Whatsapp in Dealership: 7 reasons to avoid it

WhatsApp is an instant messaging application that allows its users to exchange both text and multimedia messages.  It works on smartphones and PCs.  To use it you just need an Internet connection and it is associated with a user’s phone number.

For an innovative, cutting-edge and highly useful communication, however, the WhatsApp app at the Dealership can be very limiting and problematic. AutoMovie instead, is a multimedia storytelling platform equipped with machine learning, which is essential for operators in the automotive sector.

In recent years, many analysts have observed how the automotive sector and the online communication sector increasingly need integration and innovation.

Today WhatsApp is the most popular and most used instant messaging application in the world.

The main feature offered by WhatsApp is to allow the instant exchange of text messages, images, videos, documents, audio and positions using an Internet connection. 

It also offers the possibility to make calls and video calls always using the data connection.

The WhatsApp service is offered free of charge and is cross-platform: in fact, there is an application for Android and iOS, a desktop client for both Windows and Mac and also a web version, to be used directly from our browser. 

To all intents and purposes it is an interface to the smartphone, which only works if the device is connected to the Internet (it does not have an app dedicated to tablets).

Whatsapp at the Dealership: why avoid it?

After describing the WhatsApp application, let’s now look at why the use of Whatsapp at the Dealership can be limiting and problematic.

1. WhatsApp is not a proprietary application and therefore does not guarantee security to the dealer who could one day see the app disappear and the consequent loss of data.
2. It does not allow multi-access (to change the device you will have to configure it again), therefore the communication is linked to the device on which the app is installed, whether it is a personal or corporate device and therefore also the control and analysis of performance of the dealership.
3. Violation of the privacy of the person in possession of the device on which the app is installed as, unless the device is disconnected from the Internet, availability is guaranteed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, going well beyond the opening and closing times of dealers .
4. Once a content has been sent, it is only possible to check if the message has been sent and displayed through the ticks, but it is not possible to identify the sentiment of the final customer involved.
5. WhatsApp does not allow you to keep a history of the contents sent in general, and therefore the construction of a database that is also useful for the future. 
6. The sending of attachments has limitations: WhatsApp compresses the photos and videos that are sent, while the sending of PDF files has a maximum limit of 100 MB for the individual file.
7. When using WhatsApp, contact information is saved in the smartphone address book. It is not possible to trace the “history” of customers, and it will be possible to contact them only on WhatsApp (no multi-channel communication).

In the Automotive sector there is:

• distrust by an increasingly informed customer;
• higher product quality (less need for after-sales intervention);
• reduction of moments of contact with the customer;
• difficulty in making the quality of the service perceived;
• easy price comparability.

According to studies and statistics, video communication in the Automotive sector represents an interesting and useful solution:

• 78% of people watch online videos every week and 55% every day (Hubspot);
• on mobile devices, video consumption has increased by over 2,000% in 5 years (Facebook);
• on mobile devices, the time spent on videos is 5 times that spent on photos (Facebook);
• the time users spend consuming video content on Instagram increases by more than 80% every year (Instagram).

In light of these observations, a flexible tool is needed that can help dealers to:

• maximise the user experience of operators and customers;
• enhance professionalism;
• communicate while maximising relevance;
• interact dynamically and immediately;
• involve the customer;
• transform the personal work experience into a “story to be narrated”.

We therefore need a real video-based storytelling platform. AutoMovie is the multimedia storytelling platform with machine learning and artificial intelligence systems for the Automotive sector that transforms the relationship with the customer and allows:

• organisation of information in a centralised database
• ease of search also by personnel other than those who produced it
• tracking of video views
• professionalism of communication
• the ability to add interaction elements on the landing page
• the monitoring of interactions with customers and collection of all data relating to conversations that are generated with qualified personnel