Carfax and Gubagoo Deliver Free Vehicle History Reports for Online Car Shoppers at Participating Dealerships

CENTREVILLE, Va. (August 26, 2019) – Carfax and Gubagoo, the leading provider of conversational commerce solutions for Automotive Dealerships and OEMs, have announced a partnership that enables car shoppers to seamlessly research vehicles online before buying. Consumers utilizing Gubagoo’s chat and digital retailing solutions on dealer websites will now have access to a free Carfax Vehicle History Report.

Gubagoo’s conversational commerce platform, which includes ChatSmart advanced live chat, Text+ for inbound/outbound texting, Publisher for behavior-based offers and incentives, and Gubagoo Virtual Retailing’s guided shopping experience, will now provide consumers with one-click access to Carfax Vehicle History Reports. Car shoppers can make confident decisions with access to information like prior accidents and damage, number of owners, service records and mileage.

“We are excited about this innovative partnership with Gubagoo to give car shoppers another avenue to research a vehicle before purchasing,” said Scott Fredericks, Carfax Vice President of Marketing. “We know consumer knowledge of the vehicle history improves trust with dealerships, leads to better informed buying decisions and increases sales conversion on used vehicle inventory.”

Dealerships partnered with both Carfax and Gubagoo can maximize their utility with this integration that enables them to provide greater transparency to car shoppers with easier access to Carfax reports.

“Gubagoo is excited to partner with Carfax,” said Brad Title, Gubagoo CEO. “We are constantly working to bring consumers and dealerships closer through omnichannel communication and transparency. We firmly believe that building trust with online shoppers in both online and offline channels is paramount to helping consumers make more informed buying decisions that meet individual needs.”

About Gubagoo
Gubagoo is the leading provider of conversational commerce solutions for Automotive Dealerships and OEMs. Used by more than 5,000 Dealerships, Gubagoo’s fully managed omni-channel messaging and digital retailing platforms instantly connect consumers to Dealerships anytime and anywhere through live chat, text, video, Facebook Messenger, and other digital messaging channels, converting high quality leads and appointments for Dealerships 24/7/365. For more information, visit www.gubagoo.com, e-mail hello@gubagoo.com or call 855-359-2573.

About Carfax

Carfax, a unit of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), helps millions of people every day confidently shop, buy, own and sell used cars with innovative solutions powered by Carfax vehicle history information. The expert in vehicle history since 1984, Carfax provides exclusive services like Carfax Used Car Listings, myCarfax, Carfax History-Based Value and the flagship Carfax® Vehicle History Report™ to consumers and the automotive industry. Carfax owns the world’s largest vehicle history database and is a nationally recognized top workplace by The Washington Post and Glassdoor.com. Shop, Buy, Own, Sell – Show me the Carfax™. Based in London, IHS Markit is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

Dealerships today operate in an environment where the consumer experience is a driving factor in dealership selection.  Ecommerce and other third-party disruptors are impacting customer expectations.  Additionally, margins have compressed.  There isn’t much room left for dealers to go.

With this as a reality today, efficiency becomes one way to maintain profitability and meet customer demands.

Dealerships have a distinct advantage over online-only retailers.   You have inventory for customers to view and staff on hand to answer any customer questions.  This has immense value.  The key is refining your process, maintaining these differentiators while streamlining the transaction.

How can you leverage efficiency to accomplish this? Here are some simple questions you can push your process through to gauge its efficiency.

Can you reduce the time it takes to complete your process?  We’ve all seen studies on the impact time has on your profitability and customer satisfaction.  Where can you eliminate areas in your process that add time and reduce trust? 

In my dealership experience, getting a deal approved and waiting for finance were two areas that took a lot of time.  There was typically a bottleneck in front of the finance office.  Obviously, dealers need that finance gross today.  But how can you speed up the process without sacrificing that back-end?

Can you reduce duplication?  What do I mean?  Customers are doing a lot of research online.  Can you move some of the offline steps that take time and let customers complete them in the comfort of their own homes?  In your process, can you identify and acknowledge those completed steps and pick up where they’ve left off?

