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iPhone 5 and iOS 6: My Thoughts

September 26, 2012 By Arnold Tijerina

I’ve had the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 for 5 days now so I thought I’d write a mini-review of my thoughts on both. This is certainly NOT a comprehensive review. Many of those exist already. These are just my personal impressions.

It’s light. – The iPhone 5 is certainly lighter than any previous iPhone. I like this feature as I typically carry my phone in my pocket. It’s hard to feel and sometimes I can’t even remember which pocket it’s in. That being said, I don’t get the impression that it’s less durable. In fact, one of the biggest complaints about it, according to Gizmodo who analysed the chatter about it, is the fact that it is too light.

It’s fast. – I can tell the difference in speed between the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4S. I also had a Samsung Galaxy S III and it is certainly on par with that. This is in line with Mashable’s recent article comparing the speed of the two.

LTE rocks. – The one thing I LOVED about the Samsung Galaxy S III was the LTE ability. The iPhone 4S still used 3G and it was very slow. Sometimes painfully so. The new LTE integration rocks. Seeing as I recently moved to Chapel Hill, NC (which has great LTE coverage presumably due to UNC and it’s student body), I have excellent LTE coverage. Being that I did not where I lived in California, I love this.

It’s unlocked out of the box. – Not that I ever want to do business with or have a phone with service on AT&T but, according to the Huffington Post, the Verizon version of the iPhone 5 comes unlocked straight from the factory. It’s nice to know but I doubt I will ever need it. However, that being said, when the iPhone 6 (or 5S) comes out, I have double the market of people to sell it to, which is nice. Personally, if I were going to pay full price for the phone and I had AT&T service, I would buy the Verizon version and use it on AT&T since it comes unlocked whereas the AT&T version does not.

Facebook Integration. – Being a social media guy, this was a huge deal for me. The iPhone Facebook app sucks. Really sucks. It’s painfully slow. The ability to post to Facebook straight from my phone is great. It’s easy and painless. You can also use Siri to do it just like you can with tweets. I don’t really use Siri but it’s nice to know that I could if I wanted to. Another benefit to the Facebook integration is authorizing apps. In previous versions of the OS, when you wanted to authorize an app to access your Facebook account, it would flip open a Safari page and you had to type in your e-mail address and password to complete the authorization. In iOS 6, it still flips open a Safari page but because your Facebook account information is on your phone, it authorizes it and returns to the app, similar to what happens with logging into a website or connecting a website to Facebook while logged in to Facebook on your computer.

Do Not Disturb – I love this! It’s very nice to be able to set DND for specific times and not get an e-mail received alert at 2am (since the early morning hours are typically when retailers seem to think is the best time to send e-mails). If you add people to your favorites, it will allow those calls to come through (like your wife, kids, or whomever else you like) and block the rest.

Maps. – Suck. Yes, they do. Very much so. I attempted to get directions to a place that was about 5 miles away or less. It gave me directions to a place in Texas. Yeah, big fail. No matter how hard, or how specific, I got. Texas came up every time. Apparently, Apple is a Texas fan. Maybe it is because everything’s bigger there or they didn’t want to mess with Texas.

App Store – I like the new presentation of the iTunes/app store. It’s easier to navigate and you get more information without jumping back and forth between the search results list and actual information about an app. You just flip through the search results similar to how you would in the Music app on the phone with the information right on every result.

EarPods – I have yet to open or try these but they look cool and come with a storage case. It’s hard to want to use them in lieu of my Beats by Dre Studio headphones. Just saying.

New connector – Personally, I don’t have any issues with it. Yes, I know it is inconvenient and forces you to pay $29 for the adapter (assuming you want to use your old accessories with your new iPhone). I like that you can insert it into the iPhone 5 any way (ie. there’s no “right way” as there is with the old connector. My guess is that Apple got sick of replacing damaged iPhones from people attempting to force the 30-pin connector upside down. Of course, it could also be about money. Or both.

