Vaihtoautomaa, which has been involved in automotive industry changes since the beginning of the 2000s, is utilizing the chat platform in their daily operations. A company with a turnover of around 30 million euros focuses on the sale of used cars comprehensively from the first meeting to the purchase. In addition to their other duties, the salespeople are on call for online sales via chat.
Vaihtoautomaa’s operational director, Niklas Nyström, considers chat to play a significant role in getting customer contacts: “Chat has clearly increased our sales and improved customer service, chat guides people to the right things and answers”, Nyström says.
Vaihtoautomaa, currently operating under Bemax Oy, has followed the automotive industry digitalization over the years. Vaihtoautomaa had tried the chat before its potential as a part of customer encounters was recognized in the market. At that time, the chat still remained to the level of testing, but the proliferation of online sales has brought chat to stay next to ‘floor sales’ at brick-and-mortar store. “The first experiment was exciting when we didn’t really know the value of the chat. The pandemic confirmed the importance of online shopping everywhere, and chat has become an established part of our activities now during the last year.” Nyström sums up.
“I would definitely recommend them to everyone regardless of the business, to everyone who is interested in getting more customer contacts. I would say that the ones who are not using chat, lose more than those who are using it”.
Niklas Nyström, operational director, Vaihtoautomaa
Through experimentation and testing, Vaihtoautomaa launched chat as part of its operations. Although the number of sales leads increased and collecting customer contacts diversified, the change didn’t happen instantly and a suitable chat service was sought for a long time. “We tested the major service providers and collected feedback from our employees after a few months of trial periods. In the survey and voting results, Smilee was selected from the salespeople point of view as the most pleasant”, says Nyström.
The sellers especially felt that the simplicity and ease of Smilee’s services improved user experience. “As well from the point of view of the sales manager, the data is easy to follow and Smilee doesn’t have any significant bugs that would interfere with use”, adds Nyström.
Vaihtoautomaa uses the chat platform to collect customer contacts and the Vaihtoautomaa stores take turns in charge of the chat. Nyström feels that the benefits of the chat are best realized when the person who is in charge of the chat at that time, only focuses on the chat: “Every contact is important and chat requires careful customer service, as you can’t see or hear the customer’s reactions the same way as in a store”, Nyström reflects.
The increase of online sales has also been noticed concretely: “Punctual visits happen more and more instead of the so-called tire kicking, and a significant part of the sales takes place online”. Nyström sees that the development towards digital and automated solutions only continues: “ I would see as an option, that the markets where in particular logistics solutions are developed even further to meet the customer’s needs in remote purchases and the transactions, can be handled completely online. Maybe someday the keys can be delivered to the customer in the mail and the car is just waiting at the parking lot ready”, Nyström thinks.
The people from Smilee who were building the cooperation are still in mind. Nyström emphasizes how it has been important to get quality customer service right from the beginning. “We’ve had a really good contact person from Smilee. Everything has been handled extremely well, from tests to the start of the service. Smilee has always been easy to do business with”, Nyström says.
Nyström warmly recommends Smilee’s services: “I would definitely recommend them to everyone regardless of the business, to everyone who is interested in getting more customer contacts. I would say that the ones who are not using chat, lose more than those who are using it”.