This is one thing that drives me crazy about the doctor’s office.  I don’t visit often, but do I have to fill out that clipboard every time?  Don’t they have my information?

Also, few things frustrate a customer more than providing redundant information.  If a customer completes steps online, asking them to repeat them when they get to the store doesn’t help build trust.  And it’s very inefficient.

This requires a responsive sales process and salespeople who can identify customer needs and expectations.  You’ll need salespeople that aren’t robots.

Training can improve your efficiencies.  Too often, strategies that are engineered into the sales process aren’t communicated and trained with the team.  Salespeople don’t know what to do or why the change is being made.

Can your sales process reduce the steps salespeople need to do?  Are there steps that you’ve always done that you can remove and still provide a good experience while maintaining your margins? 

I think this is always a good question to ask.  You may find there are steps that have no impact on the final outcome.  Or maybe you can automate tasks to increase speed.  Is it possible that steps can be completed simultaneously to reduce the amount of time customers take?

I’m not saying that customers should be in and out in an hour.  I’m saying that your process makes it possible that they could be out that fast.  Customers should be the ones that direct the amount of time necessary, not the salesperson or the dealership.

I challenge you to audit your process and ask yourself how you can make it more efficient.  Efficiency is going to become more and more important as the retail evolves, and it puts you in a better position to improve your profitability.

Dealers can add value to vehicles by showcasing repair items

CHICAGO — August 15, 2019 — MAX Digital, the dealer-first digital retail software provider for the automotive industry, has released new functionality to its platform allowing dealers to highlight service upgrades completed in vehicle merchandising easily.

Dealerships using the MAX data platform, including MAX Digital Showroom and MAX Ad products are able to feature the work the dealership has done to get a used-car frontline ready. Repair items such as new wiper blades, oil changes, or new tires are displayed with simple icons in all vehicle ads.

 “Online shoppers and your sales staff are able to see the full value put into the vehicle they are considering purchasing,” said MAX Digital Executive Vice President, Mike Cavanaugh. “These items show the attention to maintenance the dealership is providing, driving up the value of the vehicle and supporting fair and transparent pricing.”

The service completed area can be fully customized by account, including naming conventions for any dealership. MAX Digital allows the ability to preset standard service bundles or items to automatically display, as well as custom vehicle detail. A specific dollar value can also be associated to individual items or service bundles.

For more information visit maxdigital.com or contact your MAX Digital representative.

About MAX Digital

Founded in 2011, MAX Digital was born from a rich history of innovation and continues the pioneering spirit of FirstLook by delivering the professional tools needed to help dealerships thrive into the future. MAX Digital empowers thousands of dealerships to transform their retail processes to sell more cars more profitably through award-winning inventory management and people-friendly digital retail solutions. MAX Digital was named Dealers’ Choice top inventory management system for 2019 in Auto Dealer Today, for more information visit maxdigital.com.

Auto dealers can now extend their in-store tools to the messaging channels customers prefer

ATLANTA, Aug. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- LivePerson Automotive, a division of global conversational commerce solutions provider LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ: LPSN), announced today that TradePending's trade valuation tool will be integrated into LivePerson's conversational platform for auto dealers.

For consumers and dealers, trade is one of the most important elements of the car-buying and selling processes, as consumers rely on the trade-in value of their existing vehicle to fund their new one, while dealers use trade-ins as a source of profit in the certified and used car markets. According to National Automobile Dealers Association data, 60% of car sales in the United States involve trade-in.

Dealers who are mutual LivePerson Automotive and TradePending customers will be able to provide an omnichannel experience for consumers by extending the same trade-in valuation tool they use across digital properties and in-store processes to LivePerson's industry-leading conversational commerce platform. LivePerson Automotive's platform enables the trade-in experience to be delivered through preferred messaging channels — including SMS, Facebook Messenger, Android Messaging, WhatsApp, and Apple Business Chat — to increase lead volume and engage consumers in asynchronous messaging conversations that take place on the consumer's time.

