As 2018 winds to a close we wanted to share with our customers an update on our progress with rebuilding our Desktop Studio as an HTML5 application.  We've been working hard as this project for a number of months and it's starting to come together.

At this stage our goal is to have the new Sales Pipeline in the hands of a select few dealers for a BETA trial around March/April 2019.  Once we have run this trial for a month or two we will look to roll-out to the rest of our dealers in a staggered approach to ensure we can support our customers with the new software.

As we are getting to the pointy end of the project we'll keep the updates coming as regularly as possible.

If you have any questions about the HTML5 project, or would like to put your hand up to get early access please contact matt@autoplay.co.nz 

Although we are dedicating most of our time to rebuilding the Desktop Studio in HTML5 we have managed to squeeze in a few small improvements into this release.

Event No Shows
We have been receiving a lot of feedback from dealerships that they want to track how many customers don't make it to scheduled appointments.   To facilitate this request we've added a new option on Calendar Events called "No Show".  This option can be selected when the customer does not turn up for their appointment.  No Shows are tracked in the Morning Meeting, Overdue and Daily Health Check Reports.  In addition we've built an Appointment Conversion Report which is available via the Desktop Studio under Generate Reports.

Pending Leads Criteria
In 18.4 we've modified the criteria for a lead to appear in the Pending Leads screen.  Where previously if the lead was automatically allocated to any user the system would determine it wasn't "pending" and the lead would not appear in Pending Leads.  In the latest release we have modified the criteria so that the lead will display if it is Awaiting Action, has no Calendar Events, Emails, SMS or forms created by a User in AutoPlay.
(FYI in the HTML5 rebuild we have created a better way to handle this on the existing Lead Dashboard without the need for a dedicated screen for Pending Leads).

Improvements To Customer Search
We've improved how the iOS and Desktop apps search for customer records with two names in the first name field.  This will make identifying these customers in your database easier.  Records returned are now ordered by first name match first, then company followed by last name.

Drivers Licence Scanning Will Now Scan Address Details
If Address details are located on the front of a customers Drivers Licence the DL scan will now pick up these details and populate within the relevant address fields on your lead or Test Drive Form. 

Appraisal Valuation Details Removed From Email Appraisal
If you use the 'Email Appraisal' function on the Appraisal Form to email wholesalers we've now removed the Valuation and Customer sections from this information.  

New Setting To Restrict Lead & Customer Export To DMS Until Closed Won or Closed Lost
In the past it was possible to restrict exporting Customer and Lead exports to the DMS until the lead made it through certain Progress steps.  With the latest release we've expanded this functionality to include 'Closed Won' and 'Closed Lost'.  This will provide dealerships with an additional mechanism to restrict what is exported to the DMS.

In Market Leads Matching On Sold Listings
18.4 includes several fixes to the In Market Leads functionality.  We've made several tweaks to the engine behind this functionality which have helped make this function run faster.  In addition we have tidied up a small issue where In Market Leads were including listings that were already marked as sold.

Tidied Up User List In Standard Response Screen
We've cleaned up the 'User' drop down in the Standard Response screen to exclude users that are 'Deleted'.  This brings the drop down in line with other User drop downs throughout AutoPlay.

Improved Notifications When SMS Fail To Send
We've improved the error handling on SMS sending when the SMS fails to send due to an incorrectly formatted phone number.  AutoPlay will now trigger an email to the sender letting them know the SMS failed, as well as displaying a notification against the lead, and the Notifications panel on the Dashboard.

Storing Photos When Licence Scans Fail
In 18.4 we have added the option to store a photo of the customers Drivers Licence even if the scan fails to scan any customer details due to blurryness/poor lighting/movement etc.

New MotorWeb Appraisal Report Replacing the MotorWeb VIR
In the latest version of the Sales Pipeline, the MotorWeb VIR will be replaced with a brand-new Appraisal Report.  The new report allows salespeople to return vehicle details & easily view comparative model listings on Trade Me to help meet customers trade price expectations.  Check out the link here for more details.

