At PSXDigital, business has not been interrupted as a result of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). The A.I.-powered customer experience management platform for powersports dealerships called CXMAi, which is focused on CRM, inventory, marketing automation and websites, is managed remotely. One thing that has changed is the support that PSXDigital is offering to dealers.

“Support got a lot of requests, as usual. But we are in full support mode, so it really hasn’t changed much of our day-to-day other than we’re trying to address and help our dealer clients with the unique problems that they would not normally have to deal with,” said PSXDigital CEO Larry Bruce.

Because of the COVID-19, businesses, including dealerships, are ordered to practice social distancing, which has caused many dealerships to close for an unpredictable amount of time.

“We decided that we would defer billing if somebody was closed down,” Bruce said. “While dealerships are closed, there should be some things that we could do to help them get better for when things do come back, because they’re going to come back.”

Internal discussions about offering online courses for dealers have been on the radar for some time at PSXDigital.

“We had been talking about online courses for quite some time,” Bruce said. “As far as the industry needing more training and more education, when the virus came along, it became clearer that we had to make a decision as a company. We asked ourselves, ‘what kind of company are we going to be for the industry?’”

Along with deferred billing for closed dealerships and new marketing packages, PSXDigital is offering online courses for free; not just for their dealer partners, but everyone in the industry.

“We thought, let’s just help everybody,” Bruce added. “All boats rise on the rising tide. If you don’t raise a level of education with a level of technology, what you end up getting is people who don’t understand the technology and won’t use the technology and therefore they won’t keep it.”

Topics of the online courses include:

• Selling Remote: How to utilize PSX technology to create a successful online sale. 
• Phone Skills Training: inbound and outbound.
• How to properly reach out, connect and follow-up on social media.

“For example, phone training is very fundamental,” Bruce explained. “I think people will start to call more and get more information before they visit a dealership, and they will likely try to limit the number of stores they’ve gone to. With that, people are going to submit more electronic leads. They’re going to want to finish more of the negotiation and price discussion outside of the store. By handling that lead properly in a timely fashion, you can end up with a 93% connection rate and a 50% lead-to-show rate. Those are the numbers we’re looking for. We want to help dealers get there.”

While increasing education and training, PSXDigital’s online courses also offer an opportunity for dealerships to improve their customer experience.

“With everything going on right now, I still think people are going to come to the store,” Bruce said. “I don’t foresee a time when they won’t. And I don’t foresee the virus making any real big change to that. It’s still a good idea to get the ‘not so fun’ stuff done before customers come in. Let’s focus on the fun stuff. These are toys for God’s sake! Let’s have fun!”

For more information about PSXDigital and to take an online course, visit psxdigital.com/powersports-dealership-education.