Latest News

Manheim Retail Services has landed an exciting new partnership with Honda. As part of a three year deal, Manheim Retail Services will provide the entire Honda network with a comprehensive stock management system, intuitive reporting tools and a new state of the art used car stock locator.

Phase one is already underway, with all Honda dealerships using the new back-end systems and reporting tools developed by Manheim Retail Services. The innovative used stock locator is in development for launch later this year but will provide customers with a completely new way to search for a used Honda.

Lorraine Wilson, Franchise Standards & Used Car Programme Manager, Honda (UK) commented: "Manheim Retail Services shares so many of Honda's brand values, and its customer focussed approach aligns with our business. We need to be at the forefront of new technology and our partnership with Manheim Retail Services will allow us to do this, not only to drive enquiries but to provide Honda customers with the best service we can."

John Simpson, Managing Director, Manheim Retail Services, concludes: "We're delighted to be working with Honda to provide its business with new tools that are specifically designed to attract customers to the brand. There are some exciting developments planned for the coming months, combining both new technology and customer focussed designs."

Fantastic news! Manheim Retail Services are winners in the technology category at the prestigious Car Dealer Power Awards 2011, which took place at the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, on July 20th. Being acknowledged by one of the leading car trade publications in the UK is a huge boost for the team at Adlington, recognising all the hard work that goes into providing industry leading products and services.

As well as winning the DMS and Technology category, Manheim Retail Services also received Highly Commended in the Lead Generation category. Voted for by thousands of dealers who use the products and services on a daily basis, the awards represents a real vote of confidence for the company and the staff.

Toyota has launched a new Approved Used Car Stock Locator for its website, with increased functionality to promote customer engagement and drive additional leads to its Centres. Developed by Manheim Retail Services, the new national locator includes innovative tools which put the customer firmly in control.

The new Approved Used Car Stock Locator is designed to enhance the customer experience and draws on the latest customer insights to maximise its user-friendliness. Through the 'Sell Your Toyota' function, customers with a car to sell can fill in an online form, and present these details to their nearest Toyota Centre. The 'Negotiate' function provides customers with the facility to bid on selected vehicles, empowering the customer to engage in price negotiations on their own terms.

Customers can create and manage an online account to store their searches and 'favourite' vehicles, and sign up for email alerts. The locator also provides an improved search facility, full vehicle comparison (of up to three cars), and enhanced vehicle information including vehicle equipment, full technical specification and C02 emissions. Remaining warranty information on individual vehicles is also displayed.

Iain McCall, Remarketing Services Group Manager at Toyota GB comments: "Understanding the way a customer searches for a car and uses an online stock locator is vital. We want to provide our customers with a product that performs exactly as they want it to, with as much information as they need to consider purchasing their next Toyota. Driving additional enquiries to our centres is crucial and our new Approved Stock Locator will help to deliver this."

John Simpson, Managing Director, Manheim Retail Services, concludes: "We know how important it is to understand how consumers search online. By assessing, researching and tracking consumer behaviour we will continue to develop the most innovative products for our clients."

The Hendy Group has launched a brand new mobile website available for use on all mobile phone platforms. Designed and built by Manheim Retail Services, the mobile site includes both an intelligent used car stock locator and dealer locator, making it easier than ever for customers to search for a used car when on the move.

Customers can search through all manufacturer vehicles listed across the Hendy Group network as well as finding their nearest dealership. The Hendy Group franchises cover Ford, Mazda, Honda, Kia, Iveco and Ford Commercial Vehicles, with dealerships across the South of England. As well as new and used vehicle sales, Hendy Group also offers servicing, body repair, parts hire, accident repairs and Rapid Fit Centres.

Mark Busby, Group Marketing and CRM Director, Hendy Group, commented: "We know our customers want to be able to search through our cars on their own terms, especially when they're on the move. Our new mobile website allows them to search for vehicles and find their local dealership from their smart phone. It puts the customer firmly in control."

John Simpson, Managing Director, Manheim Retail Services, concludes: "In the current tough retail climate it's more important than ever for dealer groups to react to changing customer demands, and creating a mobile website is just one of the ways to stay in tune with the way customers search for cars today."

Lexus has teamed up with Manheim Retail Services to boost the SEO (search engine optimisation) of its Approved Pre-Owned vehicle locator, as part of its investment to support the Approved Pre-Owned Centre network. The first phase of the project has resulted in a staggering 5,000% enhancement in organic SEO, where Manheim Retail Services has enabled optimisation of the Lexus locator site by hosting it on its own server. Higher SEO has increased the number of organic search engine visitor's month-on-month by 20%.

Clicking on the 'Approved Pre-Owned' tab within the main Lexus website takes the user through to the hosted locator. Manheim Retail Services has worked very closely with Lexus to ensure the customer experience is seamless and has added proactive functionality to enhance user interaction and boost the sales process. Features such as 'Negotiate' enable users to submit hidden bids on cars, which generate leads for the Centre and helps empower the customer, without affecting prices.

"Our philosophy at Lexus is one of constant improvement so it was a natural progression for us to further invest in our Approved Pre-Owned vehicle locator by working closely with Manheim Retail Services," says Andy Simpson, National Sales Operations Manager, Lexus. "We’ve recognised the need to take a pro-active step towards supporting our Pre-Owned Centre network in order to maintain and improve the vibrancy of the brand. We’re very impressed with the results already generated by Manheim Retail Services with the refreshed locator and look forward to enhancing the solution over the coming months," Andy Simpson concludes.

"Manufacturers often face a challenge when customers refer to model names and locations of used vehicles within their search terms, rather than the vehicle brand name," explains John Simpson, Managing Director, Manheim Retail Services. “By pulling the Pre-Owned locator out of the developer’s website and onto its own platform, we’ve been able to radically enhance the SEO and ensure the site is optimised for a much wider variety of search terms."

Manheim Retail Services will continue to enhance the optimisation of the Lexus Pre-Owned locator through additional phases of the project which will include regular maintenance and reviews to ensure the site continues to be optimised with the most popular search terms.

Midlands-based dealer group Arbury has teamed up with Manheim Retail Services to integrate an innovative new-car configurator onto its website – arbury.co.uk. Arbury worked closely with Manheim Retail Services to design and create an intuitive configurator for the new car section of the website, allowing customers to filter their new car selection by key criteria such as fuel consumption, insurance group, CO2 emissions and road tax.

Manheim Retail Services was responsible for the original build of the Arbury website in 2008, which focused on providing comprehensive information and functionality. Since the site launch, Arbury has enjoyed a record year on used car turnover and group profit and attributes much of this success to the quality of the website build and design. Manheim Retail Services was therefore a natural choice for Arbury for enhancements to the new car section of the site.

Scott Stenning, Group Marketing Manager, Arbury, comments, "We enjoyed significant return on investment for the past 18 months on the original website build thanks to such a high level of functionality around the used car data. It made sense to do the same for our new car stock, ensuring we were using the site to fully benefit our customers in their purchasing process. Feedback has been very positive so far, with many customers finding it particularly useful in helping them manage a limited budget."

John Simpson, Managing Director, Manheim Retail Services, adds, "It’s important for dealerships to design websites around the needs of their customers. As CO2 data and tax banding become more complex, Arbury recognised its customers needed more guidance in considering these issues when choosing a new car, so we were pleased to construct a web-based tool that helps their customers easily filter and quickly identify the right vehicle."