The new integration, which launches on August 16, 2019, will provide access to TradePending features that produce high conversion rates, like predictive search and a simple user experience. TradePending works with around 8,000 dealers and websites, and their predictive search technology shows 26% form completion rates compared with 5% on traditional trade tools.

"What we're seeing here is a huge methodology shift for dealers," said Joe Dallas, chief business officer at TradePending. "Over the course of a natural messaging conversation, dealers are getting more connection points with their consumers, more detailed info about these new leads, and ultimately getting closer to a deal."

Dealers who are mutual TradePending and LivePerson Automotive customers will be able to activate TradePending in their LivePerson portal with the click of a button.

"From the simple user experience to the provisioning of local, market-centric data, dealers will see huge benefits through this integration," said Brian Abrams, senior director, product at LivePerson Automotive. "Combining that with omnichannel trade-in valuation across in-store and messaging, it's clear that together we're putting dealers in a better position — not only in terms of increased profit but also in the customer experience we're providing through engaging, multi-channel conversations."

For more information, start messaging with LivePerson Automotive at 678-648-6961.

About LivePerson Automotive
LivePerson Automotive (formerly known as Contact At Once! and AdvantageTec), a LivePerson Company, works with over 17,000 businesses powering them to build relationships with their customers throughout the full life cycle of the car from sales to service by offering the first product in the market to power the conversational dealership (and automaker) from browsing to buying, through servicing to trade-in. For more information about LivePerson Automotive, please visit www.livepersonautomotive.com.

About LivePerson, Inc. 
LivePerson makes life easier by transforming how people communicate with brands. Our 18,000 customers, including leading brands like HSBC, Orange, and The Home Depot, use our conversational commerce solutions to orchestrate humans and AI, at scale, and create a convenient, deeply personal relationship — a conversational relationship — with their millions of consumers. For more information about LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN), please visit www.liveperson.com.

Media Contact
Mike Tague
415-408-5607
mtague@liveperson.com

Patent-pending tool primed to transform used car market providing first ever mobile high-resolution undercarriage imaging 

BUFFALO, N.Y. – ACV Auctions, the leading dealer-to-dealer, online wholesale automotive marketplace, announces the launch of Virtual Lift™, the industry’s first mobile vehicle undercarriage imaging tool. Developers at ACV Auctions have created a portable system capable of producing high-resolution undercarriage reconstructions, providing unprecedented insight into vehicle condition. The lightweight, low profile device utilizes ACV’s proprietary mobile hardware and software technology to provide a full bumper-to-bumper view and image of the vehicle’s undercarriage in less than one minute.   

Virtual Lift™ elevates the level of trust and transparency in the ACV Auctions online marketplace by providing a never-before-seen look into a vehicle’s undercarriage. The inability to access a vehicles’ undercarriage is an element of buying risk the Virtual Lift™ can overcome. 

“Virtual Lift™ is just one more way for ACV Auctions to solidify the business as the most trusted and transparent marketplace for dealers to buy and sell their wholesale inventory,” said CEO George Chamoun. “Our teammates thrive on providing new technology solutions to solve challenges for buyers and sellers, and we couldn’t be more excited to share Virtual Lift™ with our dealer partners. We sound like a broken record, with our relentless focus on being the most trusted way a dealer buys a used vehicle. AMP™ and Virtual Lift™ demonstrate our commitment, and we are just getting started.”  

Sophisticated technology facilitates a fast, simple process for ACV Auctions Vehicle Condition Inspectors (VCI) as they create a Condition Report for each vehicle before it is listed on the app. The Virtual Lift™ is a portable, drive-over solution utilizing mobile device technology that can be operated by a single inspector. Less than a minute later, the ACV app creates a detailed image of the undercarriage that can be uploaded as part of the Condition Report available to all buyers. 

Cofounder and Chief Technology Officer, Dan Magnuszewski commented, “Virtual Lift™ is exciting because we are solving a big problem for the auto industry with a truly unique and innovative technology solution. I’m so proud of our team; we were able to invent a scalable solution to image the undercarriage without cumbersome lifts or expensive infrastructure.” 

The new tool will begin rollout nationwide to ACV Auctions VCIs starting in August, with customers beginning to see in-app photos as part of condition reports in October. 

