Making UAE Car Dealerships Conversational with WhatsApp Business API

Introduction

The UAE’s automobile market is rapidly growing, driven by low import and fuel costs, favorable tax policies, and high disposable incomes. As this market expands, car manufacturers are increasingly adopting innovative tools, such as the WhatsApp business API, to enhance customer interactions and streamline their operations.

With the UAE’s passenger car revenue projected to reach $6.6 billion by 2028, growing at an annual rate of 1.09%, companies are exploring more than traditional methods to stay competitive. One of the hottest trends in this area is conversational marketing, particularly using platforms like WhatsApp Business API. This streamlines their sales processes and aligns them more closely with customer expectations. 

With conversational marketing, automobile brands and dealerships can guide customers smoothly through the vehicle purchasing process, whether they are buying new or refurbished cars. It’s about creating a seamless, interactive experience that meets customers where they are and makes the buying process as effortless as possible.

How to Use Conversational AI to Streamline Automobile Dealership?

With so many competitors in the market, customers these days have several options to choose from. Their attention span is also going down. It is, therefore, essential for brands to keep nudging the customers, of course, without spamming them so that they never go out of sight and mind. 

In this scenario, Conversational AI is slowly emerging as a tool that can offer seamless and personalized interactions, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction.  

By incorporating the use of a Conversation Cloud, car dealerships can acquire, engage, convert, and support customers through a unified platform and optimize their sales processes. Know how. 

1. Lead Nurturing to Arrest the Attention of Your Customers

First things first — as an automobile dealership, you have to make your presence prominent to potential customers so that they can locate you easily. If a customer is interested in purchasing a vehicle from you, your conversational AI-powered WhatsApp chatbot can leverage the geolocation data and help your customer find your store. 

You have to curate your marketing strategy very tactfully. First, bring your potential customers to your WhatsApp chat through a click-to-chat advertisement. Once your customer comes to talking terms with you through your conversational AI chatbot, half the battle is already won.  

Devise your chatbot in a way that it sends a complete list of the nearest authorized dealerships along with their full address and contact details. This saves a lot of time and effort on the customer’s end. 

2. Personalized Product Recommendations 

One mistake brands often make is sending product recommendations that do not align with customers’ requirements. For example, anyone looking for an SUV might not be interested in a small car advertisement. 

This is where the role of personalization comes in. According to Statista, personalization, a one-to-one marketing strategy, has become an indispensable component in the marketing landscape. The global revenue for personalization is likely to surpass 9.5 billion USD by 2024. 

You need to understand what your customer might be looking for. The use of conversational AI has revolutionized the way brands interact with their customers. Through the use of a WhatsApp API for the automobile industry, you can gather valuable insights about customers’ intent and curate personalized responses accordingly. 

Let us understand this with an example. 

Having a WhatsApp chatbot for your business is like having someone take care of your customer’s inquiries that are too trivial for the intervention of a human agent, thereby driving conversions. 

Conversational AI chatbots allow customers to interact with your business in any language of their choice, thereby increasing the scope for personalization. This way, your customers also feel valued, which paves the way for an excellent customer experience. 

3. Virtual Showroom Experience

You identify your customer’s preferences using AI/ML technologies and send them some recommendations that might align with their interest. However, that is not all for a decision as big as purchasing a car. 

You have to provide your customers with an immersive experience where they can choose from plenty of options. WhatsApp Business API has a feature called “Catalogue Template,” through which you can offer your customers a virtual showroom experience. 

These catalog templates are displayed as a product thumbnail accompanied by a header image of your choice. There is also custom body text, a text header, and a text subheader. Clicking on the “View Catalogue” option helps you view all the products right on WhatsApp. 

Product messages cannot be sent as notifications. They can only be sent as part of an existing conversation. Let us take the previous template as an example. The WhatsApp chatbot showcases some products to Jake, but only after he asks for them. 

This feature makes it easy for customers to conduct research and prepare before visiting your offline store. 

4. Real-time Information About Vehicle 

Purchasing a vehicle involves several decisions, from choosing the right color to picking the correct pattern. 

A conversational AI chatbot can assist customers by engaging them in informative communication about the vehicle. This way, customers can explore the technical features and appearances that they want in their car. Thanks to the tremendous abilities of AI, it can even help customers visualize the product in 3D and get an idea of the product they are about to purchase. 

The conversational AI chatbot can also provide real-time information about a vehicle, such as its tire pressure, fuel level, etc., so the customer can make informed decisions about its maintenance. 

