Ep. 641 - Smart Dealerships Are Winning More with AI, With Maarten Bekkers
In this episode my guest is Maarten Bekkers, the founder of AutoChat, to break down how AI is so much more than a fancy Q&A bot on your website.
Alright, let’s get real for a second. If you hear the word “AI” and immediately picture a clunky chatbot throwing out robotic answers like “I’m sorry, Dave, I can’t do that”—you’re in for a wake-up call.
We’re talking about an AI-powered assistant that’s ready to clock in 24/7, never asks for a coffee break, and somehow still manages to deliver better customer service than most humans.
Oh, and if you’re still chasing endless leads like a golden retriever chasing a tennis ball… buckle up. Maarten and I dive into why quality leads > lead volume and how AI can filter out the noise and hand you the real opportunities.
At one point, Maarten shared this quote:
"Selling something to someone who doesn’t need it is bad. But NOT selling something to someone who DOES need it? That’s even worse."
Car sales professionals often get a bad rep, and it’s probably because it can be easy to come off as desperate or like they’re placing their needs above the customers. What if we could flip the paradigm and understand that it’s our duty to provide the customer with what they need?
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Episode Transcript
MC: 0:00
(Episode Sponsor)This episode is brought to you by AutoChat.ai
Maarten: 0:03
(Episode Hook)You don't need a big amount of leads. You need as much quality leads as possible and if somebody just has a question, give an answer to that question. Don't ask them to fill in a form and then wait. It's terrible customer experience. They might have found the answer elsewhere in the meantime and they bought a car elsewhere.
MC: 0:28
Hey there, welcome to this episode of the Dealer Playbook Podcast. I'm sitting down with my pal, Maarten Bekkers. He is the founder and CEO of AutoChat. We're going to be discussing how you can integrate AI conversations to streamline your dealership. Stay tuned
(Intro) The car business is rapidly changing and modern car dealers are meeting the demand. I'm Michael Cirillo and together we'll explore the best strategies, ideas and tools to create a thriving life in and out of the business. This is the Dealer Playbook.
(Episode Begins) Maarten, thanks so much for joining me on the Dealer Playbook.
Maarten: 1:03
Thank you very much. Nice to be here.
MC: 1:13
It's for being late and for being an early riser. You sure look awake right now. What those listening don't know, Maarten is in Belgium. We're all the way here in Dallas, texas, so there's a bit of a time gap between us. Nonetheless, super excited to have you here. I mean, just a few short weeks ago, at time of recording this, you and I were in person. We were doing some events there in Belgium and Holland, so it was cool to get to know you a little bit more. I know we had connected before that, but to be able to sit and break bread and talk about who we look like and people think I look like Seth Rogen and you've been mistaken for Tom Cruise and just yeah a long time ago.
MC: 1:55
But also learning, before we get to AutoChat, which is your current company. I mean, you've had quite the experience as an entrepreneur. You've founded several companies. You've had quite the experience as an entrepreneur. You've founded several companies, you've had exits, you've seen growth, you've been in startups. You're in AutoChat now. I want to just pick your brain a little bit. If I could put you on the spot, Maarten, and say well for all of the other startup business. You know entrepreneurs listening in business. What's one of the top lessons that has just carried you through your entrepreneurial journey?
Maarten: 2:31
Focus on delivering value and focus on the reason why somebody buys the product, instead of focusing on the product and it's all what you can achieve with the product, the results that somebody can receive. We can reach. That's important to focus on now. I see very often that people have ideas about products and even if they pitch it now, okay, but why would somebody buy that? Or what's the? What can they achieve with it? And and is is there a current problem in the market that you solve? And then I very often see that it's not there. Don't invent things just because they are cool, but because they solve issues and solve problems and you have a solution for it, and the solution selling is something that works.
MC: 3:19
Isn't that interesting. I mean, I'm now even thinking about my entrepreneurial journey and the moments where I felt like things were going slower, and it was always, like you said, in moments where I was developing something I thought was cool. I don't know, maybe it's the ego attached to it versus what problem are we actually trying to solve here?
Maarten: 3:41
Yeah, I've been an entrepreneur now quite some years, but I've also started working very early. I was still quite young and I decided to not be an entrepreneur in the beginning and to start working elsewhere and build up my career from there. And but during these years I've had so many ideas. I could do this, I could that and it's. I think it's also great to to take some time, and when I then started, also after a few months, I decided I was doing the wrong things and I needed to adjust myself. And I think that's also an advice that I would give.
