iPad helps longtime car dealer streamline, boost sales

RC Auto launches app to get rid of paperwork

by Georgann Yara - Jan. 18, 2011 12:00 AM

Special for the Republic

Much has changed since Roger Camping opened his automobile dealership, RC Auto Corp., with his mother in 1981.

Thirty years and more than 11,000 clients later, the Phoenix businessman is pleased with how the latest technology has helped change his company for the better.

Apple Inc. recently recognized RC Auto for successfully enhancing its sales and leasing business with the iPad. RC Auto is profiled on Apple's iPad in Business website with other high-profile companies.

Salespeople use the handheld mobile device to show clients different types of vehicles and their features, to perform appraisals, to run credit checks, to calculate costs and payment options, and to complete the sales transaction while on the lot, in a client's home or almost anywhere in a matter of minutes.

Camping said completing the 17 documents can be done in four minutes instead of the previous time of about 40 minutes. At many other dealers, the transaction takes place in a cubicle and can take more than an hour - often the most tedious part of the car-buying experience.

Implementing the device has led to the dealership's creation of the DealTyper application, which the company launched this month. The application is available by request at the App Store on Apple's website.

The application streamlines leasing and sales by eliminating the traditional paperwork process, basically what RC Auto has been doing with the device for the last nine months.

"Most people dread the experience and hours of paperwork. The iPad allowed us to do what we've dreamed of for years," Camping said. "It's the most exciting thing in 30 years we've ever done."

In 2010, business increased 35 percent over the previous year, Camping said. He credited much of this to the technology.

Camping recognizes that the vast majority of customers in their 20s and 30s do extensive Internet research and come to the lot prepared and informed. This is different from older customers, who come to the dealership for information. Embracing technology puts his company on the same wavelength as a new generation of customers, he said.

"Younger people today are not accepting the way their parents and grandparents bought cars. Young people have taught me a lot . . . they know more about vehicles because they've Googled it," Camping said.

About 40 percent of RC Auto's business is leasing. About four years ago, Camping said leasing made up 25 percent all national auto transactions. This trend has dropped to 10 to 15 percent in the last three years with the recession and a more stringent loan process, Camping said.

However, the pendulum is starting to swing back with more manufacturers getting into the leasing business, he added.

Used-car sales are also picking up in popularity, with midsize SUVs becoming more desirable than the larger versions, he said.

Camping graduated from college and trained with the Ford Auto Co. for four years before he decided to strike out on his own.

He and his mother, Trudy, a former longtime Arizona state senator, started RC Auto to open a different type of dealership, one that educated customers so they could make logical purchases instead of emotional ones, Camping said.

Today, Camping has fully taken the reins, and his son Ryan, vice president of resale development who headed the DealTyper application team, represents the third generation of Campings in the business.

"We wanted to reach people so they could acquire cars smartly and base decisions on facts," Camping said.

Tami Dobbs came to Camping when she wanted to give up her sleek Audi for what she called a "new mommy car" for the family, which includes her 17-month-old son.

Camping asked her a series of questions but did not ask what kind of car she had in mind. Dobbs had eyed the Toyota Venza and had Internet printouts of the crossover vehicle in her bag but never took them out.

Later, Camping brought her into the showroom so Dobbs could see the vehicle he had in mind.

"There was a white Venza. I almost fell over!" said Dobbs, president of Premier Graphics in Phoenix. "He knew what I wanted just by asking some questions."

Dobbs said the transaction procedure was very easy and she is referring RC Auto to friends.

Camping said that his new DealTyper application might not be so popular with some dealers because the time that it traditionally takes to make the transaction is often used to up-sell customers on warranties and other items that the customer may not need or want. [ Screw the customer, we just want to take every cent he has in his wallet! ]

"Studies show that's what people most dislike about the process. We think there's a lot of dealers that won't embrace this because it runs counter to what they want," Camping said. "We believe the opposite, to make it a pleasant experience. It's all about the customer."