Group Appraisal Offers - Sharing Appraisals With A Dealer Group and Wholesalers
NOTE - ADDITIONAL CHARGES MAY APPLY FOR THIS PRODUCT CONTACT YOUR ACCOUNT MANAGER FOR MORE DETAILS
At AutoPlay we've always strongly believed that managing the Appraisal process is a key part of managing leads effectively. In previous versions of AutoPlayAuto.com we have had several ways to help dealers on sell their Trade Ins via;
- Wholesale SMS Distribution (see https://support.autoplayauto.com/portal/en/kb/articles/how-to-send-sms-to-wholesalers-and-store-wholesale-quotes)
- Appraisal Group Bidding (see https://support.autoplayauto.com/portal/en/kb/articles/make-offer-for-appraisals-overview)
The Appraisal Group Bidding process enables dealers within a dealer group to notify other dealers in the group when they have an appraisal - achieved by setting up a Dealer Group for 'Group Account Visibility' and the role setting 'Group Account Visibility. Any user with this role can opt to push an 'auction' out to other dealers in the group, who can then view the appraisal and place bids on them. This concept was a great way to shop the vehicle around the dealer group before selling to a wholesaler. With COVID-19 we've seen a lot of interest in the Appraisal Group Bidding process and have made a number of improvements based on the feedback from a few early adopters.
1. Configuring Group Appraisal Bidding
As before when setting up the Group Account Visibility role you can select;
- Allow Bidding (enables the bidding functionality - without this dealers can still view Appraisals within the group but are unable to make offers
- Display Trade In Offer (shows/hides the valuation made by the dealer who created the Appraisal)
- Display Reconditioning Costs (shows/hides the reconditioning costs made by the dealer who created the Appraisal)
- Display Traded (show/hide whether the Appraisal has actually been traded or not)
- Display Trade In Comments (show/hide the comments the originating dealer has added to the Appraisal
You can also now set a default Email Template to send out your wholesale auctions on. If no template is chosen the default AutoPlay branded template will be used, but a custom dealership branded option can be selected here.
In addition the Group Bidding process now has the ability to set a automated warning on the role (in minutes). When a bidding process is about to expire a warning notification will be sent out to everyone who has received the offer and has not chosen to ignore it.
In 20.10.1 it is now possible to set the Appraisal Bidding to send out notifications by either;
- SMS (New)
- Email
- Notifications
When setting up the Group Account Visibility role users are added to the role can not only see the 'Make Offer' function to submit a bid, but are also able to get Notifications (Email/SMS/In App). If a particular user does not wish to receive notifications for one of these method you can specify that here. Below are the range of notifications that will be sent;
Notification Type |
SMS |
In APP |
Receiver |
|
Offer |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Dealers and Wholesaler (no in app notifications) |
Time remaining (Reminder) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Dealers and Wholesaler (no in app notifications) |
Won |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Dealers and Wholesaler (no in app notifications) |
Rejected |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Dealers and Wholesaler (no in app notifications) |
Withdraw |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Dealers and Wholesaler (no in app notifications) |
Expire |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Offerer |
2. Set Up Auctions To The Appraisal Group AND Wholesalers
Previously the Apprasial Group Bidding process, and the Wholesale Offer process were very distinct and different processes. In 20.10.1 whilst you can still use the Appraisal Group Bidding process to distribute only to a dealer group, and the Wholesale SMS process to request offers from Wholesalers completely separately - you can now use the Appraisal Bidding process to send out your Appraisal to dealers in the group, AND wholesalers in one managed bidding process. In addition if you wanted to use this feature amongst other car dealers that are NOT AutoPlay customers you could do so by setting them up as wholesalers (who do not require a AutoPlay login).
When clicking on the 'Offer To Dealer Group' button in the grey action menu you can now specify what Appraisal Bidding Group (for Dealers in your network) and what Wholesale Group (or individual Wholesaler) you want to share your Appraisal Offer with.
Depending on how the users have configured the role they will receive either a SMS, Email or in App Notification (Dealers with AutoPlay accounts only). The first notification will let them know there is a new Appraisal and who sent it ("Prashant - Live Testing" in the SMS below).
