DriveCentric announced Monday the launch of its Service Engagement Hub, a CRM built for fixed operations to track opportunities, centralize consumer communication, and automate marketing.
Driving the news: DriveCentric, which has more than 3,300 dealers on its Sales Engagement Platform, is adding the service department CRM, which includes an AI agent.
It is now available for current DriveCentric customers and will be made available to new customers in September.
Additionally, the service component will allow dealerships to combine a customer record for sales and service, said DriveCentric CEO Matt Leone.
“We believe a true CRM purpose-built for Service Advisors and Service BDC teams has not existed,” Leone told CDG News. “As margin pressure increases, more dealerships and dealer groups are turning their attention to F&I and Fixed Operations. The opportunity is significant, but success requires more than simply identifying opportunities; dealerships must be able to assign, manage, and follow through on them with visibility and accountability.”
Zooming in: Leone said they spent nearly a year developing the platform to allow AI Agents to engage customers based on their individual needs, surface opportunities and context to the right person at the dealership, and help teams manage every opportunity through a true CRM, with workplans, tasks, reporting, insights, and dashboards.
DriveCentric noted the industry fielded an estimated 53 million inbound service calls last year, with roughly 19 million going unanswered or unresolved and only about 4 million ultimately converting into booked appointments.
The new platform was field-tested by Niello Auto Group, All American Ford Paramus, and Morgan Auto Group.
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"For the first time, our Service Advisors can work from the same customer record, giving us a unified view of every customer throughout the entire ownership lifecycle,” said Tom Moore, COO of Morgan Auto Group. “By combining centralized customer data with intelligent AI-powered engagement, we're creating better experiences for our customers while giving our teams greater visibility, accountability, and opportunities to strengthen retention, loyalty, and long-term growth for Morgan Auto Group."
Bottom line: With fixed operations driving profits at dealerships, tools to streamline communications with customers and tracking will be even more important.
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