Xtime NADA 2021 Offerings Create a Superior Service Experience and Expand Revenue Opportunities

MISSION, Kan, February 8, 2021 – The service department has long been a major profit center for dealerships and 2020 was no exception. Throughout the pandemic, Xtime, the only end-to-end solution that delivers the service experience customers demand, found more ways to drive the industry forward. At the virtual NADA 2021 show, Xtime will showcase new features and integrations that now create a more convenient, transparent and digital experience for customers, which can result in higher revenue and profitability for dealers.

“Customers expect value, convenience and trust when having their vehicles serviced and we’ve never been in a better position to deliver the ability to offer a world-class service experience to our clients than we are now,” said Tracy Fred, vice president of operations for Cox Automotive brands VinSolutions, Xtime and Dealertrack DMS. “Our latest solutions were created not only to lift dealerships’ level of service to customers, but also to raise service revenue per customer. These truly win-win upgrades will turn what may have been considered a chore for customers into an interactive experience while putting dealerships at the forefront of fixed ops innovation and profitability.”

The latest additions to Xtime’s end-to-end fixed operations solution include:

• Intelligent Diagnostic Integration with Hunter Equipment: Helps increase transparency for repair orders by automatically displaying tire and alignment diagnostic data to customers during check-in using the Engage tablet, as well as alongside the Multipoint Inspection report from the Inspect. Presenting relevant tire and alignment conditions during the visit experience boosts transparency and understanding among customers to help service staff sell more complete repair orders.
• Service Pickup and Delivery with TSD Appointment Sync Integration: Enables more seamless management of vehicle pickup, delivery and loaner services through Xtime’s software to help maximize safety and convenience while taking advantage of the fact that about 90% of customers who used pick-up and delivery services in 2020 were satisfied with their experience.[1]
• Express Multi-Media Video: Allows service staff to capture and instantly share vehicle inspection videos and photos with customers so they can visualize the details of the service visit and better understand and approve repair order recommendations. This level of increased transparency enhances trust and engagement with the service process to improve the overall experience and drive more revenue.
• Special Order Parts Marketing: Enables automated email and text communications to customers when previously out of stock parts become available, letting them know it is time to come back the dealership and complete their repair. This add-on feature helps boost appointments and reduces the amount of unnecessary special order parts inventory.  
• FlexPay: Expanded flexible service financing now includes Sunbit in addition to DigniFi and drives additional dollars per repair order by presenting flexible payment options to customers to make maintenance and repairs more affordable over time and offsetting upfront costs that often deter customers from authorizing full-service recommendations.

"Our service customers and technicians value convenience equally and working with Xtime has allowed us to make every service appointment that much smoother for everyone involved," said Tully Williams, fixed ops director at Niello Company. "With the ability to instantly display vehicle diagnostic data while engaging the customer throughout the appointment with multi-media, our service department is better armed to deliver what customers have been craving for a long time--more control of the process--making it easier to boost profits per repair order, too. Plus, the added convenience of service pickup and delivery, flexible payment options and automated special order parts marketing keep customers coming back to us." 

Xtime’s new product integrations and enhancements all work together to create a more modern service experience to meet customer expectations while streamlining operations and creating additional revenue opportunities for staff and the dealership.

NADA 2021 will be held via a virtual experience from February 9-11, 2021. To learn more about these new products and enhancements, visit www.xtime.com.

About Xtime

Xtime is the leading end-to-end software solution that drives customer loyalty and revenue for automotive dealers in each stage of the service process. With easy-to-use technology and industry experts, Xtime helps dealers meet changing customer expectations. As an advanced, connected solution that provides exceptional support, Xtime is committed to helping dealers deliver the ultimate service experience. Through transparency, convenience, and trust, Xtime Spectrum — comprised of Schedule, Engage, Inspect, and Invite — facilitates more than ten million service appointments monthly. Xtime is a Cox Automotive™ brand.

About Cox Automotive

Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using vehicles easier for everyone. The global company’s more than 27,000 team members and family of brands, including Autotrader®, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com®, Dealertrack®, Kelley Blue Book®, Manheim®, NextGear Capital®, VinSolutions®, vAuto® and Xtime®, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with annual revenues of nearly $20 billion. www.coxautoinc.com

New deep synergies add value where it counts most in the year ahead  

DRAPER, Utah, Feb. 3, 2021 – Dealertrack DMS, a leading provider of cloud-based technology solutions for car dealerships, announces new integrations geared toward helping dealerships achieve higher efficiency and productivity in today’s digital-first environment at the Cox Automotive Experience and NADA 2021. 2020 proved to be a year of significant change in which dealerships had to pivot to meet evolving expectations of service customers, buyers and team members. This transformation also required retailers to address the operational complexities of the day —approximately 75% of franchise dealerships were switching to digital sales operations according to the Cox Automotive Sentiment Survey— and this doesn’t appear to be slowing down in 2021.  

“In these uncertain times, dealerships are more dependent on digital solutions than ever. The need to optimize their technology integrations to prepare for the future, eliminate inefficiencies and ensure their teams have the support they need is at an all-time high,” said Tracy Fred, vice president of operations for Cox Automotive brands VinSolutions, Xtime and Dealertrack DMS. “Today, the average dealership uses approximately seven software integrations simply to complete a sale. The new Dealertrack DMS integrations bring more processes together, adding ease and efficiency to ensure auto retailers can save time and money which translates to better customer service and happier employees.”  

New Dealertrack DMS integrations and solutions build on its longstanding commitment to put dealers at the center of every business decision and innovation. Dealertrack DMS is focused on deep integrations that continue to add ease and efficiency to operations while boosting satisfaction where it counts most for dealerships in 2021 and adding profitability across critical cash flow areas, including:    

• Digitized AR Statements: Dealertrack DMS provides retailers with a simpler, quicker, and less costly way to notify customers and vendors of outstanding AR balances. By digitizing AR statements, dealerships can more easily share with customers through email and bulk print statements, as well as utilize modern templates with the ability to add a color logo.  
• Modern Warranty Claims: Dealerships can submit, track, and audit all warranty claims in a single screen featuring all the tools needed to help optimize the customer's experience. Through providing a centralized information hub, Dealertack DMS assists dealerships by increasing accuracy and visibility, streamlining user experience and workflow, and working to integrate with additional Cox Automotive solutions.   
• Integrated Payroll and HR Management: Through this solution, dealerships gain complete control of the entire employee lifecycle through easy-to-use tools that leverage exclusive integrations to make Integrated Payroll and HR Management a breeze. By bringing together otherwise disconnected or stand-alone solutions into a single service, dealerships with Dealertrack DMS can help eliminate frustration and inefficiencies within the payroll and HR management processes, thereby improving retention and reducing employee turnover. Learn more by reading A Dealer Principle’s Guide to Hiring and Retaining Talent.  