Maarten: 4:17
If you start running a business, it's, in the end, it's your company number that needs to be profitable. And if you, along the way, do something and you need to steer away from your original idea, that's great. That's how it goes. You can't invent everything yourself. You, when you are working with customers, you find out what works, what, where the needs are, and then it's about steering it in the right direction. You say, oh, I thought actually it would be this, but in fact it's a bit different. Steer it.
Maarten: 4:50
Don't let your ego stand in the way to say I need to get this working, this was my idea, this is what I told people. So it needs to work. Let go of that. It's much more interesting to speak to people to see they have these issues, and actually my additional idea might be a good one, but if I steer it a little bit in this direction, it's actually better for that customer. That's how you do business and I feel that's something that I have done several times in the past few years. I've been very successful at that to be very close to the customers and don't let ego stand in the past few years, and I've been very successful at that to to be very close to the customers and and don't let ego stand in the way it's.
MC: 5:31
It makes me think also of don't be don't be romantic about your business, right Like, at the end of the day, it's so easy for us to say, well, it's just business, and then, on the other hand, we get so romantic about it that it just it's more than business to us. I think that's so valuable. I'm sitting here taking notes. When you look inside of the dealership ecosystem, do you think that's also getting in the way from a customer experience where we become so much more focused on, for example, in our industry I mean the conversation about how do we deliver a better customer experience and how do we speed up the process and how do we make it more efficient, et cetera that we actually lose sight of the customer in talking about customer experience, that we don't actually solve for a better customer experience?
Maarten: 6:20
Yeah, I think so. I think that actually improving your customer experience lays right in front of your nose. It's not so difficult. I experience it every week when I visit dealers that the staff there doesn't know who I am. I might be a customer and I'm walking in, so you would expect to have a welcoming feeling from the employees at the dealership. I think that it's very often it's quite disappointing, and there it's really so easy to improve things. So don't make it too difficult, because even with systems and technology okay, that's great, but it starts with the basic things and you don't need technology to improve it.
MC: 7:18
Speaking of technology, though you're a tech guy. I mean, have you always been a tech guy? Bring me back to teenage Maarten. Was he a tech guy? How did you get into the tech game?
Maarten: 7:30
Tech guy is, depending on how you see it. I cannot develop. I'm not a developer, so don't ask me to do that. I think others can do a great job at that. But what I did like is gadgets. So I've always been a gadget freak. When gadgets came out and also the phones in the earlier days, or not even the phones you had, like these mini computers that you can carry on I had all of those. It's been great. I'm still a gadget freak. That's also the favorite part of magazines, to see what kind of gadgets can I have. But I must say, now that there's the iPhone, all my gadgets are on the iPhone.
MC: 8:06
I was going to say what's your go-to gadget. That sounds about right.
Maarten: 8:10
I would say the iPhone. Nothing can beat the iPhone. So since that came out I think no other gadget is coming close. But I'm actually raised in the car business, so my parents were active in the car business. So my father has been managing director of a car leasing company. So in Europe operational leasing is quite big. I think it's different in the US but here a lot of companies they lease their cars and my father has been working in the leasing industry very long and established a big leasing company in Belgium.
Maarten: 8:43
We are originally from the Netherlands, so I'm born in the Netherlands and then he actually was sent to Belgium to start up this leasing company in Belgium and that's how we moved here. But it's actually half an hour from the Dutch border, so it's like we speak the same language. So it's not a big difference and it's a bit comparable with you from Canada to the US. We also speak the same language but a different accent. And so what he's done? That? Many years I think almost 20 years and then he started his own dealership. We were selling the brands Rover the English brand Rover Land Rover, mg and Mini, and that was in Brussels.
Maarten: 9:21
So I've also spent quite some time there when I was a student and I always, yeah, dreamt of going into the car business as well. So when I was a child, it was easy. I knew what I was going to do. I was going to start working in the automotive retail space, which I did, but I always, since the beginning, looked up the online businesses within automotive, automotive space. So I've worked for online companies since I was actually 18, 19 years old and I'm now 42. So that's already quite some years active in that space, and throughout these years I've done a lot in IT, and so I really like the IT part and the combination of IT, cars and actually also selling.
