Here is the video follow-up for this earlier post: http://www.bettercarpeople.com/blog/2012/04/a-video-in-the-making/. This video testimonial explains how Lannan Chevrolet went from zero to hero in Boston, MA. OvernightBDC helped their service director and service department become number one in GM!

The two were scheduled to meet with Darrell Fisher, the Service Director for Lannan Chevrolet of Lowell in Massachusetts. This meeting transpired because General Motors (GM) contacted Better Car People and informed us that at one point Lannan Chevrolet of Lowell had the worst response time in their zone. Lannan Chevrolet then became a Better Car People client and within two months the dealership was  #1 in GM for service lead conversion. They had the most leads resulting in some kind of business for service. Talk about a turnaround!

We then contacted the dealership to see what, if any, additional techniques were being implemented in addition to using our OvernightBDC product. We decided that this story would make a great video testimonial. Matthew and Gio took a field trip and went to visit with Darrel at Lannan Chevrolet.

According to Darrell,  because Better Car People’s service lead response offers an immediate appointment, customers responded favorably. The responses generated a lot of calls from customers confirming or rescheduling their appointment. More customer contact, means more conversion! One neat thing Lannan Chevrolet does, is give every person who buys a new or used car, at the dealership, a present. The new car owners are walked to the service department and given a box that contains their oil filter for their first oil change. The trip was a great success.

We are currently editing the video testimonial now, so keep an eye out for the final product!

Since creating our core product, Overnight BDC, multiple dealers have approached us and inquired about our ability to include HTML and images into their response templates. The dealerships saw this as an opportunity to further promote their brand and to incorporate our response into their overall process. We are excited to report that we have integrated this into our system, as part of our Overnight BDC product for sales and service lead responses, at no additional charge.

Since its release, many car dealerships have used this option to add a header or footer to the email response. Multiple dealers have also added a head shot of the main contact from the dealership. This HTML option provides the ability to create structured responses by denoting text such as headings, paragraphs, lists, links, quotes and other items. The capacity for dealerships to use HTML responses, is based on the dealership’s CRM capabilities and the option of the dealership hosting the image they would like us to use.

Better Car People always takes our customers’ feedback, concerns and suggestions into consideration during product development. We continuously strive to improve our product in order to offer the best service for your dealership.

Please contact Better Car People, in Monroe NC, for more information about adding HTML and images into the email lead responses for your sales and service departments. Our support team can be reached at 800-691-8820 or you can also email an inquiry to support@bettercarpeople.

While Matthew was visiting CARFAX he sat down with Bill Eager, the Vice President of Sales. The pair discussed data integration between Better Car People’s products, such as OvernightBDC and CARFAX’s product offerings. Matthew was also able to attend a company meeting while he was there. During this meeting, CARFAX found out the great news that they ranked as the 6th “Best Place to Work in Virginia” in the Large Employer Category for 2012.

Matthew thoroughly enjoyed visiting CARFAX but he was excited to get back home to Better Car People in Monroe, NC. We are excited to see how this relationship, between two great automotive companies, will grow over the coming months.

Better Car People employees and their families attended the game. Our quality assurance staff, account managers and partners enjoyed the festivities.

Our QA’s, Quality Assurance representatives for Overnight BDC, are responsible for reviewing the dealerships response before it is sent out to the customer and sent back into the dealers customer relationship management system (CRM tool). They are required to correct any spelling or grammatical errors and confirm that the response accurately matches the customer’s sales inquiry or service inquiry.

The Support Staff / Account Executive for Better Car People assist with installation of Overnight BDC, for the sales and service department, within a dealership’s CRM / ILM tool. They help with account maintenance and assist our customer base on any support issues that need attention and resolution.

The entire Better Car People team gathered and enjoyed hockey at its finest. In the end, the Charlotte Checkers defeated the Chicago Wolves with a 4-0 win.

Speakers at the convention included former President George W. Bush, inspiration for the film 127 Hours, Aron Ralston, Chrysler, LLC CEO, Sergio Marchionne and 2011 NADA Chairman, Stephen Wade. There were also over 40 workshops held at this years convention. Workshops ranged from ways to reduce your operating cost, lectures on driving traffic to information on improving Internet sales. NADA offered a little something for everyone!

Better Car People used NADA as an opportunity to meet with existing CRM vendors to explore new development of our core product, Overnight BDC and as a chance to explore how to integrate it with their systems further. We were also able to prospect some new relationships that will help move our product into even more dealerships in the coming year.

