Automotive News - October 17, 2016 - Supplement - S39

OCTOBER 17, 2016 ❙ 39 S T I V E R S F O R D - L I N C O L N , M O N T G O M E R Y, A L A . This sales assistant always answers Sales grow as AI program engages leads with tailored email messages Printed in Automotive News July 4, 2016 Jacquie Goetz Bluethmann autonews@crain.com D ealer Eddie Stivers owes a debt of gratitude to an Internet sales associate known only as "Eva." Her efforts to engage leads on behalf of Stivers Ford-Lincoln, of Montgomery, Ala., have boosted sales 36 percent on the new-vehicle side Ⅲ Artificial intelligence and 25 percent on the usedsoftware vehicle lot since January follows up on 2015. Internet leads Moreover, Eva never calls in sick, and she is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every single week of the year. In reality, she is an "it" - a sophisticated piece of technology. Eva is merely the name of the virtual persona Stivers and his team have integrated into their sales process using an artificial intelligence-based sales program known as the Conversica Automated Sales Assistant. Nearly two years ago, Stivers and his team set Eva loose to follow up on Internet leads that had often gone neglected by the store's sales associates. Giving up too soon "Eva makes up for human deficiencies in the sales force," said Stivers, whose dealership is on pace to sell approximately 1,700 new, 1,400 fleet and 1,400 used vehicles this year. "A few years ago, we analyzed our process and found that quality interaction with Internet leads wasn't happening. We weren't responding rapidly enough." Stivers said his sales force tended to pursue low-hanging fruit, losing track of customers who weren't progressing as quickly through the sales funnel. "Sales staff had a tendency to want instant gratification," Stivers noted. "When they didn't get it, they moved on. Essentially, we lost interest before the customer did." Through a colleague, Stivers learned of Conversica and soon began integrating the tool into his dealership's sales process. Dealer Eddie Stivers says he appreciates how the artificial intelligence program buys time for his sales associates. Now, when the dealership gets an Internet lead, the software program generates an email from Eva that fills the gap between the auto responder's message to the customer and contact from a live sales associate. Carl Landers, chief marketing officer at Conversica, the Foster City, Calif., company behind the software, said the program ensures every Internet lead a dealer receives gets personal, persistent and prompt follow-up. "The technology engages customers in an email conversation," he said. "The dealership creates a persona with a real name, title - typically sales coordinator or sales assistant - and email address." While humans often give up too soon, the software will reach out to a customer up to 12 times, always with an appropriate greeting, always at a different time of day and always with a unique subject line and a tailored message. "Conversica has learned, over millions of conversations, what to say in each subsequent message," Landers said. Each followup email is different from the last, adjusted in real time to respond to customer questions. "The AI understands the context of the email and crafts the next message," Landers said. "When the customer responds, the virtual sales assistant will confirm the best way to reach him or her and a time and day to call." From there, the software alerts a human sales associate, who picks up the conversation. Landers said that emails sent from "Eva," or whatever name the dealership assigns to the software, are intentionally designed to be simple: no photos, no elaborate graphics. "There is nothing 'spammy' about them," Landers said. "Our emails get into inboxes." Dealerships pay a monthly subscription for the software, typically between $1,500 and $2,000. For his part, Stivers appreciates how Eva buys time for his sales associates, who aren't always able to follow up on a lead immediately. "Eva responds in an intelligent manner and deepens the interaction in the meantime," he said. Since Eva's arrival in December 2014, Stivers' dealership has seen its sales closing rate on Internet leads increase to the 12 percent range from around 8 percent previously. Integrating Eva Almost immediately after implementing Conversica, Stivers and his team realized they needed to retrain staff, particularly the two individuals responsible for answering phones. "After the first week, we were getting a lot of calls for a person not working here" - meaning Eva, Stivers recalled. "We trained reception staff to be able to handle those customers who believed they were talking with Eva and to be the conduit to a salesperson." Landers notes that customers rarely, if ever, find out they're not interacting with a real person. "On the flip side, they are super, super satisfied," he said. Stivers doesn't feel there is anything dishonest about the use of Eva in his dealership's sales process and stresses that the calls coming in for Eva are typically not transactional in nature. "The customer is contacting you because he or she wants information now," he said. "Are we being dishonest in providing them a way to get them what they want more quickly? Dishonesty would be giving erroneous information." c

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