Maarten: 10:03
You know, I like actually the role of a salesperson. I love it and I think that it's a beautiful profession because you actually help people, you solve problems of people, and I must say that I like it. And so there's quite some negativity around the salespeople, but I would say I love being in sales, but what I don't like is hard selling. You know, if somebody doesn't need something, don't sell it to them, but if somebody has a need and has a problem that you can solve, I think it's fantastic that you are the one to be able to offer a solution. So you need to be authentic and but, of course, selling. You can do that in all kinds of businesses but you need also a passion, an interest in something, and I really like cars. So I have many people that I know who are in the car business. They say, oh, I don't like cars actually, but I'm in the car business.
Maarten: 11:02
What about you? Personally, to be honest, I like cars, I love them. It's beautiful, it's great to drive in it, it's freedom. So how great is it to be in that business? But indeed, combining the IT part with because I like digital things, I like and perhaps that's from the past that I like gadgets. When I actually my how do you call it? It's not a mentor, but somebody who I look up to is actually Steve Jobs. He is. I'm a big fan. I think if you look at that company, how they make things easy for the customer, how they make things beautiful, it's the quality is fantastic. If you try one of their products, then you become an addict to their products because it's such a good quality and so easy in use and I really like that and that gives me a lot of energy to. Actually, I could never be an Apple, of course, but I mean you can learn things from them to also, with the same passion, deliver quality and easy systems, and so I think this combination is really something that works for me.
MC: 12:12
You said something I want to touch on briefly before we we move on, which is you might be the first person I've ever talked to that refers to sales as a beautiful occupation, and which tells me a lot about you. It tells me that it's a validation that you do truly believe that hard selling is not good, but also not selling something to somebody if they truly need it is also not good. Yeah, you know, I can't remember if you might've been the one to tell me this when we were together. I'm maybe not, but this idea of selling something to someone that they don't need is a doing a disservice to them, but also not selling something to someone who needs it is a disservice. It's like if you need it, then it would be a disservice for me to not sell it to you, and so I just wanted to highlight that.
MC: 13:17
I think that's so interesting, especially as it pertains to our industry, to say, hey, hold on a minute. We know that car sales professionals get a really bad reputation sometimes, but to feel your sense of pride in sales, that it is something that can truly help people, that it's necessary. So let me ask you, as we start to bridge the gap between the real world and technology and digital, and especially AI, do you think? Do you think, sales in automotive is a dying occupation? What's your take?
Maarten: 14:00
No, yeah, that's a very difficult question, because I like honesty and I think that, to be very honest perhaps not very smart to say I believe that this self-driving car technology and what Tesla presented is the future. I believe that I believe in the future, that you won't buy a car and that you will have that you won't own a car and that you will just order one when you need it. It drives in front of your door and you drive off and it brings you somewhere and it leaves you again, because why would you own a car? I actually believe in that future vision and that's a pity because, actually, cars are really great and it's something that, yeah, we love them. We love them. It's me too, so I think it's also a pity, but the honest truth is that I think that's a valid future vision of mobility, but, of course, if you look at Texas, for example, would you see them driving around there? It's more wide. People need to have their own car perhaps. So it might be that it's not fully going to disappear, but the world will change.
Maarten: 15:18
You then look at other cars that they are selling. They're being sold online, and whatever you can say about Tesla is actually that their service is quite good and their app is great. When you need service, the car that is actually your replacement car is standing ready. So I had a friend who actually had a service booked of a car, of a Tesla. So he arrives in the parking, gets on his app, he sees okay, you've arrived, your replacement car is standing there, didn't need to go inside to get keys or something. No, his app became the key of the new car and he drove off with that car, got a message and also even that when you need service, that they will come to your house to do the service. You don't even need to be there. So even if you're in a meeting, the Tesla people can get into your car replace something, and you just get a message We've been to your car and we've done it. How great is that.
Maarten: 16:17
So I think that the world will change and that many brands are actually suffering because they started moving too late. But will Tesla be the only one? No, there will be others. 100%. You can't have the entire market. But how will automotive retail look like in 20 years from now? I can't say it. I can't predict it. I think it's a very valid question to how that future will look like, and I'm very curious to see it. The honest truth is that I think that things are going to become so convenient and you see what's happening and we'll both see how it turns out, but still we have many years of automotive retail yet left. I mean so, and then together let's see. It's the same what I told about earlier in this meeting. It's a little bit the same. What's this Darwin saying? The one who is most adaptable to change will survive. Right, are we adaptable for change? Be like that Accept a changing market, steer your company. Or also, if you manufacture a car, steer it in that direction. It will change. And yeah, it's interesting. It are interesting times.