Cases (or lack thereof) – I’m not a fan of cases so I don’t really care. If you’re a case fan, I’m sure there will be plenty of cases available for you soon. Personally, I think the iPhone 5 is very well designed and nice looking as is. By adding a case, you increase the phone’s weight and that is one of the features I like the most. If you tend to drop your phones or are just a paranoid person, buy the insurance from your phone carrier (typically $8-$10/mo) OR and even better (and cheaper) way to insure your phone is to add it to your homeowner’s policy as a rider. In the past, I have added my previous iPhones to my State Farm policy with a zero deductible, replacement value policy for $24 PER YEAR. Beat that.

Screen – It is longer. The best benefit of this is that you can have 5 rows of apps on a page versus 4 from before. For those who have a lot of apps or have a lot that they use often, it is nice to be able to stick those extra apps on the home screen. As for “brighter” and “more vibrant” – well, I can’t really see much of a difference. It’s still a nice screen like the iPhone 4S, however, and it seems a little more responsive since the touch functionality is integrated into the screen now rather than being a separate layer.

iCloud – I had this on my 4S. I paid the $25. It’s nice that it backs everything up and, when I got my iPhone 5, I was able to immediately restore all my apps and settings via iCloud over wi-fi so I didn’t have to wait until I got home to sync my phone. One of the features that I don’t like (and never have) is the inability to actually sync your music and physically have it on your phone without having to stream it and/or download every freakin’ song straight to my phone from iCloud. It would be much faster and more convenient to just be able to put it on my phone, as you could in the past, and not be dependent on having a wi-fi connection or eating up allocated data over LTE.

Anyways, those are my initial impressions. It ended up being longer than I anticipated, and there are plenty of features I didn’t cover, but that’s mainly because I have never used them – like AirPlay and AirPrint, etc.

Should you upgrade from your iPhone 4S? That’s up to you. It’s very similar to the decision you may, or may not, have had to made when the “New iPad” came out and you owned an iPad 2. I, personally, chose to keep my iPad 2 and NOT upgrade it. In this case, however, I chose to upgrade (obviously). Partially because I use my phone WAY more than I use my iPad and partially because I like having the newest technology (I am an early adopter. Very much so.). The choice is up to you but there are TWO features that made my decision quite easy: lighter and LTE. That was enough for me.

Industry Summit: A Peek into the World of F&I

October 17, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

This week, I had the privilege of attending the Industry Summit – which includes 3 conferences — the F&I Conference, the Special Finance conference and the VSCAC conference. These conferences focus mainly on F&I and special finance topics. In this age of internet shopping, however, credit-challenged shoppers are also researching on the internet – whether it’s typical online car research or they’re searching for financing assistance online – so I wanted to see what advice and tips I could learn to share with our audience.

I was quite surprised to find that finance companies are interested in penetrating the franchise dealer market with hybrid “Buy Here, Pay Here” programs. Dealers lose many car deals each month due to the inability to secure financing for their customers. The idea is that the dealer would carry the note for 90 days, then these companies would purchase the notes for $.60 on the dollar. If structured correctly, and with the right program guarantees and commitments to buy these loans from these companies, a dealer could potentially pick up a decent amount of deals they otherwise wouldn’t be able to keep on the road (or put there in the first place).

An example given to me was of a franchise dealer who amassed a $22 million portfolio which he could cash out at any time while making a $5 million net profit. I could see this as an alternative method of financing – a last case scenario – for franchise dealers who are selective in whom they carry notes for or a new way for dealers with a high demographic of these customers to gain more deals and market share. Whether they choose to carry the note past the 90 day period is entirely up to them and, if structured properly, could mean extra profit and deals each month. Many stereotypical “Buy Here, Pay Here” lots went under during the hard times we’re just emerging from and this is a great way to capture market share quickly. I could see many customers who would feel more comfortable and willing to participate in a program like this offered by a franchise dealer versus the small used car lot that these programs typically exist at.

One of the most popular and well attended sessions was a Marketing and Advertising Dealer Panel regarding special finance with Scott Falcone, dealer, World Hyundai Matteson and Tom White Jr., general manager, Suzuki of Wichita. Many of the dealers in the audience wanted advice on how best to operate a special finance department including how to handle & identify those customers early in the process. Scott Falcone said that instead of treating special finance customers differently, they handle all customers as if they were special finance from an investigative standpoint. Tom White agreed saying that the most important question they ask on the meet & greet is regarding source and that usually helps identify those customers who may need special financing assistance.

