Product · Car dealerships and automotive groups

CRM for car dealerships: the customer relationship layer

The lead comes in, and someone knows what happened next.

The customer relationship layer for dealerships: every lead with its source, owner and status; WhatsApp and calls in the same record; quoting, sales and workshop scheduling, and an SLA dashboard for managers. Built on Cloudcar, an automotive commerce platform in production.

Talk about a pilot See what's included

Status today Built

The relationship layer is built and has been demonstrated live, but it hasn't yet run in a dealership. It's offered as a four-to-six-week pilot, starting with the front that has no coverage.

Who it's for: Multi-brand dealerships and groups with used cars, fleets and aftersales
Base: The relationship engine

What happens today

Three things people say quietly.

‘The lead comes in and nobody knows where it came from, who picked it up or what happened next.’

Used cars, fleets and brands that aren't the dealership's own have no clear coverage, and they're a part of the business nobody looks at as a whole.
‘The conversation happens in four different places and stays in none of them.’

WhatsApp in an external tool, the call centre in another, email in the usual one. Two operations where there should be one.
‘Managers can't direct what they can't see.’

A quote goes out and disappears. The CRM is filled in by hand, when it's filled in at all, and response time is known once the customer has already bought elsewhere.

The idea

The relationship lives outside the ERP, which carries on doing its job.

The dealership's management system knows about vehicles, invoices and stock; it doesn't know how to hold a conversation. Instead of forcing it to act as a CRM, the relationship layer sits in front: capture, conversation, quoting and scheduling. The ERP receives what has already been closed. You start with the front that has no coverage—used cars, fleets, brands that aren't your own—and roll out module by module, starting with what's urgent.

What's included

Every module, with its status.

Not everything here exists in the same way. Each piece carries the status it's in today, with the same criterion we use in a proposal: what hasn't run isn't presented as proven.

In use: Running with real users.
Built: Built and working; not yet running with a client.
To be built: Doesn't exist. It's named in the future tense or not at all.

Capture

Lead inbox Every lead comes into one place, with its source, owner and status. Built
Assignment and first contact The system distributes and replies first; the salesperson follows up. Built

Conversation

WhatsApp in the record The salesperson replies where they always do; the conversation stays where it should. Built
Calls and messages in the same history One operation instead of two providers. Built
Recording and assisted dialling For working at volume, with notice and retention set up from day one. Built

Conversion

Quote builder New car, used car and aftersales, with financing simulation. Built
Sales and workshop scheduling With resources—lifts, bays—and attendance statuses. Built
Predictive aftersales follow-up Anticipating maintenance and booking it before it's requested. To be built

Control

SLA dashboard First response, unattended leads, conversion and workload per salesperson, by site and by brand. Built
Integration with the management system Customers, vehicles and history. A later evolution, subject to prior scoping. To be built

The base platform

Cloudcar, the partner's platform the relationship layer is built on.

Catalogue and reservation The vehicle, published and bookable. In use
Financing and checkout The purchase, from start to finish. In use
Backoffice The dealership's operations behind it. In use

What it doesn't do

Said before you ask.

It doesn't replace the dealership's management system or ERP.
Channels depend on third parties: business verification on Meta, WhatsApp's twenty-four-hour window, number porting and recording consent. They're planned from day one, not when they get in the way.
Nothing is presented as proven before it has run. That's why the first step is a bounded pilot.

CRM for car dealerships: the customer relationship layer

Three things people say quietly.

‘The lead comes in and nobody knows where it came from, who picked it up or what happened next.’

‘The conversation happens in four different places and stays in none of them.’

‘Managers can't direct what they can't see.’