the whole purchasing process for customers is more about the experience now sanghi saidthe customer is coming to the dealership to validate the information that heshe has got from the internet and the dealers job is to aid the journey in validationqueries for the auto industry have grown by 45 despite the slowdown and the lockdown in 2020nikhil bansal industry head automotive google indiathe people who come to your showroom has already made a choice so they are coming to the showroom after having made a choice now it is extremely important that you fortify their choice and tell them they have come to the right place and you have selected the right brand we are there to give you best of the services and the best of the products the asdc director said dealers need to be far more engaged with their customers and most importantly they need to be fast agile and nimble to meet with the customersdealers need to up the antenikhil bansal of google highlighted that though it is true that internet adoption has been increasing rapidly and people are transacting online are people ready to make a bigticket purchase like a car onlineaccording to a google study almost six out of ten people who are purchasing a twowheeler or fourwheeler are very comfortable taking the entire process online but the main task at hand here is to make that process seamless and for that there needs to be a change in the mindset of dealers as wellthe first and the foremost thing in this journey is enabling the workforce sanghi saidif dealers are going digital it is important that the workforce is not only aware of what digital is they also have the right tools right knowledge and the right mindset to be in the digital worldthe dealers need to realise that the expectation of the customer when he comes online is extremely high he expects an answer almost immediately and will not want to wait for a second i think it is important for dealerships and its entire team to realise that an inquiry needs to be responded in less than five minutes after it is received if not that inquiry will be lost either to the competition or the customer would change his mind so youll have to be live online all the time sanghi saidadditionally the dealers need to devise their marketing strategies rather than relying entirely on the oems there is an added responsibility to build websites facebook pages and whatsapp tools to enhance customer engagementsmall dealer outlet is the way forwardmost of the oems have already realised that smaller physical dealer outlets are the way forward in order to stay competitive and relevant there is no need for taj mahal size dealerships anymore because most of the customer purchase journey would have already concluded onlinesanghi pointed out that there is no need for such a huge infrastructure anymore they will have to become lean the pandemic has taught both