Another one of the highlights of the weekend included meeting former NBA player, Dr. J and former running back for the St. Louis Rams, Eric Dickerson.

We are already looking forward to NADA 2013 in sunny Orlando, FL. Will we see you there?

Prior to joining Better Car People, Jimmy held multiple positions within AutoUSA, AutoNation’s e-Commerce division. Most recently he was the Regional Manager in the Great Lakes territory for AutoUSA. He was a top sales performer with an outstanding record in business development, account management and contract negotiations. Jimmy has a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) from Texas State University. He is married and has two sons. In his spare time he enjoys do-it-yourself projects around the house and spending time at the Little League fields. He is also an avid Houston Texans Fan.

Jimmy says that he joined Better Car People because of the management team here and the cutting edge lead response technology we provide dealerships. He said it “seemed liked a no-brainer.” He is excited and eager to work for Better Car People, a company recognized for delivering cost effective communication solutions to automotive dealers nationwide.

We welcome Jimmy to our family and are excited to have him with us!

Our entire Better Car People family was in attendance. Account executives, quality assurance representatives and our partners, along with their families and friends, gathered for delicious food, great company and a good old football game.

The group enjoyed a catered spread complete with BBQ, chili, brats, potato salad, coleslaw, sweets and more! The day started out a little chilly but by game time it had warmed up nicely. Everyone had a great time. Unfortunately, the Atlanta Falcons came out with the win, but the event couldn’t have been beat!

To further celebrate the holidays we had a “secret Santa gift exchange” at our office in Monroe, North Carolina. All who chose to participate drew the name of an unknowing fellow employee. We set a price limit and were set free to shop. The recipients, of the gifts, were both surprised and delighted. The few “gag gifts,” that were inevitable, were quite humorous and very appropriate for the intended recipient.

We continued to celebrate as we shared a feast of Chick-fil-a and homemade goodies. The entire Better Car People office had a fantastic time and were certainly in the holiday spirit.

Happy Holidays from Better Car People!

Scott’s previous experience includes Staff Engineer for two years at Delta Consultants and one year as a Staff Engineer at Eastern Solutions. He also previously worked for Better Car People as one of our quality assurance staff members for our OvernightBDC product. It only seemed natural that Scott would fill the role of Account Executive.

Scott graduated in 2007 from North Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Environmental Engineering. His hobbies include building and repairing PC’s. He also enjoys playing softball in his free time. When Scott was asked why he made the decision to join Better Car People, he answered that he saw it as a great and exciting opportunity to join a fast-growing, quality company in the automotive industry.

The partners were heading to Phoenix, Arizona for the 16th stop on the 17 city tour with GM eSummit 4.0. The day before they were scheduled to be at the eSummit, they had the opportunity to take part in the one day Z06 Corvette Experience at the Bob Bondurant School. It just seemed fitting that while on the GM eSummit tour they should go to Bondurant, where the official vehicle used is the American performance-icon Chevrolet Corvette – Z51, Z06 and ZR1 models.

The Corvette Z06 is one of the most powerful production cars ever made by GM. It is powered by a 7.0 liter V-8, LS7 engine that puts out 505 HP at 6,300 RPMs. The Corvette Z06 is the exclusive vehicle used in their Corvette Z06 Experience course.

The morning started off with a brief class with the instructors, were they did a Q & A session and reviewed the impressive Corvette Z06. The team learned to harness the power of the Z06 in a number of sessions that included skid control, line techniques, accident avoidance and plenty of track time on a quarter mile, autocross and the 1.6 mile road course. The only incident of the day came on the quarter mile track were Tyler slid off the track and got stuck in a gravel pit. Fortunately, no damage was done to the vehicle.

On the autocross course their abilities and training were put to the test with timed laps. Chris had the fastest single lap, three times out of the nine total laps, but Matthew had the fastest overall average! At the end of the day they were let loose on the 1.6 mile Firebird Raceway Road Course which combines high-speed corners, long straights and low speed turns. The 1.6 mile course is used by many professional racing teams, club racers and the Bob Bondurant School’s Advanced Road Racing classes. The day provided a great team building experience and an unexplainable driving rush!

As a side note: there was a small bet between the partners. The partner with the slowest overall speed, during the timed autocross, would have to hand-wash the others’ car in front of the office…Hey Brian, the wash bucket is out front waiting for you!