It’s not just Santa’s elves who were busy this year! The Pinewood team worked around-the-clock, bringing a host of new features for their customers to boost sales and keep businesses COVID-safe. It’s been a challenging year, but Pinewood kept their gifts coming throughout… Why save them all for December? Here’s the run-down of Pinewood’s top new tools of 2020:

Secure online payments

Dealers can now take a remote payment from their sales and service customers. There’s no need to even set foot in-store, it’s done entirely online using Barclays ePDQ, keeping everybody safely distanced.

MOT expiry

Dealers can update their MOT database for FREE! This includes any vehicles affected by the lockdowns. Pinewood works with the DVLA to make sure dealers are contacting the right customers at the right times.

Tech+ VHC voice assist 

Make technicians’ job a little easier with Pinewood’s very own Siri-style voice commands. Simply ask Tech+ to ’find a job’, ’start operation’ or ’add conversation notes’ to complete these tasks handsfree – how convenient!

Digitally sign documents

Cut down on paperwork and reduce the spread of COVID with Adobe Sign! Available now for sales and service, it’s more convenient for customers, saving them the time and hassle of travelling to the dealership. Sign in seconds!

eLearning

Training just got easier! Pinewood’s video-based courses allow your team to learn at their convenience, with end-of-course quizzes to test their knowledge after. Refresh skills with new role-based courses added monthly.

Up-sell with service plans

Capture extra revenue and boost satisfaction for the cars you sell. Service plans are easy to set up in the DMS – book a workshop job against a plan and view the balance or vehicle cover at any time from the Accounts module.

Automated VHC reminders

Set up auto-reminders to follow-up on any deferred red/ amber work. Customer didn’t have the cash last time? Don’t lose their business. Add a follow-up event into their contact plan to capture the revenue at a later date.

Brand new support portal

It’s now even easier to get help when you need it! Pinewood’s improved Support Portal features a Live Chat agent, leading you straight to the tools you need – with searchable articles, guides and release notes.

2020 in summary: Pinewood are always making improvements to keep their customers on top form, and this year was no exception! They added many more great new features to enhance the digital experience for dealership staff and customers, with electronic invoices, Business Intelligence at your fingertips, online bookings and app improvements.

What more could you ask for? Stay tuned… 2021 is going to be even more exciting for Pinewood customers!

The recent lockdowns have provided an unexpected motivation for dealers to revisit the abilities of their DMS and explore how to achieve an engaging, contactless buying experience.

Pinewood users have discovered a range of tools for creating a seamless digital customer journey and perhaps surprisingly, mobile apps are playing a big part in this. Neville Briggs, Managing Director at Pinewood Technologies explains:

“It’s been our mission to help customers uncover new ways of generating revenue. Our popular Stock+ app has been central to successfully taking the initial sales experience online. Salespeople can record and send a personalised video, show highlights of the vehicle up-close and answer any questions. It’s more engaging than a call or email and of course, more likely to convert enquiries. Being integrated into the DMS, managers can easily see that enquiries are being dealt with when working remotely.”

With the Stock+ app, salespeople can take high quality vehicle photos on their phone, which are updated to dealer and OEM web sites directly through the DMS. Pinewood have recently improved this and the upload process can now enhance images by automatically removing the background. As a result, sales teams can create professional-level content without the need for editing skills.

Mark Lambird, Managing Director at Eastbourne Motoring Centre explains: “Using Stock+, we definitely sell more cars! People buy the cars much quicker if they can see them in a video – we can talk over the features and benefits, it’s been a real positive.”

Personalised video has undoubtedly changed the game for car sales. From home, customers can benefit from the expertise and assurance of speaking to a professional in-store while taking a virtual tour of the vehicle. This can be followed-up with a convenient two-way SMS conversation, all accessible from the DMS customer record.

Pinewood are constantly updating the DMS with a focus on enhancing the digital sales experience. By making use of these tools, dealers can boost revenue with little effort or cost and it’s clear that contact-free tools are the way to go.

Dealers have the tools to be smarter than ever in their business decisions. When Pinewood launched their Business Intelligence (BI), it gave dealers the potential to look beyond the standard DMS reports, bringing new insights to light. Leaders can access live data in seconds from their mobile, delving into every area of the business in just a few clicks, from anywhere worldwide. It’s never been easier.

After launching BI for Porsche Norway, Stine Hagen, Corporate Business Development Manager, explained how the mobile intelligence tool delivered immediate results: “Leaders went from spending hours on KPI reports to having them live on their computer and phone at all times. This is an excellent tool for all leaders to see what part of the dealership needs their attention in a hectic everyday life.”

From struggling sales teams to inefficient workshops, Pinewood BI can help identify why businesses are falling behind, highlighting areas of concern and indicating where productivity can be improved. Fully integrated with Pinewood DMS, Pinewood BI acts as a ‘behind the scenes’ detective, interpreting real-time data through easy-to-understand, visual reports. Even away from the dealership, leaders can maintain full visibility and control, accessing the entire reporting suite from their mobile – giving them a huge competitive advantage.