The notification will have a link to view the vehicle on a web page - very similar to the existing web page used to capture wholesale quotes. Unlike the Wholesale Quote version of this page the screen will show the time left on the bidding process, the number of bids and the best bid on the vehicle. This is a blind model so no recipients of the Appraisal Offer will know which dealer or wholesaler has the best bid - just what the value is.
On this screen recipients can view the details of who created the Appraisal, details of the bidding, the vehicle specs entered and any photos of the vehicle. The page is branded to the originating dealer using whatever logo is added to Settings>Listing Settings>Images as the image type Online Form Logo.
Any recipient of this link whether they are a Dealer in the Dealer Group or a Wholesalers can submit a offer on this vehicle. They can also indicate they are not interested by clicking the 'NOT INTERESTED button. If they click this button they will not receive any more comms about this particular Appraisal.
If the dealer is a AutoPlay customer then they can also view the Appraisal and make an offer via AutoPlayAuto.com. To facilitate this the Vehicle Appraisals screen has been rejigged to make finding the Appraisals you have received, bid on and won easier. In addition to the In Dealer vs In Group filter there is a new filter for;
- Group Offers Won (those Appraisals where you were the successful bidder)
- Pending Offers (those Appraisals you have made that you need to make a decision on (auction has ended)
- My Current Offers (those Appraisals where you have made offers that are currently still in progress)
- My Accepted Offers (those Appraisals that you created that have had a successful bid)
In addition users can now view more information about the offer via the 'Appraisal Bidding' column (this only shows if the logged in user has the correct role). In this column any Appraisals you have received will show the current status, the number of bids, your current bid and the best bid (anonymously).
As per existing functionality the user can then add a bid or withdraw their current bid. Any bids the dealer made on the web page will also show here.
During the course of the auction if set everyone in the Dealer and Wholesale Groups will receive a reminder when the auction is ending.
If you are the dealership that created the Appraisal you will see all the offers and be able to Accept one of them via AutoPlayAuto.com. Once a Bid is accepted all other bidders will be notified that the offer has been withdrawn and will no longer be able to see or bid on the trade in. This cannot be reversed but the Appraisal can always be re-sent if the deal falls through.
If your Offer was successful then you will recieve an Email/SMS/In App Notification letting you know that your offer has been provisionally accepted. AutoPlay does not get involved in any purchases or transactions so this does not constitute a purchase and sale agreement - only that you have won the bidding. All other transaction will be handled outside of AutoPlay.
3. Automating The Appraisal Bidding Process
In 20.10.1 it is also possible to set up the whole Appraisal Offer process to be automated. To facilitate this there is a special trigger available for those with the 'Group Appraisal Visibility' role and group called 'Appraisal Created/Updated'. Using this Trigger the distribution of the initial offer to the dealer and/or wholesale groups can be automated.
Once you've set the trigger you can then add Trigger Filters specific to this automation setting. These Trigger Filters can be used to ensure that the Appraisal Offer email/sms is not sent before the vehicle has qualified to be sent. The filters available are;
- Manager Approved Status - set to True or False, will not automatically send out the Appraisal offer until the Appraisal has been approved by the Manager (via the Vehicle Manager Approval Role)
- Traded Status - set to True or False, will not automatically send out the Appraisal offer until the Appraisal is marked as Traded
Although this Trigger is flexible and can be used to create all sorts of automation when an Appraisal is created, for the purposes of Appraisal Bidding there is a special Action type called 'Create Appraisal Offer'. With this action you can set a time after Appraisal created to trigger, the User the email will be sent from (and the user that receives notifications), the Dealer Group and Wholesale Groups that should receive the Appraisal Offer. Only one Wholesale Group and Dealer Group can be set at a time. If you require multiple Dealer or Wholesaler Groups you can create additional Automation settings.
It is also possible to apply a Brake to your Automation to ensure you do not trigger the offer multiple times. To ensure that it only sends once you must set up a Brake of 'Appraisal Offer Made' - preventing the Automation trigger picking up any changes to the Appraisal Form and resending the offer to your network of wholesalers and the Dealer Group.
When creating an Appraisal Form if you do not wish to send out a Appraisal Offer automatically you can select 'Exclude From Automation' in the Details section of the Appraisals form. This will block this particular form from being sent to Dealer or Wholesale groups regardless of whether the automation was set up to send when approved or traded. Even when Automation is set up you can still send Appraisal Offers manually if required.
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