Use AI in your dealership, today.

Repetitive tasks, or tasks that need a fast first draft are perfect tasks for Ai in your dealership. With no special tools other than a phone or desktop you can help your dealership get the jump on the competition. Forget the hours of entertainment with cats singing along to APT by Rose and Bruno Mars, here’s a quick run-down of the five easiest and practical ways to improve productivity of your staff and provide a better customer experience.

1. Customer Interaction and Support

Chatbots: Implement AI-powered chatbots on your website to handle customer inquiries 24/7, schedule test drives, and provide information about available vehicles.
Virtual Assistants: Use Copilot to assist sales representatives by providing instant answers to customer questions, helping with paperwork, and managing follow-up communications.
These take one to two hours to set up, and to teach, but these chat bots can cover off vehicle specs, opening hours, service bookings and test drive appointments. Sorry DriveChat, much as we love your service, the integrated chats are cheaper (and comparable in response quality) but might not have the lead gen integration just yet (but it won’t be hard to figure out how to do it).

2. Sales and Marketing

Draft Email responses. Use Ai to create an email that highlights why this model is particularly good. When you examine the typical email response to a lead, you may well insist that Ai deployment is mandatory for email responses.
TradeMe Listing test. There really is no reason that your listings content isn’t very good or excellent. Use AI to suggest your listing copy to enhance your listings.

3. Inventory Management

Demand Forecasting: Use AI to predict which models and features will be in demand, helping you optimize your inventory and reduce overstock or stockouts. This requires a gathering data into the right format, but is very simple to do. You can focus on days in stock and GP as a great way of making your funds work harder.
Pricing Optimization: AI can analyse market trends and competitor pricing to help you set competitive prices for your vehicles.

4. Customer Experience

Virtual Showrooms: Create virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) showrooms where customers can explore and customize vehicles from the comfort of their homes. Okay this one is a bit harder to really make work, but Ai suggested it!
Test Drive Scheduling: Use AI to streamline the scheduling process for test drives, ensuring a smooth and efficient experience for customers. This is a neat idea, especially when you integrate with outlook or an appointment app like Calendly or even Google.

5. Operational Efficiency

Document Automation: Automate routine paperwork and documentation processes, reducing the administrative burden on your staff.
Performance Analytics: Use AI to analyse sales data, customer feedback, and other metrics to identify areas for improvement and optimize dealership operations.

It pays to remember that Chatbots and virtual assistants are not set and forget, just like a real person isn’t. You’ll need to communicate with them, monitor their responses and update as required.

Photo by Rock'n Roll Monkey on Unsplash

Taking the chatbot example one step further, here’s a step-by-step example of how you can set up an AI chatbot for your car dealership:

Step 1: Define the Purpose and Scope

Identify Goals: Determine what you want the chatbot to achieve (e.g., answering FAQs, scheduling test drives, providing vehicle information).
Target Audience: Understand who will be using the chatbot (e.g., potential buyers, existing customers).

Step 2: Choose a Platform

Select a Chatbot Platform: Choose a platform that suits your needs, such as Dialogflow, Microsoft Bot Framework, or Chatfuel.
Integration: Ensure the platform can integrate with your existing systems (e.g., CRM, inventory management).

Step 3: Design the Conversation Flow

Create Scenarios: Map out common customer interactions and design the conversation flow for each scenario.
User-Friendly: Make sure the conversation flow is intuitive and user-friendly.

Step 4: Develop the Chatbot

Build the Bot: Use the chosen platform to build your chatbot, incorporating the conversation flows you designed.
Natural Language Processing (NLP): Implement NLP to enable the chatbot to understand and respond to user inputs effectively.

Step 5: Train the Chatbot

Data Input: Provide the chatbot with data and examples of customer queries.
Continuous Learning: Set up the chatbot to learn from interactions and improve over time.

Step 6: Test the Chatbot

Internal Testing: Test the chatbot internally to identify and fix any issues.
Beta Testing: Conduct beta testing with a small group of users to gather feedback and make improvements.

Step 7: Deploy and Monitor

Launch: Deploy the chatbot on your website or other communication channels.
Monitor Performance: Continuously monitor the chatbot's performance and make adjustments as needed.

Example Scenario: Scheduling a Test Drive

User: "Hi, I'd like to schedule a test drive."
Chatbot: "Sure! Which vehicle are you interested in?"
User: "I'm interested in the new Volkswagen Tiguan."
Chatbot: "Great choice! When would you like to schedule the test drive?"
User: "This Saturday at 10 AM."
Chatbot: "Got it! I've scheduled your test drive for the Volkswagen Tiguan this Saturday at 10 AM. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

There are several excellent platforms for building chatbots, each with its own strengths.

Above are some examples, but there are many more that will work. Some are specialist for say Messenger, some have better integration with email, and some integrate better with third party automation tools like Zapier (which enables the chat to be a trigger for something else, on an ‘if this, then do that’ logic).

The key thing is to give it a try and make sure that you put in place guardrails; the checks and balances and reviews that ensure you have a process that works, and that your assistant is doing what you want consistently well. Oh, and this article was written with a helping hand from Ai, of course.

References

[1] 14 Powerful AI Chatbot Platforms for Businesses [2023] - Tidio

[2] 10 Best AI Chatbot Builder Platforms - elfsight.com

www.boostauto.co.nz/read-blog

Boost Auto is an automotive consultancy working in seven main areas.

• Sales Training

• Sales and Marketing effectiveness for brands and dealers

• Market Insights & Trends

• Business planning and facilitation

• Operational Effectiveness

• Get Ready Automations

• Go To Market strategies for emerging brands.