“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” Matthew 7:24-25
As I reflect on the many presentations, panels, and conversations at DMSC, I was driven to re-open the keynote slides created by Matthew Leone, CEO of DriveCentric. His simple pyramid stood out as a visual guide, as well as a warning, for dealers who are rushing to implement AI solutions at their dealership.
Many vendors are selling communication tools at the Execution Layer. Unfortunately they lack clean, accurate, and fully contextualized data to make proper decisions which exposes the dealer to additional risk.
I know this because when I speak to AI companies, and ask them where they are culling the customer data, it is often from the DMS. Some are using the CRM and DMS, but very few are connected to clean data in a Customer Data Platform (CDP) or a bespoke data lake where accurate data can be found.
Multiplying risk – is it worth it?
When dealers have multiple AI solutions working in the dealership which are not using the same unified customer profiles (UCP), compliance risk is amplified. At DMSC, many conversations mentioned the need for AI agents to have a place to “check” for permissions to email, text, or call customers.
Imagine a customer who opts out of getting SMS messages, and that request is recorded in the CRM, but then they start receiving messages from AI tools outside the CRM which have no API connectors.
David Steinberg, Founder at Foureyes, is working on an independent framework to manage opt-in and opt-out signals from many of the popular customer communication platforms. Some of the largest dealer groups (i.e., Lithia & Driveway) require all vendors to connect into David’s compliance management framework.
One common communication stream
Compliance is just one of the risks dealers face when rolling out disconnected AI tools. The other is the risk of not knowing the context of all communication streams being generated by AI tools across sales, service, and F&I.
At DMSC, DriveCentric reinforced their vision for the ideal customer engagement platform which follows the pyramid diagram. Their platform allows dealers to have proficient, multi-discipline agents working on various tasks, powered by a Unified Customer Profile (UCP) and common engagement threads, to deliver an elevated customer experience.
Context, Content, Cadence, and Compliance will mark the best customer communication solutions in the years ahead.
The four C’s can’t happen without building a strong data foundation for the dealership. Shortcuts will increase blunders, missteps, and potential fines.
The foundation – check your materials list
- Dealers need to have one communication framework for the business, which includes sales, service, and F&I.
- Dealers need a centralized data platform which their departments and vendors can utilize to see communication preferences and permissions.
- A unified customer profile (UCP) is no longer a “nice thing to have” but a mandatory cornerstone for dealership operations.
- The DMS is not a CDP or destination for the UCP. Any hope that it will evolve into a convenient, cost effective way to power customer communications is a fantasy.
- Dealers need a framework which allows multiple AI agents to work collaboratively to dramatically improve the customer experience and exceed sales objectives for the business.
Just don’t build your dealership on a beautiful sandy beach on a sunny day.
