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Swansway Group is pushing ahead with AI in a drive to boost appointments for sales staff to convert into sales.
Speaking at the Motor Trader AI webinar with Impel last week, Swansway director John Smyth charted out the road it had taken with AI and where it was going next.
Smyth said: “I first came across AI about two years ago at the NADA automotive convention in Las Vegas.
“We found that nearly 50% of our enquiries came through our website after hours, and it’s all about speed of response. Between 7pm and 8am there’s no guarantee those enquiries would be dealt with, and customers can easily go elsewhere.
“We looked very seriously at sales AI, came across Impel, and decided to take them on. It’s made a significant difference — both in how we deal with enquiries as a team and in the results we get.
“With most chatbots, you know you’re not going to get anywhere. But the AI we use actually creates genuine appointments, collects genuine data, and does it at the hours when otherwise customers could easily go elsewhere,” he said.
Looking to the future Smyth said Swansway was very sales oriented so its focus wasn’t on man-hours saved but appointments created.
“At the end of the day, we’re still in the people business. We need sales executives to deal with enquiries. For us, the key measures are how many appointments AI creates and the conversion of those appointments into sales. That’s where we see the real benefits.”
Click here to see the full webinar with John Smyth, director Swansway Group, Mike Bell, CEO Available Car and Matthew Muilenburg, chief product officer at Impel