“As a centralized accounting office for multiple dealerships, we rely on fast, easy information from the outlying departments to produce payroll,” said Neal Jackson, controller at Lawley Automotive Group in Sierra Vista, Arizona. “I’ve been doing this since 1993, so whenever there are new solutions like Integrated Payroll, powered by Netchex, I’m eager to give it a try. Pretty much anything I put into Netchex, data-wise, I can get out through a report. With Netchex, I no longer need to do manual time-consuming tasks. It is a huge time saver for me.”  

Dealertrack DMS will be highlighting how these new integrations provide dealers with the connectivity and efficiency to optimize operations at the upcoming virtual National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) 2021 show. For information on all Cox Automotive’s 2021 new offerings, visit www.coxautoinc.com/experience.  

About Dealertrack 
Dealertrack provides industry-leading software solutions that give dealerships, lenders, and partners the confidence to thrive in an ever-changing automotive market. The company’s integrated suite of powerful easy-to-use products and services helps dealerships and their lending partners grow by increasing efficiency and improving decision-making. Dealertrack is part of the Cox Automotive family, a company that is transforming the way the world buys, sells, owns and uses cars. Dealertrack—along with its unmatched network of dealership and lending partners—is improving the car buying experience by embracing the technologies that will shape the future of automotive retail. For more information about Dealertrack, visit www.dealertrack.com. 

About Cox Automotive 
Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using vehicles easier for everyone. The global company’s more than 27,000 team members and family of brands, including Autotrader®, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com®, Dealertrack®, Kelley Blue Book®, Manheim®, NextGear Capital®, VinSolutions®, vAuto® and Xtime®, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with annual revenues of nearly $20 billion. www.coxautoinc.com 

Media Contact: 

Lisa Aloisio 

Lisa.Aloisio@coxautoinc.com 

c. 404-725-0651 

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Solutions enable a more efficient deal finalization from trade-in to vehicle sold from front office to back office   

GROTON, Conn., Feb. 4, 2021 – Dealertrack Registration and Title Solutions announces new enhancements to help increase dealership time savings, simplify complex transactions with an intuitive interface, enable real-time electronic registration and title processing, and improve customer satisfaction at the Cox Automotive Experience and NADA 2021. With 84% of franchised dealerships expecting customers to complete more of the purchase process online than ever before, according to Cox Automotive 2021 Industry Predictions study, meeting consumers where they are and how they want to shop will be imperative for dealerships’ success in today’s digital-first environment. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic drove many workforces to shift to electronic solutions, unlocking new market opportunities as dealers sought to improve the customer experience and streamline the back office processes for each deal,” said Kaitlin Gavin, vice president of Dealertrack Registration and Title Solutions. “State legislators and dealerships alike recognized over the past year that both technology and process support for registration and title functions are essential to keeping the auto industry moving forward. Dealertrack is continuously implementing innovation that eases the registration and titling process with greater efficiency, expediency, and accuracy for all parties.”   

The year ahead will bring an even more permanent shift to digital. According to the Cox Automotive 2021 Industry Predictions, 9 out of 10 dealership staff and consumers believe car purchasers will do more of their shopping online in 2021 compared to in-person shopping. Currently, 35 or two-thirds of the states are either legally enabled to accept or are actively accepting documents with electronic signatures. Considering this ongoing trend, Dealertrack Registration and Title Solutions’ new products and enhancements demonstrate its continued commitment to bringing next-level simplicity, reliability, customization and automation to the registration and title environment. 

• Dealertrack Trade-In Titling (Accelerated Title): There are now more than 70 lenders using Dealertrack’s Accelerated Title solution, providing dealers with even more opportunity to streamline their entire payoff and title release workflow. For a more accurate payoff and title release process, it is crucial to streamline the entire workflow. Dealertrack Accelerated Title speeds the process from weeks to days—up to 70% faster1—improving a dealership’s profitability by accelerating the ability to turn inventory faster for vehicles taken on trade. Overall, a faster title release helps dealerships improve efficiencies, promote profitability, and ensure cash flow on trade-in vehicles via retail or wholesale.  
• In-State Reg & Title: Previously, titling services were mostly manual and paper-driven. Now that all components of buying a car are becoming digitized, DMVs are working to adapt to this new normal.  Helping maximize profit opportunity with a user-inspired digital interface,  
  this innovative solution adapts itself based on the customer, vehicle and transaction information entered. Once collected, this information is automatically repopulated throughout the registration and title process, eliminating the need for duplicate data entry, driving accuracy and efficiencies. By reducing both paperwork and processing time, dealerships can more productively and profitably manage transactions. 
• Out-Of-State Reg & Title (RegUSA®): This service provides an efficient, satisfying car-buying experience to every customer in every state. Dealertrack’s enhanced RegUSA solution now has five new and unique functionality enhancements that reimagine the user interface of the system, offer built-in safeguards to help ensure accuracy and efficiency, and replace much of the manual process that can slow down the out-of-state registration and title workflow. 

Dealertrack will be highlighting new product enhancements as well as registration and title solutions at the upcoming virtual National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) 2021 show. For information on all Cox Automotive’s 2021 new offerings, visit www.coxautoinc.com/experience.  

________________ 

1 Based on average industry timeframe for vehicle title release and vehicle payoff process of 18+ days, as determined by 2020 Dealertrack data. 