5. Booking a Test Drive

When a customer arrives at a dealership for a test drive, chances are that he has already gone through thousands of reviews and has made up his mind about which product he wants to purchase. 

After your customer has chosen the product that he might be willing to buy, he may be planning to book a test drive. You can make the process seamless and convenient by facilitating easy appointment scheduling via your business’ WhatsApp chatbot. 

Your WhatsApp business service provider in UAE can engage customers with an end-to-end chatbot message assistant. The car brand can display advertisements on social media and link them to click-to-WhatsApp chats, where customers can converse with the car dealer directly. The car brand can then suggest the nearest dealership to arrive at, and the most suitable time slots when they can arrive at the store for a test drive or to resolve any other query they want in person. 

Here’s a template in support of this instance:

This way, your customers can skip the hassle of calling your retail store and talking to a human agent, who might pass the call from one counter to another, causing the customer to repeat the same information repeatedly. 

In this context, it is notable that Gupshup’s offerings have helped CARS24 lower agent costs by 60% through automation of helping customers find the car that suits them best and booking test drives.

6. Insurance and Loan Inquiry

A customer’s purchase decision is governed by multiple factors, such as the vehicle’s on-road price, the available EMI options, and the delivery timelines. 

A WhatsApp business service provider in UAE chatbot powered by conversational AI can offer round-the-clock purchase assistance to customers and ensure a smooth purchase process. 

The chatbot can also offer customers information on important aspects like insurance and coverage to which the customer shall be entitled. This becomes especially important if a customer is purchasing a used car. 

7. User Manuals and FAQs

Going through a manual in an hour of emergency may seem like a daunting task. You can save your customer the effort by offering easy access to any vehicle-related information simply through chat. 

Conversational AI can offer 24/7 prompt chat support to customers. This way, customers can receive specific replies to their queries from the vehicle’s user manual or the FAQs section. 

Not only this, but an automobile dealer’s chatbot assistant can also help find the nearest support in case of emergencies like a tire puncture, or when a car might need towing service. Let us see an example of a WhatsApp chat template in support of this situation:

8. After-Sales Services

Even after your customers have made the purchase, you must take care of the requirements that might arise post-sales. Your customer may want to book a car inspection or any other service through your company’s conversational AI chatbot. 

Not only this, but the use of conversational AI has also made it easy for customers to make payments through a one-click payment system. This way, customers do not have to switch windows and engage in complex processes like entering an OTP or scanning a QR code. 

All of these facilities make the process extremely convenient for customers. 

Challenges and Consideration 

Despite the tremendous capabilities of conversational AI, it is important to note that it cannot outsmart human capabilities. Brands need to strike the right balance between automation and human interaction to deliver the best experience to the customers. 

As a car sales business, it is also important to emphasize transparency and ensure robust security measures so that customers’ data is not compromised. Therefore, automobile businesses in the UAE should adhere to the data protection laws laid down by the UAE government and incorporate them while harnessing the use of an AI-based chatbot to gather customer insights. 

Using Gupshup to Optimize Operations

To stay ahead in UAE’s competitive automobile market, businesses need to embrace innovative marketing strategies. In so doing, conversational marketing and the use of WhatsApp Business service provider in UAE are emerging as powerful tools that can not only streamline the operations for businesses but also improve customer engagement. 

By using Gupshup, UAE automobile businesses can incorporate the use of conversational marketing solutions to revolutionize the digital marketing and sales landscape, and improve customer interactions, thereby maintaining a competitive edge in the market. 

Try out our services, and watch your business grow exponentially. 

FAQs

1. How can automotive dealerships benefit from the use of WhatsApp Business API?

Ans: Automotive dealerships can incorporate WhatsApp business API to create a unified platform for acquiring customers, engaging them through personalized recommendations, converting them, and offering them post-sales support. This helps businesses gain better ROI. 

2. How can automotive dealerships use WhatsApp Business API to improve user experience?

Ans: Automotive dealerships can gather valuable insights from customers from AI-powered chatbots and understand their tastes and preferences through sentiment analysis. They can then offer personalized suggestions to the customers, thereby improving their experience. AI-powered chatbots can also offer prompt post-sales support to customers.  

3. Why is Finance and Insurance important for the automobile industry?

Ans: Purchasing a car is a huge investment for customers. It is, therefore, important that businesses stress the finance and insurance aspects so that customers find it affordable and are prompted to make the purchase decision.