R and K Autohouse 3 Posted January 5, 2018 Hello Everyone, I'm new to this forum and wanted to say hello and ask for an advice. We have only been in the trade for over 2 years but for the last 6 month now we had extreme "Sahara desert" quiet period. Calls and emails we get are just ridiculous its either £1000 discount people want or they are not happy with their part ex prices, they want basically retail prices for their cars. I dont know if its our prices, our images, our description or i dont know. We have 5* reviews, we do warranties, we do finance and we have moved into brand new indoor showroom that will be finished at the end of this week. We will retake all of our images at the new showroom this weekend, i really hope it will somehow bring more customers. Here is our website www.randkautohouseltd.co.uk any advice of what you think would be much appreciated. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BCC 9 Posted January 5, 2018 (edited) Agree with most of the above. - Photos should all be at the same angle with the same back drop, make sure you can see both the front end and one side of the car - A lot of the text on the website doesn't make much sense and has some punctuation mistakes. Im not sure what all the *** are for around test drive an indoor showroom, looks a bit odd. The about us text needs some attention in my opinion. I would print off each page of your website and get a couple of people to read through it all and check it thoroughly - The website looks like its a template one, Click Dealer or something? Fine for run of the mill cars but with some of the cars you are selling I don't think it gives off the right impression. Good luck, hope it picks up for you. About us We have established this business over 2 years ago, as we believed that car buying experience should be easy and hassle free. We have recently moved into our brand new indoor showroom in Nottingham so the weather wont be a problem anymore. As a car dealership we offer a little more extra for our customers and we go an extra mile for everyone. Over the years we have established great relationships with finance and warranty companies. All our vehicles are hand picked and checked so the variety of cars would suit anyone whether it is family car, day to day car or a prestige car. We continue to strive for high customer service and making sure that all of our cars are fully serviced, mechanically check and ready for the road the same day. We have recently moved into our brand new indoor showroom in Nottingham so the weather wont be a problem anymore Edited January 5, 2018 by BCC Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DHill 16 Posted January 5, 2018 Try to stay consistent with the photos, ie in one location, the interior shots of your premium cars don't show off the car at all. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
andymc1973 199 Posted January 5, 2018 is english not your first language as the sentence construction is terrible? seperate classic cars and bread and butter Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BHM 994 Posted January 5, 2018 It’s hard going & I reckon it’s only going to get harder over the next couple of years. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SC Derby 259 Posted January 5, 2018 Yeah the last 6 months have been the hardest going in my 7 years trading by some distance. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom 164 Posted January 5, 2018 4 hours ago, twerp said: 1) Round the mile figures down to wholes numbers, 67,237 miles for instance makes adverts look ugly only if you put 67,200 not just 67,000 as Trading standards will be after you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trade vet 703 Posted January 5, 2018 Hi there I just think that you have not found your ‘niche ‘ yet.Every pitch is different,when I have moved pitch and I have had a few, I have had to change the type of stuff that I thought would sell.You have to resist trying to sell the stuff that you like,when you find what makes the phone ring,just go with that.You are located in a good catchment area with good auctions nearby and you should be able to buy whatever.I would say get 20 cars with £1000 margin and you will find out what the punters want.Forget £50k Range Rovers and similar heavy stuff,the average punter for them goes to a main dealer......Good Luck. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
grant8064 219 Posted January 5, 2018 As others have suggested take a look at your website because it's your shop window. Photos are messy...stick with the same angle, same background and some uniformity...some cars have number plates on show and others are missing which just looks either half arsed or suspicious. 50k Skylines, 5k Lime Green Fiestas an a Morris Minor...it's an interesting mix! I'd would pay extra for a Skyline from a specialist, buy the Morris from a beardy old classic dealer and the Fiesta from a supermarket. Not saying it's wrong just unusual. The text is a bit of a mess and some of it reads poorly. Make the website cleaner and have some kind of branding...at the moment it's just a white page with some random cars listed on it. Apologies in advance if any of that's a bit harsh and welcome to the forum! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beautiful South Martin 24 Posted January 6, 2018 We offer fantastic part exchange prices, amazing interest rates on our finance packages, fantastic 3,6,12 or 24 month warranties, and all of our vehicles are HPI Clear. All cars are fully prepared to a high standard, fully valeted and ready to drive away. We also do deliveries for a competitive prices. Please call to reserve this vehicle today and get the best car buying experience in the market., £11,995 p/x considered You are telling customers you offer fantastic part exchange prices then you are saying p/x considered.....which is it?.....all a bit confusing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wheelerdealer1 91 Posted January 6, 2018 I think you need to look more at your eBay / Autotrader adverts, and also the way your talking to customers on phone calls and in person to get the deal done, the website is not as important neither is the premises and pics, look at your pricing aswell compared to others out there Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GLW 2 Posted January 6, 2018 Your photo's are really not selling the cars, you need to be more uniform with the photos you take. Have you got somewhere better to take the photos with better back drop? Photos outside units will look slightly "back street" to some prospective customers Your homepage looks very bland and not very alluring, I would certainly change the revolving banners. Have a look at other dealer websites to get some inspiration. The "about us" section on the homepage isn't really selling you either, again i would recommend visiting other dealers websites to get some inspiration and re-write it carefully. Good luck! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
R and K Autohouse 3 Posted January 6, 2018 Thank you so much for all your advice on here, i do appreciate it. @andymc1973 no English is not my first language, yes there are quiet few mistakes on the description, will get them edited asap as I was in a rush writing them, thank you for that. Thank you @twerp will get that done now, thanks for your info @BCC and no its not click dealer its crap template from Autotrader, i might need to look into new website provider. Thank you @DHill will get that done. Thanks @Tom will do that. Cheers @trade vet you are absolutely right will look into that. Thank you @grant8064 its not harsh at all, im still learning so its all good, thank you for letting me know about these mistakes, i will sort them out as swiftly as possible. Yeah it is quiet confusing @Beautiful South Martin will get that edited thanks. @Wheelerdealer1 thanks for your advice will look into that. @GLW thank you for looking into that, will change it. Much appreciate your feedback guys 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trade vet 703 Posted January 6, 2018 Hi R and K I hope you are taking notice from the guys on here. Having looked at your website again,I see you describe yourselves as ‘car enthusiasts ‘ ,so in other words you may have little experience.It takes years to learn this business and be successfull so you may be better off by employing a full time pro.Also,having looked at your competition on AT,you may need to consider that there are any amount of independent dealers doing Mercs,Audi’s and BM’s. nearby.Worse still,a lot of these have recorded a loss in their last set of accounts.If you want to maker any money,you could be better off doing for example,bread and butter estate cars which are easy to buy and also attract’ aged over 50 punters ‘ who are easy to deal with. 7 seaters are also a good bet.Please don’t be offended by my comments,I am a ‘hard boiled motor dealer’ and this business has never been harder. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Arfur Dealy 823 Posted January 6, 2018 You’ve got all the foundations right, you just need to sort out the bad language/ grammar and make your cars stand out with consistent corporate photos. It needs tweaking:) Imo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rich89 11 Posted January 8, 2018 (edited) Can I ask about your FFRR? Is it yours or are you selling it for someone? The reason I ask is i've got one for sale which is pretty much identical but grey and mine is £43k. I can't see yours on Autotrader? Edited January 8, 2018 by rich89 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
R and K Autohouse 3 Posted February 21, 2018 @twerp honestly things improved a lot, since we moved into new showroom, new pictures and we stopped bothering with massive description, people started emailing, calling, just randomly showing up to the showroom. Loads of sales since ive posted here. Thanks all for your help guys! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites