Article

DaimlerChrysler ready to roll with next-gen kiosk

The auto giant is revamping its showroom kiosks, complete with Xbox gaming consoles, to reflect the new era of selling cars.

March 1, 2004

DaimlerChrysler knows about the selling power of interactive tools. The company has been one of the first to inject its models into gaming industry creations full of loud music, colorful graphics and hard driving. And now the auto giant is revamping its showroom kiosks to reflect the new era of selling cars.

Bill Hines, manager of owner and kiosk communications at DaimlerChrysler Motors Co. LLC, said kiosks have been a part of the company culture for more than six years. The company had been using information kiosks, called Vehicle Information Center or VIC, at auto shows and other events, and decided to convert them into showroom sales tools.

In 2000, the company offered its first generation of information kiosks to 4,300 dealers as an optional purchase. About 1,850 of the dealers shelled out $3,500 per unit. "That exceeded our expectations. We thought maybe 25 percent of the dealers would be interested," said Hines. The kiosks were designed and built by Visual Productions Inc.

DaimlerChrysler has dealers ranging in volume sold from five cars per month to 700 or 800 cars per month. Hines thought that the medium and larger dealers would be the ones interested in the kiosks. But he was mistaken. "Interest was equal across the board." And, in fact, he learned that dealerships in small markets appreciate the fact that they can offer through one kiosk full product knowledge (such as views of every available color), even with limited inventory. In some cases these dealerships have only one salesperson. So the kiosks have been a valuable tool in supplementing the sales role.

As valuable as the kiosks have been, DaimlerChrysler decided it is time for an upgrade. New kiosks, designed again by Visual Productions Inc., will roll into dealerships in September 2004.

Hines said DaimlerChrysler is offering dealerships bigger, better, faster and sleeker for the same price, $3,500. The new design and functionality is a result of conversations with the dealers. "We didn't come up with anything radically new; we've just built on what we had," said Hines.

The new kiosk has a 19-inch touchmonitor from Elo Touchsystems, up from a 15-inch monitor.

It has speakers and sub-woofers with a switch to control volume. The older units have no audio.

The units also have four metal casters, so the unit is mobile. The dealers told their company that they wanted to be able to move the unit over to a particular car for special promotions. This mobility also led to the need for wireless connectivity, which is an option on the new kiosk.

For an additional $100, dealers can have Microsoft's Xbox gaming unit with two controllers added to the kiosk. "Our corporation is heavily into gaming," explained Hines. DaimlerChrysler has certain models featured in games. "Now while parents shop, the kids can play games, or the dealer could put a movie on in the waiting area. Or they can roll the kiosk into a training area and play a CD with a vehicle walkaround.

Brian Williams, director of sales at Visual Productions Inc., said DaimlerChrysler has teamed up with Microsoft to "implant" its cars into the gaming industry. "It's kind of a neat twist. Gamers are very loyal, with an average age of 29 -- a perfect age for car buying." He explained that the Xbox will let potential buyers immerse themselves in the DaimlerChrysler experience.

The Xbox, he explains, lets the dealerships turn ordinary information into a multimedia experience.

"Buying a car can be a painful experience, but not in this case," said Hines. "The kiosk is a wonderful, silent salesman. It allows people to learn about vehicles without having to talk with anyone."

One key element of the new VICs is that they have Internet connectivity, whereas the older units operated independent from any other kiosk or the corporate network. One benefit of this new connection is that Hines can begin to quantify success of the deployment.

"There is still no way to tell if the kiosk has sold any vehicles or not, but now we can track the metrics of what people want to look at."

He said this information, which the company can now ask for over the network, can offer important feedback to the product planning group. "We might say, why are we offering that color when no one ever inquires about it?"

The next-generation kiosk, because it is connected to the corporate network via the Internet, can also be remotely monitored.

"We might see that a computer is off at a certain dealership, so we can ask that dealer if there is a hardware problem, or if the kiosk simply isn't plugged in," explained Hines.

The company can also use its connections to update kiosk content remotely. With the older kiosks, dealerships have to use CDs that the corporate office mails to them once a month.

Updating the kiosks via CD is often a laborious project, and one that tends to not get done at all, leaving the dealerships with old information on the units.

"Using the Internet, we can update their information, their inventory, and provide updated consumer incentives, like a rebate on a Jeep Cherokee."

The kiosk rollout had been planned for April. Now it has moved to early fall. The delay, Hines said, is due to a steel shortage in the country. "The little manufacturers have to wait in line like everybody else, unfortunately."

But DaimlerChrysler dealerships will be ready and waiting.