When attending to their car’s service needs, customers’ expectations of convenience have grown exponentially.
“Siri, add an oil change to my to-do list.” “Hey Google, what’s the traffic like on my commute to work?” AI is making life easier and Americans are becoming more and more dependent on its capabilities. The funny thing is: it’s happening and some don’t know it.
In a survey of 6,000, 70% said that they knew what AI was, but 41% didn’t realize that Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa fell into that category. 55% said they were comfortable with businesses using AI to communicate with them and 10% said that it ‘scared’ them that they got along better with AI than with friends and family1.
At AI giant Pega’s recent conference, CEO Alan Trefler, opened by saying, “AI should have one simple goal: Connect a customer to an outcome that has meaning. Nothing else matters2.”
When AI and machine learning are put into the context of the auto industry, they are bursting with exponential opportunity for dealers. Conversica has been on the leading edge of harnessing that power and offering dealers tools that significantly impact sales, service, and customer retention.
Fueled by a smartphone that basically runs their lives, today’s consumers expect instant gratification. They are fairly comfortable with an electronic device that has a high degree of knowledge about their interests and needs because it makes their daily choices easier.
Conversica is successfully integrating the use of a personable and extremely helpful virtual assistant which (or who) has the capability to touch far more service customers, more persistently and with greater individual attention, than would be possible for dealership service staff alone. And her outreach has the impact of improving customer satisfaction, generating revenue opportunities, influencing higher service traffic, and ultimately performing as a customer retention tool.
True AI grows smarter, and now dealers can take advantage of this resource and use it to overhaul their old business model. Being proactive with customers, knowing their needs, sometimes even before they know it, makes the dealership a valued partner.