[Webinar Transcript from July 2022]

Everyone, thanks for joining us today. We're going to get started here. My name is Ben. I'm on the marketing team here at Kenect. We're going to talk about Kenect for about five minutes, and then get into the meat of the webinar about this integration. We're going to talk about how Lightspeed and Kenect can help with your communication needs and anything else that this integration might arise that could have a good feature for your business. So if have any questions, please feel free to type in your questions over there in the questions tab, and I'll get to them throughout this webinar or for sure at the end when there's more time. So with that, let's get started here.

Who is Kenect?

First off, we're going to talk about Kenect. Who are we? We're based on the Silicon Slopes of Utah, that's just outside Salt Lake City. We're a text messaging platform for RV dealers throughout North America. And we're founded by dealers and built for dealers like you. So we help you communicate more efficiently, generate new leads, collect payments via text message and drive online reviews. We're the 25th fastest growing software company in America and the 216th fastest growing company overall. So we've seen tremendous growth of the last couple years, especially during the pandemic, as more businesses realize the benefits of texting and how that can help with their communication. Especially when you're lacking that in person face to face you want to be able to have a way to communicate and texting has become the preferred way of communication for customers and the businesses. We have over 5,000 customers and 50,000 users on the platform. We work with 70% of the top 50 RV dealers in North America, and Kenect is integrated with the leading DMS systems.

So how do we do it? Two way text messaging from your main dealership phone number. So you don't have to give out your personal cell number, you're using your existing business phone number. So it's all connected to the platform. Anyone can see it. Anyone can see the messages that come in, anyone on your team, and then they're able to respond to it through that existing business number. Web leads straight from your website, which I'll show you in just a second. Collect payments via text message and then online review generation and reputation management.

So why text messaging? Mostly because your customers prefer it. 89% of customers would prefer to interact with business via text message rather than a phone call. And 98% of all text messages are opened, with 95% of those read within three minutes. So you're going to get a response fast. You're going to be able to get information to customers faster, and that interaction between the two is going to limit your time between the two. So you don't have to spend hours on the phone, playing phone tag, that kind of thing, calling back and forth, you're actually getting a response within three minutes. 96% of consumers find phone calls to be disruptive and 78% of US consumers say receiving a text message is the fastest way to reach them for important service, updates and purchases. So, it's key here to use text messaging because that's where customers are gravitating towards. We have in the last just couple years, and it's the preferred form of communication right now.

Top eight ways that RV dealers are using Kenect. Scheduling appointments, setting up automated reminders and sending status updates, you can also send quick information like hours, maps or your RV's ready for pickup. You can send targeted warranty reminders and schedule maintenance notices. You can also collect payments via text message, do video chat with customers. Attachments, send photos, videos, invoices, and PDFs. Generate online reviews from Google and Facebook, and then capture more leads from Facebook, Instagram, and your website.

So, the little button that I was talking about, lead capture this little “text us” button at the bottom. This is what we add to your website. So you can see right at the bottom, it doesn't really take up too much space, but it's a way for customers to say, “hey, if I have a question, I can just click on this and get an answer from somebody.” So that little text us button is a way for them to reach you right away if they're visiting your website and maybe they see something that they like, and they want to know more about it, they can text us and ask a question to you.

And then where does that lead go? It goes into this inbox. So this is what it looks like when a text comes in, you can see if you've already interacted with this person, it'll have a name attached or it'll just be the phone number and then you can see where the conversation left out. Who's talked to this customer, which employees interacted with them, all that kind of stuff. And then through this platform, you can have employees assigned to each customer. So, each employee that you have, you can assign them to customers or you can just have them look at all these messages and make sure that they're responding. Then you can all see who's responded to who to make sure every message that comes in gets a response.

It's also very handy on the mobile app, which is free in the app store and in the layout similar to like an email layout so it's really easy to see you can also set up to send quick replies, use your camera, send photos and do video chats right on your phone. And then this app is free in the app store for your employees and the platform's all done through your existing business line. So they're not giving out their personal cell number, they're just using this app from your existing business line to interact with customers and text back and forth. So it's really simple, really easy for you, easy for your customer because they're going to get a response faster and you're going to keep things flowing in your service and sales department.

So using video chat, I just wanted to go through this real quick, clicking on the video icon in your, Kenect inbox, so that little video icon at the bottom. And then you're sending the link to the customer for the video chat and both you and your customer can click on the same link and then you start chatting with the customer. It's really that simple.

