The Visitor Book - Record All Visitors To The Dealership

The Visitor Book - Record All Visitors To The Dealership

With the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020 AutoPlay launched a new Visitor Book function as part of the AutoPlayAuto.com platform.  This feature will be made available free of charge to all existing AutoPlay Sales Pipeline customers and includes;
  1. All visitor tracking including suppliers, deliveries, service appointments, as well as the ability to view leads, test drives and sales
  2. Check customers in and out to accurately keep track of who is in your dealership 
  3. Check Employee movements in and out of the dealership
  4. Contactless customer sign in available
If you are not a current AutoPlay customer please contact AutoPlay on sales@autoplay.co.nz to discuss getting this set up for your dealership.


1.  The Visitor Book Role Management Settings

The Visitor Book is controlled via a new 'Visitor Book' role.   Refer the Guide - Visitor Book Role Management Settings 

2.  Using The Visitor Book To Track Customer Movements

The Visitor Book can be used to manage the comings and goings to your dealership.  It is designed to be used by dealership staff - however there is a quick and easy way customers can sign in themselves contactlessly using their own device (see 3. Contactless Customer Sign In below).

The Visitor Book screen shows all the Visitors that have been in and out of your dealership.  
  1. If your dealership uses the Sales Pipeline any customer that is checked in on a Lead using the new Check In function will appear.  All Lead records will be visible here whether or not you are a lead manager for that lead, however if you are not a manager in the Manage Leads role you will see a summary, instead of being able to click through to view the lead
  2. Any Visitor Book record created via the Visitor Book or via contactless sign in
  3. Employee check in and out
The Visitor Book will automatically be set to Today in the Date Range field.  This is based on the Scheduled Arrival if the customer is not checked in yet, or the Check In date/time if the customer has arrived and been checked in at the dealership.  Any customer/employee who is currently in the dealership will be highlighted in red.  A customer is not considered to be in dealership until they are checked in.

The Visitor Book can be searched using the keyword search field.  This searches the Lead and Visitor ID’s, customer first, last, company names, mobile, phone, email and address fields, and vehicle details.  In addition you can filter using the drop downs;
  1. Date Range - defaults to 'Today' but can filter back to view historical customer movements
  2. User - defaults to Any User but can be filtered to a single User.  The Users in this list will be those that share the role with the logged in user
  3. Type - Filter by the purpose of the customers visit (Sales Lead, Test Drive, Appraisal, Service, Parts, Supplier, Delivery, Other)
  4. Status - Filter your list by whether the customer/supplier/employee etc are In Premises, Out Of Premises or Scheduled in advance
  5. Visitor Type - Defaults to Customers but can be filtered to include Employees as well



From the Visitor Book you can do the following via a quick shortcut on the far right;
  1. Check In - if the customer/supplier etc has yet to check in, users will be able to do so directly from the Visitor Book dashboard.  It is important to check in the customer to record when they are physically in the dealership
  2. Check Out - If the customer/supplier etc has been checked in, a check out button will be available via the shortcut.  This needs to be done once the customer physically leaves the dealership.
  3. Send Invite SMS - If you are setting up a Visitor Book record in advance you can prompt a SMS to the customer/supplier etc to confirm their appointment
  4. Send Check In SMS - When the customer/supplier etc arrives at the dealership you can send them an SMS to let them know they have been checked in and are able to enter the dealership
  5. Send Check Out SMS - When the customer/supplier etc physically leaves the dealership you can send them an SMS.  This can be helpful to provide the visitor with their own personal record of when they visited the dealership.
If you need to export to Excel you can click on the 'Download List' button.





To create a new Visitor Record you can click on the + icon in the grey menu bar to 'Add New Visitor'.  In addition if you are a Sales Pipeline user, or use Standalone Test Drives or Appraisal functions you can click on 'Add New Lead', 'Add New Test Drive' or 'Add New Appraisal'.  Clicking on these options will navigate you to the normal add new lead screens.



Clicking on 'Add New Visitor' opens up the Add New Visitor screen.  Adding a new Visitor record is similar to loading a new lead.  




The first step is to enter the customers details.  You can do so by manually typing the customers info, entering some customer info and clicking 'LOOKUP' to search your database, or using the camera icon located in the top right to scan a Drivers Licence or Business Card.  If you scan a Drivers Licence the 'Licence Details' section will be populated.  When scanning licences make sure to exercise safe social distancing practices.

If your internal policies require, you can enter the customers Address Details.  By clicking on the 'LOOKUP' button you can use a built in Google Address lookup to search for the address.



As with entering leads, there is also the option to get the customer to sign the COVID-19 disclaimer.  You can also SMS this to the customer via the 'SMS DIsclaimer' button (click HERE to read more about contactless customer signatures)




The 'Purpose Of The Visit' field can be used to record the reason the customer has visited the dealership.  It is possible to select 'Sales Lead', 'Test Drive' or "Appraisal'.  Please note this will NOT create a lead.  To create a lead you must use the shortcuts on the Visitor Book Dashboard, or navigate to the Sales Pipeline Dashboard.  

If you select 'Test Drive' as the reason for the visit a 'Vehicle Details' field will appear.  This field can be used to type in a rego or any other vehicle details.  This is not linked to your vehicle listings - if you wish to create a proper test drive you must do so via the normal means - remember all Leads will appear in the Visitor Book on the date the customer was 'Checked In'.
The Vehicle Details will also be displayed on the Visitor Book dashboard if a Test Drive is created via the Visitor Book, and this can be searched using the keyword search.



If you have a default yard set up, the Yard will default to the nominated yard.  You can then filter to any other yard set up in the Visitor Book role.
The Employee Visited drop down will default to the logged in user, but this too can be changed to any User you share the Visitor Book role with.  If you select a different user from the logged in user, they will automatically be sent an SMS notifying them of a visitor.  They can then click on the link to be automatically taken to view the Visitor Book record.



