Your First Response - what are you trying to say?

[Alexander Lau]

I'm not referring to your run of the mill 'chat bot'. I'm referring to ultra smart AI. I agree with you, over the past 15 years the bots have been pretty shitty.

 

[CarlosSousa]

I've been talking to a few of our dealers about this, and one topic continues to come up - video responses to Internet leads. There are a couple dealers who mentioned they have tried it and they had really good results. Has anybody here tried something similar? Do we have any data on how your contact, appointment set, or show rates improve when a video response is used?

 

[Chris Leslie]

You guys sound like a bunch of cranky old guys.

Video responses to leads is a lot of work. I haven't seen anything that leads me to believe this can work at scale.

Chatbots can totally work if you build it with simplicity in mind. Think about you as the dealer controlling the where the conversation goes. Do not, I repeat do not assume you can allow for interpretation here. it needs to be a deliberate path.

As far as
Your First Response - what are you trying to say?

"GET EM IN"

 

[Steve Roessler]

Hey guys, I have to interject as there is data out there. I'm just trying to inform based on data that is being tracked with video.

@CarlosSousa You should do personalized video as the data is right. Non integrated platforms make it challenging but can be done. Meaning: Sales guys will have to enter in an email, subject line, and comment. Too much work. Also, you will be on separate platforms from your CRM. Full integration for video is the way to go to track the metrics you want. Send me your email & can send you those reports to support your cause for video.
@Rob If you have time, we can connect and go over metrics that you can track. One report is that videos vs no video does increase closing. Example across 4 stores: 1428 opportunities - 13% got a video. Of the 13%, closing rate was 32% vs 14% closing without.
@Chris K Leslie - Personalized video is not tough, if video is fully integrated. Stores can easily shoot 1000 videos a month. It has to be a new culture change as your right, it's typically not scalable. Technology IS there today if your curious to take a peak.

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

I've been talking to a few of our dealers about this, and one topic continues to come up - video responses to Internet leads. There are a couple dealers who mentioned they have tried it and they had really good results. Has anybody here tried something similar? Do we have any data on how your contact, appointment set, or show rates improve when a video response is used?

@Steve Roessler maybe you can share the video response performance data from a general standpoint (outside of integrated platforms and DriveCentric.) As long as you can measure your key points of performance, tight integration isn't necessary but I'm sure quite helpful with performance and usage reporting.

I've worked and trained enough dealers on video response that I can support Steve's example of increased show and closing ratios. Obviously, there are several other variables that come into play, like: effective subject line to get the open, quality of the video and delivery of the video.

In order to obtain the increase in performance, the "first response" video needs to be personalized and relevant to that potential buyer.

• Personal Introduction
• Answer their question(s)
• Confirmation/Walk-around of the vehicle of interest.

We have some great threads that showcased several great examples:
https://forum.dealerrefresh.com/threads/implementing-walk-around-videos.4689/
https://forum.dealerrefresh.com/thr...-vs-true-walkaround-video-w-o-voice-over.5032

Another thread that dives a bit deeper:
https://forum.dealerrefresh.com/threads/why-is-video-so-difficult.4366/

Since being back on the dealer side, implementing and training on personal video responses has been at the top of my list. I finally have 1 service/tool that provides me the ability to record a more professional walk around video AND one that the sales (and service) team can use for personal but simplified video responses to leads.

Anyone else using video as their main medium for answering leads?

 

[Steve Roessler]

@Jeff Kershner Yeah, it's pretty interesting when you look at data of "Contextualized video" or "Canned Video" performance over a "Personalized Video" performance from a customer's engaged perspective. Here is some info below to compare engagement with video.

Contextualized Video Performance for 1 Month
1,414 videos 546 opens (38.6%) Clicks from Opens: 121 (22.2%)

Personalized Video Performance for 1 Month
1228 videos 508 open (41.3%) Clicks from Open: 373 (73.4%)

By utilizing this data, it's clear that the personal touch is more impactful from customers watching the video. I also encourage "props" to be used to drive open rates and more clicks. It works.

Lastly, Shooting videos is not just for internet lead responses. Incorporate into your process. Bday, Anniversary, Confirm appts, no longer in the market, bad credit, thank you videos for visiting, etc. That is where most dealership struggle as it's only a "one and done" task for 1 part of their process. Video should be a change in culture ALL throughout the dealership.

 

[Alexandra Joseph]

Chatbots can totally work if you build it with simplicity in mind. Think about you as the dealer controlling the where the conversation goes. Do not, I repeat do not assume you can allow for interpretation here. it needs to be a deliberate path.

But this is the problem. Scripted bots can only go down a limited number of paths--and then, what problem are you really optimizing for?
To really understand the potential of bots, we need to understand their strengths and weaknesses. They can add significant value, but they work best when they follow strict flows or simple rulesets. The tradeoff here is always giving less value to the user. Eventually users understand that they're being pushed down a flow that they don't care to complete, because it's not giving them the value they're seeking.
What makes services like Google Assistant and Siri great is that they require direct user input for them to reply. They only interact when a user asks them for specific information or to complete a task. They don’t try to predict or infer when to interact with a user, or follow a logic tree to insert themselves where they aren’t required. In other words, they aren't trying to chat with you in order to showboat their NLP skillz, they're assistants that wait for you to tell them what you need. And then they respond appropriately.
Your customers are just trying to get things done quickly and as painlessly as possible, our job is not to make it so damn hard.