So why would you use it? No additional software is required to run these video chats. It's easy for your team, easy for your customer. You can give live walk arounds of new and used units. You can easily show parts and accessories, do live video and showing a customer what you're doing. You can show inventory to multiple customers at a time, up to 30 people if you'd like. You can also share your screen with live video, chat, through dealings, price quotes, anything contracts, showing them the invoices, maybe if you need. Available for both mobile and desktops. So obviously using mobile is easier but you can certainly use it on your desktop if you have your computer handy and you'd want to connect with the customer via video chat, just to talk about anything and anything that pops up. So it's really simple and really convenient, and you don't have to have another software download to do this this is all done through the platform that already exists.

Text-to-pay is gaining popularity

Text-to-pay is another big thing that we are seeing growth in in the last couple years. It collects deposits and payments via text message and sales and service customers. You can also collect service tickets and special order parts with a 98% open rate. You can allow for after-hours pickups and remote drop offs by collecting prepayments. So, especially in your service bays this is key. If you're almost done with something you can say, here's the link to prepay, “I'll be done in an hour and then come by and pick it up. You don't have to even come into the showroom or the service bay, I'll have it out front for you.” Really easy to do. Increase over the phone sales and offer curbside pickup, you can also get paid faster and reduce accounts receivable, also next day funding and 100% secure.

So what happens if you're sending somebody this link to do text-to-pay, you can send them right here in this link and then click on the payments icon at the bottom and it'll show up to them. And then it'll have you fill this out, the amount, invoice and then description. And then this is what the customer will see. They'll see the amount, all the information that you've listed and then your logo at the top of the page. So they'd be able to see this is from you. And you can tell them you know the amount you know what the description is, and then you'll see that logo and you'll know it's from us.

So you can build trust with the customer, make sure that they know that all of this is secure and they can fill out their information comfortably. And then they send it back to you and it takes seconds, takes a few minutes maybe if they have a few questions. And if they have questions about the bill, you can even text them the PDF, show them what's going on, show them a breakdown of the price. So, it's even that simple. You don't have to do talking over the phone, explaining things over the phone, they can see it through with their own eyes. They can see the actual bill that's there. So it's easy for them, easy for you and takes away some of the time that's maybe wasted with employees having to go back and forth over the phone.

You can also see your transaction history. So through this, you can see where bills are left, what transactions are still outstanding, and then who you need to contact to make sure that you're getting payments. So all of this is done through a platform and you can see this as you're going through monthly or weekly, whatever you'd like to do and set it up to make sure that you know that these transactions are going through.

Dealers are asking for broadcast messaging

Broadcast messaging is another feature that really popped up during the pandemic, it's a way to conveniently send a message to a subset of customers by creating groups. So instead of texting individually, you're texting to a group of your customers. You can schedule a message or send them right away. You can easily identify and reply to broadcast messages right inside the inbox. So when you send it all out, that same message to every customer, all the messages come back to the inbox if they have questions or anything like that. So it's all filtered through that same business phone number line, through that platform, easy for employees to see and easy for employees to respond. You can also quickly filter out broadcast messages based on scheduled or sent.

So this is really convenient for a number of ways. You can send extended warranty updates to a group of customers, you can send review requests. And then at the end of weeks or months or something like that, send invites and notices to events for your dealership. Send notifications for sales and promotions, winterization, or spring tune-up. You can also do product up sales, and then you can reduce cost by customer touch for direct mail pieces. So you don't have to actually send them direct mail pieces, you can send them a broadcast message if you'd like every month or whatever works for you and whatever you think is right for your dealership.

So all of these ways are things that a lot of dealers have used over the last few months in the last few years, because they've seen how easily it is and it gets information to customers fast. Especially if you're dealing with staffing issues, maybe up to adjust your hours, you want to make sure all your customers know that you have changed your hours so they don't come in and there's no confusion.

Understanding Google reviews and how to get more

Google reviews is the other big thing that has popped up in the last couple years. These numbers right here, these 90s, 80s, this is probably in the 60s. Probably not on the radar for a lot of people, but we know now that people are using reviews all the time, 93% of customers use reviews as the first step in choosing a dealership and 91% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. So, online reviews are the new word of mouth. So you want to make sure that online reviews are buttoned up, you're able to look at them, you're able to respond to them. And the 87% of customers won't consider a dealership with low online rating. So you want to make sure that you're keeping this up to date. A lot of people think I just have the website and that should be good, but we're seeing that people are looking at reviews more frequently. Obviously these numbers are high, so you want to make sure that you are keeping track of these reviews as they go.

What potential customers want to see in your reviews? Quantity, star rating's most important factor. For quality, Five star ratings are preferred. Quantity, a minimum of 50 reviews is necessary. So 150 is ideal, but quantity drives a conversion rate. So it might seem a little daunting for people who are smaller businesses but you can go back and ask customers who have used you in the past to say, “hey, maybe you want to give us a review? We know you had a great experience last fall; we're trying to up our reviews please. Here's the link, send it in.” So it's easy for you to be able to go to customers in the past, who have had great experiences and get them to leave reviews. Recency, 73% of consumers disregard old reviews past 90 days. So you want to keep that up, make sure that you're getting reviews each week. You're getting a couple if you can. Making sure that those reviews are up to date. And then owner response, Google says after review ratings owner response is the first thing buyers read.

