Online car dealers and automotive suppliers are advancing a standard that they say will improve online customer service and expediate dealer response to information requests.
A group of auto suppliers -- who appear to worry more about selling cars than they do about coming up with catchy titles -- unveiled An Industry Standard Data Format for the Export and Import of Automotive Customer Leads on Saturday at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in San Francisco.
"Our research shows that successful Internet managers at dealerships are currently inundated with online leads, and that dealing with all of the different systems used by the various services is an obstacle to properly responding to Internet customers," said Chris Denove, director of consulting at J.D. Power and Associates in a statement.
The companies hope they will be able to juggle the queries more effectively by using a standard format based on the Extensible Markup Language. Sales software companies will implement the standard in their products.
Suppliers and online sellers backing the standard include AutoSite, Auto Trader Online, AutoVantage, Cars.com, The Cobalt Group, Kelley Blue Book, MSN, CarPoint, Reynolds and Reynolds, and Stoneage.com.
The companies cite J.D. Power and Associates research stating that over 25 percent of new-car shoppers now use the Internet in the process. The group also cited industry figures showing that around 5 percent of all new US car purchases in are arranged through an online service.