 

In December 2018, ACV announced it secured $93 million in Series D funding that enabled the company to continue its explosive nationwide growth. The new funding also enabled ACV to double down on product and engineering to expand the breadth of its platform and analytics to dealers. 

As margins compress from new vehicle sales, many dealers are evaluating their used car businesses to make up for the losses. ACV helps dealers eliminate the risks involved in selling and buying used vehicles from traditional sources. Extensive condition reports are key to ACV's success, providing buyers with transparent information to make informed decisions about vehicles they are interested in purchasing regardless of their distance from the seller. ACV's process enables dealers to access a national buyer pool and reduces the risk of arbitration, providing quicker inventory turnover and eliminating surprises.

About ACV Auctions

ACV Auctions is an online, wholesale vehicle marketplace that provides franchise and used-car dealerships a more effective and transparent way of buying and selling wholesale vehicles through 20-minute auctions. Its technology modernizes the entire arc of auction operations, providing third-party inspections, account management, title and payment processing, managing arbitration and transportation. The company strives to be the most trusted source in the industry for dealers to buy and sell wholesale vehicles. To learn more, visit www.acvauctions.com. 

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MAX My Trade leads to higher profits, improved CSI, better close rates

CHICAGO — July 25, 2019 — MAX Digital, the dealer-first digital retail software provider for the automotive industry, has launched MAX My Trade, a guided experience that improves the trade-in process for dealership teams and customers.

Typically conducted on iPad, the customer and salesperson walk around the vehicle appraising the vehicle together. With the walkaround app, the customer and salesperson choose a mutually agreed upon rating on a 10-point scale for different aspects of the car, such as interior condition, brakes, and tires.

After the walkaround evaluation, a market-based appraisal report will provide a fair market price combining the customer’s vehicle condition rating score with top book values of third-party validation sites like Kelley Blue Book and NADA. Customer ratings naturally drive lower valuations creating a positive environment for under-allowance. The final trade offer is approved by the sales manager, so the dealership retains control.

“When you get customers involved in the appraisal process, they feel more in control, understand the fair value of their vehicle, and overall feel a lot better about the sales process,” said MAX Digital Executive Vice President, Mike Cavanaugh. “Our dealer customers who have beta-tested MAX My Trade have seen this firsthand with an average 47% increase in front-end gross profits and improved CSI.”

MAX My Trade also includes an at-a-glance profitability reporting tool, which provides dealerships a comparison of appraisals submitted both with and without the tool. Dealers can easily monitor sales, team usage and results to uncover opportunities to further grow profits.

“When we get the customer interacting in the trade, all the armor comes off. They feel very powerful that they are actually appraising the vehicle themselves,” said Brad DeSelms, Sales Director for Fremont Management Co. “The more you involve the customer in the trade-in process, the more they see the logic in how you price the car and the more money you make.”

“One of the immediate benefits is the involvement of the customer in the appraisal process. That involvement is translating into a 5% higher closing rate,” says Lee Porter, Used Car Manager at Vancouver Toyota. “The change has also reduced the time needed to complete the sales process, resulting in our CSI increasing to 96.74%.”

For more information on MAX My Trade visit https://maxdigital.com/digital-retailing/trade-in-appraisal/.

About MAX Digital

Founded in 2011, MAX Digital was born from a rich history of innovation and continues the pioneering spirit of FirstLook by delivering the professional tools needed to help dealerships thrive into the future. MAX Digital empowers thousands of dealerships to transform their retail processes to sell more cars more profitably through award-winning inventory management and people-friendly digital retail solutions. MAX Digital was named Dealers’ Choice top inventory management system for 2019 in Auto Dealer Today, for more information visit maxdigital.com.

What have we done to the VDP? 

The VDP has seen some massive changes over the years.  As technology improved, so did our ability to display our inventory.  From, “we can now add a photo” to “we need multiple photos” to “now we have video capability”, merchandising vehicles became a more complicated process. 

But have we gone too far?