Scott addressed another question regarding what to do to keep that special finance customer distracted while you are waiting for a call back or bank approval. He strongly suggested that dealers test drive those customers who can’t buy cars. By doing that, they get excited and are more likely to work with you with a co-signer, etc. and they get excited.

Both dealers do spot-deliveries and an audience member asked: “What’s an acceptable take back percentage?” Tom White said that his goal is an 8% take back on spot deliveries. If it’s more than 8%, then they are being too aggressive. If it’s less than 8%, they are not being aggressive enough. Tom White went on to share that their BDC only makes outbound calls on credit leads. Once they started that program, special finance sales went from 12 per month to 39. The retail sales department works all other leads. He went on to say that “the days of being able to take a credit app or look at a credit report are over. Computers are doing the underwriting. Send the deals in. Don’t think or guess.”

The exhibit hall was mostly filled with F&I product companies although I did see a few familiar faces.

Now a couple of fun things…

The coolest “interaction activity” in the hall was, by far, the large game of Jenga constantly being played in the ETE REMANbooth. I “almost” won that darn game. We ended up standing on chairs just to place the next piece on top but, in the end, the employees won. I still smile when I think how brilliant that game was for them. Everytime a game was lost, a ton of 2×4 planks came crashing down causing a lot of noise which could be heard in the whole hall and attracted a lot of attention.

And the coolest swag:

… a sweet car from our friends at DealerTrack! Thanks again for the car! My 5-year old has been playing with it NON-STOP since I got home.

Thank you to all of the people involved in inviting me to the conference – Ed Bobit, Dave Gesualdo and Greg Goebel – it was a privilege to attend and get an insight into the world of F&I and special finance.

(Originally published September 30, 2011 by Dealer magazine)

Automotive Customer Centricity Summit

June 16, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

The Automotive Customer Centricity Summit, hosted by Thought Leadership Summits (ACCS) was on June 14th, 2011. I had the privilege of reporting on this event on behalf of DealerElite. This event is a one-day event that runs from 7am-7pm. The event was held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina Del Rey, CA. While I don’t have exact attendance numbers, it seemed to see about 125 attendees. There were a lot of OEM representatives from both the automotive and motorcycle world, vendors and some dealers.

Speakers included:

Thilo Koslowski, Vice President & Lead Automotive Analyst for Gartner
George Liang, President of the DCH Auto Group
Allan Jenik, Director of Dealer Services for Harley-Davidson
Jon Budd, National Manager – CRM & Integreated Marketing for Hyundai
Kal Gyimesi, Automotive Industry Lead for IBM Institute for Business Value
Brian Benstock, Vice President & General manager for Paragon Honda
Lonnie Miller, Vice President – Marketing & Industry Analysis for Polk
Sara Hasson, Vice President – Automotive Brand Solutions for Univision
Michael Sachs, General Manager – CRM & Loyalty for Volkswagen

Some of the interesting things I took away from the sessions included:

Thilo Koslowski spoke about “Understanding Automotive Trends & Creating Successful Strategies”. He stated that consumers are paying more attention to automotive & transportation related spending. It’s his theory that the next 10-20 years will be the most disruptive to our industry and that in the future, individual transportation may not mean vehicle ownership with younger consumers increasingly relying on alternate modes of transportation. He predicts that by 2012, the majority of OEMs will have integrated wireless connectivity into vehicles. Younger consumers are less likely (22%) to be concerned about the distracted drivers that in-vehicle data integration would undoubtedly create. He stated that as companies feel that a social media presence is more important, the social networks themselves become more important (kind of a vicious cycle) and that dealers need help from their OEMs with social media marketing because many of them are doing it, but the majority are doing it wrong. One interesting takeaway was that as data integration increases, and younger consumers continually consider alternate modes of transportation, 78% of consumers would still prefer a gasoline engine for their next vehicle than any other type including electric and hybrid.

