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Does your website provide "concierge service"?

Sure...

I visit dealership website.
Website seeks to identify who I am. This could begin with a cookie.

Either there is a cookie, or there isn't.

Scenario A - There is a Cookie
Website determines whether or not I have an account with the site.

Either I do have an account, or I don't.

Scenario A+ ...I have an account
Website determines if I'm vehicle shopping, or maybe seeking service (or parts)
Website permits me to pick up where I left off. I have vehicles/products in my wish list, vehicle preferences, requirements, etc.
Website prompts me to validate My Vehicle information/profile
Website talks with CRM, triggers actions and communications accordingly

Scenario A+ ...Shopping
Website determines my interests based on behavior, then recommends related vehicles of interest, including F&I products/offers such as warranties, and after market products, e.g. mats, racks, keychains, etc.

Scenario A+ ...Service/Parts
Website identifies my ownership history based on VIN, DMS, Big Data, then presents personalized special offers.
Website prompts me to validate My Vehicle information/profile

Scenario A2 - There is a Cookie, I do not have an account
Website prompts me to engage, create an account

Scenario B - There is no Cookie
Website monitors my behavior, seeks to determine my interests, begins building profile
Dealership retargets me on the web, presenting personalized special offers
Website talks with CRM, begins building profile
Website prompts me to create account/profile

Reality is, I could go on an on. All of these things are possible, and they are appearing.

There is a concierge experience to be achieved on dealership websites. We can't use Amazon as a cop-out for dealers to not provide a similar experience on the basis that selling cars isn't the same as buying 'other' Amazon products. Heck, Amazon itself is getting into the auto retail business. See for yourselves: http://bit.ly/2wLF605
 
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Cdk sites don’t have any sort of “acct” that you can create and CRM’s don’t really work in that way of building profiles over time.

Everything exists in Silos for most. So are these things created and managed in another dashboard or something?

Jeff bezos is worth 90 billion dollars I think it’s fair to say he can do pretty much whatever he wanTs. Auto will never be able to provide an amazon like experience because it’s a combination of things that make it work.
 
@chriskleslie Obviously a dealership will never become Amazon, but there are ways for it to provide its customers with a similar online experience. The idea is to give each shopper a convenient and personalized experience on the web, with the "computer" learning more about the person as they browse.

For example, if someone visits a VDP several times over the course of a web session, they should be shown an offer on that vehicle, instead of being prompted to book a service session. Or, after requesting more information about a vehicle, they should be given the option of booking a test drive online.

Tools that allow dealerships to provide this type of experience already exist, specifically for the auto industry. They use artificial intelligence to track a user's behavior, and display only the most relevant content. So, while no dealership can boast an Amazon-like website, they can take what Amazon is doing right (providing a concierge experience) and apply it to their own website.
 
Personalization isn't a new concept, it's just been weakly applied to automotive platforms (agree w/ Chris)
https://www.marketo.com/definitive-guides/the-definitive-guide-to-web-personalization

Don’t Start Website Personalization without these Best Practices
https://blog.optimizely.com/2016/07/21/website-personalization-case-studies/

A Roadmap to Creating An Effective Personalization Strategy
https://blog.optimizely.com/2017/02/08/roadmap-effective-personalization-strategy/

...and those would need tweaked against automotive website user needs. I suppose there hasn't been much of an absolute requirement to date, so it's on-hold by the players in the industry.
 
@chriskleslie Obviously a dealership will never become Amazon, but there are ways for it to provide its customers with a similar online experience. The idea is to give each shopper a convenient and personalized experience on the web, with the "computer" learning more about the person as they browse.

For example, if someone visits a VDP several times over the course of a web session, they should be shown an offer on that vehicle, instead of being prompted to book a service session. Or, after requesting more information about a vehicle, they should be given the option of booking a test drive online.

Tools that allow dealerships to provide this type of experience already exist, specifically for the auto industry. They use artificial intelligence to track a user's behavior, and display only the most relevant content. So, while no dealership can boast an Amazon-like website, they can take what Amazon is doing right (providing a concierge experience) and apply it to their own website.

Not to be a Debbie Downer here but that isn't AI at all. At best its the use of triggers to do something like a workflow. Wordpress apps like SUMO have been using this kind of stuff for awhile. Dealerinspire sites have it built in to their platform too under personalizer.

I really think we need to get away from this idea of Workflows and Triggers being categorized as some sort of AI because it's not even close. Its rules based automation.
 
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Reactions: Steve Stauning
Not to be a Debbie Downer here but that isn't AI at all. At best its the use of triggers to do something like a workflow. Wordpress apps like SUMO have been using this kind of stuff for awhile. Dealerinspire sites have it built in to their platform too under personalizer.

I really think we need to get away from this idea of Workflows and Triggers being categorized as some sort of AI because it's not even close. Its rules based automation.
Agreed– there is a real difference between rule-based automation and artificial intelligence. Automation basically works according to an “If a, then b” formula. If this happens, display this. On the other hand, artificial intelligence continually learns about the user, and displays the most relevant content based on all of their interactions (present as well as past). The system is constantly learning from the interactions it offers and their success rates, and knows how to adapt - rather than just following rules. This type of technology does exist for the auto industry– this is the type of tool that can provide an “Amazon-like” experience for users.