General Motors is arming its dealers with a mobile application that aids in streamlining customer service.

The automaker?s internal app began rolling out to dealerships in February and is now available nationwide. The app was developed by Maritz Research.

?What the app provides to the dealerships is an up-to-the-minute version of customer satisfaction information,? said Ron Kleinfelter, director of business management at Maritz Research, St. Louis.

?Getting this kind of information in a mobile format as opposed to the traditional Internet allows that information to come to dealers sooner for them to act on it quicker,? he said.

How it works
GM dealers can download the DealerPulse app for free in Apple?s App Store and Google Play.

The app is available to GM employees nationwide, but it is up to an individual dealer?s discretion whether or not they want to use the technology.

Employees are assigned user IDs and passwords, which are used to activate the app.

Depending on the dealership, employees are either downloading the app to a company-owned or personal mobile device.

When consumers visit a GM dealership, they are often asked to fill out a customer satisfaction survey after they leave. Dealers use this feedback to reach out to customers directly for any negative responses that come in.

Consumers are either given paper or online versions of customer satisfaction surveys. According to Mr. Kleinfelter, the majority of surveys that consumers fill out are completed online.

When a survey comes in for a dealer, the app sends a push notification to dealers, and a mobile version of the survey is pulled up within the app.

From there, dealers can respond to the consumer by either calling or emailing the consumer based on the information that they provided.

Dealers can access information in the app by searching for sales or service customer and employees, brand or time period.

To help promote the mobile app effort, there is information about the program on the DealerPulse Web site where dealers log-in to access customer survey information.

Maritz Reseach claims that the DealerPulse app was downloaded more than 2,500 times within the first three months of launching.

Mobile service
Customer satisfaction is critical to the automotive industry, and mobile?s opportunity to make it easier for dealers to help consumers in real-time is a growing trend for automakers.

For example, last year Ford rolled out iPads with pre-loaded apps to arm dealers with digital resources that were used to help consumers customize their vehicles (see story).

?I think in the dealerships that I have dealt with, they like this because it gives them information in the way that they are used to getting information nowadays,? Mr. Kleinfelter said.

?Any kind of reporting or information-gathering is moving so quickly to mobile devices as opposed to laptops and PCs anymore,? he said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York