Dean Kennedy from Linders (group underwriter/buyer)has been using appraisee’s digital appraisal tool since July 2021.
He wanted to overhaul how the dealer group went about appraising trade-ins and even to the point of embarking on developing a system internally, before he discovered a digital vehicle appraisal tool from appraisee.
Dean said: “Buying has now become more efficient as I have a much clearer, real time, picture of potential retail opportunities coming in from across each of our dealerships”
“We were using a paper- based system before switching to digital. This has really sharpened up our process. The sales guys are capturing more accurate information about potential trade-ins and we also engaging more professionally with the customer whilst doing so. It’s also helped us to increase accuracy of each vehicle appraisal as we can now highlight and record any type of damage, leaving us less exposed to any contested damage later on.”
The appraisee digital vehicle appraisal software was introduced to Linder’s main site by training that was put on by appraisee. Dean said it got massive buy-in from all of the staff.
Linders operates a checklist system which means sales staff must complete specific fields until they can finish the process. appraisee’s digital appraisal app has the ability to make certain fields mandatory which means every detail the group is looking for as part of its checklist is collected.
Dean said: “The sales guys know they can get any vehicle priced by me instantly, 24-7, and I know that I’m getting quality information from the appraisee app to do this.
“I can look at all our trade-in stock on a group level,from my computer, phone or tablet and no matter where I am in the country or the world. It really helps me to manage and make decisions quickly and best of allI know I have maximised the profit on each trade-in that we have in stock.”
Underwriting and buying for the main site meant that Dean originally had several different logins to access the digital appraisal system for each dealership in the group, this became cumbersome when flipping between accounts.
Dean put in a request with appraisee to be able to easily switch between profiles within the appraisee system and then appraisee modified the process within a few weeks.
Dean said: “appraisee has have been really good at listening to what we need and adjusting the system according.”
Linder’s trade-in department is a big profit centre for the group and Dean says appraisee’s digital software solution has become a big part of the business which is really helping in affecting bottom line profits.
While some groups may be happy to “clear the decks”, Linder’s uses Dean ’s experience to maximise the profit on each vehicle.
Dean said: “I will look at each vehicle and decide on where that vehicle will make its biggest profit or if it doesn’t fit our retail requirements, the app provides a built-in Trader Bid feature that enables me to send to multiple traders at once. This save me a lot of time and energy as all bids made by the trade are stored centrally on the app”.
“Moving to a digital vehicle appraisal system has improved our bottom-line profitability because of better efficiency, more accurate appraisals which leaves less room for error.”
