AI Builders Now Have API Access to the Active Shopper Network

Brian Pasch0:00Hi, this is Brian Pasch and I have an exciting podcast interview today, really cutting edge applications of data, integrating with your CRM, with your AI tools to make your retail operations more efficient. In order to tell this story, I have Megan Horton. She's the VP of Product at Client Command and Wally Burchfield. He is the Chief Revenue Officer. Wally, Megan, welcome to the show.

Megan Horton0:38Thank you, Brian. Thanks for having us.

Wally Burchfield0:40Great, Brian. Thank you.

Brian Pasch0:42Let me just set the stage. This podcast is for everyone. If you're a BDC manager, general sales manager, GM, dealer, or a CTO, marketing manager, this podcast is for you. We're going to talk about a few technical things, but I want you to do one thing at the start of this podcast. What would change in your job? How would your job improve? How would the efficiency of your dealership improve? If you could tap into real-time data that shows who are the active shoppers in your market, that includes your customers and also people who are in your market. Megan, you and I were talking the other day just about a common occurrence.

Brian Pasch1:33Let's talk to sales professionals, general sales managers, BDC managers. Run through me what a typical dealer does with their equity mining lists.

Megan Horton1:49Yeah, the equity mining list. I mean, it is one of the number one most common ways to engage with customers in our first-party data, right? If someone's in an equity position, let's call them. Naturally, it makes sense. They're ready to trade in their car. But what's incredible about that is BDC reps are handed a list, 100, 200, 400 people, depending on how big your dealership is, and you just start dialing top to bottom. Maybe there's a name on there. Maybe there's someone who looks in a little bit more of a positive position that you want to try first. But what's missing from that is the intent. Just because someone is in a positive equity position, just because they have a major service coming up, does not mean that they're actually ready to buy a vehicle.

Megan Horton2:32And so the intent of our consumer lookup API is to enable and help prioritize for those BDC reps who are handed these long lists to know who they should contact first and make decisions on who out of these 400 people. Because if you're dialing from top to bottom in alphabetical order, the one person on that list that's actually shopping for a car, maybe on page four, five, six of that entire list. I mean, everybody that I talked to, maybe we've got enough leads. I don't know how to work them. I don't know how to get through them fast enough. Well, now you have a way to be able to prioritize who of those massive lists you actually should be engaging with, because they're the ones who are online right now shopping and you may not know it.

Brian Pasch3:14And the breakthrough that we want to announce today is the Active Shopper Network or ASN data is available real time through an API. Their published API is out. We're going to talk about that, how that works in AI applications. You've announced recent integration with DriveCentric, Megan, right? It's one of the fastest growing CRM platforms, which means within established tools or for dealers who are building custom data hygiene, activation, marketing automation platforms, the APIs of breakthrough. We're going to talk a little bit more about that, but Megan, let me just tell a personal story over the years of owning cars. I've received these, Hey, we want to buy your car, this equity.

Brian Pasch4:06And honestly, they've never been timed to align with anything where my mind was at this time. And so for me, this conversation is personal because the things that pushed me into the market wasn't that my lease was ending. It was other factors. Wally, you've been in the automotive industry a long time, both on the OEM side, dealer side, now on the technology side. Give me a little pulse. I'm hearing from the dealer world that, Hey, we got a lot of vehicles on the lot. We're looking for ways to cut costs. Instead of spraying and praying, isn't this the perfect time to re-imagine what your marketing strategy?

Brian Pasch4:57Megan brought up what your staff calling strategy, but focusing your marketing on people who are actually exhibiting behaviors of shopping.

Wally Burchfield5:09Totally, Brian, you're, you're absolutely correct. At the end of the day, when you really think about for a dealer, the efficiency of using the value of the consumers online shopping behavior to say, speak to me, speak to me. I'm looking at what you have to sell. And this API look up from a consumer perspective, you have their name. What are they doing? If you're doing other marketing to be able to see through the active shopper network behavior, what is my client doing? I mean, I really want to stay really close to my folks, my journey, because they start to research only about 10% of the people initially start any kind of research on the next car on their own dealer's website.

