Last week, Cox Automotive rolled a path to gain more dealer feedback for vAuto.

This week, the company used dealer feedback to roll out upgrades for VinSolutions.

And according to a Cox Automotive news release, dealers already appreciate the improvements, which include:

—Predictive Insights with GenAI: Turns Cox Automotive’s real-time behavioral, transactional, and dealership first-party data into hyper-personalized emails and texts. It also can identify shoppers who are nine times more likely to buy than shoppers who did not exhibit similar predictive signals.

—Virtual Contact Assistant: A CRM-embedded autonomous AI assistant that can engage and nurture leads, schedule appointments and answer complex shopper questions 24/7, handing off to a human at the moment a person is needed.

—VinSolutions Video: A new CRM-native video tool that can let any team member record, personalize, send and track video messages straight from the CRM, on mobile or desktop, turning routine follow-up into stronger engagement. The company said this tool generally will be available in November.

—Refreshed mobile experience: The updated VinSolutions mobile app is geared to deliver a faster, more intuitive experience, helping dealership teams stay productive and manage customer activity from anywhere.  Several future mobile upgrades are also planned.

—Upgraded desktop interface: Simplified navigation and a refreshed interface in light and dark mode is intuitive, minimizes friction, and maximizes engagement, while giving managers cleaner, more actionable activity from their teams.

Eunice Arnett is internet director for Ancira Winton Chevrolet in San Antonio.

“We eliminated our Sunday shift because Virtual Contact Assistant was already generating more activity during that time, which allowed us to reallocate those hours more effectively,” Arnett said in the news release.

Katelyn Beliveau is the BDC manager for DeNooyer Chevrolet in Colonie, N.Y.

“Using the new video tool, we’ve seen engagement increase, show rates increase, and it directly translates to sales,” Beliveau said in the news release.

Cox Automotive also pointed out VinSolutions data shows dealer clients sell 25% more vehicles per month and acquire 37% more vehicles per month when they use these new tools.

“We asked dealers what would actually make a difference in their day, and we’ve delivered it,” said Jessica Stafford, senior vice president of consumer solutions at Cox Automotive. “We are moving fast on AI innovation and dealer feedback, and it shows in the results that are already here.  This is just the first chapter in our new playbook.”

Cox Automotive vice president of digital commerce Paulo da Silva added, “Dealers don’t have time for a five-year plan. They want to know what’s different in their CRM that can grow their business today. That is what these upgrades are designed to do and we’re just getting started.

“The next wave goes deeper: a more capable mobile app, a refined interface, smarter task management and reporting, and inventory acquisition leads, fed from vAuto, so that dealers can acquire more inventory directly from their service lane,” da Silva went onto say.

The new AI-powered tools are available now to all VinSolutions dealers.

For more information, visit www.VinSolutions.com/Request-Demo or reach out to your Cox Automotive performance manager.