DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -

Today, DMEautomotive launched Driver Connect 2.5, an upgrade to its dealer-branded, consumer-facing mobile app.

By leveraging almost a dozen enhancements, the company highlighted the new era in mobile apps is all about bringing consumers and businesses even closer with hyper-personal, real-time connections

DMEautomotive contends Driver Connect 2.5 embraces that evolution by offering “in-the-moment” relationship-cementing tools like live chat, support for Apple’s Passbook mobile wallet, vehicle in service/vehicle ready alerts, and convenient new ways for customers to view, manage and engage with their pre-paid maintenance and loyalty plans.

Key Driver Connect 2.5 features include:

—Chat: Offers an additional, real-time path to communicate with the dealer. Customers and dealers both stay in control: Consumers can initiate the chat conversations, and the platform can seamlessly leverage a dealer’s current chat functionality, while dealers are able to configure their hours of chat availability.

—Vehicle in Service/Vehicle Ready Alerts: Can lets dealers notify their customers (via push notifications or in-app badges) exactly when their vehicle is being worked on, and instantly when that work is complete and the vehicle is ready to be retrieved.

—Mobile Wallet Support: Special offers now can integrate with Apple Passbook, including support for real time “geo-fence” alerts that can send push notifications based on the consumer’s location.

—Pre-Paid Maintenance Window: Engagement with and usage of pre-paid maintenance plans can drive future sales and service loyalty. The feature can allows customers to view in detail their current and historic pre-paid/complimentary services, with a variety of transactions displayed, including date of service, plan type, mileage at time of service, amount and servicing dealer.

—Native Service Scheduler: The built in service-scheduling tool has been dramatically upgraded, offering a variety of customizable options, including:

1. Dealer-created or selectable items for maintenance and service options
2. Customer provided service notes
3. Highlights dealership specific service amenities
4. Comprehensive summary screen before appointment submittal
5. Chat support
6. Apple and Android specific interfaces and navigation motions in the app based on end user device

—DMEa Loyalty Program Support: Dealerships using the DMEa Loyalty Program can now let their customers view and manage their loyalty status, points and associated service history. With 24/7 access to their current points, transaction history, the dollar value of service points and their next target level, customers can stay engaged and servicing.

Beyond those features, DMEautomotive mentioned six other Driver Connect 2.5 enhancements, including:

—Better dealer search functionality with map search options and dealer list sorting

—Kelly Blue Book’s car valuation tool

—Ability to upload pictures of 'my car' and access app tutorials

—Improved push notifications, which include messages and ad hoc messages and the ability to configure global app or select app user notifications

—Automated vehicle-matching system for new sales or service customers and improved vehicle color matching system (such as camouflage metallic)

—Improved images: Through a partnership with izmocars, the app now can deliver better thumbnail images for vehicles in the showroom section and full-size images in the vehicle detail screens, as well as an initial photo on each vehicle detail page, an image gallery and stock images available for new vehicles in the listings section.

DMEautomotive president and chief executive officer Mike Walther pointed out Driver Connect 2.5 launches just as the latest consumer research revealed that people are now spending twice as much time with smartphone apps as they are with mobile websites.

Since 2012, Walther insisted Driver Connect has helped dealerships keep pace with the new, mobile-first consumer realities by offering the first dealer-branded app that marries cool, truly useful and personalized automotive tools for customers with keep-them-spending features for dealers such as “one tap” service appointment scheduling, robust new and used inventory search, and super-targeted offers tied to specific vehicles.

The company boss went on to mention DMEa’s app has been adopted by some of the largest dealer groups across the nation, and this year won the prestigious American Business Award and the 2013 BizTech Innovation Award.

“We built Driver Connect from the ground up to keep dealership customers close and servicing and spending. 2.5 takes dealerships firmly into the next mobile 'wave', delivering a personal, in-dealership experience when customers are out of the dealership and on the go,” Walther said.

“Driver Connect version 2.5 keeps customers informed about service as it is happening, and offers whenever-they-need-it chat assistance,” he continued.

“As the first app in our industry to deliver all of these features, Driver Connect continues to innovate ahead of the mobile curve,” Walther went on to say.

“And, for dealerships who have yet to embrace the exploding mobile app opportunity, version 2.5 will quickly move them to front of that curve, meeting their customers with the app features and services they demand,” he added.

More information can be found at www.dmeautomotive.com.

Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.