Brian Pasch5:54Doesn't mean they don't have time.

Wally Burchfield5:55That's correct. But they do go shopping other places. And just the benefit of really caring for that client and saying, what you're shopping for is important to me as a dealer. So I want to use your behavior so that I'm in front of you, supporting you, listening to you, and serving in your feed, serving in my communications, not just BDC. But I want to talk to you about what you're actually spending time looking for. It's important.

Brian Pasch6:22You know, Wally, over the last few years, I've been talking about CDPs before other people were talking about them. Client Command was an early CDP platform. And we got to know each other during this research report. Today, everyone's talking about marketing automation and audiences. Megan, Jonathan Lucenay, the CEO, was way ahead of his time. But I want to talk to the marketing professionals for a moment. Right now, you may have a pixel on your website. Maybe you're doing some identity resolution, trying to determine people who are on your website. And watch what you're doing in real time, trying to match them up to your CDP or your data lake.

Brian Pasch7:05But you only can see the people that are on your website. And this is important. Many smart dealer groups are building real time audiences. But there's a small fraction, as Wally said, of existing customers that start back on the dealer's website. For me, I've switched cars. In the last 15 years, I've changed brands every time I've switched cars. And a lot of my friends are like that. The cars are more reliable. They're not rusting out like in high school, where I remember cars were, you know, rusting out quarter panels. That just dates me, even using the word quarter panel. But today, with the announcement of the API, dealer groups who are doing real time marketing audiences, real time equity mining could be changing the entire game by saying, well, just because they're a customer in equity doesn't mean they're active.

Brian Pasch8:04Let me bounce this list against the active shopper network. I need more leads this month. I'm not hitting my goals. Let me not just buy a spray and pray strategy. Let me buy active shoppers. Megan, you've seen this. I remember a study you did with Dealer eProcess and OTT. Instead of just saying I'm going to hit everyone in the PMA, which, of course, costs and reach and frequency. Tell us about the difference in lift between like a general targeting list and then the active shopper on OTT engagement.

Megan Horton8:53Yeah, Brian, I think you bring up a great a great point just in in the audiences that are generated today. And it goes back to the active shopper story of it's all about quality of who you're engaging with, not the quantity and quality. When you look at the audiences that are just generically bought from various providers out there, only about 20% of them are actually shopping for a vehicle. So when you think about the lift that you get from the intentionality and being able to engage with someone who's actually shopping for a car, knowing what they're shopping for. So you can ensure that the messaging that gets to them is the right one.

Megan Horton9:29What is the vehicle that I should be putting in front of that consumer? We saw, I mean, three, four, five, six X in terms of more transactions from this smaller audience of people actively shopping for a vehicle. Again, this 20% group of these massive audiences compared to when you just buy this spray and pray. I want to hit everybody in my PMA because it's someone who can legally buy a vehicle. So it's tremendous when you get intentional and prioritize who you should be engaging with. And so not only at a scale of OTT audience and size, but when you're getting very focused the way that these really sophisticated dealers are and building their own CDPs and having these real time audiences, you can do it in a micro aspect as well, which is super exciting.

Brian Pasch10:14It's quality over quantity all day long. You know, Wally, you and I've been to a number of NADAs, you know, they give out lists and I was thinking of an analogy. If I'm a salesperson and I'm going to call on a dealership, I'm not taking my three year old NADA list. Watch, I'm not even taking out last year's NADA list. I'm going to go to the dealership's website and see if the general manager is still there. I think dealers forget not only are consumers changing locations, there's less brand loyalty making any assumptions that Bob Smith is still the general manager. I met him two years ago.

