Canadian Black Book Provides Revamped Customer Experience On New Website


Canadian Black Book launched its new website at canadianblackbook.com that will include an equity calculator and total loss report tools.
The company first introduced its consumer website to the Canadian public in 2010, providing people with CBB vehicle valuations free for the first time. Prior to 2010, that information was released only to dealers, banks and lenders, and insurance providers.
The new site will continue to provide trade-in, average asking and future values but now with an interface that requires fewer steps as compared to the old website. In addition to the values tools there is now an equity calculator to help Canadians determine their equity position during the course of an existing or potential loan. The updated website also introduces a new total loss report, to aid consumers in negotiating a write off situation with their insurer.
“We really jumped out of the box in 2010 opening up our data to consumers and saw an immediate interest from all corners of the country. In fact, in the first week we crashed the servers due to traffic overload,” said Brad Rome, president, Canadian Black Book, who was instrumental in the initial build nine years ago. “Our goal is to continue to better assist car buyers and sellers with new tools available on our website that can help expedite the car shopping and buying process,” Rome adds.
The revamped website is easier to use and faster loading on any device. It was built using responsive design for mobile as the priority before desktop, as a result of the growth in mobile traffic and usage.
“The assortment of new functionality that we have built into the new website, was chosen and designed after eight years of watching and analyzing our own web traffic and deep research and understanding into the contemporary needs and methods used by today’s car shopper,” said Cole Reiken, VP digital strategy and product management, Canadian Black Book.
The revamped listings section, of hundreds of thousands of cars for sale across Canada, has new and used car listings featuring a large clear photo first. Listings are geo relevant, which default to display listings within 100 km of a users’ postal code. Vehicle details pages use new map integration to identify dealership locations.