A lot of dealership VDPs have too many calls to action.  Just because we can add a button doesn’t mean we should.  Today, there are more and more tools that are available to help customers shop, and the trick is to display these tools in an organized fashion that doesn’t detract from the end goal of the page.

This brings up an interesting question.  What is the goal of a vehicle details page today?  Is it built for conversion, where the customer fills out a lead form or picks up the phone?  Maybe the VDP is a place for a consumer to start their online purchase.  Or is it a research page that lets a customer get insight on what they want? 

I feel like we need to take a step back and simplify our vehicle details pages.  Carvana is getting a lot of attention today.  Look at how they display a VDP.  It’s very clean, and they cut down on the calls to action.  There is a concrete path the customer can go down without feeling like a rigid path.

Think mobile-first websites, for example.  Designing a website for a phone screen is an exercise in “trimming fat”.  Only the most necessary elements remain.  Can we apply this thinking to our inventory pages?  If so, what fat would we trim and what would we keep?

As we evaluate our online properties and prepare to transition to an omni-experience economy in automotive, it’s time to pay attention to the vehicle details page.  Digital retailing gives us a clear path today (one of the reasons Carvana’s VDP looks so clean). Customers can begin the purchase process if they choose, and if a dealership can deliver on the digital retailing promise, there is an end result of the VDP.  This may impact some of the elements we need to display, or at least affect the order in which we display them.

The VDP has been through a lot of changes, and more are to come.  We need to structure our inventory tools in a way that provides information in a clean, concise way, and help customers navigate the purchase process. 

We sat down with Michelle Denogean, CMO of Roadster, and discussed the approach a dealership should take when implementing new process steps to improve the customer experience.

What are some of the ways you are improving the processes in your store? Do you have specific opportunities you're working to capitalize on?

Vehicle intelligence company extends value of GPS platform for Buy Here Pay Here dealers and consumers with Spanish language option

LAS VEGAS, NV., June 18, 2019—Spireon Inc., the vehicle intelligence company, today announced at the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association’s (NIADA) 2019 Expo and Convention that its GoldStar® Connect solution is now available in Spanish. The GoldStar Connect app offers Buy Here Pay Here (BHPH) dealers and lenders connected car features and benefits meant to increase customer loyalty and profitability. With the addition of the Spanish language option, Spanish-speaking consumers can now benefit from the app’s industry-leading GPS services and additional capabilities.

“As a company, we pride ourselves on meeting the needs of our customers, and, in the case of GoldStar Connect, this includes ensuring BHPH dealers have the flexibility to offer a convenient, personalized experience to their Spanish-speaking buyers,” said Brian Deeley, director of product management at Spireon. “By releasing the app in the second most commonly spoken language in the U.S., Spireon is now able to expand its reach, providing a better experience for dealers and lenders, while also offering more consumers the benefits of a feature-rich, connected car experience.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Spanish-speaking population in the U.S. is expected to reach 74.8 million by 2030, which equates to 21% of the country’s population. With upwards of 41 million native Spanish speakers in the U.S., Spireon’s addition of the Spanish language feature to the GoldStar Connect app will provide a more user-friendly experience to better meet the needs of this growing customer segment and the businesses who serve them.

GoldStar Connect provides unparalleled insights to help dealers and lenders mitigate risk, while increasing value and convenience for consumers. The same connectivity features consumers have grown to love, such as vehicle health alerts, recovery solutions for stolen cars and real-time location access, are now available in the Spanish-language version of the app, and include:

Safety & Security—GPS tracking and geofencing capabilities enable consumers to know the location of the vehicle at all times, helping to ensure the safety of the vehicle and the driver while providing peace of mind

Trip History—allows consumers to view where their car has been by date, time and duration to provide full transparency 

Smart Alerts—consumers receive speeding, geofenced locations and battery condition alerts directly to their mobile devices

Stolen Vehicle Recovery—an in-app recovery guide provides vehicle location data and instructions to assist in reporting and recovery of a stolen car

• Insurance Discounts—many carriers provide auto insurance discounts of up to 15%

The new GoldStar Connect Spanish feature is now available, and can be experienced firsthand at booth #423 during NIADA exhibit hours, June 17–20 at the Palazzo Venetian in Las Vegas, Nevada. To learn more, visit www.spireon.com/goldstar-connect/.

