Company continues creation of a world-class customer engagement platform
that improves automotive OEM and retailer customer communications
CentralBDC, one of the nation’s leading privately-owned outsourced Business Development Centers (BDCs) for automotive dealerships, announced it is taking a majority stake in outbound customer engagement leader, Better Car People (BCP). As the second investment for CentralBDC in recent months, BCP joins the growing Central BDC family, continuing the creation of a world-class customer engagement platform that focuses on improving how automotive OEMs and retailers communicate with consumers.
“This is great news for us and a big jump forward in our plan to become the #1 marketing partner for the automotive industry. CentralBDC is continuing its expansion by investing in businesses with similar and complementary technologies that can help us reach that goal. Our mission is to offer the very best customer engagement technology to our OEMs and dealer clients to help them increase their profitability. BCP has some of the best technology available and is a very strategic and exciting new addition. All I can say is watch this space for future developments,” said Aaron Kleinhandler, CentralBDC’s Chief Executive Officer.
Established in 2010 with its core program Overnight BDC™, which helps retailers respond to leads received outside normal business hours, BCP’s comprehensive engagement solution now includes phone, email, chat, and text. BCP helps dealers bridge the gap between the high expectations consumers have for a virtual retailing experience and the current dealer infrastructure. Its Collaborative Intelligence Platform solutions include omnichannel and cross-channel engagement for sales, service, and parts. These layered services enable dealers to engage with customers around the clock, ensuring inquiries are quickly managed by live agents with quality responses. Its solutions have been successfully deployed at single-point retailers in smaller markets as well as large multi-point metro stores. BCP leverages a full suite of tools to effectively communicate with consumers across all engagement channels, many times using the same agent, allowing for a seamless conversation, anytime, anywhere, on any device. Over 1,000 GM dealers across the United States are currently partnered with Better Car People.
“The automotive industry has gone through some interesting times in the past couple of years and customer engagement has never been more important. It is critical to increasing sales volume, service appointments, and customer satisfaction. Dealers need the right omnichannel tools and technology to meet current consumer needs and demands during the customer lifecycle, both on and offline. The combination of CentralBDC and BCP’s technologies offers dealers an incredibly powerful set of tools. I could not be more excited about our relationship with Central BDC and what this means for the future of auto retailing,” stated Mathew Belk, CEO of Better Car People.
SJ Partners LLC and its affiliates led the equity investment to fund the acquisition. Existing co-investors and lenders Everside Capital Partners LLC and Northcreek Mezzanine provided financing along with Resolute Capital Partners. Enterprise Bank & Trust provided an incremental senior term loan.
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla, CentralBDC provides dealers with advanced platforms and combines people and technology to improve customer engagement. The company has responded to over 32 million customer calls and scheduled over 1.3 million appointments for dealer partners.
Cowen and Company, LLC served as the exclusive financial advisor to Better Car People.
For more information visit https://www.centralbdc.com.