Assorted Improvements

• Improved flagging of Undeliverable email addresses
• Converted americanised date fields in Email Campaign screens
• Fixed a time display error when checking FTP folders
• We've modified the message that displays when an update to the Desktop Studio is available
• Added Created Date to Export of Closed Lost Reason Report

We are aiming to have the HTML5 project in the hands of some customers for preview on March 31st depending on how much resource we can dedicate to this project.  More updates will follow in February 2019.  If you have any questions about this project please email matt@autoplay.co.nz

AutoPlay are at the forefront of delivering innovative digital tools that are designed to enhance our customers day-to-day activities - whether it be through helping our Dealers become more efficient or by assisting them to drive a higher level of sales performance chances are we’ve got a solution that works for your Dealership.

We’ve been working closely with the team at MotorWeb - Trademe’s vehicle data business to develop a more tailored solution to support the vehicle appraisal process. Recognising not all vehicles are subsequently traded Sales Consultants and Managers have asked for a more targeted report to help them carry out appraisals.
 
Both AutoPlay and MotorWeb are committed to promoting best practice within the automotive industry. Our workflows are designed to protect both Dealers and their customers. MotorWeb’s reports help you meet both your legal obligations and financial compliance checks, leaving nothing to chance.
 
The new Appraisal Report will provide your sales team valuable insights at the very start of the process, upfront when you need to engage in great customer conversations.

How’s the Appraisal Report integrated within AutoPlay? ​

If you are currently using the MotorWeb VIR service in NZ via AutoPlay you will notice it change over automatically on 5/12/18.  If you do not currently use this service within AutoPlay you can sign up via support@motorweb.co.nz.  There is no additional charge from AutoPlay to use this function within the Sales Pipeline. 

What’s the next step if we decide to purchase the Vehicle?
 
The MotorWeb Vehicle Information Report (VIR) will always be required to comprehensively check the vehicle before making any payment, as it checks a whole range of financial conditions including legal ownership, registered finance securities and will soon form part of your obligations under The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT). The VIR is only available through the MotorWeb Dashboard or if we’re integrated within your Dealer Management System (DMS).
 
To find out more about this service or sign up, please contact the MotorWeb Dealer Support team on 0800 668 679 or email support@motorweb.co.nz
​

​​​To ensure your website changes or email campaigns are completed before the end of the year you need to ensure you submit all your requests by the following deadline;

AutoPlay will officially shut down for the year on Friday 21st December at 3pm.  The office will be reopening at 8am on Monday 7th January, 2019.  Over the official shutdown period you will be able to email support@autoplay.co.nz for any emergencies.  

As many of you will be eagerly awaiting, we've been rebuilding our existing Silverlight based Desktop Studio in HTML5.  This will give our customers huge benefits including the ability to run the Desktop on any browser (Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge, Safari etc), as well as on any device (iOS, Android, Windows tablet and devices).  This obviously means that installs are easier, and it becomes a lot more flexible for our users to jump on and manage leads at any time.

We've been working diligently on this project on/off from January, but it's been a while since we last updated all our customers on our progress towards completing this massive project.  Where possible we are pumping as much resources into this project as possible, and we are making good progress.  At present we are working on the most important part of the system - the Dashboard of the Sales Pipeline.

As you can see from the screenshot above we are making good progress on this.  The Dashboard is much faster loading and has had a few subtle improvements, whilst still maintaining all the amazing features our customers are used to.

The HTML5 version of the AutoPlay Studio for Desktop is our number one development priority.  At this stage we are hoping to get an early release BETA version out to selected customers at the end of Q1.  If this changes then we will advise you as soon as possible.

If you have any questions about the HTML5 version of the AutoPlay Studio then please feel free to email matt@autoplay.co.nz with your questions.