MC: 17:36
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MC: 19:21
You know I could sense a little bit of your hesitancy to share that opinion, obviously because we all work in the retail auto industry and we have products and we have services that we, you know, sell to auto retailers. But I, you know, you were very specific in your words because you did not give a timeframe to this. You did not say I think in 2025, this will happen. You're saying we'll look to the future, and I mean this is really contextually for those that are throwing a hissy fit right now.
MC: 20:02
Contextually, 1500 years ago, when they were still in chariots with horses, you know, there was an inventor, an innovative mind, who said I can see sometime in the future where we will not have to ride in chariots anymore. There will be something different. And I'm sure people at that time were like how dare you? I'm a chariot dealer. Yeah, exactly, we have to. I love how you follow this up with darwin. You know you have to be adaptable to change. Change is coming and I mean, many of our great uh futurists today are are showing us that it took 1500 years to go from a chariot and horse to four horses and a buggy, and it took less than 200 years to go from horse and buggy to an all electric self-driving car. And now they're suspecting that every five years, we are advancing about a hundred years of innovation.
MC: 21:07
But I wanted to ask you that question because AI, especially, is something that everybody is talking about. They're thinking about I say everybody, but in the context of people who care, who are thinking where do I go? What do I do? How do I not get replaced by AI? I want to pick your brain on this, because I know auto chat obviously has. It's an AI integration to your website. It's a chat tool. How are you thinking about AI? When did you realize? Like, what was your aha moment? Like, hey, this is something that we need to really be thinking about and integrating into the dealership environment.
Maarten: 21:48
Yeah, so I've been working for 10 years as the general manager of a actually 10 years for this company not the entire period as a general manager because I started a sales for an online car auction that was a Danish car auction that wanted to start in Holland and afterwards in Belgium and worked for them for 10 years, of which, I think, eight years as the director of Belgium and Holland. But I was on payroll there. It was not my company. I, after 10 years, thought I wanted to start my own business. So I did that together with a business partner, alex Gaspar, who is also a good friend of mine, and I started an inventory management tool called AutoManager. It was inventory and lead management combined in one and we rolled that out in 23 countries. And we had a very big customer was CarNextcom. That was part of LeasePlan, the biggest car leasing company in the world, and they used it in 23 different markets. And then when they were using it, they were constantly asking actually, can we buy the company? We'd like to be the owner of that company. We don't want to have a subscription, we want to own it. So then you start up talking to them and say, okay, well, if you want to own it. That's a possibility. Let's discuss it and that happened. So in 2019, I sold that business to CarNext and, of course, when you're in the process of selling that business, you also think about okay, what if that really happens? Because you're never sure when you're in that process. It can go both ways and also keeping the company was also fine for me because I really liked it and my goal was to build out a great company, and it was actually for me too soon to already sell that company to them. But you know also, there things go how they go. I thought it was also logical that they want to own it. But then you do start thinking about, okay, what's next? What if I sell that? What will I do In 2018,?
Maarten: 23:44
I was already in discussion with them to sell the company, and Alex and me went to the Web Summit. It's a European international summit, lisbon in Portugal, a huge IT summit. It's, I think yeah, I don't know hundreds of companies, if not more, that are representing their business there, and you should imagine it's like there was one big hall with Google, ibm, microsoft and Amazon and they were actually presenting their AI solutions. It was 2018. Wow was 2018. Then you went to these smaller tea companies showcasing their products, and a lot of them were showcasing AI products.
Maarten: 24:30
For example, I was at the Microsoft booth in this big hall and I was actually blown away with something that I saw there. So they say can I demonstrate our AI solution to you? I said, yeah, of course. Yeah, so this is a web shop and there is a chatbot on this web shop based on AI and it can help you finding clothes on this website. So do you want to experience that? Of course I want to experience that. So I was behind and it said, okay, would you allow me to use the camera to look at you and then, based on that, I can suggest clothing? Yeah, of course. And then it looked at my clothing and the styling and immediately the entire website changed and showed things that I might like and I could actually communicate with AI to say, yeah, but I actually don't like this color, or I'm more a shirt kind of guy, whatever.
