Artificial intelligence’s rapid advancement is changing how dealerships identify, nurture, and convert leads into showroom visitors and car buyers, and it’s doing it fast.
A good chunk of AI’s disruption within the auto sales industry directly impacts the role and operation of a dealership’s Business Development Center, a crucial player within the greater automotive ecosystem. AI is tackling daily tasks ranging from speaking with new leads to answering common questions, all so the BDC can place more emphasis on true customer support and handling sales.
In this article, we’ll explore how balancing the convenience of AI with the expertise of your BDC can redefine customer experiences, improve operational efficiency, and transform your car dealership for the better.
What Is a BDC (Business Development Center)? A dealership’s Business Development Center (BDC) often serves as a prospective customer’s initial point of contact. By answering incoming calls, scheduling appointments, booking test drives, and prompting customers to keep up with recommended service appointments, the BDC is, in many ways, the inviting face of the dealership charged with nurturing the relationship between the dealership, its past customers, and any future prospects.
Quality BDC departments allow sales and customer service professionals to remain focused on closing deals in the showroom and resolving more complex customer issues.
The Role of AI in Customer Service Traditionally, BDCs have leaned heavily on manual processes and staff to manage lead scoring, basic customer inquiries, and scheduling. However, with the latest AI tech making its presence felt across virtually every modern industry, the role of BDCs is quickly transforming into one offering more personalized, more in-depth customer support.
Here are a few ways AI tools can benefit dealerships eager to boost customer satisfaction:
24/7 Customer Service Customers don’t limit their questions and concerns strictly to normal business hours. An AI-powered BDC is always on, which means customers won’t be left confused and frustrated over a long weekend.
Timely assistance also helps customers maintain the sense of momentum they often build during their new car exploration. While not exactly a novel concept, it’s worth remembering that good customer service makes it that much easier for sales teams to do their jobs.
AI Engagement There’s a big difference between dynamic AI engagement and the hollow automated responses of old. Outdated auto-response programs can often appear ignorant of a user’s frustrations. Engaging customers with AI means (through the pattern-recognizing genius of natural language processing) addressing customer concerns like a human would, gathering more information to point them in the right direction, and nurturing them through their concerns toward the ultimate goal: a handoff to a sales agent for a test drive.
AI Applications in BDCs AI applications are quickly becoming standard throughout the automotive industry, supporting virtually every aspect of a dealership’s daily operations. Here are four ways you’re likely to see BDCs benefitting from AI in the near future:
Faster Response Times Replying to a backlog of inbound customer messages can seem like a full-time job — and for sales agents, a difficult one to balance without a process for addressing the highest-priority customers first. AI-powered BDCs accelerate a dealership’s response times to customer inquiries by assigning each one a priority status, automating responses to simple FAQs, and highlighting which customers appear most ready for an in-person visit to the dealership.
Lead Nurturing Proper lead nurturing takes time and attention (it’s just another term for building a relationship, after all). Customers are well aware of the dealership’s goal to sell them a vehicle, but a good lead nurturing process can make the experience less of a formal transaction and more of a guided tour. Lead scoring and segmentation are all about data analysis and optimization (an area where AI tends to thrive), so it follows that AI-powered BDCs are a useful tool for locating prospects with high potential and moving them through the buyer’s journey.
Ability To Connect to CRM Systems When integrated with a dealership’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, AI-powered BDCs can take much of the busywork involved with customer interactions, record-keeping, and strategizing off of a sales team’s shoulders. In practice, this could mean sending emails to warm leads to gauge interest and booking in-person appointments with those customers who respond positively.
At that point, all a sales agent has to do is check their schedule and catch up on the back-and-forth between the AI and the customer (which is also why many AI-powered BDCs provide email thread summaries). Together, CRMs and AI remove the time-intensive interactions from a sales agent’s daily routine and replace them with ready-to-meet car shoppers.
Marketing and Sales Optimization Blending a CRM’s data analysis with an AI-powered BDC makes for more informed marketing decisions, rather than leaving the various targeting levers and channels involved up to a marketer’s best guess. As with any data-driven marketing, launching campaigns closer to their final, fully-optimized state improves ROI and shows dealerships when, where, and how to target their audience.
AI also refines a dealership’s sales forecasting. By analyzing historical data alongside current market trends, AI-powered BDCs keep a dealership’s carrying costs to a minimum while anticipating subtle shifts in demand.
Podium AI BDC For Dealerships The advantages above (and more) are what make Podium’s AI BDC such an attractive tool for dealerships. A wide range of automated features with a humanized touch will help dealers nurture leads, overcome customer concerns, book appointments, and make every detail of a prospective car buyer’s interests and preferences easy to access.
Here are a few specific features that make Podium’s AI BDC an invaluable auto dealership asset:
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Improve your response times Podium’s AI BDC engages with car shoppers in much less time than it takes the average sales agent to address customer questions, ask follow-ups, and keep leads warm. The platform also features an automated appointment scheduler for stress-free booking, effectively making any scheduling conflicts due to a delayed reply a thing of the past.
Improve your response quality Podium’s AI BDC was built to engage in full human-like conversations. It can check inventory for real-time availability, suggest a vehicle based on a customer’s preference for individual features (like color or number of miles), and even describe a vehicle’s history. Proactive follow-up questions from the AI also establish further trust and confidence, steadily advancing customers through the car-buying process.
Respond to customer inquiries that include images Podium’s AI BDC is capable of analyzing and responding to images as well as text.
A user might ask “do you have any cars like this?” along with a picture of their current vehicle to begin their search. Depending on the vehicle’s make, model, color, and available upgrades, Podium’s AI BDC can provide prospective buyers with relevant information or recommendations for cars currently on the lot and in line with the customer’s preferences.
Persuade customers to book appointments Podium’s AI BDC is trained to persuade customers to book in-person sales appointments as soon as possible.
Say a lead submits an image of their car and asks how much the dealership might offer them for it; the AI may respond with a link to an online appraisal tool while mentioning that a quick stop at the dealership will always provide the most accurate estimate. Then, it may follow up with open appointment times (the same day if possible), and encourage the customer to “come on in.”
Offer the best vehicle matches Podium’s AI BDC pulls real-time data from a dealership’s available inventory and pairs it with an individual customer’s preferences to find the best vehicle matches on the lot. By sorting through lot inventory ahead of time, AI provides customers a slate of options tailored to their liking and more time behind the wheel of the car most likely to be their perfect fit.
Escalate the right conversations to management People don’t always want to talk to an AI. It’s fair, after all, human connection is great, too. It’s in those cases that you’ll want to have an AI set up to send people to your sales managers.
For instance, some conversations might require immediate escalation to an experienced team member to handle complaints or serious concerns. In these cases, Podium’s AI BDC will route conversations about specific topics to the right manager while keeping the conversation moving with the car shopper. If a lead immediately asks about a car’s price, the AI will reply that a manager is the best person to discuss pricing with a suggested date and time for a call. Or, if the manager is available online, it may push the chat to the live agent for further support from the sales team.
The AI will also ask follow-up questions to keep the lead engaged, like whether they’re considering trading in an older vehicle for this new one they’re asking about.
AI is changing the way dealerships handle new leads, retain customers, and build a loyal brand following. Ready to revolutionize your car dealership with AI-powered customer service and sales solutions? Discover the transformative capabilities of Podium’s AI BDC or take it for a test drive today !
