You spoke, we listened: 8 Key updates from your feedback
Last week we held our second quarterly Customer Advisory Group of 2026, welcoming the 25 members back into our head office in Manchester.
Just as we shared with them, we wanted to share with all our customers the progress we’ve made based on the feedback that’s coming through in these sessions. As I’m sure you can imagine we get a lot of feedback in these sessions and we aren’t able to act on absolutely everything so we tend to focus on the ‘big wins’ for dealers that will make a stark improvement to the running of their business.
So, here’s what we’ve done so far…
Feedback: Dealers rely heavily on WhatsApp and want Autotrader to integrate it directly into their sales flow.
What we’re doing: We are continuing to investigate a WhatsApp implementation that works for most customers, as ever we are balancing retailer and buyer feedback as well as developing a robust product that gives everyone a seamless integration. We’re also considering how we ensure great visibility and reporting on those all-important leads and buying signals. We are committed to delivering what dealers are asking for but we always strive to deliver well thought through and technically stable solutions for our customers to the high standard they have come to expect from us.We have been exploring options and speaking to lots of customers about how WhatsApp is working for them today. In our July session, we gathered feedback on what would be beneficial for them.
Price Indicator
Feedback: Dealers struggle with flags influencing pricing strategy without proper context, and found monetary values can often turn into negotiation tools.
What we’re doing: Following an April workshop with the group, we are currently live testing several design changes on site. These include clearer consumer positioning regarding what is and isn’t included in the vehicle price, a refreshed scaled-back design that removed the prominent dial and softens the bold flag colours, removal of specific ‘above and below’ monetary values to protect dealer margins and revised explanation copy.
We have been testing lots of different executions onsite to understand any impact on performance, as well as gathering consumer feedback. The feedback has come from panel testing with car buyers in-market as well as recruiting direct feedback from hundreds of consumers interacting with price indicator onsite.
Valuations & Data
Feedback: Dealers value our data but face gaps, particularly with older vehicles and missing spec information.
What we’ve done: We’ve extended our valuations coverage, so these are now available on cars up to 17 years old. This limit was previously 15 years, but this expanded coverage supports the growing number of older vehicles listed on Autotrader, where market supply dynamics is pushing some retailers to stock vehicles that are older than they would have generally stocked previously.
We’ve also been continuing to work with manufacturers to unlock more VIN spec data for dealers to use when appraising or advertising cars. Since the launch of the groups, 6 more brands have been added. We recognise how impactful this data can be in terms of delivering more accurate retail checks, along with making it quicker for dealers to advertise their vehicles in the best possible light on Autotrader.
Finally, we’ve added support for premium paint options within Retail Check and when managing stock. This means dealers can list premium paint options your cars have in the right place on the product page, where buyers will be looking for that information. This leads us up to a point later in the year, where we’ll be adjusting our valuations for those premium paint options, just like we do for other optional features.
Communication
Feedback: Dealers said updates weren’t clear, responses were slow, messaging felt too corporate, and they wanted fewer emails and more face‑to‑face contact.
What we’ve done: We have launched a new YouTube channel, The Keys with much less corporate and more useful content for dealers, featuring dealers. These include educational style content with Straight Torque, Dealer Stories, From the Forecourt - an entertainment style stream with dealers and All Chat No Charts where we share market data in a quick 10-minute digestible format.
We’re also exploring other new comms channels such as WhatsApp, and scaling back the number of emails we send.
As a way of introducing more face to face communication with dealers, we’ve created a calendar of ‘swarming’ moments across the UK where our teams come together, on the ground, face-to-face, spending real time with multiple customers in one place. Since launching, we’ve visited over 400 dealers.
Lead Emails
Feedback: Dealers found it frustrating that the lead emails didn’t have enough information about the type of lead, making it hard to prioritise.
What we’ve done: We’ve introduced clearer subject lines to show whether this is a brand-new lead or an existing conversation with a customer. We’ve also added in more customer information and a summary of the vehicle being enquired about. The lead will now also show whether the customer has reserved or submitted a reservation request. And finally, the email will indicate whether finance, part exchange or delivery preferences have been attached.
Updating Contacts in Portal
Feedback: Dealers were concerned about outdated users still having access to Portal.
What we’ve done: We’ve introduced easier ways to manage contacts in Portal by adding functionality to bulk delete user accounts that no longer need access. We’ve also introduced a rule where non active users will automatically be removed after a period of inactivity.
Dealer Information
Feedback: Dealers want more ways to differentiate themselves beyond price on their adverts.
What we’re doing: We’re making changes to the product page to help dealers showcase what makes them unique. This will allow dealers to showcase things like warranties they offer, and a better view of stock profile and seller type.
Deal Builder
Feedback: Dealers want more control over reservations and alignment with their existing sales processes.
What we’ve done: We paused the previous rollout and moved to a more flexible, choice-based onboarding. We also introduced reservation requests, giving dealers full control over how reservations work for their business. They can now choose whether to offer £99 reservations or handle them by request only.
Let’s keep the conversation going
Our Customer Advisory Groups are all about active collaboration. And even if you’re not in the group it doesn’t mean you can’t contribute. Share your ideas and thoughts in the comments below.
Your voice helps guide what we build next.