Australian dealerships are now able to run vehicle lookups through MotorWeb within the Appraisal screen in the AutoPlay Sales Pipeline.  Vehicle look ups cost $0.64AUD + GST for each successful lookup, which populates some vehicle fields on the Appraisal Form.  To find out more about this function you can view the How To Guide HERE.  To sign up for this function please email support@autoplay.co.nz

• Fixed a bug with accessing reporting, hitting refresh and refining your report from within the iPad App.
• We’ve added an option to restrict the Lead Dashboard to show only the ‘First 100’ leads returned by the filters.  If your experiencing slow performance this option will help speed up the Dashboard for you.  Contact support@autoplay.co.nz to enable this role.
• Added the VIN and Chassis fields to the Listing screen for the Motor Home/Caravan Listing Type.
• Changed references to ‘Toyota Certified Imports’ to ‘Toyota Certified’.
• Added a new Assistance Request Status for ATECO called ‘Conditional’.
• Fixed a bug in the Vehicle Appraisal Dashboard where the date range filter was not picking up the right records within the selected date range under certain circumstances.
• When a lead is ‘Closed – Won’ AutoPlay will now automatically mark the lead as ‘Sold’ as well – making it easier to understand in reporting.
• Tidied up error messages displayed when the device has no internet connection.
• The iOS Apps will now allow users to edit Accessories on a Write Up Form, or Reconditioning Items on an Appraisal Form after the initial form has been created (Note – this brings it into line with the current Desktop application).
• On the iPhone app it is now possible to edit the Notes field within the Test Drive or Loan Car Forms.
• Assorted improvements to In-Market Leads functionality.  View a full breakdown of this function HERE;
  • After selecting ‘Ignore’ on a matching In-Market Lead, the app no longer automatically closes the window displaying all your possible matches.
  • In-Market Leads – we can now stop this function from running on selected yards by removing the yards from the ‘In Market Leads’ role settings.
  • Changes to “Brochureware” yard listings no longer appear in the In-Market Leads dashboard.  Leads with “brochureware” listings will still be matched against new listings/price decreases if the criteria matches.
  • When an In-Market Lead is triggered by a Price Decrease, the previous price will now be displayed on the matching In-Market Leads record.
  • Within the in-Market Lead matching screen the lead Yard is now displayed.
  • When an In-Market Lead is triggered by a Price Decrease, there is now a separate option to ‘Schedule Follow Up’ on leads with this exact vehicle against them.
  • After adding a New Listing as the Primary or Secondary Listing on a matching In-Market Lead, a calendar event is automatically created for today +24 hours so users will know to follow up with the customer about the new listing.
    
  • After actioning a matching In-Market Lead by adding the listing or scheduling follow up, the user will be automatically taken to the relevant Lead within the Dashboard – instead of having to manually search for the lead they were just working on.
    
  • Added a new filter on the In-Market Leads dashboard to restrict the visible leads via Interest (Hot, Warm and Cold)
    
  • Made considerable improvements to the speed that matching In-Market Leads are displayed – particularly on Desktop.

At AutoPlay we've always been all about integration.  Wherever possible we've looked to integrate our AutoPlay Sales Pipeline with other 3rd Party systems such as DMS and CRM  systems, through to vehicle checks via MotorWeb, CarJam and Motorcentral.

Provident Insurance are 100% kiwi owned and driven - just like AutoPlay.  So when the opportunity came up for AutoPlay to integrate with Provident Insurance it proved to be a no brainer.  For mutual customers that use Provident Insurance as their insurance provider, salespeople are able to tap a button to easily push info across to the Provident Insurance system - jump starting the Insurance Application process.  

Once complete, salespeople can jump into the Provident Insurance system without having to retype all the customer or vehicle information already captured in AutoPlay.  From there, it's a simple case of completing any information required by Provident that is not able to be supplied via AutoPlay in order to finish the insurance application.

1.  If you are already a customer and want to take advantage of this feature then the first step is to contact AutoPlay via support@autoplay.co.nz to request set up.  The purpose of this email is to give AutoPlay written permission to send customer and lead data to Provident Insurance. 

2.  Once we have permission, AutoPlay will contact Provident Insurance and request your unique Provident ID Number.

3.  Once supplied by Provident, AutoPlay will set up API access using your unique ID as the key to send data from AutoPlay Sales Pipeline to Provident Insurance.

4.  Once the export record is set up as per (3), the Provident Insurance option will be visible within the FINANCE & INSURANCE button.

