February 1, 2019 – Digital retailing was a key topic at this year’s NADA event, and online communication channels such as chat are also making their way to the surface as an important tool for dealers to connect with consumers.
Companies like Gubagoo, for example, launched
Apple Business Chat at the show: a native chat for businesses that works on Apple devices with Apple messages, according to Ryan Osten, General Counsel at Gubagoo.
“That’s a really important new channel. The value proposition for the dealer, for the dealership is driving more revenue for their business, right? Better customer experience and more high quality leads which leads to more revenue, more repeat business, more service revenue booking service, and things like that,” said Osten. “Everything is moving towards messaging these days, as I’m sure is no surprise. It’s convenience.”
Using a channel like SMS, Apple Business Chat or Facebook Messenger allows dealers to have a conversation with a customer (or prospect) over a long period of time at their convenience, said Osten. “Messaging is really obviously the future of how customers communicate with businesses. That’s where we’ve made our name: in that communication platform and enabling all these channels for consumers to communicate with dealerships.”
The company is now moving into its next phase — enabling the consumer to move further down the funnel and further into the buying process of purchasing a vehicle online, with communication still at the center of it. The company calls this phase
Gubagoo Virtual Retailing, which is basically a digital retailing solution that is completely integrated within Facebook. It was released in October 2018.
“It allows the customer to complete all of the most important activities of purchasing a vehicle through messaging. It’s calculating a payment on finance or lease, applying any rebates, incentives, evaluating their trade in, selecting F&I, applying service and warranty actively, and submitting a full credit application,” said Osten. “A lot of companies are doing that. The difference is that we are putting communication at the center, so live chat is baked into it so you can actually get help from a live person while you’re in this process.”