Maarten: 25:21
The site adjusted itself based on a conversation, and that was actually an epiphany moment for me because I saw that and I thought, whoa, this is so cool and I have never seen that in automotive retail. I actually never saw it anywhere else as well. I saw it there for the first time 2018. And then I was discussing with Alex. I said actually, this is interesting for the car business as well. So if this sales, I decided for myself, if the sale towards Carnex would go on and would in the end, be finalized, then I would start a new company and do something with AI within automotive retail, because it solves so many problems, and one of the problems that I saw that it solves is also look at lead management in that time.
Maarten: 26:12
So in Automanager, previous company that actually was acquired had a lead management module in it, so I saw many leads coming in and on that in that period, sites were full of forms and you so you fill in a form and then you end up in the lead management system. Somebody needs to pick it up and, if you're lucky, the next day, you get a reaction. Very often you don't get a reaction at all because there were there were not a lot of management systems. Actually, leads appeared in mailboxes, they were sent to different salespeople and then you lose track of what happens with those leads. It was crazy. So that was my initial idea with AutoManager to have all leads centrally so that you can follow them up and know which lead source results in X amount of deals. But if you then look also at the quality of those leads and also the definition of a lead, what is the definition of a lead? If somebody doesn't find information on your website and then is required to fill in a form because you are not really reachable by phone, for example, or it's outside of hours, then you're obliged to fill in a form. But many of those leads are not real leads. So it is also and it's wasting time of your team, which is the most expensive thing you can do. You have people working on it. It's so expensive, so why would you do that if it's not efficient? So that's actually where it came from.
Maarten: 27:40
Then in 2018, we saw that In 2019, the company got sold and immediately established a few people and brought them together and said let's build a conversational solution based on AI for car dealers. And we started then by creating something based on Google, because at that moment there were no language models, so we based it on the AI of Google, and how that worked is that when you write something, google can understand the intent of the person writing it and then you're brought to a certain flow. So the text you then get to see is something we predefined, we have pre-written. For example, somebody says I want the test drive for this and this car. Then, okay, intent is clear, it's a test drive for that brand with that model. It will go in that flow. So the text you then see is something we already set up in advance.
Maarten: 28:35
So if you now look a little bit ahead, of course things have changed a lot, because I also couldn't predict how AI would scale, how quick it would go, because we decided it. We had a few customers starting up. We had the biggest retailer of Belgium who actually saw it and they immediately went for it. So they are still a customer and that makes me very proud that they've done that. So I'm very thankful to them that they believed in it and they gave us also the water to grow, also together with them. So I'm very happy with that.
Maarten: 29:12
But along that time, of course, during that time, we also found other ways to add value. So what we've done is implemented language models, and that opens the door to so many other things that retailers can do with AI. But what we first focused on is indeed, in that period, to generate good quality leads. When somebody has a question, they don't always need to fill in a form. They can just ask the question and they get an answer, and that's good customer service. A good customer experience is that if you're looking for something, that you find it, and not that you fill in your form with privacy, sensitive information that you need to check a box. I hereby accept the privacy terms and conditions. What then? What will you do with my email address? What will you do with the telephone number? So privacy has become very important, even the last few years, and I remember actually it was like a podcast or webinar where Kevin Fry participated a few years ago. You know, kevin Fry.
MC: 30:16
I do, yeah, Jeff Weiler Auto Group.
Maarten: 30:18
Exactly Jeff Weiler and he was talking about this and he actually gave me a lot of inspiration at that time because this was the time that we started up the business and he was talking about the car dealer websites, that they are integrated, that people value two things privacy and convenience and that you violate those two things immediately by showing forms on the website. It's not convenient and it doesn't respect privacy. So if you actually ask the same questions as in a form, but in a conversation for example, a form I want to make a test drive, ok, click on the test drive. A form will appear Name, email address, telephone number. Check here to accept our terms and conditions. And now what will they do? Why do you need my telephone number? Why do you need my email address? If you do that in a conversation, you will say how great that you want to test drive this Impala. On which date would you like to come by? I'd like to come by then.
MC: 31:19
Okay.
Maarten: 31:20
On that date. What hour would you like to come by? I want to come by then. Okay, on that date. What hour would you like to come by? I want to come by on that hour. Great, we'll book a test drive appointment for you on that date and that time. What is your name? Why do we ask it as a second question? Because the customer feels I have my appointment already.
