Reynolds and Reynolds, headquartered in Dayton, offers the Windows-based ERA-IGNITE dealer management system (DMS). ERA-IGNITE offers a single system with a single unique identifier for every customer, every vehicle, and every transaction.
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VinSolutions
Score 7.6 out of 10
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VinSolutions, a Cox Automotive company, offers a suite of CRM and operational support applications for auto dealerships.
ERA-IGNITE works well for day to day operations at Car Dealerships. It will maintain your customer records. It is lacking a little in mainlining employee records, as you have to switch back and forth between ERA "blue screen" (older version) and IGNITE "point and click" (newer version). Overall, though it will get the job done.
It is well suited to customer communication - emails/calls/texts. It helps with all those. You are able to get personal by adding notes to remember in the future, or tasks to complete down the road. It keeps history, so no salesperson can argue who did want and who gets the credit. Essentially, it is the final word - if the employee doesn't record it in Vin - then it didn't happen and anyone can help a customer. Seems to be less appropriate for actual marketing-related activities (as mentioned with their campaign manager).
Tracks sold logs, desk logs, offers, etc. so there is no confusion over what was offered or by whom.
Gives a clear, concise list of sold vehicles, who sold them, and front and back end gross for easy reference.
Trade appraisals are clearly visible, along with who appraised them, so there is no potential for misunderstanding between the sales managers, GSM and GM.
The Financial Statements can only be printed on legal and instead of scrolling through it to look at it you have to navigate it at the top with the arrows.
Their time clock is not user-friendly. You cannot just pull up one person and look at their time and make changes. You have to go through like you want to print, look at the time for the employee to find errors, then back out and go into a different screen to correct.
Giving employees access to different functions is a nightmare. It is not at all laid out the way Ignite is used, and there are numerous hidden check boxes.
Because VinSolutions is able to pull customers lists, they also made a campaigns manager that allows you to create marketing emails and send them out. However, after the initial launch they never updated it, it seems. It would be the best thing...if it was 2005.
This customer lists that I like to export to upload into my own email software, I can't get the actual list myself - I have to contact my Vin rep for them to give me. These lists are not the same, nor have the same filters, as the report lists that Vin does provide dealers. So, I prefer the other.
Technical support, general customer support, implementation support are all top notch. All representatives from the company check in every couple weeks to make sure all is going well; if there is a problem, I generally have a solution given within hours if not soon; and they are friendly, easy to understand, and do a great job. Well done!
Not sure about our financial investment in VinSolutions, but we have been with them for over 10 years, so our management keeps choosing it over other options (we have reviewed others in the past recommended by our dealer group).
Positive impact on keeping our customers...ours. This avoids sales consultants recording their customers in some random ledger of their own...and then taking that list with them when they leave - especially to another dealership. This ensures that each person is the dealership's customer, and not the salesperson's customer.
History is recorded, and we never know what we need until we run into an issue. VinSolutions is our go-to for many past communications and transactions. It provides a 'road to the sale' story that managers can pull up to help them navigate concerns.
