If customers can see a screen inside your dealership, that screen is part of their experience. Yet in many stores, one of the most visible pieces of technology in the building is still controlled by whoever happens to have the remote.
Unmanaged television can create channel disputes, show irrelevant content, expose customers to outside advertising, and waste an opportunity to communicate what the dealership actually wants people to know.
That was the challenge facing Darling’s Auto Group. The group wanted a consistent, family-friendly lounge experience across its locations without creating more work for dealership employees.
The Screen Is Not the Strategy
Adding another television does not solve the problem. Dealership leaders should be asking a different question: What should this screen actually accomplish?
A Customer Lounge TV can entertain customers while creating opportunities to promote inventory, trade-in opportunities, service offers, and dealership promotions.
Learn more about Customer Lounge TV:
https://digitaldealershipsystem.com/customer-lounge-tv/
A Service Menu Board can put relevant service information directly in front of customers when they are already thinking about their vehicle and available services.
Learn more about Service Menu Boards:
https://digitaldealershipsystem.com/service-menu-boards/
Employee-facing screens can serve an entirely different purpose. Sales, service, and BDC teams can use KPI Leaderboards to keep goals, rankings, and current performance visible throughout the workday.
Learn more about Digital Dealership System Leaderboards:
https://digitaldealershipsystem.com/leaderboards/
Darling’s Wanted More Control, Not More Work
For Darling’s Auto Group, unmanaged lounge television had become more than a minor inconvenience. Customers could dispute channel choices, employees could get pulled into those conversations, and the dealership wanted tighter control over the content appearing in customer areas.
Digital Dealership System provided controlled, pre-screened programming alongside dealership marketing zones. Those zones can highlight inventory, trade-in opportunities, service offers, and sales promotions without taking over the entertainment experience.
Licensed overhead music helped extend that same controlled environment beyond the television screens, giving the group another way to create a more consistent customer experience across locations.
Consistency Gets Harder as Dealership Groups Grow
A single rooftop may be able to rely on employees to manage screens manually. Once multiple stores are involved, that becomes much harder to control.
One location should not deliver a polished, dealership-managed experience while another depends on whatever channel someone selected that morning.
Digital signage gives dealership groups a way to create more consistency around:
- Customer-facing programming
- Dealership promotions
- Service messaging
- Branding
- Music
- Content updates
Learn more about Digital Dealership System’s digital signage solutions:
https://digitaldealershipsystem.com/digital-signage/
Good Technology Should Remove Work
Every new piece of dealership technology competes for employee attention. If someone has to constantly change channels, update screens, troubleshoot content, or manage programming, the solution can quickly become another task.
That is what makes one part of the Darling’s experience especially important.
“We can provide a consistent, family-friendly lounge experience across all our locations. Digital Dealership System also allows us to promote our inventory, service options, and current sales offers. It keeps our customers informed and gives us greater control without additional work for our staff.”
— Greg Cassidy, IT Director, Darling’s Auto Group
The goal is not to add technology simply because another screen looks good on the wall. The goal is to make the screens already inside the dealership more useful.
Take Another Look at the Screens in Your Store
Most dealerships already have screens. The opportunity is figuring out whether those screens are actually helping the business.
Ask:
- Does this screen have a clear purpose?
- Is the dealership controlling what customers see?
- Is the content current and relevant?
- Can marketing use it to communicate offers?
- Is someone on staff spending time managing it manually?
- Could the screen be doing more for sales, service, or the customer experience?
If those questions are difficult to answer, there is probably more value available from the screens already hanging on the walls.
Turn Your Screens Into Dealership Tools
Darling’s has been a Digital Dealership System customer since 2021 and currently uses Customer Lounge TVs, Dare to Compare, overhead music, and a Service Menu.
Digital Dealership System helps dealerships move beyond basic television and turn screens into managed communication tools built specifically for automotive retail.
Customer Lounge TV can help control the customer experience. Service Menu Boards can make service information more visible. Sales, Fixed Ops, and BDC Leaderboards can bring performance information out of reports and put it where dealership teams can actually see it.
The dealership already has the screens. Digital Dealership System helps make them work harder.
See the full Case Study here: Darlings Case Study
Explore Digital Dealership System:
https://digitaldealershipsystem.com/
Schedule a demo: https://digitaldealershipsystem.com/schedule-a-demo
