Times are changing. We are seeing a shift away from traditional automotive aftersales tactics. With the rise of the digital economy, car owners want to find all the information they need at the touch of a button. Traditional channels provide little information, forcing car owners into long call queues and using their valuable time to come into a dealership. Automotive dealers have the unique opportunity to thrive in the digital revolution.

What do car dealers want more than to provide a positive and easy customer experience? With messaging, car dealers can save more time and work more efficiently to benefit both parties, the car owner and the dealer. WhatsApp Business’ quick, streamlined, and secure messaging allows car dealers to offer the best customer experience with little to no effort. In the post-purchase phase, car owners are worried about one thing only: how to maintain their car to keep it running optimally. This is where messaging can come in handy.

Be available where your customers are
Sometimes customers will call your dealership because they don’t know how else to contact you. Give them the option to contact you on their preferred channel, like WhatsApp, and save their time instead of missing out on a lead who doesn’t want to wait in a call queue.You can do this using call deflection. For example, when a customer calls, they can press 1 to stay in the call queue, or press 2 to continue the conversation on WhatsApp. Not only will you increase customer satisfaction by simply being on your customers’ preferred channels, you will also ensure that your employees’ time is being used more efficiently.

Alleviate high phone traffic
Integrate WhatsApp Business into your aftersales process to keep your outbound call volumes down. Instead of calling customers with updates, provide them with the option to be kept up to date through messaging. This allows you to send out bulk messages via WhatsApp Templates to your customer base when it’s time for a seasonal tire change, for instance.

💡 Did you know you can handle five conversations in the time it takes to make one phone call? That’s a five-fold efficiency boost, all while minimising your call traffic and allowing your employees to focus on more important tasks.

Offering messaging to your customers allows you to create comprehensive customer profiles. Customers love it, too. Messaging reduces the amount of time they are stuck in call queues and lets them answer questions at their convenience. Additionally, by providing a messaging option, your customers can send you information about possible issues as soon as they come up and leave you to file away that information. Car owners no longer have to keep lists of what they want to talk to their dealer about when they can send it via WhatsApp immediately. They can also send multimedia messages – like a video or audio file – if they hear a strange noise they can’t identify rather than coming in for a service appointment they may not even need.

Speed up the repair process
Your mechanics can make use of multimedia messages – attaching images or videos – to show car owners any unexpected issues they might come across. Add a short description of the issue and its solution, and your mechanics can keep working in the shop while they await a response. No more time wasted stopping to make phone calls. More efficient repairs lead to a larger volume of repairs, which in turn leads to higher revenues.

People are often busy and can’t answer a phone call without notice, so getting a message notification allows car owners to answer with just a few taps of their fingers. Customers also get the feeling that they are being taken care of, that no leaf is left unturned during their repair job, which inevitably leads to higher customer satisfaction.

Ease the pressure of busy phone lines on your car dealers, mechanics, or schedulers. Provide your customers with the easiest way to contact you. Messaging allows you to do all this while increasing revenue, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction and efficiency. It also allows you to reach your customer base much more efficiently than traditional aftersales tactics allow.