Your Download Speed is Letting Your Dealership Down

In our landmark study of dealership network speeds, the findings were alarming to say the least. Perhaps most alarming of all were the slow download speeds we uncovered. It was not an isolated problem. It was true of – literally – 99% of the dealerships in our study.

You read that right. Only 1% of dealerships had an adequate download speed of 100Mbps or higher. That equates to 6 of the 1,132 dealership networks we tested.

Why does this matter? To answer that question, we need to understand what the term means. Download speed is essentially the speed at which information from the internet is transferred to your computer. When you equate speed to time, a quicker download means time saved while a slower one equals time lost.

That is why download speeds are important.

In 20 years of working with dealerships, slow internet has been one of the most common pain points we uncover. There is nothing more frustrating than waiting for a resource to provide the information you need. Home internet speeds have become exponentially faster over the years creating higher expectations for your business network.

When Netflix streams faster than your sales summary report downloads, this creates frustration for your team. When customers in your lounge can not stream content to minimize their perceived wait time, this creates frustration for them. Regardless of the need and who is pulling data, the result is a negative experience. This eventually leads to declining morale and turnover of staff and customers alike. Have you ever considered these costs of slow internet?

These are just a couple of examples. Every tool you add to improve your sales process, or create an amenity for your customer, or provide a better, more informative service experience is placing more demand on your network. As the car business evolves, even as cars evolve, this is a problem that is only going to get worse, not better.

So, what’s the solution? More bandwidth? Not necessarily. This will definitely add cost, but it will not necessarily add speed.

It is more likely you have a network design problem, or a piece of aged equipment that is creating a bottleneck. The root cause can be challenging to diagnose if you are not partnered with professionals who are invested in the success of your business. You owe it to your dealership, your staff and your customers to provide the most efficient experience possible.

You should be adding tools to increase productivity and improve customer interactions within your dealership, but if your download speeds are inadequate to do so, you will only be increasing frustration. Don’t let your download speeds create a downward spiral, click here to see if you’re dealership is equipped to keep up with increasing pace of automotive retail technology.

We are excited to cover this and other pertinent topics at the upcoming Automotive Analytics & Attribution Summit (AAAS) in our workshop, “Why Would You Call a Plumber to Fix Your Technology Problems” and also in the Brian Pasch Podcast. Please click here to learn more about AAAS and find out how you can attend the virtual event this year.