MC: 31:39
They won already. Yeah, they got what they needed.
Maarten: 31:42
Yeah, the customer has got what they needed. They feel they have their appointment already, so they will write. My name is Maarten Bekkers. Hi, mr Bekkers, nice to meet you.
Maarten: 31:51
In case we have any questions, on which telephone number can we best reach you? We explain why we need this telephone number. It's in the best interest of the customer, so you are much more likely to say, okay, you can best reach me on this number. Okay, we will send you a confirmation of this appointment to your email address. What is the best email address we can send this confirmation to? So it's so logical that somebody then would say oh great, it's also in the best interest of that customer and it also shows that you are looking at a good customer experience. So somebody, okay, send it to this email address.
Maarten: 32:28
Great Test drive for Ampala that date, that time for Maarten Bekkers. We can reach you on that telephone number and we will send a confirmation to that email address. Poof, it's booked. And that saves so much time for the salespeople as well, because actually the lead will appear in the lead management system with the appointment and the customer feels great because they already had the conversation. It also saves a lot of time. So you have a very good quality lead. We also see that you shouldn't only focus on lead generation, because that's actually the old days is leads. We need as much leads as possible. No, you don't need as much.
MC: 33:12
You just opened Pandora's box now, because I could talk about this for hours. But sorry, go ahead.
Maarten: 33:22
I think it's an interesting subject. You don't need a big amount of leads. You need as much quality leads as possible and if somebody just has a question, give an answer to that question. Don't ask them to fill in a form and then wait. It's terrible customer experience. They might have found the answer elsewhere in the meantime and they bought a car and then wait. It's terrible customer experience. They might have found the answer elsewhere in the meantime and they bought a car elsewhere. Right, give them the answer they are looking for and then, if they feel treated well, they think, hey, great, I found my answer. That's so great. And then you make it very easy to book a test drive or to schedule a showroom appointment or to have a callback request. Then you generate a very good quality lead because this customer will not go elsewhere. They think, oh, I found a dealer that helps me, great. So we see that the conversion from lead to deal is a lot higher if you have actually established the lead through a conversation and actually with the generative AI that's out there. Now we also offer that in the market. There are many others offering it as well, and that's also a good thing. I think competition is great. It keeps you sharp, and we cannot have the entire market, so I also believe that you should let others also have some of that market and learn from each other. We, of course, try to be the best, but others try to do that as well. So I think there are multiple suppliers where you can go to. But what I believe is that these language models open the solution towards being profitable in the next years, because the next years will be tough and margins are shrinking.
Maarten: 35:05
Electric cars and they are coming and actually it's I think it's an american company leading the way with the europeans, it's america leading the way and um, so they will be there in every company. I drive an electric mercedes and test the car, and I have many people and every company I drive an electric Mercedes fantastic car. And I have many people saying I will never drive an electric car. Yeah, you will, everybody will. So it is just the fact that everybody will drive an electric car and actually people saying this and it's perhaps a little bit different in your area, I don't know but it's so great to drive an electric car, it's fantastic, but it requires very little maintenance, and what do dealers earn on is maintenance.
Maarten: 35:48
So you need to handle a lot more volume to have the same result. You'll need to handle more volume in sales. You'll need to handle more volume in after sales. Right, if you handle more volume, normally you will need more hands, you'll need more people to handle the volume, but if you do that bottom line, nothing will change. So efficiency is the key. So you'll need to have something that allows you to handle more volume in sales and service with the same amount of people and actually, if I'm very honest, with less people.
Maarten: 36:22
And actually people in the dealerships will also love it, because so many employees in dealerships nowadays do repetitive tasks every day. They can easily be automated and if they are automated, they would love it, because these repetitive things are not nice, and that's what I really believe in. And so there's already a lot of possibilities for that today, and I'm very curious next year, what will happen, what will be possible. And we feel that it's our task to really look up the boundaries and to see what can we achieve. Look up the boundaries and they are there, of course, but they move every week, every day. They are moving, like OpenAI is now.
Maarten: 37:08
I think these days, what was it? They have days after each other that they actually introduce new stuff. I've never seen that before, that a company does that and not all of it is as spectacular as some of those things are really truly spectacular, and other things are really truly spectacular and other things are perhaps a little bit less, but nonetheless it's very impressive and I actually see a lot of opportunities for efficiency gains dealerships, not only for the employees, for the customers of the dealership, but also for the employees. So it's a really win situation. The customers will benefit. The employee staff will also benefit.
