A different approach to dealer website/chat AI? Ever heard of Seezar?

[David.Ham]

Just what customers want - a chatbot that presents them with a lead form

View attachment 8706

@Ryan Everson , thanks for bringing this up. The screenshot is from our deck and yeah, its a basic lead form. But it doesn't have to be. We can cater the tool to pick up the leads based on what your preferences are. With prompts split up to more organically capture customer details and seamlessly scheduling visits. I'd be happy to answer questions if you're interested.

 

[David.Ham]

May be a good question for them. The dealer may have wanted to move to a form at that point instead of moving the shopper down the path to schedule a time? Dealers tend to hamstring even the best technology.

That's a good point @Dan Sayer . The tech allows for a more organic nudging down the sales path, but some dealers still prefer a classic lead form. We'll work with dealers to cater an approach that works best for them and continuously optimize along the way.

 

[David.Ham]

as for the website that I did that search on ... It's a member's site from here.

I did it again.
cheap fast car (in the ai search box)

number 2 vehicle
79.2% match rating.
2021 Ford® Explorer XLT 4WD

number 1 vehicle
79.9% match rating
2024 Toyota® Camry XSE V6 Auto

@Carsten , try the same query on one of the sites with Seezar on it. On parks.uk.com it returns an M4 Competition. Not too shabby if you ask me.

 

[Carsten]

OMG, time machine, Dealer Refresh blog post, circa 2011!
Is Your Dealership Chat Used or Abused? – DealerRefresh

hahaha, 13 f*ckin' years later and chat is still junk (because dealers are lead whores). Hell, back then, @Ryan Everson didn't have a licence yet hahahaha... But, the post has value, check out the science!

I classified repetitive questions.

1. Credit Questions
2. Trade-in Questions
3. Search Help Needed
4. Purchase Intent
5. Miscellaneous

Chat users have questions the site can't answer, they want answers fast. @Carsten, I used this study as a 'friction discovery tool' in my site design. Our sites haven't changed, the cars are 100x more complex and 100x more expensive. Have the shoppers questions changed? Tables below are from that post.

Here’s a breakout of the last 200+ chats on my site:

Topic	Count	Percent
Search Helper Needed​	91​	44%​
Purchase Intent​	26​	13%​
Credit​	48​	23%​
Tradein​	19​	9%​
Misc​	24​	12%​
Total​	208​

I went deeper, this is where it gets interesting:

Here are the subcategories I found FYI:

Topic	Subtopic	Count	Percent
Credit	bad credit	27	13%
	Credit	13	6%
	Credit App Status?	8	4%
Search	search helper (complex query)	47	23%
	search helper (by $ or payment)	32	15%
	search helper (wants details on car)	9	4%
	search helper, car has warranty?	3	1%
Purchase	Purch Intent, has car picked out, wants Appt	4	2%
	Purch Intent (“where is this car located?”)	3	1%
	Purch Intent (“car in stock?”)	13	6%
	Purch assist (make an offer)	6	3%
Trade-in	Tradein	19	9%
Misc	After store visit, follow up chat (be back)	5	2%
	Translation	3	1%
	Carfax request	2	1%
	Deliver out of State?	4	2%
	Offer Military Discount?	1	0%
	Young, 1st time buyers	5	2%
	transfer car to other store	1	0%
	prep for purch questions	3	1%
	Total	208

1) I'd love to see a breakout of today's shopper.
2) AI Chat designers, use this "Jobs to be Done" framework for training and testing.

This is gold.

1. I agree. I wonder if 60-70% of these have been addressed or if not why.
2. Ai, can cover a lot of this by picking though emails and texts. Possibly, recorded messages too.

 

[Carsten]

@Carsten , try the same query on one of the sites with Seezar on it. On parks.uk.com it returns an M4 Competition. Not too shabby if you ask me.

Could you share a link for this?

I am not sure if it's the general search area or the chat box.

 

[David.Ham]

Could you share a link for this?

I am not sure if it's the general search area or the chat box.

Sure! You can try either of these 2:

BMW Retailer | Glasgow, Hamilton, Hillington & Stirling | Douglas Park

Visit Douglas Park BMW in Glasgow, Hamilton, Hillington and Stirling, established BMW retailer and BMW specialist. Explore the latest new car offers and approved BMW cars in stock at our BMW Centres across Scotland.

www.parks.uk.com

Norton Way Group | Car Dealer | Hertfordshire & London

Norton Way Group is an established dealership group based Hertfordshire & London. Get in touch today to arrange a test drive, book a viewing or schedule a service & MOT.

www.nortonway.com

And it's the Ask AI tab on the bottom right. Currently it's set to passive so will only activate on click.

 

[Carsten]

@Seezar
For a first gen AI, this isn't too bad. I'm impressed.

cheap fast car: isn't a 1 series for 35 thousand quid though but this could be because the model isn't using the public option or isn't connected to the used inventory, and thus didn't see the 2013 3 series for 1/3 of the 1 series.

"is this ride a petro powered one?"
"
To provide you with accurate information, I would need to know which specific ride or model you're referring to. However, if you're asking about the BMW 2 Series Coupe options I previously mentioned, yes, there are petrol (gasoline) powered versions available in our inventory.
...
"

Mate! Looks like your AI is a yank!

 

[Alex Snyder]

I’m stoked! @Seezar is going to be a guest on RefreshFriday next month.

 

[Richard_Lloyd]

Curious, do dealers have their in-house staff participate in any point of the website chat process anymore?

 

[Ryan Everson]

Curious, do dealers have their in-house staff participate in any point of the website chat process anymore?

If I had to guess, I'd say less than 1% of dealers have in-house dealership staff answering live website chats consistently during business hours.