Kal Gyimesi spoke about “Advancing Mobility – the Next Growth Engine for Attracting Consumers”. He stated that within the next 5 years, 30% of revenue will come from new sources and that to achieve success, we need to transform into a service-oriented business model. He believes that the ability to interact with consumers will be centered around connected vehicles. He said that 59% of auto executives agree that auto electronics and software will be open & customized by smartphone apps and that a game-changing byproduct of the connected car may be the interchange-ability of vehicles. However, to appeal to consumers, mobility solutions must be simple, yet comprehensive.

George Liang had a controversial session about a test store within the DCH group that went to a hassle-free pricing model. He stated that within the next 2 years, Gen Y will represent 40% of dealers’ business. His view is that the traditional sales process is management centric, a long process, inequitable to the guest and complex. Gen Y consumers won’t put up with that. The “limited negotiation” process is faster for the guest, simple, friendly, fair and transparent. In this model, Client Advisors will be trained to desk their own deals eliminating the need for desk managers. In addition, as Client Advisors gain experience, you create a career path for them by advancing them to a “Elite Client Advisor” position and that for every 5 “Elite Client Advisors”, you can replace one F&I manager. By eliminating these positions (desk manager and F&I manager), you save money on personnel costs. In their test store, he said that they immediately lost about 95% of their salesforce due to salespeople and managers being unwilling to adapt. He advises that you should expect a temporary drop in both front-end gross and market share. In fact, DCH lost 50% of their front end gross when this model was implemented in their test store. He said to stay the course, however, as everything went back up with time. He said that DCH focuses on market share because if you increase market share, everything else will come with it. Of course every sales manager and retail car guy in the room was immediately on the defensive especially after Mr. Liang shared that this test store’s closest brand competitor was 45 miles away.

Allan Jenik spoke about Harley’s “one-to-one” marketing approach. During his Q&A, he said that he believed that your social networks don’t want to see coupons and offers. I don’t agree with him there. In fact, I would argue that the exact opposite is true in that most of the people who follow you only do so for the coupons and special offers. Harley-Davidson is a different beast, in my opinion. The lifestyle and community they’ve been able to create is completely different from any other brand so for them, this might be a valid statement.

Jon Budd shared the importance of listening to your customers and keeping your brand on track. He highlighted Hyundai’s ever adapting “Assurance” program and showed how its changes over time reflected on consumer concerns – from the initial 2009 campaign in which they offered to buy-back the vehicle (of the 435k vehicles bought under this program, only 100 were returned) to today’s campaign offering Hyundai customers piece of mind by offering security in the tangible value of the Hyundai by guaranteeing future trade-in values at the time of purchase.

Brian Benstock repeated his popular session showing how Paragon Honda went from #17 to #1 in 6 months. (When I say repeated, I mean that I’ve seen it before.) His session was very popular. I even heard comments from dealer-attendees that wished that the summit organizers had allowed him to continue rather than hurrying him up and cutting his presentation short. I thought his comment that vehicle brochures were dead was spot-on. He says that OEMs should just stop making them. In fact, Paragon made their own to give to customers. He says most consumers who want information about a vehicle don’t look at brochures anymore, they go online to find the information. He advocates OEMs to create more short-term lease options available to dealers as that would decrease the buying cycle and increase loyalty. He said that Paragon Honda has a 68% retention rate because of their efforts to get customers into short-term leases.

Michael Sachs spoke about customer loyalty. The gist being that its very important and hard work. I especially liked the story he shared about the “$100,000 salt & pepper shaker” as an illustration (anyone who knows me would understand why). This story told of young children who visited Disney World and bought, as a gift, a salt & pepper shaker for their father. They broke it before they could give it to him and went back to the in-park store to get it replaced. Due to kindness and generosity, the Disney employees replaced it for them although their policies didn’t require it. Due to this, those children became “raving fans” and over the course of their lives spent over $100,000 with Disney. He stated that even the smallest of actions which make customers happy can have a huge effect on future earnings and loyalty.

Sara Hasson spoke about the importance of marketing to the Hispanic market. One interesting statistic she shared was that from 2010-2020, Hispanics are projected to account for all (100%) the growth among adults 18-49. She said that Hispanics spend at similar levels and return to the new vehicle market sooner. She said that not only is it important to market to Hispanics but its important to market to them in their language.

Originally published on DealerElite.net