Premium car dealerships.

Premium car dealerships.

It’s now more critical than ever to offer a premium showroom experience for customers visiting premium car dealerships. With increasing momentum from online retailers the  audio experience throughout the dealership needs to deliver a tangible dimension to a customer’s perception of the dealership.

In order to create that premium feeling there needs to be a mix of modern and classic luxurious beats, covering everything from deep lounge house to Balearic beats. There needs to be a fine balance between the old and new to appeal to all ages of customers. It needs to be trendy and cool but at the same time unobtrusive and reassuring.

Premium car dealerships differ from most retail experiences. The customer is likely to visit more than once for viewing and test drives, meaning there needs to be an immediate impact as soon as they walk through the door. The process of purchasing the car can take a couple of hours as part-exchange values are negotiated, finance agreements read and signed, and dates confirmed. If the audio experience is abrasive or interrupted (announcements or adverts) then a major element of the premium car dealership is it’s main weakness for audio: high ceilings, hard floors and sound reflection from all the cars in the showroom.

When the spoken word is broadcast, it can feel more like an announcement like those for ‘the next train arriving’ and can disrupt the flow of many customer processes: admiring the car, checking their understanding of finance documents, reading the demands and needs information, arranging services and repairs, agreeing to any major necessary work required… the list goes on. Commercial radio or local radio will have a detrimental impact on the customer experience and may even turn potential customers away.

I’ve spent many hours in my local BMW dealership waiting for servicing or browsing for a new car and I wrote a blog post about it. Click here to read the blog post or click the image below.

The sample playlist covers multiple genres based around the themes of generating a luxurious vibe, allowing space for customers to think, generating a warm and welcoming atmosphere, and supporting conversations being held whilst feeling modern. Too many crooning classics or soft rock will make the dealership feel dated at a pivotal moment for electric vehicles and future technology.

I love cars almost as much as I love music so I’d be especially excited to help you with your premium car dealership playlisting requirements. Matching music to large purchase experiences such as the unusually long dwell time (in hours) of customers means the audio experience has to be right to boost sales and retain customers.