Fifteen years ago, dealership electronic kiosks were touted as a new-age way to sell. They didn’t catch on.
Now, kiosks are back in a bigger way. Pearl Technology’s touchscreen version is sleek and tall and looks like a giant smartphone with app-like icons. Plugged into modern technology, they offer much more functionality than kiosks of yesteryear.
Pearl bills its stand-tall stands as “genius stations.” They are new additions to ShowroomXpress, an Internet-based platform. The company says the system speeds up buying, transforms the experience and provides a “fully flexible customer journey” because shoppers can start in the store or elsewhere and pick up where they left off.
The expandable touchscreens let salespeople and customers zoom in and see new-and used-vehicle inventory content, including digital brochures and videos.
Tied to credit-tracker Experian, SRX calculates auto-loan payments in 10 seconds. It is called the first platform to pre-qualify customers without a social security number.
Once a customer is prequalified, a salesperson can scan vehicle identification numbers and customer driver’s licenses to bring the customer’s record up on the kiosk that also shows both purchase and lease payments for vehicles of interest.
For transparency's sake, it displays the three best rates offered by three different lenders. The dealer’s finance profit is pre-configured in the displayed terms. Users can toggle terms, adjust the down payment or lease mileage and the payments will change immediately based on lender programs.
“Basically, within 10 seconds the system takes the customer to a point in the retail process that would traditionally take 90 minutes,” says Pearl CEO and founder Bruce Thompson.
The goal was “to help dealers transform their showrooms into the digital age and finally achieve 30-40 minute transaction times.”