About Dealertrack 
Dealertrack provides industry-leading software solutions that give dealerships, lenders, and partners the confidence to thrive in an ever-changing automotive market. The company’s integrated suite of powerful easy-to-use products and services helps dealerships and their lending partners  

grow by increasing efficiency and improving decision-making. Dealertrack is part of the Cox Automotive family, a company that is transforming the way the world buys, sells, owns and uses cars. Dealertrack—along with its unmatched network of dealership and lending partners—is improving the car buying experience by embracing the technologies that will shape the future of automotive retail. For more information about Dealertrack, visit www.dealertrack.com. 

About Cox Automotive 
Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using vehicles easier for everyone. The global company’s more than 27,000 team members and family of brands, including Autotrader®, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com®, Dealertrack®, Kelley Blue Book®, Manheim®, NextGear Capital®, VinSolutions®, vAuto® and Xtime®, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with annual revenues of nearly $20 billion. www.coxautoinc.com 

Media Contact: 

Lisa Aloisio 

Lisa.Aloisio@coxautoinc.com 

c. 404.725.0651 

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Brand Unveils New Personalized Payment, Shopper Insights, Market Growth Tools at NADA

ATLANTA, February 4, 2021 – As the most recognized third-party listings brand and the authority on automotive consumer insights, Autotrader is unveiling its latest innovations at the 2021 NADA Show to help dealers stay ahead in the new year and beyond. Autotrader’s newest products add to its already comprehensive marketing solutions designed to fuel consumer demands and greater growth for dealers.

Despite obstacles in 2020, Autotrader drove more car sales than its closest competitor[1] and had record engagement and site traffic, proving its value is unparalleled. There are even more opportunities and growth to come in 2021, as dealerships reap the benefits of inserting technology into their operations and transforming the online experience for shoppers, who increasingly want to complete their vehicle-buying experience digitally. In fact, two out of three consumers expressed they are now more likely to buy their next vehicle 100% online[2] whereas in 2019, some steps in the process like signing contracts and price negotiation were preferred to be done in person.[3]  Digital transformation is a critical element for dealership adoption to reach new bounds of profitability and customer acquisition, with Digital Retailing leads delivering 25% higher gross profits.[4]

“Alongside our dealership community, last year we learned invaluable lessons—the most important of which being we must build intuitive, personalized and profitable consumer experiences that allow dealerships to do business from anywhere,” said Jessica Stafford, senior vice president of Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book. “We launched Dealer Home Services and helped fast-forward our industry into the future of car buying within a few months. The insights we gleaned from 2020 were front and center as we were rapidly developing new products to help dealers succeed in 2021 and beyond.”

Autotrader innovations for 2021 designed specifically to help dealers increase profits include: 

Help shoppers understand their purchasing power by personalizing their experience:

• My Wallet is a brand-new feature that gives shoppers personalized monthly payments based on their information and helps them to understand their purchasing power. It also allows consumers to integrate their trade-in information from KBB.com, making a seamless shopping journey. When consumers shop online, many base their decisions on price and 67% of shoppers are more likely to use the marketplace if they can shop by payment.[5]  Within My Wallet, ready-to-buy-shoppers can also verify their credit and get pre-qualified or pre-approved with a dealership’s preferred lenders. Personalization of the shopping process drives convenience and closes the gap between shopping and buying.
• Digital Retailing solutions allow dealerships to present consistent pricing and monthly payment options to shoppers right at home. Whether by chat, text, email or click, dealerships can amplify online engagement and build a brand image that helps shoppers reduce time spent in store.

• Increase your sales footprint with expanded inventory reach, exposure and merchandising precision:
•  
  • Market Extension Essential is a new product that extends reach by defining an extended radius around a dealership’s location, allowing dealerships to align their advertising with their operations and delivery capabilities. There are frequently overlooked indicators of supply and how quickly that inventory is selling—these solutions allow dealerships to identify more sales opportunities from virtually anywhere, increasing leads by up to 30%.[6]
  • eLot and Advanced Ads grow reach, target in-market shoppers, and increase dealers’ VDP visits and turn rates. Through tools like Advanced Ads, dealerships can define a desired audience and retarget shoppers with relevant inventory.
  • Relevant Search offers the dynamic, personalized content that helps simplify and accelerate the buying process. A refined, relevant search model serves up compatible inventory to the right shoppers at the right time—faster than ever before.
  • Alpha Elite combines the power of Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book® by prominently showcasing relevant inventory to shoppers on the search results pages across the most used third-party sites.[7] The Alpha from Autotrader, and the Elite from KBB.com, have joined forces allowing inventory to be seen by more shoppers searching across both industry-leading sites. With the power of Alpha Elite, connecting shoppers to what they want across sites has never been easier or more seamless.
  • Dealer Rating & Reviews allows shoppers to evaluate, connect and transact with certainty. Give shoppers peace of mind by incorporating dealerships’ star ratings, so they have the confidence needed to move forward. Reviews from customers provide valuable feedback for a dealership, and now dealerships have the opportunity to respond—helping to build customer trust and satisfaction.

• Understand the impact of a data-driven approach to identify opportunities in real time and yield powerful insights:
•  
  • Audience Explorer is a new nVision report that empowers dealers with the ability to identify shoppers that are interested in their inventory based on their online activity. Leveraging advanced consumer insights to identify ready-to-buy shoppers, nVision knows where they are shopping from and personalized purchasing preferences to help dealerships connect their supply of vehicles to the right buyer in real-time. These tools help dealerships maximize their advertising and give the best data to drive their business, inventory and digital investments. The power of Cox Automotive data and connection has become even more essential for dealers to make fact-based and data-driven decisions.

Implementation is important, but adoption is key when it comes to using new technologies, and Autotrader is able to help dealers put it all together for automotive sales success. As the industry leader in quality-lead generation—61% higher than the nearest competitor—and with lead gross profit of 59%,[8] Autotrader is further empowering dealers with enhancements that boost price transparency and personalization for shoppers, while expanding inventory and market reach to drive more profitable sales.

“When the pandemic hit, some of the upgrades across Autotrader, such as the new VDP integration, allowed us to virtually connect with consumers right when we needed it most,” said Jim Wilkinson, sales director at Fred Haas Toyota in Spring, Texas. “We didn’t have to scramble to recreate a process, but instead we decided to maximize utilization of the Autotrader platform, looking for additional ways to connect with consumers. The ability for us to easily connect with shoppers virtually across Autotrader gave our customers a security they didn’t know they might want or need. The industry has talked about going deeper digitally/virtually for years, and 2020 definitely sped up that process faster than any training ever could.”

