logan Naidoo, Franc Mateo (After Sales Manager Porsche Hatfield), Logan Naidoo (Progress Sales Director), Katan Wara (Service Advisor Porsche Hatfield).

Monday, 13 June 2011

First post ever - Hi Folks!

We've finally launched this new Blog to keep customers and friends up to date with the latest Progress news. The plan is to update you monthly with everything you could wish to know about Progress Automotive Solutions and the 'goings on' within our company.

We are always busy moving forward and have recently recruited Neil Stewart as our General Sales Manager. He has  just returned from his first assignment to support our chaps in the Middle East as they have been exhibiting at Automechanika in Dubai.

Carl Lightfoot, our Technical Director has just got back from Canada, where our award winning product, WorkshopPro has been selling through our respected partner Bridge.

We're very busy now, having just launched 'online booking and eServiceManager' - we already have a great success story with 'Service While you Fly'. Check out the video for detais of this great new application - uniquely developed by our team.

That's all for now - please send me you comments and feedback. Regards.
Logan Naidoo.