TrueCar overhauling its user experience to benefit customers, dealers
(March 29, 2016) SANTA MONICA, Calif. — TrueCar is overhauling its platform to improve transparency for consumers who count on it when searching for new and used vehicles and to increase benefits of the service to dealers.
The enhancements are being made as part of a “Dealer Pledge” initiative announced Monday to the TrueCar Certified Dealer network to address concerns they have expressed over the past few years.
A number of changes to the TrueCar platform have already been implemented, with many more to come throughout 2016. They result from a three-month assessment led by President and Chief Executive Officer Chip Perry, who joined the company late last year.
“Our goal is to provide the best value for car buyers and dealers among all third-party automotive sites, but it was apparent to me that there were aspects of TrueCar’s service that were suboptimal,” Perry said. “It was also apparent that we could make a series of modifications to improve the value we provide to dealers without diminishing in any way our usefulness to consumers.”
Among the changes being made:
• Local pricing information for vehicles is even more precise across TrueCar-powered platforms
• Consumers now have the ability to obtain competitive pricing information, in the context of what others in their area have paid, for specific in-stock cars and trucks that best match their search, rather than for generic vehicles
• Consumers will be presented with enhanced information on local dealerships that provides them with a broader view of benefits offered by dealers and enables dealers to compete on factors other than just vehicle pricing
• TrueCar has eliminated a page in the consumer experience that showed unnamed dealers with estimated pricing for a generic new vehicle
• In response to feedback received from some dealers, TrueCar is adjusting its data policies, billing model and billing practices
• The company is hiring over 100 additional Field Service Consultants to help dealers make better use of TrueCar’s data tools
“Consumers want good pricing transparency and we are giving that to them in the most simple and elegant way among all the third-party sites in the industry,” Perry said. “I believe these changes strongly enhance that transparency while also improving the value we provide to our dealer customers.”