The 2021 NADA Show will be held via a virtual experience February 9-11, 2021. To learn more about these new products and enhancements, visit Autotrader at https://www.coxautoinc.com/experience/autotrader.

For more information and news from Autotrader, visit press.autotrader.com, follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Autotrader_com (or @Autotrader_com), Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/autotrader_com/ (or @autotrader_com), like our page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/autotrader/, and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/autotrader-com.

About Autotrader
Autotrader is the most recognized third-party car listings brand, with the most engaged audience of in-market car shoppers. As the foremost authority on automotive consumer insights and expert in online and mobile marketing, Autotrader makes the car shopping experience easy and fun for today's empowered car shopper looking to find or sell the perfect new, used or Certified Pre-Owned car. Using technology, shopper insights and local market guidance, Autotrader's comprehensive marketing and retailing solutions allow consumers to build their deal online, and guide dealers to personalized digital marketing strategies that grow brand, drive traffic and connect the online and in-store shopping experience. Autotrader is a Cox Automotive™ brand. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises. For more information, please visit http://press.autotrader.com.

About Cox Automotive
Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using vehicles easier for everyone. The global company’s more than 27,000 team members and family of brands, including Autotrader®, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com®, Dealertrack®, Kelley Blue Book®, Manheim®, NextGear Capital®, VinSolutions®, vAuto® and Xtime®, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with annual revenues of nearly $20 billion. www.coxautoinc.com

New capabilities support a paperless workflow to help speed up funding and improve cash flow

NORTH HILLS, N.Y., Feb. 2, 2021 – Dealertrack F&I announces new digital workflow and contracting solutions for dealerships and lenders to adapt to consumers’ accelerated shift toward digital purchasing. These enhancements, debuting at the Cox Automotive Experience, National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) 2021 and AFSA 2021 Vehicle Finance Conference, provide crucial e-solutions that expand opportunities for dealers and lenders to connect and contract digitally via an even more streamlined financing process. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, preferences for online engagement and interactions continue to increase, underscoring the importance of digital integration. In fact, the 2020 Cox Automotive COVID-19 Consumer and Dealer Impact Study found an overwhelming 85% of dealerships are going beyond conducting business in their physical location, indicating that the option to conduct business digitally from anywhere is an essential element of future-proofing any dealership’s 2021 business strategy.

“Following the sea change brought about by circumstances in 2020, dealerships are moving fast to adapt to a virtual workforce, which requires the right technology partners and platforms to provide a digital workflow for all,” said Cheryl Miller, vice president of operations for Dealertrack F&I Solutions. “At Dealertrack, we’re working on providing a fast-track solution to digitally connect more car dealers with more lenders through a streamlined financing process, enabling an efficient and flexible workflow that drives faster funding and improves cash flow – even when in-store visits are no longer the only option for customers.”

With more dealerships and lenders embracing digital workflow, client adoption of Digital Contracting Ready Sign functionality grew approximately 135% based on Dealertrack data from July 2020 to December 2020.  The number of deals signed with Ready Sign has seen an estimated 173% increase and the number of eSign documents created using Ready Sign grew up to 233% over the same time period.

The following Dealertrack capabilities continue to fulfill the company’s promise to provide dealerships and lenders with solutions that work more collaboratively in a digital world:

• Digital Contracting Choice: Dealertrack Digital Contracting Choice extends a dealership’s functionality to submit contracts digitally to non-integrated (paper) lenders, eliminating errors and additional steps in the submission process. With this solution, lenders currently outside the scope of full digital contracting can now appear digital to their dealers, enabling the convenience of a digital workflow to more lenders of a dealer’s choice.
• Seamless DMS Integration: Further increasing efficiencies, Dealertrack Digital Contracting offers seamless integration to an increasing number of DMS providers while allowing dealers to map workflow and reduce deal data entry. This seamless integration, now available on the Auto/Mate and DealerBuilt DMS platforms as well as on Dealertrack DMS and others, contributes to dealership staff being able to conduct more essential areas of business digitally, which is a necessity for the future. For users of both Dealertrack DMS and Dealertrack uniFI the level of harmony goes one step further allowing for remote signing of all required documents in a single signing ceremony - adding another dimension of convenience for both consumers and sales staff.
• Dealertrack Ready Sign: Enables dealership staff and customers to eSign documents through a single signing ceremony either in-store or remote and submit any deal document digitally as permitted by their state. This new technology not only currently facilitates dealership staff’s adherence to social distancing protocols but will also continue to be useful beyond the pandemic to allow the consumer digital flexibility during their car buying journey.
• Compliance: Every year brings new changes to the compliance landscape, requiring a dealership to safeguard against fraud, fines, and audits with integrated compliance checkpoints throughout the deal. Dealerships can protect profits and ensure mishaps are mitigated through real-time updates and checkpoints along each step of building one complete digital deal jacket. Dealertrack’s annual Compliance Guide has been updated for 2021 and is easily accessible, so retailers can seamlessly share updates.

“We equate the value of solutions in terms of the money, time and customer satisfaction they generate,” said Cris Aviso, Finance Director, Regal Automotive Group in Lakeland, Florida, “We used to wait several days for a deal to be funded, but now with Dealertrack Digital Contacting Choice we can have the deal verified within hours if not minutes, never miss a signature, and it pre-fills with our DMS – that constitutes very real value!”

Dealertrack will be highlighting new solutions and enhancements to keep the F&I process safely moving forward at the upcoming virtual NADA 2021 show and AFSA 2021 Vehicle Finance Conference. For information on all Cox Automotive’s 2021 new offerings, visit www.coxautoinc.com/experience.

About Dealertrack
Dealertrack provides industry-leading software solutions that give dealerships, lenders, and partners the confidence to thrive in an ever-changing automotive market. The company’s integrated suite of powerful easy-to-use products and services helps dealerships and their lending partners grow by increasing efficiency and improving decision-making. Dealertrack is part of the Cox Automotive family, a company that is transforming the way the world buys, sells, owns and uses cars. Dealertrack—along with its unmatched network of dealership and lending partners—is improving the car buying experience by embracing the technologies that will shape the future of automotive retail. For more information about Dealertrack, visit www.dealertrack.com.