If you want to schedule a future visitor you can set a future date in the 'Scheduled Arrival' field.  This field defaults to the current date/time, but setting a future date allows the dealership to plan ahead with how many visitors they have the following day.



When finishing up your Visitor record you can automatically check your customer in by ticking the 'Check In Your Visitor' tick box.  You should only Check In your visitor when they are physically at the dealership and have arrived.  If you are scheduling a visit in advance leave this box unchecked.



You can also tick the 'Send Invite SMS To Customer' check box to send the customer a reminder of their appointment - useful if scheduling a visit in advance.  If you want to send an SMS to the customer that you are ready to see them you can tick the 'Send Check In SMS To Customer' to automatically send an SMS when you click on SAVE.

If you miss either of these check boxes you can still trigger the SMS messages from the shortcut on the Visitor Book dashboard.

If a User is specified on a Visitor Book record after initial creation this will automatically trigger an SMS to the user it is assigned to.

3.  Contactless Customer Sign In

At times you may have unscheduled visitors or simply require a leaner way of recording visitors.  In the My Company or when viewing a Yard in the 'My Yards' screen there is an option to 'Download Visitor QR Code'. 
  1. Downloading at the Company level will add the customer created Visitor record to the Not Allocated Yard in the Visitor Book (make sure 'Not Allocated' is added to the yard list in the Visitor Book role)
  2. Downloading at the Yard level will automatically add the customer created Visitor record to the Yard you download the QR code for
  3. The QR Code once generated will be fixed for that company account or yard.  You can download this as many times as required and all previously generated QR codes will still be valid
  4. If you would prefer that your visitor is already checked in when scanning the QR Code contact support@autoplay.co.nz and we can enable this for you.  When the auto check in attribute is enabled on your Visitor Book role you will no longer have to check customers in - all your staff will need to do is check the customer out when they leave the dealership. 
  5. The Visitor Book QR Code PDF and web page from now pulls through whatever logo you have loaded against the yard.  Please note due to time limitations we loaded this with whatever logo was loaded for your dealership.  If you wish to change this logo email support@autoplay.co.nz with a high resolution version and we will update this image for you. 



 This will download a PDF with a QR code.  This can be done at Company or Yard level as required. Note the Logo that is used on this PDF is based on the Image Type 'Form Logo' being available.  If you have separate reception desks (i.e main reception and Service reception) we recommend you create for each separate location.



The dealership can print this off an put in their dealership window or at reception.  The user can scan the QR Code on their smartphone and it this will prompt them to open in a web browser.  Most modern phones will automatically do this.  If the visitor has an older phone they may need to download a QR reader for this to work.



Clicking on the link will take the Visitor to a simple web form where the customer can enter their First Name, Last Name, Mobile, Email, Company, Purpose of Visit and Employee Visited.  Only the First Name and Mobile Number are compulsory.  Where enough info is provided this will automatically be matched against an existing customer record.

If the customer details entered match an existing Visitor Book record via a matching customer AND there is a Visitor entered that is within 30 minutes of the Scheduled Date or Check In date we match against an existing Visitor Book Record.  If it fails either of those criteria it creates a new Visitor Book records.  When updating an existing Visitor Book record please note the original scheduled date will remain untouched.


In addition on click of the Submit button, there is an additional step that will take customer's to the COVID-19 Disclaimer.

On click of the View & Sign Covid 19 Disclaimer Button the following will display.

The Visitor record will be visible in the Visitor Book.  Note you still need to check in the visitor when you are ready for them to enter the dealership.

4.  Employee Tracking

In 20.5.1 it's also possible for your salespeople to check in and out of the dealership.  They can do this via the new 'Check In / Check Out' button in the top rhs profile menu.



When the employee is not checked in the icon near their profile photo will be orange.

    

When the employee is checked in the icon next to their picture will be green



To check in click on the 'Check In / Check Out' button.  The date will default to the current Date/Time.  If you are a manager in the Visitor Book role you are able to Check In and Out on behalf of another user.  If you  are not a manager you will only be able to check yourself In/Out.

When checking out the date will default to the current date/time, but as with the check in this can be adjusted if the employee forgot to check in/out at the correct time.  Every night after midnight NZT any user who has forgotten to manually Check Out will be automatically checked out - ready to Check In again the following morning.




Employees can check in and out as often as they need to during the day.  Any time they check in and out this will be reflected in the Visitor Book.  The Visitor Book defaults to NOT display employees in order to keep the list uncluttered with your non staff visitors.  To view employees you can use the Visitor filter as shown below.



5. Using The Visitor Book As A Non Dealership Business

The Visitor Book can also be sued by dealerships that are not dealerships.  When AutoPlay set up a new client we are able to select other types of businesses in the Details section on the My Company screen.



Selecting a different business type will result in different options appearing in the 'Purpose Of The Visit' field.
  1. Dealership (Sales Lead, Test Drive, Appraisal, Service, Parts, Supplier, Delivery, Other)
  2. Mechanic (Service, Repair, Supplier, Delivery, Other)
  3. Tyre Shop (Tyre Purchase, Tyre Fitting, Supplier, Delivery, Other)
  4. Parts Shop (Customer, Delivery, Supplier, Other)
  5. Other (Customer, Supplier, Delivery, Other)
When setting up users in a Visitor Book only client you can check the 'Visitor Book User' tick box.  This will automatically create the Visitor Book role against this user as a non manager.  It the role does not yet exist under the account this role will be created automatically.



If you have any questions about AutoPlay Visitor Book functionality please contact support@autoplay.co.nz 

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