Brian Pasch11:05We would never do that in a sales perspective. So why are we assuming that everyone in the DMS is on a three or four year clock? Why are we assuming we know that, no, they're going to ride out this lease all the way to the end? It's a different thinking, Wally, right? That we need to reimagine before we do the mailing. Before we do the email blast. Before we do the BDC call list. Why not use the API to bounce or enhance data? Wally, what are some of the other applications you're seeing that the API is now available for dealers and tech companies?

Wally Burchfield11:48It's a great question, Brian. When you think about the API signal and the ability for a builder, which again, the benefactor is the dealer network themselves. The ability for the builder, this person, and some of the best tech people are dealers, right? They really are. They're advancing the industry. The ability to see whether somebody's shopping for service, shopping for the next vehicle, all of those things are timely. I think as an industry, and again, I'm older than you are, Brian. I start to look at things and say, you know, it's really important to maintain a car. And I go back from some of my service background.

Wally Burchfield12:26Those things are all engineered and we should be in on this certain cadence. The reality is, is life doesn't happen on a cadence.

Brian Pasch12:33That's right.

Wally Burchfield12:34Things happen between a cadence. And I think again, as I shared earlier in trying to answer one of the questions, I think valuing the consumer as a partner and even trying to reach people that have not done business with the store and looking for, you know, those kind of folks on a conquest basis, but they're in your market. You really want to take care of your PMA and you want to value what they're spending time on in the shopping experience and seeking out and being in front of them. Again, sometimes we think, well, I just really want to talk to people who are ready to buy today.

Wally Burchfield13:07And that is super, super important. I also can tell you that as a consumer, it's really interesting to watch a lot of our dealer partners, those that nurture that relationship from the moment somebody becomes a partner or a shopper, this active shopper signal through the API. You get those folks in the early equation, you're going to retain more margin. Their shopping experience is going to be better. The number of times you have to interact with that consumer goes down as much as 45% if you get to them early, because you're, again, listening to them and talking to them in a way, and again, whether they're looking for service repairs, sales repairs, I need to trade my car, and listen, some of the best equity dealers out there work their service lane.

Brian Pasch13:54That is a great practice.

Wally Burchfield13:55That's right. Great practices in the store. However, to Megan's point, if I've got a list of 400, and the people I really are intending today are on line 139, 197, and 214, you may or may not get to them.

Brian Pasch14:11That's right.

Wally Burchfield14:12So encourage them to use the signal to make sure they're effective and efficient in what they're doing, as well as listening to the consumer.

Brian Pasch14:20You know, and I want to bring up, you know, we've been talking about sales, but I want to talk about service as well. The service signals are more important than ever. And, obviously, dealer profitability is under, you know, some certain headwinds, especially with the cost of floor planning and the number of vehicles that are sitting on the ground. All departments have to act more efficiently. I'd like to give another analogy because I want to, I want service directors to understand this. I want sales managers to understand this. I want marketing professionals to understand this. Toyota, for example, was one of the early pioneers of when a diagnostic light went on in a car, that that signal was sent to the dealer.

Brian Pasch15:09Now, it wasn't very pretty. It may have been like a list. You know, I'm not saying faxing, but it could be like, hey, here's an email of all the, all your customers that had a, you know, an engine service light or oil change. And dealers love those lists because what were they? They were real time signals. Of course, with OnStar and, you know, the ability on a BMW to, or a Range Rover to actually call the dealership, right? That's another whole level. But here's what I want you to understand. When dealers hear that, okay, of course I want that. Yes. If one of my customers' cars needs it, send me the signal.

Brian Pasch15:53I'll call them. And yet the active shopper network is seeing not just when a car is failing. It's seeing when they're out there shopping for tires or oil changes, when no signal is going on. The active shopper network is seeing when they're researching cars. And so here's the thought process. With an API, you could say, these are my customers. You could be doing, remember, with an API, it's automated. You could say every week, I want you to rip through my customers, ping the active shopper network, see if any of my customers have come into market, automatically push them into your marketing automation. Here's all my customers, active shopper, run every week, boom, push them into the BDC.