About Cox Automotive
Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using vehicles easier for everyone. The global company’s more than 27,000 team members and family of brands, including Autotrader®, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com®, Dealertrack®, Kelley Blue Book®, Manheim®, NextGear Capital®, VinSolutions®, vAuto® and Xtime®, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with annual revenues of nearly $20 billion. www.coxautoinc.com

Media Contact:

Lisa Aloisio

Lisa.Aloisio@coxautoinc.com

c. 404.725.0651

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Elevates Offerings From Next Generation Web Experiences and Beyond   

Burlington, VT, Feb. 2, 2021 – Dealer.com unveils new innovations at the 2021 virtual NADA show to help dealerships inspire more successful conversations in more places with its end-to-end digital marketing solution backed by extraordinary knowledge of the consumer. From Connected Video advertising and holistic reputation management to digital storefront experiences and digital retailing, Dealer.com leads with superior technology, thoughtful customer experiences, and a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that helps drive sales.

Current market conditions demand an agile approach, and strategies misaligned with consumer expectations can lead to inefficient marketing spends and insufficient results. By bringing the best of the dealership to wherever consumers browse, shop, or buy online, dealerships can engage with shoppers on their terms, resulting in confidence and transparency during the process. With more customized, coordinated outreach across all digital touchpoints, dealerships can influence how quickly shoppers find the right vehicle, and that connection leads to higher conversion. Dealer.com turns data into digital marketing that works and powers personalized consumer experiences from anywhere.

“Consumers have extremely high expectations when it comes to their shopping experience, and we’ve heard from many of our dealer groups that they want to offer a differentiated experience and start having more meaningful conversations with their customers,” said Bob George, associate vice president of products for Dealer.com. “We’re able to provide solutions to problems dealers don’t even know they have by giving them the tools to create more of a dialogue with a continuous customer experience that starts with strong targeting and ends with a tailored, one-on-one experience.”

Dealer.com’s latest innovations include:

• Connected Video advertising to reach in-market shoppers wherever they consume media: Dealer.com gives dealerships the power to deliver hyper-targeted video ads to consumers watching connected TV and over-the-top media. In the age of “cord-cutting” and internet TV, dealerships can target consumers on streaming platforms and devices with as much precision as their other digital channels—with verifiable ROI that challenges traditional TV spend.
• Redefining Digital Retailing functionality that meets dealer and user demands: Pave the path to purchase and help streamline customer interactions by eliminating back-and-forth both in-person and online. Dealer.com’s next generation digital retailing experience provides a more seamless workflow for shoppers and dealerships that reduces time spent in-store. Through guided navigation, the tool simplifies the sales process and fosters consumer confidence, trust, and transparency.
• Reputation management tools to attract more customers and increase leads: Dealers should be taking full advantage of customer reviews to reinforce their dealership reputation and appeal to new shoppers. Review Generation uses a high-converting SMS-based review request system to engage customers while the transaction is still top-of-mind to create a constant stream of reputation-based reviews that can improve sales and customer retention. Reviews are an increasingly influential factor among car buyers, and dealerships need an efficient, easy way to solicit and manage these natural endorsements.
• Gain visibility and interact more with shoppers through a more immersive digital storefront experience: The foundational redesign of the Dealer.com website platform over the past 24 months features a complete code rebuild and secure cloud-based hosting, along with data and shopper-guided site redesigns—all to inspire confidence and drive leads. New innovations like free-text search with auto suggestions through the new SRP Experience get in-market shoppers to the content they are looking for as quickly as possible, driving up the quality of conversion. Dealerships can upgrade online “curb appeal” and engage shoppers at critical decision-making moments with new home and interior page designs while putting important offerings like Home Services front and center on the VDP to attract more shoppers interested in remote sales and service areas.

"The Dealer.com platform enables me to visualize the general goal of helping customers find what they need, where they need it, as quickly and hassle-free as possible," said Scott Shepherd, internet manager, eCommerce and marketing director for Classic Cadillac of Atlanta and Cadillac of Birmingham. “I always feel like progress is being made on my websites—whether changes we’ve set into motion or new components, tools, and formats that are being done by DDC, there’s always forward-thinking, positive change."

Lead generating digital campaigns, combined with first-class customer service and digital marketing expertise, directly impact a dealer’s bottom line. To learn more about Dealer.com customized solutions The 2021 NADA Show will be held via a virtual experience February 9-11, 2021. To learn more about these new products and enhancements, visit Dealer.com at https://www.coxautoinc.com/experience/ddc.

About Dealer.com

Backed by unmatched expertise and unrivaled consumer behavior data, Dealer.com is the premier digital marketing solution for the automotive industry. Providing an integrated platform of Websites, Advertising, Digital Retailing and Managed Services, Dealer.com allows OEMs, dealer groups, retailers and agencies to leverage advanced digital technology, data and insights to deliver the shortest, fastest and most personalized path to customer engagement, delivering over 43M unique visitors monthly across 15,000 plus Dealer.com websites. The company practices a deep commitment to its culture of progress, with a focus on community, health, and wellness. Based in Burlington, Vermont, Dealer.com is a Cox Automotive brand. For more information, visit www.dealer.com.

About Cox Automotive

Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using vehicles easier for everyone. The global company’s more than 27,000 team members and family of brands, including Autotrader®, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com®, Dealertrack®, Kelley Blue Book®, Manheim®, NextGear Capital®, VinSolutions®, vAuto® and Xtime®, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with annual revenues of nearly $20 billion. www.coxautoinc.com
 

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Connects advanced merchandising functionality with inventory intelligence to help increase the likelihood to sell new and used vehicles.   