MC: 37:48
I mean articulated so well. I can't wait to review the transcript of this and pull out some of the things that you've said. You know, obviously the underscore for me here is efficiency. You know, I think, like, if you are afraid of AI, that is the exact reason why you need to start getting involved with it and learning it, so that you, so that your mind, can go to work and you can start thinking about, oh, what could this do to augment my workflow, to make me more efficient? If you know what you're saying is accurate and we're all going to be driving EVs and then the dealers are forced into a higher volume play, then efficiency is going to be the name of the game. I think it's so interesting how you are thinking about this, where many are like oh, I thought this was a chat tool You're thinking about. No, I'm looking at the catalyst for creating efficiency in a dealership because I see what's coming. I think is so fascinating, Maarten, as we wind down, how can those listening or watching connect with you and learn more about AutoChat?
Maarten: 38:56
Yeah, so of course, we have a website, autochatai, and I think it's very important to give some nuance also to the word chat, because in fact, I even believe that we chose the wrong word for our company. So autochat, because immediately people link it to a chatbot and I don't believe that chatbot is the right word anymore. So it's an assistant the language model assistant that is connected to the internal systems of the dealer, that can help out and you can have conversations. You can have a conversation that goes from left to right, back to left. It's really not comparable to the past. So, and we see that many dealerships have customer contact centers. Is that the same? In the US, you have many dealer groups with customer contact center, business development centers. So it's a big cost for those companies and if you look at how they operate, they have their employees, they have their frequently asked questions to help them to answer questions. They have their scripts that they need to use Very often. They even have scripts in work documents that they need to copy paste into email programs. So it also has knowledge, like knowledge could be price lists, brochures, et cetera. What if you replace that human being with AI? And the AI is aware of the knowledge price list, brochures, inventory, workshop planning, digital work orders. If you've got your car in a workshop, it's got thousands of conversations that you've had before that it knows about, it knows exactly how to answer and it's 24 seven, it's never tired, it's always on Right. That will become the new norm and I'm sure that actually by the next few years you'll see that's the norm. So we call that AutoChat Pro, which is a version to make dealership employees more efficient. So it's not on the website, it's actually a user interface for them to work more efficient. We will launch an app within Outlook that actually is connected. It's an AutoChat. Oh, interesting. When you get an email, the system will automatically generate an answer based on your data, based on your inventory, based on everything. So that's what it will do. But that's the hybrid. When we went from a combustion, internal combustion engine to electric, hybrid is the way to get there, an intermediate period. I think this is actually sort of comparable, because now we will move to messaging send people messages, send people automated emails and if you look at the speed that AI is going, I'm very sure we are now laying the foundation.
Maarten: 42:00
It's an AI communication layer on top of all your different systems and in each of those systems, you very often also have communication, like in the after sales. It's a different system than your lead management system. You have this communication layer of AI on top of it and you can then use it on your website. You can use it for your dealership employees to be more efficient. You can also use it to to message people with messaging and very sure, 100 sure. Next year you'll have this on your phone system and there are different I think stella is one of them in the us these phone integrations, and I think, if you look at what it can do today, we will also offer voice starting from next year. So we will offer the voice functionality in all languages, and it's not us building it, it's OpenAI building it, so it's also that's a great part.
Maarten: 42:55
We just need to make sure that it's automotive focused and connected to all those internal systems and trains. Actually, the car dealer is the ai director and that's how you should look at it, and they can steer it in the direction that they want. So, if you're yeah, your question was where can you see it? It's all the chatai is our website. We're also very active on linkedin, so if you look up auto chat. It's not called auto chatai, it's just auto chat and there are different AutoChats out there, so click around and you'll recognize us. And another disadvantage of the name there it was a too easy name and yeah, but we're very active on LinkedIn to also talk about possible possibilities to work more efficient and to help dealers.
MC: 43:42
I love it, man, what a wealth of information you got me thinking about. I can't believe I'm thinking about chat in such a deep way, more deep than I've ever thought about it. I certainly do not want James Cameron or the writers of the matrix to get ahold of this conversation, because I think you may have just given a bunch of people a lot of different ideas. Maarten man, thank you so much for joining me on the dealer playbook podcast.
Maarten: 44:05
Thank you very much.
MC: 44:10
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