Brian Pasch16:40Now we're not calling large lists. We are tactically calling the best opportunities. It would be so silly if Toyota sent signals to the dealer when someone slammed on the brakes and assumed that they were in an accident and they needed parts. But that's what Megan's example is. Just because people are nearing their three-year lease, are they ready for that now? So today's discussion comes back to this. You could be a dealer principal, general manager, BDC director, marketing director, service director. What would look differently if you had real-time access? Not order a list and then import it and wait. What if you could set up processes?

Brian Pasch17:30And Megan, I don't know if you've been playing around with AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude. I've been building all these workflows. A lot of the members of the CXO network, these are the larger dealer groups that I coach, are all building Claude and Claude Code projects. Now with an API, I mean, it's like, you know, having the keys to the kingdom for efficiency. Megan, what do you think of any other use case we haven't talked about that would impact any role in the dealership?

Megan Horton18:11Yeah, Brian, I think going back to AI just blowing up and empowering all of us to be so much more efficient and get things done so much faster. I mean, I'm building things ahead of our engineering team and handing it over. What do you mean we can't do this right away? I think everybody is experiencing that.

Brian Pasch18:26You're an engineer overnight, right?

Megan Horton18:28But I think we've talked so much about the active shopper network and the intent signals, which is huge for all of the partners who don't have access to that today. You now do. So if you have another CDP partner that you work with, you're building your own infrastructure. You now can get that data into your warehouse in real time as you need it for whatever your business objective is. And I think we need to go a little a little deeper of what happens with the API. You get to make the decision on what you want. And it goes well beyond just shopping intent because there are other data sets that are relevant that are not easy to get access to.

Megan Horton19:03They're expensive to get access to. And we've made it with our API that as long as you have a consumer on your end to start the API call, you need a first name, a last name and an email address or a phone number. That's it. That's all it takes to ping the API. You can get your signals for shopping for vehicles or parts and service. You can validate all of the contact information for that consumer. That's important. From a compliance side. Are they on a DNC? Have they opted out on a national level to make sure? Can you even legally call this person? Should you talk to them here or is there an alternative?

Megan Horton19:40And then there are there's still a place for where demographics come into play. If you don't have, you know, a credit position on a consumer, can you find out what their income is? What does their family demographic look like? There are still places for that in audience creation today, and you can get that through one API call. You specify what it is that you're looking for. So you were talking, Brian, about other application of utilization of this API. So really, with all of the data points and it's available for those who want to take part in utilizing the API, we have all of our documents available to see everything that you can call.

Megan Horton20:17It's within your power to make the decision for how you want to use it. So whether it's a dealer who's a builder, if it's a vendor partner, you're another marketing automation platform and you have a dealer who's saying, I want these intent signals. Plus, I want to know the income of this individual because you don't don't have it. But through this API, I can get it all with. I mean, really, one I say a click of a button, but one API call returns it all back to you.

Brian Pasch20:41And that helps with data hygiene. One of the things that I'm learning a lot about is because I'm using Claude Code to build a dealer communication platform to speak with leaders in dealerships. And for years, dealers have been sending out emails. They've not been delivered because the email address is known as a honeypot or a problem or complaints or they bounce. The mailbox is dead. And for years, nothing was being done with these things, which means dealers should also be thinking of this API connection, just like you were saying is, hey, I haven't been able to communicate with this customer. They're dead. Is there an alternate email address associated with Brian Pasch?

Brian Pasch21:27I have his phone number. And oh, look, there's another email address. Let me try that. These are the hidden slow death of dealerships. True blue sky. When you don't have data hygiene, you know, the population moves. I forget what the number is, but it's a pretty significant number of the people that move every year. People who change work. I mean, anybody who's tried to email for the dealers here, anybody who's tried to email dealers knows that there's so much turnover. Man, if you're not careful, you will just get your email server blocked because there's just so much turnover. If we just realized our own business, the auto dealership world and how fast it changes and how many people change roles and switching locations.