Hagen explains: “We strive to give the best value and service for our customers, which can only be achieved through complete internal transparency and process control. Pinewood has given us the perfect tool to monitor and steer all aspects, from trade-ins to car sales, service and used cars. Combined with the financial capabilities of the system, we’ve reached new levels of process excellence.”

BI is available for any dealer groups using Pinewood DMS, offering a powerful tool for building profit and productivity-focused reports, fully accessible on a PC or mobile device. This brings the data dealers want to their fingertips, anywhere at any time, providing full transparency.

2020 has been the year of change with dealers now exploring new ways to engage with their customers and boost profits. Pinewood have offered online coaching for some years, but take-up has grown hugely since the lockdown. This coaching is aimed at helping dealers remodel their business and get the best from their digital tools. All of this can be offered more cheaply than the fuel normally needed to attend a traditional classroom course. Mike Browne, International Account Manager at Pinewood explains how the online implementation proved a success:

“The remote implementation was one of the smoothest we’ve had. With eLearning, the staff could become familiar with the parts of the system related to their job roles, using real examples. During Live Week, everyone was prepared and ready to go. We used Microsoft Teams to manage any queries and held regular video calls to answer any detailed questions they had. Screen sharing and tracking their progress on Teams made everything so easy – just as, if not more, effective as being there in person.”

Online training allows Pinewood users to access courses designed specifically for their job roles – on desktops, tablets and mobile phones. Ranging from showroom courses for salespeople, to workshop courses for technicians, eLearning is a simpler, more effective way to learn about Pinewood DMS.

This new training initiative gained immediate traction with a clear demand from dealers for convenient, cost-effective training which did not disrupt everyday business. Alongside remote implementation, Pinewood has proven that the future for switching systems could look very different, with an exciting range of options to suit every dealer and cater to every learning style, budget and preference.

Pinewood have released an industry-first tool for technicians – the hands-free Voice Assistant in Tech+. The Tech+ app already gives technicians the tools to record detailed checks on vehicles, request parts with built-in menu pricing, together with connecting digitally with their customers using electronic health check videos.

Pinewood realised that using a mobile in the workshop could prove quite difficult for technicians when wearing the necessary PPE. With Artificial Intelligence becoming increasingly popular and valuable for speeding things up, even in the household, with the likes of smart speakers and voice assistants, Pinewood took this and applied it as a free addition to their Tech+ app.

“We want our customers to work as efficiently and comfortably as possible, which is why we created our suite of digital apps, to begin with. With the new Voice Assistant in Tech+, technicians can open jobs, start operations and send conversation notes just by talking to their mobile device. Bluetooth headsets can also be used, they are easy to set up and will be a great addition to the app, ensuring clear communication between the technician and their new assistant. Tech+ users can find a preview of the new feature in their app today and try it out, with new improvements and functionalities appearing in the future.” Explains Neville Briggs, Managing Director at Pinewood Technologies.

The world is becoming more and more digital as time goes on, eVHC has been adopted by a large number of dealerships and is proving hugely beneficial for growing revenue in the workshop.

“The Tech+ app has quite frankly revolutionised what we do. The ability for the technician not just to be able to clock on and off a job, not just to do a visual health check directly on the tablet, but also you get to see the service history of the car, it just enhances the experience for both the technician and the efficiency in the way that we work in the workshop. It’s been a real fundamental improvement that we have been able to drive from Pinewood DMS.” Says Dougal Keith, Managing Director at D.M. Keith Motors.

Why stop there? People are becoming comfortable with voice assistants in their homes with the likes of Siri and Alexa, AI-powered technologies are quickly becoming the norm and Pinewood want to make sure that dealerships don’t lag behind. First online bookings and payments, paperless documents, apps for working on-the-go and now the Tech+ Voice Assistant – just another step into the digital era.

Pinewood Technologies has been selected as a Nissan Preferred Supplier – making them the only DMS vendor selected by Nissan for eVHC.

“Dealers could save around £2,000 per year with our integrated eVHC solution,” says Neville Briggs, Managing Director at Pinewood. “There’s no need to purchase additional software with the expense and hassle that entails.”

“As a business, we’re keen to adapt to evolving manufacturer requirements, optimising processes for dealers so they can boost efficiency. Pinewood DMS is constantly updated with new features and process improvements – our eVHC and many video capabilities, being great examples.”

Nissan reviewed a range of eVHC systems, evaluating their video capability, marketing and reporting, with a goal to “maximise future workshop upsell opportunities.”

In Pinewood DMS, Nissan and multi-brand dealers can identify areas of upsell, using standardised manufacturer checklists. Data collected is automatically submitted to the manufacturer via monthly feeds. Finally, dealers can trigger branded marketing communications at stages throughout the VHC, informing customers about the status of their vehicle and requesting customer work authorisations.

Pinewood’s eVHC tool will help support Nissan dealers to maximise future upsell opportunities.