Automotive News - March 9, 2009 - (Page 17) FEBRUARY 9, 2009 • 17 Cool stuff at NADA Videos for all Dealer.com’s CarFlix HumanVoice Videos automatically creates video ads with human voices from pictures and data in a dealership’s inventory system. CarFlix HumanVoice pre-records human voices, not tinny computer-generated ones, and then blends words and phrases to form voiceovers for video. It can produce a video within minutes of a vehicle’s data being loaded into an inventory system. The system automatically assigns appropriate music to different types of vehicles from a library of music tracks. Recovery option Zoombak LLC’s Zoombak GPS Recovery system uses global positioning satellite and cellular signals to give police the location of a stolen vehicle. Zoombak’s vehicle recovery team tracks stolen vehicles until they are recovered. Dealerships can sell the system as optional equipment. Exhibitors at this year’s National Automobile Dealers Association convention in New Orleans said dealers were on a mission to cut costs, strengthen relationships with customers and use the Internet more effectively. The exhibition floor was crowded with cool technologies to do just that. Here are 10. — Ralph Kisiel Texting 4U Dealers can notify customers the instant their vehicle has been repaired with @utoText from @utoRevenue, a unit of Dominion Enterprises. Service customers must agree to receive the texting service. Dealers use @utoText to contact customers to get approvals for repair orders, send service status updates, announce when a vehicle is ready and send appointment reminders. Used-car coverage NADA’s AppraisalPRO, which launches in April, will give dealers a broad view of the used-car market with one Web-based system. The dealer enters the vehicle’s identification number and up pop data from six sources: NADA Used Car Guide values, AutoTrader.com retail asking prices, Experian AutoCheck vehicle history reports, Power Information Network retail sales transactions, Manheim Used Car Market Report auction sales transactions and vAuto used vehicles days supply. JOE WILSSENS Speeding diagnostics Al Motta shows off WiTECH, which speeds the work of service technicians at Chrysler LLC dealerships. The new diagnostic system allows a technician to link the diagnostic results wirelessly from a vehicle directly to Web-based service guides. It identifies all potential problems and their solutions, and it allows technicians to download software repairs immediately. Chrysler says WiTECH saves each technician 30 to 45 minutes a day. Motta is Chrysler’s director of dealer techinical operations. Get more from your computer You probably underuse your computer. Dealerships do, too. So Reynolds and Reynolds Co. launched Computer Assisted Instruction in its ERA dealership management system. Reynolds provides a library of more than 100 self-paced training courses, tailored to specific duties. Respond in detail Respond to Internet leads within 10 minutes and with more information than the customer expects with SmartQuote from ResponseLogix Inc. SmartQuote provides a quote based on the make, model and trim level requested by the customer; any rebates or incentives; and the dealership’s pricing rules. It matches the lead to a salesperson and automatically delivers a personalized e-mail with the quote from the salesperson within 10 minutes. SmartQuote includes quotes for the same model with different options and adds a few used vehicles for comparison. JOE WILSSENS Profiling shoppers Want to know the gender, age, marital status, household income and number of children for every person visiting your dealership Web site? With Qualifid Automotive from Digital Alliance Group LLC, a shopper going to a dealership’s Web site first lands on a “Pre-site Page” asking for his or her full name and ZIP code. If the shopper complies, Qualifid pulls a detailed demographic profile of that person — not just a generic average for the ZIP code — by tapping multiple consumer databases. The visitor then is taken to a dealership page that greets him or her by name and offers vehicle photos and text based on the profile. Configuration at your finger tips Cloth or leather seats? Aluminum or mag wheels? Deciding could become easier with Microsoft’s Surface Configurator, shown by Ryan Keberly, right. Skip the mouse. Use your fingertips on this horizontal tablelike computer screen to configure a vehicle. Touch red on a digital color palette and the vehicle on the screen turns red. Dealers also can give customers dominosized tiles containing, say, a fabric swatch. When a tile is placed on the screen, the computer reads the tile’s bar code and matches the vehicle’s interior to the swatch. Watching the demonstration are, from left: Nathan White and Rick White from CitySide Subaru in Belmont, Mass., and Pat Browne of Colonial Automotive Group in Wellesley, Mass. Chat fast If a consumer looking at the details of a vehicle listed on Cars.com has questions, a click on “Live Chat” brings faster answers than an e-mail. DealerChat lets the dealership respond while the shopper is still on the page. Dealerships designate a salesman to handle the chat questions. So far 1,500 dealerships have signed up. http://www.Dealer.com http://www.AutoTrader.com http://www.Cars.com
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