How To Effectively Use Intelligent Automation Powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) In Your Service Department

Well-timed, non-intrusive communication with customers is essential for fueling the overall success of your service department. It is imperative to keep your service department at the  forefront of customers’ minds from the day they purchase a new or used vehicle from your dealership.

Consider these statistics from the Cox Automotive 2018 Service Industry Study:

• 41% of car buyers were introduced to the service department at the time of purchase and 53% of these customers cited the introduction as a determining factor in where they took their car for purchase.
• Customers who were shown the service department were 1.5 times more likely to return to the dealership for service in the first 12 months after purchase.

While this goal may sound good in theory, the execution of it may seem unrealistic given the demands on your staff’s time and energy, and your service department’s resources. Fortunately, TEXT2DRIVE™ – a full-featured communications platform – has a built-in CRM that interfaces with your business development center (BDC) and your dealership management system (DMS) to keep the lines of communication between your service department and customers wide open. It also integrates with repair schedules mandated by manufacturers.

Real Intelligent Automation

The entire purpose of automation is to communicate with customers at the right time, in the right way, while eliminating the need for employees to handle repetitive tasks. However, far too many solutions place a demand on users, requiring them to upload spreadsheets or manually enter information.

The makers of TEXT2DRIVE wanted to provide dealers with a better way. As a result, they designed the communications platform with intelligent automation powered by artificial intelligence (AI) – allowing it to execute the majority of tasks on its own – saving your service staff time that is better spent getting repair orders (RO) approved and completing repairs.

DMS And BDC Integrations

The TEXT2DRIVE software pulls information from your DMS and other integrated systems to automatically send 17 text messages that are deployed throughout each customer’s lifecycle and powered by AI. You can choose the messages you’d like sent from your dealership.

1. Sales Follow-Up
2. Service Introduction
3. First Service Notice
4. Appointment Calendar Invitation
5. Appointment Reminder
6. Welcome Message
7. Status Update
8. Ready For Pickup*
9. Online Bill Pay*
10. Thank You Message
11. CSI Message
12. Declined Service Reminder
13. Vehicle Service Reminder
14. Safety Recall Message*
15. Happy Birthday Message
16. Vehicle Anniversary Message
17. Lease Expiration Notice

*with select add-ons

Each text message is activated by the actions taken by a customer, ensuring they are relevant to that customer’s current circumstances. This important distinction makes them effective. In March of 2019, 12.65% of the customers contacted about declined services opened a repair order within 30 days at dealerships that use TEXT2DRIVE. Due to previously declined service reminders, these dealerships generated $6,643 in additional revenue on average over a two-month period.

Of these automated messages, safety recall alerts work a bit differently. Since not every customer will have a safety recall on their vehicle, only those who do are targeted. TEXT2DRIVE does most of the work for you, scanning all of the customers in your dealership database and cross-referencing them with open recalls. At this point, the platform sends you a detailed report of all open recalls and the types of recalls that are available. From there, you can sort them according to recall codes, along with the frequency and the number of sends. Safety recall alerts earned dealerships an average total pay of $282.20 per RO in March of 2019.

You can offer your customers the ability to pay invoices on their mobile devices thanks to the software interface’s integration with the DMS. Speed CheckOut™ mobile bill payment manages the payment cycle, sending customers their invoices via text message and giving them the option to pay online. This option spares both your customers and your dealership long lines. The entire process is completed securely through the e-signature feature. Customers love the ability to pay online. 91.92% who received Speed CheckOut requests completed them in March of 2019.

Streamlined internal communications lay the groundwork for superior customer service. Give your service staff the power to remain in contact throughout the day with the group chat feature. Service advisors can set up and customize new chat rooms and invite any number of employees they choose, from one or two employees to the entire service department.

Customers are more inclined to approve recommended repairs when they trust the service staff making them and when they have a firm understanding of the work that needs to be done. The TEXT2DRIVE video integration makes both of these scenarios a reality, allowing service technicians to send customers videos in which they point out recommended repairs. The videos are effective for eliciting RO completion. They created an average of a $125 increase in RO totals for dealerships who sent them.

Making customers aware of issues going on with their vehicle is half the battle when it comes to getting them in for service. The telematics integration captures diagnostic information and deploys text messages to customers notifying them of potential repair issues. It does not stop there. The message sent to the vehicle’s owner triggers a text message conversation between the service department and the customer.

Manufacturer Integrations

The maintenance schedules of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can be extremely challenging to follow, largely because OEMs often change them. This can create logistical chaos as you scramble to change the dates on previously setup service reminders. Oversights can be costly, causing customers to miss appointments and your service department to miss out on a significant source of revenue.

This issue evaporates like steam with TEXT2DRIVE. Integration with manufacturer databases ensure the dates on service reminders are kept current. The best part? Your staff does not have to lift a finger to make it happen.

Use Integration To Supercharge Revenue And Delight Customers

All of the aforementioned features are user-friendly for even the least tech-savvy employee. Learning to master the communications platform is easy and fast, allowing you to get it up and running quickly and start cashing in on it in a very small window of time. Intelligent automation, powered by AI, minimizes the amount of time and effort required to use the technology.

Unleash the power of integration and true automation for your service department. Find out how TEXT2DRIVE opens up the lines of communication to improve customer service and accelerate revenue growth.