The Art of Balancing AI with Human Agents in Business Development Centers

Proactive Dealer Solutions, a leader in innovative automotive technology solutions for dealers, is proud to announce that its cutting-edge digital voice assistant technology, Brooke.ai, has been officially endorsed as the digital voice assistant for Volkswagen dealers.

The service department of a dealership is an essential part of the entire customer experience; and technology is playing an increasingly important role as digital tools are used to manage the entire customer interaction.

Brooke.ai Digital Voice Assistant handles unexpected peaks in call volume for service departments and BDCs

A Service Department meeting run like a Sales Meeting. Sound crazy? Here's why you need it...Why should these aspects of sales in the Service Department get all the attention? It’s time your Service Department got some training through team meetings on soft and technical skills as well as sales tactics. After all, you count on fixed ops to keep your lights on.

Discover the benefits of automotive AI scheduling software and how you can not only save money for your dealership, but improve customer experience immediately.

Proactive Dealer Solutions enhances Digital Voice Assistant by adding outbound calls for open recalls, boosting service revenue without adding staff

An AI digital assistant offers so much that human employees cannot. This is not to say that your employees are not valuable to your business. Quite the contrary, in fact. Your human employees are capable of handling important tasks that require a living person with emotions and intellect. This is the exact reason why these employees need to be free for the more pressing matters of day-to-day operations. AI digital assistants allow for that focused effort to continue while also ensuring other tasks are accomplished efficiently and effectively.

According to LSA Insights, up to 61% of vehicle shoppers call a dealership after a vehicle search. These are low-funnel shoppers ready to pull the trigger on a purchase. Yet, the average dealership has a 20% call-failure rate. That’s a crazy number of leads lost. Are your phones letting you down? Here’s how to find out and fix it.

There are hundreds of articles out there about how to boost service business with service specials or targeted post-sale communications or loaner cars…all key ingredients to success. Yet, I think a big part of the puzzle is employee training, specifically: how to handle customer objections using a “what” and “why” communication approach. 

Tully is driven by his passion to deliver the best service experience for his customers. He’s a bold visionary who’s not afraid to implement new technology and processes that challenge the status quo and keep Niello Company moving forward. As John Madden once said, “If you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.” Tully is running at the head of the pack.

Yes, recall work can be a headache because you have to coordinate customer communications, special parts ordering and delivery, and service lane scheduling. A few tips and best practices can alleviate the pain while increasing results. Here are some suggestions.

Dealers can control the offerings for transportation by configuring the Xtime or Brooke's Scheduler when it is integrated directly into their DMS. This ensures Brooke only offers the appropriate transportation options for the specific customer and services she is booking.

Brooke.ai can now check and promote open recalls and recommended maintenance when handling inbound service calls from existing customers, and offer scheduled maintenance suggestions to new customers when they provide vehicle year, make, model and mileage.

Dealers want to hear from other dealers if new technology elevates operations or isn’t worth the money. So, we were excited to be able to coordinate a discussion with Ted Ings and three dealership managers at a recent Fixed Ops Roundtable, which provides a collaboration of minds and innovative thinking in an ever-changing retail environment. The topic was Brooke.ai, the intelligent conversational Digital Voice Assistant (DVA).

Understanding the wants and needs of your service customers can be challenging – especially as new technology and shopping trends emerge. Why do some customers abandon your shop after one service? Why do some schedule an appointment online and never show up? It’s critical to have a clear grasp of your customer’s journey with your shop to improve the customer experience and retention. 

Service BDCs were born years ago to simply get the phones answered. Instead of profit centers, they often became glorified switchboards. Today, every dealer can access a range of tools from chatbots to digital voice assistants (DVAs) to handle routine tasks and answer ringing phones.

Many service personnel are in a bind. They are tasked with picking up inbound phone calls, communicating with belly-to-belly customers, and making revenue-generating outbound phone calls. Something’s gotta give. 

In my experience, implementing new technology and making it stick requires overcoming four major struggles: lack of trust, fear, what’s in it for me (WIIFM), and infrastructure. Until you confront and overcome these challenges your team will have a hard time and the technology may even fail – which is a waste of time and money. 

There was a time when drivers didn’t expect to get more than 100,000 miles out of their cars. Today, it’s not unheard of for cars to last 200,000 miles or more. The scarcity and sky-high prices of new inventory means even more people are holding onto older vehicles.

New scheduling tool leverages Brooke.ai digital voice assistant to optimize service shop management and scheduling controls for CDK DMS customers.

Companies behind digital phone assistants say they can take over some job responsibilities from humans, allowing employees to focus more on the customer experience.

Industry disruptor hits another milestone in its fast growth and development.

Inbound service calls are low-funnel opportunities that must be handled properly. Many dealers believe ringing phones are answered by their in-house team. During busy times and after-hours, they believe a few calls are sent to an overflow system, whether voicemail or an answering service. 

Jim Fitzpatrick of CBT Automotive News stopped by the Proactive Dealer Solutions booth at the recent NADA 2022 convention and talked with Lawson Owen and Jason Beckett about Brooke.ai

Proactive Dealer Solutions, a leading provider of proprietary software and training solutions for auto dealers that revolutionize the customer experience, today announced the integration of Brooke.ai with Auto/Mate. Auto/Mate, LLC, is a subsidiary of DealerSocket, LLC, and member of the…

Proactive Dealer Solutions, a provider of effective lead management and conversion services for the auto and motorized vehicle dealership sector, today announced that its Brooke.ai service scheduling assistant is a winner of the 2022 AWA Disruptor Award in the category of Fixed Operations. 

Automotive's first digital voice assistant, Brooke.ai, leverages Xtime online scheduling tool to handle and appoint inbound service calls to improve the consumer experience and help increase revenue and efficiency for dealers.

McKenna Cars has grown into one of the largest and most successful family-owned automotive groups in the US.

Today’s DVAs function and sound just like humans. To the millions of people who use Alexa or Google Home, having a DVA answer service calls and set appointments will feel very familiar.

The simplest call to a service department is the customer who calls to schedule an oil change

Enlisting a Digital Voice Assistant (DVA) to handle routine inbound service questions and appointment requests is a no-brainer

DVA connects the problem of missed calls, and the staffing challenges that commonly cause the problem, with an affordable and efficient solution

Nearly 7 in 10 (69%) of companies have reported talent shortages and difficulty hiring – a 15-year high.

Proactive Dealer Solutions, (PDS) a leading provider of proprietary software and training solutions that revolutionize the automotive customer experience, will showcase Brooke.ai at NADA 2023