How automotive companies can use WhatsApp to revolutionize their customer communication and increase sales

The positive customer experience comes first

The automotive sector in particular is committed to offering an all-round positive customer experience. After all, buying a car involves a large investment for the end customer and you want to be well advised. It doesn't matter whether it is buying a car or maintaining the vehicle.

car dealerships, workshops and car rental companies have long since discovered WhatsApp as an important communication channel for interested and existing customers. After all, you want to reduce the hurdle of contact and communication via messenger is often the easy way that saves both sides a lot of time. However, using private WhatsApp accounts and the WhatsApp business app is not the ideal solution for companies. After all, these channels form communication silos and there is no transparency for other employees as to which communication has taken place. Furthermore, WhatsApp Business can only be used on a mobile device and as soon as the battery is empty or the responsible employee is on vacation, customer inquiries are quickly lost. On the other hand, private WhatsApp and WhatsApp business are not GDPR compliant.

Car dealerships and repair shops are often faced with the problem of having to process customer inquiries quickly and effectively in order to maintain customer satisfaction at a high level and at the same time integrate limited human resources into daily business as effectively as possible. Customer communication is usually still extremely time-consuming and ineffective via e-mail and telephone. Messenger apps like WhatsApp offer the ideal solution to solve this problem.

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WhatsApp API as a solution to the problems of automotive sector

With WhatsApp, customers can quickly and easily get in touch and make inquiries without having to put up with long waiting times on the phone or at the car dealership. The advantage for your company: With the right WhatsApp API Providers such as hellomateo can quickly answer WhatsApp messages with automatic replies and message templates and use a WhatsApp account with various devices and users. The integrated contact management With modern messaging software, you can always keep track of your customers. This seems to solve some problems in busy automotive companies. But in fact, WhatsApp is not only suitable for processing customer inquiries faster and saving human resources — with WhatsApp, car dealerships, workshops and other companies in the automotive industry can directly increase their sales! We'll show you all the benefits of using WhatsApp in conjunction with a professional messaging tool as Hellomateo can offer.
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Closer customer loyalty through a personal user atmosphere

In contrast to email, WhatsApp's user atmosphere is very informal, as most users communicate with friends and family via WhatsApp. When companies can be reached via WhatsApp and send newsletters to customers, this creates a proximity to the customer that is simply not possible with emails. E-mails are too distant and too impersonal and are therefore not the right way to go as a communication channel that is particularly important for customer loyalty. Long-term customer loyalty increases customer lifetime value and therefore also your operating profit.

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Videos, photos, files, voice notes, etc... - Share everything that's important with your customers

You certainly know it from private WhatsApp use:. All sorts of files can also be sent with a WhatsApp company account. Be it dozens of photos of new vehicles, the latest invoice or even a video with which customers can easily explain a complex technical problem to you. You and your customers can share all important files with each other via WhatsApp. Without the typical email error messages from attachments that are too large.

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Automated delivery of important customer information

With the WhatsApp API, it is possible to automatically send messages such as invoices, pick-up confirmations, appointments and other important customer information. All functions are available for efficient and personal communication.

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Unlimited number of devices and users per account

With the WhatsApp API, there are no technical limits to the number of users and devices per account. How many devices/users are actually possible differs depending on the API provider. With hellomateo, there are few limits. We make sure that every one of your employees — whether in the workshop, on the sales floor or in the office — has access to WhatsApp if you wish. With hellomateo, it is also possible to connect multiple phone numbers to the WhatsApp API. Even yours Existing landline number!

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Increasing sales with WhatsApp newsletter: Using upselling and cross-selling potential

This is probably one of the most important arguments for WhatsApp in the automotive sector, particularly when it comes to your sales: The WhatsApp newsletter

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Let's start with a small digression:

With WhatsApp, similar to emails, you can also Newsletter to be sent. But as statistics show, emails are too distant and too impersonal to function effectively as a marketing channel that is primarily intended to influence consumers' emotional buying behavior. Another advantage is that WhatsApp newsletters are guaranteed to reach recipients and are not sorted into the spam folder by the mail provider like many e-mail newsletters. Between personal messages from friends and family, your newsletter will get the attention it deserves.

