Fixed Ops Journal - June 2019 - F25

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

Is Sarah there?
Software engages
service customers
in email dialogue

VIRTUAL

continued from previous page

In response to inquiries posed by the kiosk,
Ewell says, 89 percent of users at Silko Honda
said the device made check-in easier and 98
percent said it answered all of their questions.

Conversation starter
A new virtual service adviser, Openbay Otis,
operates on a dealership's website instead of a
kiosk. The product's software uses machine
learning to conduct two-way written conversations in a pop-up dialog box with service
customers on the website, says Rob Infantino,
CEO of Openbay, an online auto repair marketplace.
Otis can answer service-related questions
around the clock; about one-third of conversations with customers occur when a dealership's service department is closed, Infantino
says. If the virtual adviser can't handle a question during business hours, a human can take
over.
"We are helping business owners align with
how modern-day consumers like to interact,"
Infantino says.
About 90 percent of Openbay Otis' 200 current customers are independent repair shops,
Infantino says. But he adds that Openbay is
working with dealerships to meet their needs,
and says its customer base among franchised
dealerships is growing fast.
The product's basic software costs dealerships $50 a month and provides such things as
service menu pricing and recall information.
Additional features, such as appointment
scheduling and two-way text messaging, cost
extra.
Honda Village in Newton, Mass., has been
testing Openbay Otis for nearly a year, says
Service Manager Joe Panichella. It is more user-friendly than the online appointment software provided by Honda, he adds
"It is all about instant gratification," Panichella says. "If [customers] are surfing at 10
p.m. and they need a brake job, someone gets
back to them with an estimate."
Otis generates about 10 additional customer
emails to him daily, he adds.

Force multiplier
It can be tough for a handful of service advisers to maintain contact with tens of thousands of customers in a dealership management system database. The software provider
Conversica says its virtual service assistant
product, launched two years ago, solves that
problem.
"Our artificial intelligence can have 20,000

The Openbay Otis virtual adviser can answer
customers' service questions 24/7.

conversations going on at any given time and
each one is individual, one on one," says John
Ruble, Conversica's vice president of strategic
partnerships.
The software can mine a dealership management system to initiate an email conversation with a customer who hasn't returned for
service in, say, a year, and invite a visit. When
the customer responds, the virtual assistant
can answer questions, schedule a service appointment or turn the customer over to a human adviser.
Each dealership service department chooses a name for its virtual assistant. A female
millennial name gets the highest engagement
across all customer demographics, Ruble
says. (See story at right.)
Conversica also offers a digital sales assistant. It has some 1,000 dealership customers;
around half subscribe to both the sales and
service assistants, Ruble says. A dealership
that buys both products pays $2,400 a month.
Either product alone costs $1,800.

Human touch
Employing virtual service advisers can pose
problems. A dealership's service satisfaction
score is based largely on the quality of customers' personal relationships with advisers.
But dealers and vendors say virtual advisers
always allow humans to take over conversations with customers.
At the same time, advisers may not like feeling they are competing with computer software. Zerrenner of Volkswagen Pasadena says
his advisers are evenly divided on the merits
of the GoMoto kiosks.

arah, a virtual service assistant
at Esserman International in Miami, is so popular that customers call the dealership and ask
for her by name - even though she's a
software product.
"She is sort of like another team member," says Gail Gensler, business development team manager for Esserman, which
sells Volkswagen and Acura vehicles.
Esserman has used Conversica's virtual
service product since May 2017. The software has contacted 45,000 service customers, generating more than 1,000 executed repair orders, Gensler says.
Customers respond to Sarah's emails 11
percent of the time, Gensler adds. Responses are logged into a customer's profile on the Conversica tool. Though Sarah
could continue the conversation, Gensler has programmed the software so she
is copied on the email and can personally
respond to the customer.
The software complements rather than
competes with Esserman's human service advisers, Gensler says.
"We are not losing the relationshipbuilding opportunity" with customers,
she says. "It is an enhancement of what
we are already doing."
Virtual assistants sometimes contact a
service customer six or seven times before getting a response, says John Ruble,
Conversica's vice president of strategic
partnerships. But the assistants are "persistent and polite," he adds.
Ruble says, "People have apologized to
the artificial intelligence for not responding sooner."
- Alysha Webb

"I am hoping that when we get into our summer selling season and we really get busy, the
service advisers will see the benefit," he says.
Tom Andrews, a service adviser at the dealership, calls the kiosks a "great idea - in the
busy periods, they allow us to spend more
time with customers." He adds that he isn't
worried about being automated out of a job.
"People still want to talk to people," Andrews says. "You won't get rid of me." 

JUNE 2019

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Fixed Ops Journal - June 2019

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