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill., Feb. 1, 2021 – vAuto with Intelligent Promotion will launch at the Cox Automotive Experience and NADA 2021, expanding upon vAuto’s legendary inventory management capabilities with all new functionalities. Intelligent Promotion integrates within vAuto Conquest and Provision to help automate the merchandising of the most marketable attributes of each and every vehicle.  Using vAuto live market insights and the Intelligent Promotion tools allows dealerships to create merchandising campaigns for specific groups of vehicles and automatically apply the content as vehicles arrive in their inventory, creating more consumer engagement where the shopping experience begins – online.    

vAuto with Intelligent Promotion upends the long-held assumption that due to their uniformity new cars would not equally benefit from the robust and descriptive merchandising that belays used cars’ pricing stability. Recent market dynamics and changes in consumer shopping behaviors, have driven dealerships to rethink traditional approaches to running their business, and to marketing new cars.  Historically, dealerships have applied consistent inventory management practices across their entire portfolio of inventory. This includes vehicle merchandising where dealers often emphasize a process that creates a standardized digital presence, missing the opportunity to highlight compelling information, such as lease specials or dealer services, that can help them capture market share. 

Industry-forerunner vAuto now provides the insights and tools to more efficiently identify local trends and develop enhanced merchandising that tailors the content to the market trends.  Armed with a better understanding of the local market, vAuto with Intelligent Promotion enables dealers to formulate a data-driven pricing and merchandising strategy, that improves the appeal of new and used inventory and boosts overall sales performance.   

“For years trends showed that merchandising was a ‘check the box’ requirement. Successful dealerships are adjusting their marketing and merchandising strategy to focus on quality, not just quantity of work done,” said Randy Kobat, vice president, Inventory Management Solutions for Cox Automotive. “By combining vAuto’s industry-leading market data to power Intelligent Promotion, while also integrating SnapLot 360’s stunning visualizations, vAuto clients can easily and effectively create compelling inventory listings and engage a wider audience with transparency and confidence.”  

vAuto with Intelligent Promotion provides dealerships with the insights and tools to create differentiated merchandising and automatically apply it to the right inventory.   

• Bulk campaigns make it easy to apply content to multiple vehicles.  Inventory filters create rules, so campaigns are applied to the right inventory and Smart Fields automatically insert VIN specific information without editing each listing.  
• Modern creative tools provide the flexibility to augment VDP image carousels with more information using virtual billboards and image overlays.  

• Engage shoppers with interactive visuals using 360 media spins. SnapLot 360 is now integrated with vAuto Conquest and Provision and provides a new way to merchandise inventory without the need for an additional inventory management platform.    

For more information on vAuto with Intelligent Promotion, visit www.vauto.com/products/conquest/. For information on SnapLot 360, visit  www.vauto.com/snaplot360.  For information on all of Cox Automotive’s 2021 new offerings, visit www.coxautoinc.com/experience.  

About vAuto   
vAuto® provides innovative technology, tools and business intelligence to thousands of dealerships across the United States and Canada, helping them compete more effectively and increase new/used vehicle sales volumes and profits. Founded in 2005, vAuto revolutionized dealers’ used vehicle operations with the groundbreaking Provision® suite of tools. Leveraging The Velocity Method of Management®, pioneered by vAuto founder, Dale Pollak, Provision helped dealers adopt a more transparent- and turn-focused approach to used vehicle acquisition, appraising, pricing and merchandising based on real-time, local market supply-and-demand data. vAuto’s solutions also include Conquest, a new vehicle inventory management and pricing system, and Stockwave, which enables dealers to efficiently find and purchase vehicles from leading wholesale sources via a single platform. In 2018, vAuto released the Provision ProfitTime metric and methodology to help dealers maximize inventory turn and gross profit based on the investment value or profit potential of each vehicle. In 2020, the company debuted an all new iRecon solution, integrated with Provision, to help dealers recondition vehicles and get them retail ready faster.   

Headquartered near Chicago, Illinois, vAuto is a Cox Automotive™ brand.  

About Cox Automotive  
Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using vehicles easier for everyone. The global company’s more than 27,000 team members and family of brands, including Autotrader®, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com®, Dealertrack®, Kelley Blue Book®, Manheim®, NextGear Capital®, VinSolutions®, vAuto® and Xtime®, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with annual revenues of nearly $20 billion.  www.coxautoinc.com  

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All-New, Enhanced Tools Provide Transparency and Efficiency Across Inventory Acquisition to Fixed Operations 

Kelley Blue Book, the No. 1 most trusted third-party automotive resource, is leaning into the first-ever virtual NADA with enhanced digital solutions that offer consumers a more seamless trade-in, car-buying, and owning experience while helping to ensure dealerships achieve greater efficiencies without sacrificing profitability. Kelley Blue Book's newest offerings featured at NADA 2021 include Kelley Blue Book® Instant Cash Offer Buying Signals and Featured Auto Repair Center. 

"Last year was full of unexpected challenges and, ultimately, accelerated innovation. We are eager to maintain that momentum through our latest digital solutions," said Randy Kobat, vice president of operations for Inventory Management Solutions at Cox Automotive. "And while some of 2020's problems are rolling into 2021, acquiring profitable inventory and understanding consumers' intent to purchase shouldn't be negatively impacting your business by not knowing more about the consumers coming to your store." 

Kelley Blue Book® Instant Cash Offer Buying Signals Kelley Blue Book builds on its existing Instant Cash Offer tool to tap into data-driven insights to help unlock the full potential of dealerships' Instant Cash Offers to customers. The industry-leading tool analyzes customer shopping behavior data from across Cox Automotive data sources to provide a more complete picture of the consumer, allowing for a more targeted approach to offers, and an understanding of their vehicle shopping preferences and purchase timeline without having to manually dig through data. In fact, Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer leads with Buying Signals had a transaction completion rate nearly 24% better than leads without Buying Signals, whether the vehicle was sold through Instant Cash Offer or elsewhere, from July through October 2020.1 

"When a dealership starts the conversation knowing where customers are in their buying journey, they are taking a targeted approach to leads while providing a personalized customer experience," said Kobat. "These actionable insights enable better engagement with consumers and a data-driven way to acquire profitable inventory." 

Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer Buying Signals appear alongside the Instant Cash Offer within the Dealer Admin Tool and shoppers are tagged according to their purchase timeline, including "Casually Browsing," "Actively Shopping," and "Ready to Buy." Plus, dealerships see shopping preferences like the year, make, model, mileage, and more. 

