Julian Johnston, Vice President of Innovation and Platform Philosophy
Julian Johnston, Vice President of Innovation and Platform Philosophy
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For AutoAlert, a company well known for its data mining tools, NADA presented an opportunity for them to reposition the company as a provider of Customer Experience Management tools.
Julian Johnston, the company’s Vice President of Innovation and Platform Philosophy, explained the change. “The original founders started in the data mining vertical within automotive, and have really been innovative and constantly building on that side. So the pivot that we’ve made here is going towards this idea of customer experience management,” he said.
Johnston said many CRM tools use time-based follow mechanisms that are based on a set of dates programmed into the system. For example, after a set number of days following a service visit, a prompt will trigger a follow up call or email.
He said the company is instead looking to present dealers with real-time data, whether financial or behavioural about that customer. “We’re building a follow-up process tool that is backed by intelligence and backed by data,” said Johnston.
“But what we’re able to see is that a customer is online shopping right now looking at certain vehicles, and is in a financial position to upgrade. So as a dealer, do you want to wait three months for one of your sales members to do that call or not even do it? Or do you want to do that process yourself, just based on that behaviour that we’re able to pick up?”
That, in essence, is what the company is doing. For those interested in learning more, the company can provide a demo.
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