Optimal automation for car dealers

In this blog we explain how to ensure that a car salesman or office employee is not an administrator. The traditional world of binders, plastic folders with paper documents and a lot of manual hassle no longer has to exist. Discover how you as a car dealer organization can utilize the power of smart automation

Challenges with everyday documents

In our previous blog we discussed the large number of document types that must be present in sales files. Think of personal data, customer requests, quotations, test drive forms, financing applications, transfer documents, insurance documents and much more. All these documents must be stored securely and centrally before and after the sales process. Otherwise, audits can turn into lengthy discussions. In addition, salespeople and office staff increasingly have to deal with regulations regarding retention periods.

Simplification of the administrative sales process

Salespeople and office staff no longer have to scan documents to their email address and then think about where and how to store them. All (signed) paper documents belonging to a customer can be scanned in one go. An intelligent process then starts automatically. Based on characteristics, also called metadata, for example the customer number, chassis number and license plate are recognized on the various documents and stored separately in the correct digital sales file. All this information is stored centrally in our document management system DocBase. But there is another element that contributes to the completeness of sales files: 

Automation of business rules – never forget anything again!

We are well familiar with the work processes in the automotive industry. That’s why we added intelligence based on business rules. Here are three real-world examples: For example, if the status of an order is ‘invoiced’, a sales invoice must be included in the sales file. If the status is ‘financial lease’, there must be a lease agreement in place. The third example is that ‘trade-in’ means that there must also be a valuation document in the file. Any desired logic can be implemented, but a lot is already known in our solution based on best practices. 

Incompleteness is prevented.

The salesperson or office employee automatically receives an email notification if the sales file is incomplete based on the status. If you have set a rule that states that something must be present, the system can also calculate when something is missing. Without this degree of automation, the lack of relevant information in the sales file will not be discovered, or will be discovered too late.

More automation than just the sales process

Automation, or smart digitalization, not only offers benefits for the sales process. We have also automated the process surrounding warranty files for various customers in the automotive industry. If a customer makes a warranty claim, we can also ‘add context to the content’, as we often say. A ‘warranty request’ then automatically produces the correct warranty certificate. Suppose the car dealer has sold a car with the same license plate once new and twice as a used car, then this correlation can be established. All documentation for this car can be brought together very quickly, despite the three different owners.