"As an Instant Cash Offer client for many years, this tool has become a vital piece of our inventory acquisition process. Leveraging the data and information from one of the most trusted brands in the automotive market has helped us own more cars for less," said Jonathan Hakes, used vehicle inventory director at Dorschel VW. "With new functionality from Kelley Blue Book's Instant Cash Offer Buying Signals, we are eager to take our data-driven approach to the next level. The more we know about a customer, the better the experience we can deliver and make the most of that opportunity." 

Kelley Blue Book® Featured Auto Repair Center allows franchise dealers to turn KBB.com's millions of service-ready consumer visits per month into new business. In fact, 63% of service customers coming from KBB.com are new to participating dealerships.2 Consumers are increasingly looking for guidance on key maintenance, repair, and recall questions, including pricing. The Service and Repair Guide on KBB.com provides consumers with the trusted information they need to make confident decisions about their vehicles and connects them with Featured Auto Repair Center dealerships that can do the work. Also, Kelley Blue Book's Fair Repair Range guides owners on service and repair price ranges based on regionalized service pricing. 

If dealerships are looking to protect their market share and beat out local competition, as a Premium Featured Auto Repair Center dealer, dealerships can claim brand-exclusive placement on KBB.com's Service and Repair Guide for their area, making it the first listing consumers see when searching for dealerships to service their vehicles. 

The 2021 NADA Show will be held via a virtual experience February 9-11, 2021. To learn more about Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer Buying Signals, visit https://b2b.kbb.com/ico/buying-signals/. To learn more about Featured Auto Repair Center, visit https://b2b.kbb.com/featured-auto-repair-center/. 

About Kelley Blue Book (www.kbb.com)  

Founded in 1926, Kelley Blue Book, The Trusted Resource®, is the vehicle valuation and information source trusted and relied upon by both consumers and the automotive industry. Each week the company provides market-reflective values on its top-rated website KBB.com, including its famous Blue Book® Trade-In Values and Kelley Blue Book® Price Advisor tool, which provides a range for what consumers can reasonably expect to pay for a vehicle in their area. Car owners looking to sell immediately can also get a redeemable, transaction-ready offer with Kelley Blue BookSM Instant Cash Offer. The company also provides vehicle pricing and values through various products and services available to car dealers, auto manufacturers, finance and insurance companies, and governmental agencies. Kelley Blue Book is a Cox Automotive brand.  

About Cox Automotive 

Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using vehicles easier for everyone. The global company's more than 27,000 team members and family of brands, including Autotrader®, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com®, Dealertrack®, Kelley Blue Book®, Manheim®, NextGear Capital®, VinSolutions®, vAuto® and Xtime®, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with annual revenues of nearly $20 billion. www.coxautoinc.com 

1 Cox Automotive Data Analysis, July-October 2020 

2 Xtime Product Analytics Data Average 9/16/19-11/30/20 

SOURCE Kelley Blue Book 

For further information: Brenna Buehler, 949-473-6595, Brenna.Buehler@coxautoinc.com 

Automotive Marketing Platform Powered by VinSolutions Uses Automation and AI to Help Optimize Marketing Efforts Across Dealership Departments

MISSION, Kansas, January 26, 2021 – Dealers share a common goal to engage customers and maximize profits but doing so efficiently while minimizing marketing spend can prove challenging. With the new Automotive Marketing Platform powered by VinSolutions, dealers can elevate their marketing without increasing their workload. Automotive Marketing Platform is a marketing tool that integrates with the CRM providing an end-to-end view across marketing and sales. This enables dealers to leverage data insights and automate workflows to deliver personalized experiences across the ownership lifecycle. Ultimately, Automotive Marketing Platform is the complete package for driving consumer engagement and helping to maximize ROI.

“Until now, dealerships had to manage campaigns across different departments, vendors and marketing channels, which inevitably created inconsistencies, depleted resources and compressed ROI,” said Tracy Fred, vice president of operations for Cox Automotive brands VinSolutions, Xtime and Dealertrack DMS. “With centralization and automation, Automotive Marketing Platform addresses the reality that two-thirds of a salesperson’s time is typically spent on non-revenue-generating activities like managing different tools across departments and duplicate data entry.[1]”

Automotive Marketing Platform helps protect dealership revenue with improved customer engagement, greater efficiency in marketing spend, increased marketing reach across departments, time-saving automation and centralization, and superior campaign performance. Key features include:

• CRM Integration: Marketing activity is stored directly in the customer record in VinSolutions’ Connect dealership CRM instead of another tool, making it easier to guide personalized conversations, determine next steps and avoid duplicated efforts that frustrate customers and team members alike.
• Automated Marketing Workflows: Marketing outreach is informed by data science and real customer behaviors, creating a series of “if, then” scenarios throughout the process that allows communication to be both automated and personalized.
• Data Insights: Cox Automotive proprietary data identifies the types of customers who are most likely to be ready to buy based on their online behavior, maximizing sales opportunities, and proactively converting leads before they are even submitted.
• Automated Offers Engine: With access to customer data from Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader, Automotive Marketing Platform sends customers personalized offers, matching them with current inventory and including personalized payment recommendations based on their equity position and applicable incentives data.
• Marketing Account Manager: All campaigns built in Automotive Marketing Platform are backed by the support of a dedicated Marketing Account Manager, an automotive marketing specialist who guides and executes the dealership’s strategic marketing direction.
• Dashboard/Reporting: A robust reporting dashboard enables dealerships to quickly understand the performance of campaigns and channels so impactful adjustments can be made effectively, helping to maximize ROI on marketing spend.
• Marketing Channels: Recommendations and automated CRM tasks ensure customers are reached on the right channels, including email, phone calls, and Facebook/Instagram ads.

“One of the greatest strengths of Automotive Marketing Platform is being able to target customers with the right message, at the right time—at the right moment when the customer is most likely to act and create opportunities for our stores,” added Justin Harmon, Marketing Director, Eide Automotive Group.