5.  Once the button is visible when you wish to start a new Insurance application with Provident Insurance just open the lead with the customer who wishes to apply and click Finance & Insurance>Provident Insurance.

VIEW SAMPLE FILE

The latest version of AutoPlay is now available for download from the App Store.  Make sure to grab the latest version to take advantage of all the changes listed below.  Additionally, if you use the Desktop Studio make sure to log out, close the browser window and reopen the application to apply the latest update.

• Automatically clear notifications after 7 days to improve loading speed
• When Vehicle Appraisal Manager Approval is enabled lock down the Appraisal Form after creation so that the valuations cannot be changed.  In addition managers now have the option of telling AutoPlay to send SMS notifications as well as the standard email notification when there is a waiting Appraisal
• When Closing Leads As Won users are now able to add a follow up date via a ‘Post Sale Follow Up Date’ field within the Close Won popup.  This will close the lead, but also create a calendar event on the specific day labelled “Post Sales Follow Up”
• Force users to choose a Type when creating Loan Car Forms instead of defaulting to None
• On iPad now prompt a message asking user “Do you want to send this assistance request?” when completing an Assistance Request.  This brings it into line with the Desktop
• When sending Appraisals to wholesalers from iPhone via SMS in addition to the 3 images embedded in the SMS we also automatically generate a google shortened URL to a website with the rest of the Appraisal images
• Added a disclaimer to the Appraisal Form and Write Up Forms “Vehicle trade price will be confirmed once any outstanding airbag, recall or campaign work is verified to be completed”
• When using Test Drive Kiosk mode, we now refresh the listings every time the listing popup is opened
• Added a BACK button to Sales Pipeline Reporting to assist users getting back to the app after using the EXPORT function
• Fixed ‘Clear Signature’ option in iOS app within the Write Up Form
• Individual notifications are no longer sent when bulk closing leads and bulk closing now occurs in the background to minimise disruption to the user
• Closed Leads with no outstanding calendar event are no longer classed as Stalled when viewing on the Dashboard
• Fixed issue with ‘Manual Load’ tick box not appearing under certain accounts
• AutoPlay are now able to set up individual Test Drive T&C’s for any “brochureware” yards
• Middle Name is now weighted in the customer database search that happens when a new lead is loaded
• When duplicating a Fleet Quote Builder email the Accessories are now copied across to the new email
• New Role Management setting to give dealerships greater control over who can and cannot Delete Leads.  This is for accounts where users are set up as System Admin but should not be able to delete leads
• When Notes on a lead are edited by an external CRM or DMS integration this triggers a notification to the lead owner that Notes have been added to their lead
• Improvements to how searching for customers in the Address Book screen works to gain more accuracy in search results
• New Role Management setting to enable dealerships to hide the Wholesale Quotes section from users they don’t want to see wholesale quotes
• When dealers are in an Assistance Request record they are now able to duplicate the record using a ‘Create Duplicate’ button.  This is useful if the request has been declined as a new request can be made with minimal effort
• Added ‘Next Action’ field to Print List function on the Sales Pipeline Dashboard.  This column shows the whether the Next Action is Overdue/Stalled etc.  Additionally, the Overdue Days field will display negative numbers if the event is in the future
• On Prospect & CRM Follow Up screen users can now either click the Complete button, or tick the on-screen check box to mark the record as complete
• When a Wishlist has matching Appraisals, these are now displayed by the most recent Appraisal first
• Added a filter for Model within the Morning Meeting Report, Email Allocation & Response Time, Overdue Lead Report
• Preferred Name field has been added to Lead Audit Report
• Upcoming category added to the Overdue Lead Report
• Added a column for Dealership Name to the Overdue Lead Report when logged into group/brand accounts
• Restricted Lead Source pie graph to show no more than 15 labels for lead sources. This has been done to ensure graph remains readable.  Full list of lead sources still available within data table.
• Closed Notes added to Export Report function within the Closed Lead Report
  
• In Market Leads – see /playbook/introducing-in-market-leads-making-buyer-matching-easy