Tech that Works: PowerZone’s Journey with IDEAL, TargetCRM, and TargetPay

For over 30 years, PowerZone has been a trusted name in Christiansburg, Virginia, known for top-tier equipment and service that puts customers first. At the heart of that commitment is owner Jim Higham, who’s led the dealership through continued evolution—blending old-school values with the efficiency of modern technology.

With IDEAL’s dealership management system, Jim has been able to tackle operational challenges head-on, from streamlining sales and commission tracking to reducing manual work across departments. Paired with TargetCRM’s automated customer messaging and TargetPay’s quick and convenient checkout process, PowerZone has become more responsive, more efficient, and more profitable than ever.

What is your favorite part of IDEAL?

Jim: The biggest thing I like about IDEAL is the things that you can use to really manage your business from a higher level.

It’s the data analysis, the decision-making tools, and then how fast you can go from a need to a suggestion to a new enhancement being available, and then all that being integrated into one destination of point of contact with IDEAL.

What would you say to someone who is considering IDEAL?

Jim: I would tell them; you’re standing at the edge of a diving board and you’ve got to jump in the deep end, just do it.

You’re going to come up and say, ‘Wow, I should have done this a long time ago.’

You’re going to want to jump off more and more each day, because there’s so much more to be offered by IDEAL than anything I’ve ever experienced.

What has TargetCRM done for your customer communication?

Jim: We had already developed the dependency on communicating via text and saw the benefits of it, but because it was a separate business system from our day-to-day operations, there wasn’t a seamless interface.

Now, the ability to communicate with your customer, have internal monitoring of that traffic, segmented by departments, sales, parts, service – that’s been exceptional.

The package that’s offered in Target CRM is fabulous. You can start a conversation over there without even being in the IDEAL business platform itself. That movement and the mobile optimization is excellent.

What are your thoughts on the survey feature within TargetCRM?

Jim: In TargetCRM, the ability to survey your customer after a sale to get that feedback and get the reviews from your promoters is a fabulous tool. It helps enhance our internet presence.

What has your experience been like with TargetPay?

Jim: TargetPay is great because you have one phone number, one text, one chat group, whatever you want to do to access the team when you have a problem.

The TargetPay platform has all the things you would expect it to have in traditional credit card transactions, including the platform fee base.

It’s in one destination integrated with our business system, and the ability to text pay links right out of IDEAL software straight to the customer is a huge gain in efficiency, and an improvement in cash flow.

What has TargetPay done for your customer experience?

Jim: From a customer experience standpoint, TargetPay has all the levels of professionalism you expect with the security. We don’t need someone to read us a credit card number in the text links, or present a card to be stored at the counter for repeat business. The customer can present their card at the terminal level and it’s stored and vaulted in an encrypted way.

The PCI compliance, and all the things that no one wants to deal with running their business is handled by TargetPay. I think that overall improves our efficiency and the customer’s confidence about working with us through that platform.

How has IDEAL changed your life?

Jim: It has made my life better because I have the opportunity to have specialists in each area to work with, but all under one account manager and one bill. It’s simple and easy to understand, I know what I’m getting, and the value is there.

When you start looking at it’s totality, it’s fabulous. You’ve got professionals at all levels working with you, and they’re constantly evolving and changing with the times, as we need to be doing every day.