 About Spireon

Spireon, the vehicle intelligence company, is the leading provider of aftermarket telematics solutions in North America. By equipping cars, trucks, trailers and other mobile assets with GPS devices and sensors, Spireon turns any vehicle into a connected vehicle. Award-winning products GoldStar, Kahu and FleetLocate deliver 24×7 asset visibility and actionable insights to auto dealers, lenders, transportation companies, service fleet managers, rental car companies and consumers to increase safety and productivity, boost profits and protect assets. Spireon’s NSpire IoT platform powers all Spireon solutions, supporting nearly 4 million active subscribers and processing more than 1 billion data events each month. Learn more at www.spireon.com.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

For more information, contact:
Havas Formula for Spireon

Spireon@HavasFormula.com 
619-234-0345

Platform integration provides consumers with one-click access to Carfax vehicle history reports

from 360° WalkArounds®

SYRACUSE, NY – June 18, 2019 – SpinCar, the global leader in digital automotive merchandising software, announced today a partnership with Carfax that enables car shoppers to seamlessly access Vehicle History Reports directly from 360° WalkArounds. Carfax dealers can now showcase Vehicle History Reports from within both exterior and interior vehicle views for any used car. The integration enables auto dealers to provide greater transparency to car shoppers by offering them an easy way to access Carfax Reports while they are exploring vehicles on a dealer’s website. SpinCar is the first and only digital merchandising platform to offer this integration.

SpinCar’s digital merchandising platform enhances online vehicle detail pages (VDPs) by delivering more engaging and personalized experiences for shoppers. In partnership with Carfax, Vehicle History Reports have been added as clickable feature buttons on all exterior and interior 360° vehicle WalkArounds. Shoppers can access the Vehicle History Report by clicking on the Carfax button from within any walkaround. This new capability is available for all active Carfax dealers.

“SpinCar and Carfax both share a commitment to helping people more confidently shop for used vehicles,” said Jim Sharifi, spokesman for Carfax. “Whether it’s by providing valuable vehicle history information or by delivering interactive tools to empower consumers, we share a common goal of helping buyers and sellers build trusted relationships. This partnership is a win for both consumers and dealers, and we look forward to working with SpinCar to find even more ways to create greater levels of transparency in the car buying process.”    

“Carfax is the most trusted source of vehicle history information for used car shoppers, and we are thrilled to be partnering with them to make it even easier for consumers to access the information they need to make more informed buying decisions,” said Devin Daly, SpinCar Co-Founder and CEO. “The increased visibility and seamless access to Vehicle History Reports make virtual walkarounds an even more engaging online experience. For dealers, this integration provides a powerful new way to promote Carfax Reports for their vehicles and build even greater levels of trust and confidence for online shoppers.”   

About SpinCar

SpinCar offers automotive dealers, wholesalers and OEMs the industry’s most advanced platform for digital automotive merchandising. The company’s 360° WalkArounds® and Feature Tour® products build trust between buyers and sellers by bringing the physical showroom experience to car shoppers wherever and whenever they want. SpinCar’s proprietary shopper behavioral data and VINtelligent® Retargeting solution enable vehicle sellers to deliver hyperpersonalized interactions across the entire car shopping journey. To date, more than 260 million virtual WalkArounds have been experienced by car shoppers across 15 countries. To learn more about SpinCar, visit SpinCar.com.

About Carfax

Carfax, a unit of IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), helps millions of people every day confidently shop, buy, own and sell used cars with innovative solutions powered by Carfax vehicle history information. The expert in vehicle history since 1984, Carfax provides exclusive services like Carfax Used Car Listings, myCarfax, Carfax History-Based Value and the flagship Carfax® Vehicle History Report™ to consumers and the automotive industry. Carfax owns the world’s largest vehicle history database and is a nationally recognized top workplace by The Washington Post and Glassdoor.com. Shop, Buy, Own, Sell – Show me the Carfax™. Based in London, IHS Markit is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.