Customer-facing golf cart customization apps are a dime a dozen, and they’re worth all 10 of those pennies…but not much more. The problem for any dealership is that these apps take power away from the dealer and the customer. Their options are designed to limit choice so that customers don’t get confused or overwhelmed looking through parts. Customer-facing apps largely fail at producing extra business for dealerships themselves. If anything, they cut dealerships out of the process by connecting manufacturer to customer.

This would at least seem good for the customer if not for the limitations imposed on them. Go to any manufacturer’s customization app and you’re barred from getting parts from other brands, or from legitimate third-party distributors. It gives the customer the illusion of power over customization, with very few real options.

Building a Sales Tool for Dealers

The solution to this is a dealer-facing golf cart customization app. This is why we developed Build Your Golf Cart. We’re not the only one, but the problem with most dealer-facing apps is that you buy them once and then they’re never updated again. This makes them useful for a few months at most before you’ve got to pop for a new app.

This gives us two problems to solve:

1. Make a dealer-facing app that covers multiple manufacturers and parts distributors.

2. Update it with new parts and availability monthly.

The only way to do this is to offer dealer-facing golf cart customization as-a-service. The benefits here are simple. We cover manufacturers like Club Car, E-Z-GO, and Yamaha, as well as parts suppliers like DoubleTake, Madjax, and Nivel – just to name a few.

The subscription price is substantially less than buying an app, but it is monthly. The benefit is that you get constant service, with monthly updates of new parts, and availability of old parts updated accurately.

Re-Empowering Dealers

You know golf carts. Your salespeople know golf carts. It shouldn’t be the job of the app to limit options for customers because other manufacturers aren’t included or new parts aren’t updated. That’s ridiculous. That approach hamstrings you into limiting your own strengths. It should be your job to guide customers with a fully functioning, constantly updated app that covers multiple manufacturers and parts makers.

You shouldn’t serve the app. The app should serve you.

We’ve also built in the ability to save builds. This should be available in all golf cart customization apps, but somehow it isn’t. Saving builds means that when a customer walks in because they like a friend’s custom golf cart, you can show them the build – and maybe give them a few new, extra options so they can gloat a little.

It also serves as a natural way of keeping a custom golf cart conversation going. If customers need to think on it, e-mailing a potential build to them or availability of a new part they might like – it serves as a natural way of continuing the conversation. Then you’re not calling them desperately trying to re-start the sale. You’re calling them to talk about a continuing conversation – or they’re calling you.

These are the advantages of a dealer-facing, golf cart customization app as-a-service. Return power over customization to your sales staff so that they can use the app to serve their strengths.