The question seems easy enough to answer.  It means going to a website and viewing a plethora of photos or videos.  Pretty simple.  That’s because nothing has truly changed since the days of dial up internet service.  Retail establishments post professionally photographed pictures of their products with an assortment of appealing backgrounds or models.  We can sometimes choose to get a close up view by clicking the plus sign to the right.  We might even be able to get photos at some different angles.  Wikipedia describes Virtual Tour as follows: ‘A virtual tour is a simulation of an existing location, usually composed of a sequence of videos or still images’. 

Not sure about you, but I’m getting bored.  More pictures and more videos.  Why have we not evolved?

Not long ago, I had an interesting conversation with an attorney friend of mine that was frustrated about how many hours she worked.  She expressed her desire to just take a day to go ‘shoe shopping’.  As funny as I found that to be, I asked her about shopping online.  Her response was to my earlier point.  It’s boring and not the same as being there.  So, I asked another question of her.  I asked if she found a pair of shoes she liked online; what if there was an icon she could click and could then magically be connected by both real time video and voice, would she use it?  You mean, as if I were standing there with the salesperson and could see and hear everything the salesperson saw and heard?  Exactly.  Now imagine the clerk knew the exact pair of shoes because of the specific icon the customer clicked on.  The shopper could see the available assortment of brands on display as the clerk walked toward the specific shoes of interest.  She was both interested and intrigued by the possibility of this. 

Now apply that same logic to the retail auto industry.  A shopper online with little spare time is in the market for a new car.  This consumer is at the mercy of the internet.  I want to refer back to the outstanding book by F Scott Addis titled ‘Summit’ that I mentioned in a previous article.  Within his book, he ties personal business success by elevating customer experience.  He writes: “Exploit your product and service differences. A memorable experience has to have something different from the norm. You must be able to highlight these differences between your products and services, and those of your competitors. If not, you are part of the crowd, and no relationship can be built.” 

Now ask yourself the simple question.  Would delivering a true virtual visit elevate a customer experience?  Would it make you and your dealership memorable?  I believe the likelihood exists that every customer with limited time would end up visiting the dealership that provided the best online customer experience.  With one click on a vehicle page, the online shopper is immediately connected to a salesperson that already knows which vehicle the shopper is interested in.  The shopper’s screen is viewing and conversing with the salesperson inside your dealership as the salesperson introduces your dealership, gathers the keys, walks the lot toward the vehicle of interest – in a true, real time virtual visit. 

Implementing a software product into some retail locations to accommodate a virtual visitor may seem daunting or impossible to a few.  Some may even say the same thing I heard in 1998 about the internet: “it’s a fad and will go away soon, we’ll stick with liners in the paper”.  It’s the early adopters that will benefit the most.  Once consumers know what clicking this logo/icon represents, it will soon become an expectation for those dealerships and retailers that procrastinate and resist change.