Brian Pasch22:20This is what consumers do as well. And that's why having true active intent signals from active shoppers for service and for sales really makes a difference. And of course, this data has been available in the Client Command CDP for customers who want a full service marketing suite with data intelligence. But I also think that there's more people building things and are looking to do more. And I'm hoping that the dealer principals and general managers understand that their CDP is typically limited to reverse engineering the people who come to your website. But these are very small portion of your existing customers when they're shopping. Just listen to that.

Brian Pasch23:08I think Megan, Wally mentioned about 10% of your existing customers when they start in market, start at the existing dealers website, the other 90% are out. This is where the active shopper network fills the gap. And more importantly, if every conquest campaign, if every email drop, if every direct mail drop is filtered through, are these people ready to receive this offer? Man, cost savings, efficiencies, labor efficiencies, more conversations, less cost per acquisition. Megan, as we close our conversation today, what's one thing you'd like to communicate to the dealer community and the builder community, the tech community, about why this API is going to be a next level of success for auto dealers?

Megan Horton24:04Yeah. I think, Brian, one thing, and you said this really, really great before, that beforehand this data was only available if you were a partner of Client Command through our interface. You had to use us for part of your data backbone. You had to use us for marketing automation. And we've said this plenty of times as you and I've met, is we want to help the dealer community win by working together and ensure that dealers have access to the best data sets available with the partners that they choose. And that, again, as we're coming to say, this podcast is for everybody. This API is for everyone where the dealers are the ones who win.

Megan Horton24:39There's ways that the vendor community can as well with different enhancements to their product offerings and things that they've talked with a ton of providers that are already looking at how they can use this API. It is a goal for everyone to win. How do we all rise together in opportunity of engaging with consumers in the most effective way? That's the message that I want to make sure everybody gets across is that we are here to help dealers win, help the builders win, and enable all of the tech that we have today.

Brian Pasch25:09Wally, I'm sure that there are going to be some tech companies that are interested in integrating the API. I'm sure advanced dealer groups who are building their own activation, their own CDPs, their own marketing analytics, down to just a single point store who's using a CDP partner today but understands they need to get this data in. What's the best way for them to get information, Wally, about getting started with the API? Is it best for them to reach out to you, go to the website, what is the best first step?

Wally Burchfield25:49I'd say the best first step, as would any dealer for any client, is call me, connect with me. I think you're going to pop up my phone number and you're going to pop up my email here at Client Command. There's nothing better than direct customer service, and I love it, and that's what the industry is about. And this is about advancing the dealers. I love this stuff. It's good.

Brian Pasch26:10Great. Well, I want to thank everyone for listening in. So with the speed at which software is being developed through AI tools, API connections are becoming more valuable than ever. Being a data company without the ability to connect to Claude or other tools is actually a missed opportunity. That's why I'm so glad that Client Command opened up a full featured API to enhance data, to bounce data, to expand audiences and activations, but not in a spray and pray, but more in a sharpshooter targeting. Because every dollar counts more than ever today, the headwinds are fierce. So go to Client Command, but we'll also put up some numbers here on the screen where you can contact Wally directly.

Brian Pasch27:02But if you're building tools for data hygiene, data activation, retention, loyalty programs, or just specific targeted audience to help you sell more cars in a digital age, get connected with the API, and then use it whenever you want. But I think you're going to find out you're going to be using it more often than you thought. Megan, Wally, thanks for your time and for everyone listening in. Remember, data at risk is your data sitting in a place that's disconnected from reality. Activating your data is unlocking your data, enhancing your data, activating your data. Your blue sky is your customer base, your future. Let's connect it, activate it, clean it.

Brian Pasch28:01And as Wally said, treat your customers with the respect that they deserve because they'll become more loyal customers to your dealership stores. Thanks for listening in and don't forget to listen to all the podcast interviews on the Brian Pasch podcast. See you next time.