ZMOT ZMOT ZMOT. It seems to be all that we are talking about these days. If you are in e-commerce and/or automotive, it is hard to escape this new term that was introduced this past year by Shopper Sciences as part of Google's quantitative review of decision making behavior across shopping, services, and voting.
Although the term ZMOT, which stands for Zero Moment of Truth, might be new, the concept is far from new. The zero moment of truth for a shopper refers to "all the research consumers do online before making their purchase." Source: TechWyse.com.
In today's language, ZMOT pretty much occurs online during a shopper's quest to better understand product and availability. Product of course if mandated by the OEM but availability is primarily determined by the dealerships.
The automotive zero moment of truth for an auto shopper often begins with a search engine and ends either on a dealer's website or in the showroom.
By "end" I mean that the shopper comes to a conscious decision as to which product she is going to buy and from which dealer she will buy from.
From this point, FMOT enters the scene, which stands for First Moment of Truth. In a new car owner's first moment of truth, the customer is on her honeymoon with her purchase and is more likely now to share her joy with friends as opposed to several weeks later. Thus, dealers today must consider their role not only in ZMOT but also in FMOT.
In a recent interview with Mike Esposito from Auto/Mate Systems, Mike summed it up perfectly by stating, "We used to talk about 'ups' and 'be backs'. Now you hear about ZMOT, and SEO, and digital marketing. The whole language has changed. The dealer that doesn’t come up to speed on these things is going to be left behind.”
In the video below, HookLogic President of Automotive David Metter moderates a panel on Automotive ZMOT and FMOT at DD12 with panelists Shaun Kniffin from Germain Motorcars, Andrew DiFeo from Hyundai of St. Augustine, Tom White Jr. from Suzui of Wichita, and David Kain from Kain Automotive.
The premise of the panel revolves around the debate of whether or not dealers are responsible for stimulus advertising which again is where a shopper's ZMOT will occur. As you will see, some dealers must generate their own stimulus while others do not, but the overlying business problem facing all auto dealerships is how they address ZMOT and how they address FMOT.
The original panel was pretty much an hour long. This video is all but three minutes so clearly only a very limited amount of what was discussed made it into this video. The pieces that did make tell a simple story that we hope all dealers can use to their benefit.
Take a look and feel free to respond with your thoughts by leaving a comment on this post. You are welcome to share this post and/or video with others on your own blog or in social media. If you do please let us know where you are sharing it so that we can chime in to people's responses.
To learn more about how your dealership can take its customers from ZMOT to FMOT using HookLogic's AutoHook Suite of Products, visit our website for a free demo or to read some of the success stories that our own customers have shared.
