Anyone use Otis from Openbay?

[Joe Marconi]

I saw a quick demo on Openbay's Otis, an interactive chat program that works with your website. 

Does anyone use this feature, or know about it?

Here is a link:

https://solutions.openbay.com/

[Bob Lane]

Hi Joe,

I've been using Otis from Openbay from the very beginning when it was first launched. Long story short I can't see going to market without it. Excellent product, excellent service and support and maybe most importantly they are continuously evolving their product.   

Feel free to call me if you would like to discuss further.

Bob Lane 617-293-5221

VP Operations/GM

Direct Tire & Auto Service

 

[Joe Marconi]

2 hours ago, Bob Lane said:

Hi Joe,

I've been using Otis from Openbay from the very beginning when it was first launched. Long story short I can't see going to market without it. Excellent product, excellent service and support and maybe most importantly they are continuously evolving their product.   

Feel free to call me if you would like to discuss further.

Bob Lane 617-293-5221

VP Operations/GM

Direct Tire & Auto Service

 

Thanks Bob! I really appreciate the feedback.  And, I may be calling you too.  

[joenic]

we use it at our 3 shops.  it helps facilitate simple appointment requests, captures emails for future marketing and contact purposes, and gives basic menu price quotes that would otherwise tie up my guys on the phone.  it also works 24/7.  great reporting and metrics, so you can always ensure you are getting value out of the program.  we also link our tires through otis, so customers can shop from home.  i think it brings a certain legitimacy to our business and takes care of some basic customer inquiries for us.  it's certainly worth a demo to see if it's right for your team.  chat bots are never perfect translators, but it's a trade off we were willing to make after seeing the benefits.  

[Joe Marconi]

1 hour ago, joenic said:

we use it at our 3 shops.  it helps facilitate simple appointment requests, captures emails for future marketing and contact purposes, and gives basic menu price quotes that would otherwise tie up my guys on the phone.  it also works 24/7.  great reporting and metrics, so you can always ensure you are getting value out of the program.  we also link our tires through otis, so customers can shop from home.  i think it brings a certain legitimacy to our business and takes care of some basic customer inquiries for us.  it's certainly worth a demo to see if it's right for your team.  chat bots are never perfect translators, but it's a trade off we were willing to make after seeing the benefits.  

Thanks for the great feedback. Great points!

 

[benzfxr]

we tried for a while but found it lacked the ability to truly decipher the mortoris question when very specific - you could set up you price matrix and then a price can be given without ever discussing value - we had many price inquiries and had a hard time converting them 

if you searched for a specific service, OTIS could not answer correctly (walnut blast for example) - Open bay business model is still price driven, OTIS can give the customer a price on a job and just keep on hopping from site to site until they find the bottom. 

I found it difficult to manage customer communication, as well 

[Joe Marconi]

On 3/29/2021 at 10:44 AM, benzfxr said:

we tried for a while but found it lacked the ability to truly decipher the mortoris question when very specific - you could set up you price matrix and then a price can be given without ever discussing value - we had many price inquiries and had a hard time converting them 

if you searched for a specific service, OTIS could not answer correctly (walnut blast for example) - Open bay business model is still price driven, OTIS can give the customer a price on a job and just keep on hopping from site to site until they find the bottom. 

I found it difficult to manage customer communication, as well 

Thanks Frank, sorry I took so long to reply. I really appreciate it. Hope all is well in the land of sun and heat!

[benzfxr]

we are all very well, thanks 

[PJBanta]

I really don't see the need for a AI to handle my conversations.   Customers service is about building a relationship with the client.  I'm telling you no customer wants to talk to a machine.   They want human interaction.  Persoanally want to feel the customers voice and understand their needs.  But you be you.....BTW DVI are also a waste.....customers want a verbal explanation.  Yes we do share pictures.  We have been texting with Riptide for 6 years.  But texting has its own limitations.  Customers still your to explain verbally the cost and reason for the repair....all these other systems are for to masking weak selling technique.  In fairness they may work for a tire store or something like that.... but not a full service auto repair facility.

 

[ScottSpec]

On 4/11/2021 at 9:52 PM, PJBanta said:

I really don't see the need for a AI to handle my conversations.   Customers service is about building a relationship with the client.  I'm telling you no customer wants to talk to a machine.   They want human interaction.  Persoanally want to feel the customers voice and understand their needs.  But you be you.....BTW DVI are also a waste.....customers want a verbal explanation.  Yes we do share pictures.  We have been texting with Riptide for 6 years.  But texting has its own limitations.  Customers still your to explain verbally the cost and reason for the repair....all these other systems are for to masking weak selling technique.  In fairness they may work for a tire store or something like that.... but not a full service auto repair facility.

 

PJ,

Interesting analysis. I'm out of the business now, but I was just talking with the new owner of my old business. We were taking about some of these things, from Social Media to Digital Inspections, to texting. My experience, if you have a shop with a personal connection to the customer, it is almost always what comes out of your mouth, or your trusted employees mouth that matters the most. When we tried the DI's, sales did not change at all. Just took up more of my tech's and service managers time. I loved having the reports, but in the end it is about return on investment. For us it was a time investment as we had free access to several systems. Most of our customers liked seeing the employees pictures on the reports, more than the pictures of their car's broken parts. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big tech person. I created the first cloud based shop management program, and did a lot of ECM flashing. So I know the value of technology. 

I think AI is a bit of a joke, and hate when companies use it to try to communicate with me, so I would have never used it to care for my customers.

The reason the dealers are all going to the video inspections, and all these other selling tools, is because they still don't get why customers don't trust them, and they think these tools will help them overcome that.

[Joe Marconi]

I am a big supporter of technology, but technology will never take the place of good old fashion customer service, that one-on-one relationship what we build with our customers.