As dealerships look for new ways to connect with customers outside of the showroom and pursue leads in today’s digital world, technology is becoming an increasingly useful addition to sales teams. Vinessa, VinSolutions’ AI-powered, CRM-integrated virtual assistant, allows salespeople to prioritize their time more efficiently thanks to the ability to vet leads by providing human-like customer engagement at the early stages of the sales process. With Vinessa’s help, salespeople can guide more customers through their unique paths to purchase, increase conversion rates and ultimately boost profits for the entire business. 

“Dealership staff are tasked with filtering through massive volumes of online leads — and dedicating the necessary resources to vetting and communicating with every customer can get in the way of salespeople doing what they do best — selling vehicles and closing deals,” said Tracy Fred, vice president of operations for Cox Automotive brands VinSolutions, Xtime and Dealertrack DMS. “As the consumer path to purchase continues to evolve and default to digital, it also means a 24/7 sales cycle. Dealerships need to be ready to engage with prospects around the clock in a scalable and cost-effective way.”  

Using CRM artificial intelligence, machine learning and data provided by the dealership, Vinessa can answer questions from online and showroom sales leads about inventory availability, vehicle features and more, as well as schedule follow-up tasks for staff. Vinessa provides more qualified leads and ensures that no sales opportunity falls through the cracks whether an early-stage lead or one submitted after hours. With data provided by the dealership, Vinessa is also supported by VinSolutions Performance Managers who will help ensure the dealer gets the most out of the tool so partners can be confident that Vinessa is effectively guiding customers through their unique paths to purchase and delivering sales conversions.  

Vinessa’s key features include:  

• CRM Integration that captures all customer communication from Vinessa directly within the customer record, with in-CRM alerts to ensure preparedness when meeting the customer where they are in the car buying process.  
• Appointment Setting that enables salespeople to stay focused on advanced selling tasks with Vinessa’s ability to schedule showroom appointments with customers on a salesperson’s behalf.  
• Lead Nurturing to engage customers 24/7, Vinessa can respond to leads after hours and follow up on conversations when salespeople are unavailable.  
• Smart Conversations using powerful artificial intelligence and natural language processing Vinessa can understand customer questions and provide real-time answers about inventory and schedule follow-up appointments to keep customers moving through the journey to purchase.  
• Reporting Features record and detail all of Vinessa’s customer interactions in a dashboard to help dealership staff better understand and measure Vinessa’s contribution to sales.    
• Customizable Engagement Settings allow dealers to control how and when Vinessa responds to leads, including who to assign appointments to and if Vinessa should automatically turn off when a salesperson takes over customer communication directly.  
• Connect Automotive Intelligence Integration enables Sentiment Analysis on customer interactions with Vinessa when the products are combined, which allows dealers to identify trends in customer communication and quickly resolve issues in the event of dissatisfaction.  

“Vinessa is not only a backstop for missed communications; it’s also a strong driver for two-way communications. I strongly believe our two-way connections, appointment set rate, and customer satisfaction will all continue to improve,” said Chad Humm, Digital Performance Manager at D-Patrick Auto Group in Evansville, Indiana. “We chose Vinessa over other virtual assistant tools based on its integrations with all of our Cox Automotive tools especially with Connect CRM. Vinessa’s conversations live in the CRM.” 

To learn more about Vinessa, the VinSolutions Virtual Assistant, visit www.VinSolutions.com.