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Company: AMS Vehicles
Project: Website
Dates: Jan 2007 to Dec 2009
How did the project start?
I have worked in the motor trade for a number of years, mainly for large prestigious dealerships across the North East.
During this time I recognised I was constantly being asked by friends, family and friends of friends for particular vehicles, however being tied to a sole manufacturer dealership it was more often than not difficult to be able to fulfill the requests.
During this time I also recognised how the majority of consumers end up paying artificially high prices for vehicles due to the large overheads of the dealership.
I felt I could offer a quality, personal, value for money service and AMS Vehicles Ltd was established.
What options did you consider?
As the majority of our marketing is online, our website is a fundamental part of our business.
We looked at other suppliers and other potential routes to market but the website would be a 24/7 interactive showroom for our cars.
This would provide detailed information in the absence of a sales adviser therefore minimising our overheads.
What help and expertise did you receive?
Calm Asylum provided me with my corporate image, all of my branding, marketing and stationary.
Additionally, their website proposals were fantastic. They explained how the site would work to suit my needs. How we were able to update it ourselves, by adding stock and further content. Also the flexibility of the site when online marketing through other channels.
Did you face any challenges or learn any lessons?
Yes throughout the website construction Calm helped us understand how to get the best out of our website through its construction and how this impacts on the 'visitors' experience of the site.
The site needed to be constructed in such a way that the customer journey from browsing the site through to booking an appointment to see a vehicle was as enjoyable and pleasant an experience as possible.
Linking the site up to Autotrader, Fish for cars and all the other automotive websites we link through became a massive task in order for us to maintain the AMS brand and control of our own website yet still be able to use the full facilities and drive traffic from the different referral sites to ours
What are the outcomes and how has it improved your business?
Our business has gone from strength to strength, allowing us to not only carry more stock but also stock much higher value vehicles that we were unable to do so in the beginning.
Relationships have developed with a number of the key main dealers, both in the area and throughout the U.K for us to be able to underwrite part exchange cars coming in, therefore reducing our stock leadtimes.
What are your plans for the future?
Recently we have expanded into supplying new vehicles.
Using our now established contacts we are able to supply the majority of new vehicles (especially prestige brands such as BMW, Audi, Mercedes) at a considerable saving on the recommended price. In addition we have started to specialise in new vehicles that attract a premium, usually those that carry the longest waiting lists such as Aston martin, Porsche and Ferrari.
Our website has enabled us to successfully market these vehicles prior to them even being launched and will continue to do so with the launch of further such vehicles.
We aim to develop this side of the business further, possibly even splitting the website further to new and used vehicles in order to focus on our customers needs further.
We are currently looking at different ways to expand the website and are working with Calm to improve our Profile through the internet and tie this in with a traditional marketing plan.
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