The Automated Marketing Platform joins VinSolutions’ portfolio of products that leverage data science and artificial intelligence, including Connect Automotive Intelligence. In addition to providing salespeople with insights to better understand their customers, dealers will now be able to use Connect AI Buying Signals as a lead source with the new automated lead creation functionality. Connect AI and Automotive Marketing Platform can be purchased separately as well as integrate seamlessly to create even more powerful and accurate customer engagement.

To learn more about Automotive Marketing Platform powered by VinSolutions, visit www.vinsolutions.com.

About VinSolutions
As the provider of Connect CRM, Connect Automotive Intelligence, and the supporting suite of Connect solutions, VinSolutions helps more than 6,000 dealers make every connection count. VinSolutions’ industry-leading tools—including customizable customer relationship management, artificial intelligence, and desking—help dealerships drive more leads, increase profits, and accelerate the path to purchase. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Mission, Kansas, VinSolutions fosters dealership success by providing a fully customizable suite of solutions, including equity mining, market pricing and desking tools, combined with the continuous, personal support of a designated Performance Manager. VinSolutions is OEM certified by every major manufacturer and is Autosoft, CDK, Reynolds & Reynolds and Dealertrack DMS certified. www.vinsolutions.com

About Cox Automotive
Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using vehicles easier for everyone. The global company’s more than 27,000 team members and family of brands, including Autotrader®, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com®, Dealertrack®, Kelley Blue Book®, Manheim®, NextGear Capital®, VinSolutions®, vAuto® and Xtime®, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with annual revenues of nearly $20 billion. www.coxautoinc.com

Media Contact:
Lisa Aloisio
Lisa.Aloisio@coxautoinc.com
c. 404.725.0651

Vinessa Allows Salespeople to Lean on Tech to Maximize Sales Opportunities Without Maxing Out Dealership Resources

MISSION, Kansas, January 26, 2021 – As dealerships look for new ways to connect with customers outside of the showroom and pursue leads in today’s digital world, technology is becoming an increasingly useful addition to sales teams. Vinessa™, VinSolutions’ AI-powered, CRM-integrated virtual assistant, allows salespeople to prioritize their time more efficiently thanks to the ability to vet leads by providing human-like customer engagement at the early stages of the sales process. With Vinessa’s help, salespeople can guide more customers through their unique paths to purchase, increase conversion rates and ultimately boost profits for the entire business.

“Dealership staff are tasked with filtering through massive volumes of online leads–-and dedicating the necessary resources to vetting and communicating with every customer can get in the way of salespeople doing what they do best—selling vehicles and closing deals,” said Tracy Fred, vice president of operations for Cox Automotive brands VinSolutions, Xtime and Dealertrack DMS. “As the consumer path to purchase continues to evolve and default to digital, it also means a 24/7 sales cycle. Dealerships need to be ready to engage with prospects around the clock in a scalable and cost-effective way.”

Using CRM artificial intelligence, machine learning and data provided by the dealership, Vinessa can answer questions from online and showroom sales leads about inventory availability, vehicle features and more, as well as schedule follow-up tasks for staff. Vinessa provides more qualified leads and ensures that no sales opportunity falls through the cracks whether an early-stage lead or one submitted after hours. With data provided by the dealership, Vinessa is also supported by VinSolutions Performance Managers who will help ensure the dealer gets the most out of the tool so partners can be confident that Vinessa is effectively guiding customers through their unique paths to purchase and delivering sales conversions.

Vinessa’s key features include:

• CRM Integration that captures all customer communication from Vinessa directly within the customer record, with in-CRM alerts to ensure preparedness when meeting the customer where they are in the car buying process.
• Appointment Setting that enables salespeople to stay focused on advanced selling tasks with Vinessa's ability to schedule showroom appointments with customers on a salesperson's behalf.
• Lead Nurturing to engage customers 24/7, Vinessa can respond to leads after hours and follow up on conversations when salespeople are unavailable.
• Smart Conversations using powerful artificial intelligence and natural language processing Vinessa can understand customer questions and provide real-time answers about inventory and schedule follow-up appointments to keep customers moving through the journey to purchase.
• Reporting Features record and detail all of Vinessa’s customer interactions in a dashboard to help dealership staff better understand and measure Vinessa’s contribution to sales.  
• Customizable Engagement Settings allow dealers to control how and when Vinessa responds to leads, including who to assign appointments to and if Vinessa should automatically turn off when a salesperson takes over customer communication directly.
• Connect Automotive Intelligence Integration enables Sentiment Analysis on customer interactions with Vinessa when the products are combined, which allows dealers to identify trends in customer communication and quickly resolve issues in the event of dissatisfaction.

“Vinessa is not only a backstop for missed communications; it’s also a strong driver for two-way communications. I strongly believe our two-way connections, appointment set rate, and customer satisfaction will all continue to improve,” said Chad Humm, Digital Performance Manager at D-Patrick Auto Group in Evansville, Indiana. “We chose Vinessa over other virtual assistant tools based on its integrations with all of our Cox Automotive tools especially with Connect CRM. Vinessa’s conversations live in the CRM.”

To learn more about Vinessa, the VinSolutions Virtual Assistant, visit www.VinSolutions.com.

About VinSolutions
As the provider of Connect CRM, Connect Automotive Intelligence, and the supporting suite of Connect solutions, VinSolutions helps more than 6,000 dealers make every connection count. VinSolutions’ industry-leading tools—including customizable customer relationship management, artificial intelligence, and desking—help dealerships drive more leads, increase profits, and accelerate the path to purchase.  Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Mission, Kansas, VinSolutions fosters dealership success by providing a fully customizable suite of solutions, including equity mining, market pricing and desking tools, combined with the continuous, personal support of a designated Performance Manager. VinSolutions is OEM certified by every major manufacturer and is Autosoft, CDK, Reynolds & Reynolds and Dealertrack DMS certified. www.vinsolutions.com

About Cox Automotive
Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using vehicles easier for everyone. The global company’s more than 27,000 team members and family of brands, including Autotrader®, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com®, Dealertrack®, Kelley Blue Book®, Manheim®, NextGear Capital®, VinSolutions®, vAuto® and Xtime®, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with annual revenues of nearly $20 billion. www.coxautoinc.com

Media Contact:
Lisa Aloisio
Lisa.Aloisio@coxautoinc.com
c. 404.725.0651