Problem Prevention
Our customer vehicle rating system, combined with our vehicle eligibility check, helps you manage customer expectations and avoid being stuck honoring an unfavorable offer.
Customer vehicle ratings
Before receiving the trade-in offer estimate, the customer is asked to quickly rate their vehicle on 3 different criterias:
- Cosmetic Condition
- Mechanical Condition
- Safety and drivability
How would an average customer know how to accurately represent the condition of their vehicle? Well most of them wouldn't, and this is not the point here. The customer rating system serves three purposes:
It involves the customer in the appraisal process. With 3 easy taps on their screen, the customers rate their vehicle and feel like they are contributing to estimating the value of their vehicle.
It protects the dealership and avoids conflicts. You would expect most people to rate their vehicle to be in a better condition than it actually is. And this is fine, what matters is that when the customer shows up at the dealership, the dealer can explain clearly why the offer may need to be adjusted. For example if the customer rated their vehicle a 10/10 on Safety and drivability, but their vehicle needs a new set of break pads, it's easy to explain why the offer needs to be reduced.
It can automatically reduce the trade-in values so the vehicle condition is reflected in the offer. With AutoHub, the dealer has the option to configure an automatic percentage deduction, for each star below 10 in each category. For example, let's say you configure a 0.9% deduction for the Cosmetic Condition category and the customer rating is 7/10. If this vehicle was normally going to be presented a $8,500 to $10,000 offer range, this condition rating would actually reduce the offer range by 2.7% to $8,270 to $9,730.
Ineligible vehicle
Not every vehicle should be eligible to receive an offer from the dealership directly online. The dealer can configure in our admin panel which vehicles they do not feel comfortable issuing automated offers for. This way, the dealer is not boxed into conflict or into purchasing a vehicle they do not want.
The criterias that can be configured as a reason not to show an offer are the following:
- Vehicle has a bad history (branded title, frame damage, odometer rollback, etc)
- Vehicle is too expensive (value over a customizable threshold)
- Vehicle has poor customer ratings (rating below a customizable threshold)
- Vehicle is too old (older than a customizable year)
- Vehicle has too many miles (over a customizable threshold)
When a vehicle is ineligible, the customer will be shown a specific message explaining why additional review is needed before an offer can be extended.