Traditional marketing channels, such as email, are increasingly saturated. Many consumers receive dozens of email newsletters every week and delete most of them unread. In technical jargon, this phenomenon is called channel fatigue. As a marketer, there are only two options in such a case: Either emails can be further optimized in the hope that opening rates will increase by 1 or 2%. Or you can switch to a channel, such as WhatsApp, on which there is no competition yet. Statistics on the opening rates of newsletters suggest that the latter option is likely to be more successful. While email newsletters are only opened at all in 22% of cases for the reasons mentioned above, the figure for WhatsApp is 98% (source: Gartner).

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The excellent opening rate, combined with customer proximity on WhatsApp and the resulting significantly higher conversion rate, leads to significantly increased sales revenues. Various experience reports show that switching from email to WhatsApp newsletters can significantly contribute to company success. We have discussed exactly how your automotive company can set up and use WhatsApp newsletters in our article”How to WhatsApp Newsletter“described. By the way: hellomateo provides you with reliable evaluations and statistics on the behavior of newsletter recipients, which can be used to evaluate the success of your WhatsApp campaign.

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Now back to the options you have to benefit from WhatsApp newsletters

In the automotive sector in particular, there are almost unlimited opportunities to send occasional newsletters to your existing customers Upselling and cross-selling potential to develop. For example, you can remind your customers of the upcoming inspection, oil change, TÜV inspection or tire change, ideally directly with a few suggested appointments. Send out regular updates about your new and used car inventory to customers who you know have a specific interest in buying. Or when winter sets in, you draw the attention of your customers to your large selection of antifreeze, snow chains and de-icer spray — possibly even with a 10% discount code. You can also offer customers who have recently bought a car from you appropriate accessories (rims, seat covers, floor mats, software packages,...) via WhatsApp. With a little creativity, there are countless ways to generate additional revenue with WhatsApp newsletters and retain existing customers with your company with useful reminders and discount campaigns.

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conclusion

The advantages of messenger apps such as WhatsApp are obvious: By using these digital channels, communication between customers and car dealerships can be made more efficient. For example, customers can quickly and easily make an appointment or obtain information about repairs and services. In return, car dealerships and workshops can respond faster and more effectively to inquiries and use their resources more efficiently. With WhatsApp newsletter marketing, you can exploit massive sales potential and retain customers to your company in the long term. It is therefore time to switch customer communication to messenger apps and improve the customer experience. Car dealerships and repair shops that rely on digital communication channels have the opportunity to gain a significant competitive advantage. Find out how your company too can benefit from using messenger apps! Just arrange a free consultation.

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Implement customer communication and existing customer marketing via WhatsApp with hellomateo

We at hellomateo are your messaging experts when it comes to customer communication. Dozens of companies from the automotive sector are already using hellomateo and are impressed. Our customers particularly appreciate the following benefits of hellomateo:

• ‍Central user interface: hellomateo combines WhatsApp Business Platform, email, Instagram, SMS and Facebook Messenger in one central inbox. The intuitive user interface includes various tools for efficient customer communication and saves you valuable working time.
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• integrations: With hellomateo, you can use WhatsApp in integrate over 6,000 software programs and fully automated Customer trips create with invitations, order confirmations, shipping information, invoices, and reminders.
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• Newsletter marketing: Send GDPR-compliant Newsletter via WhatsApp or SMS and benefit from opening rates of over 95%.‍
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• Assessment management: hellomateo can Automatically request online reviews from your customers, which boosts your Google ranking and trust in your company.
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• ‍Data protection: hellomateo meets all German and European Data protection requirements and offers end-to-end encryption for secure customer communication.
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• scalability: Our software is suitable for Businesses of all sizes and can be extended indefinitely depending on the package.‍
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• ‍Diverse AI features: Our AI agent can automatically answer customer inquiries in chat, answer calls, help with the formulation of messages and much more.
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Arrange a non-binding and free consultation and we'll show you how hellomateo covers your communication needs! Simply book an appointment here or write to us via our web widget.

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