So again, if you haven't been looking at these reviews on your Google page or Google My Business page, or maybe you don't even know that you have one, go look yourself up on Google and make sure that these reviews are coming in and you have access to respond to these reviews. Google will give you access, they send you a little mailer that has a code so that they know that your address is correct and your number is correct so that they verify you and then you can start responding to those reviews as they come in.

So what happens when you text somebody a review request, this is what it looks like. You send them the link and then they pick Google or Facebook and then they post the review. They click the five star, they respond with one sentence or something and then they send it back. Really simple, takes a couple seconds, doesn't take very long, and then you've got reviews that are coming in on a frequent basis. So make sure you're using texting to ask for reviews, we know that people are 35 times more likely to look at texts rather than emails. So, we know that emails have been the preferred way to get Google reviews but it's not what customers are looking at. So you want to catch customers where they want to be. And especially if you're sending them a link, it's really simple, it takes a few seconds, and you've got more reviews coming in each week.

Kenect and Lightspeed integration

So the Lightspeed integration, want to make sure that you are up to date on what we have here and what we're offering with this integration. So the sync contacts from Lightspeed to Kenect. Sales events, we automate messages, include review requests and surveys, sales events trigger based on finalized date, service events trigger based on cashier date and work order. You can also capture all inbound leads and automatically forward them to your DMS or CRM. So leads will contain first name, last name, mobile number, and all the pertinent information, URL if they're coming from a website. And then we want to make sure that the overview is what you're looking for and the price does vary a little bit, depending on who you are, depending on where you're coming from and what you'd like for this integration. So we want to make sure that you get the best quote possible.

So the Lightspeed integration set up, it's very simple. We use your mobile phone field first and then go to the home or work, indicate message start or stop times, you can select days to send and select timeout window to prevent duplicate messages. We've synced this with the Kenect platform, so this is what you're looking at and this is what you're seeing. And then the message template set up, of course, you can set up these messages to go out, select the type of messages to send, review requests or anything like that. You can select delay duration, so how long you'd like to wait until this message is sent. And then you can create templates to send.

Like I showed you kind of earlier, the sales events, you can see where finalized dates are, you can see where all these things are coming in and get more information and data. You can also do cashier dates. So you can see when it's actually come into your system. When each person has sent in their information to pay.

So, I wanted to get through the FAQs because I know that a lot of people have questions. I was just glossing over what we have in the integration because I know it's different for everybody else. So, first the question we, do I have to be a Kenect customer to use the integration? Yes, you do need to be a customer, both Lightspeed and Kenect to make sure that this works. But if you are a customer of both you're going to be able to integrate with the two and be able to sync all of your contacts. So that's key here because if you're using two separate systems, you want to be able to meld them together and make sure it's simple and streamline for you.

How long does it take to set up the integration? Once your customer of both, takes about five minutes. Our activation team can help, it's very simple to do. So it's very easy, very quick. Once you've had both, it's just a matter of flipping a little switch pretty much. So it's very easy, takes a few minutes.

What does the integration do? Much of it covered in the previous slides, again, like I said, it's different for each person or each person that comes in. So each business that we have, so we want to make sure they're giving you the most accurate information. Obviously we want you to call in and set up a demo, I'll give you that number just one second, but we want to make sure that you are getting the most accurate and up to date information on pricing and information on what this integration will do. So, the cost depends on specifics related to your dealership, but we try to recoup the cost of building the integration. And then how can I get signed up with the integration? You sign up for a demo, sign up with Kenect, and then our activation team can help you through the integration.

So if you are a customer of just Lightspeed or a customer of just Kenect then you can be able to do one of the two, sign up for one, sign up for the other, make sure you're signed up for both so you can do the integration. So this is what we want to make sure you're doing, it's all about the ease of customers, bringing customers in, especially with leads and making sure that customers have the option to use you and there's an easy way for them to interact with you. So that's the goal here. Making sure you're streamlining this process. We have a bunch of different things, we want to make sure that you're streamlining your Lightspeed and Kenect integrations. So streamline the two because both of them can work with you and work for you, and it only takes a few minutes to set up.

The impact of text messaging. Just wanted to go through these numbers real quick before we leave you. Cuts down necessary call traffic by 31%. Decreases voicemails left by 84%. Saves 45 minutes per day per person in parts and service. Experiences of 260% increase in web leads from their website through the Kenect inbound web leads, that's the little text us button that we offer that then they send a right to your platform through that existing business line. Increases online reviews by 300% in the first three to six months, that's just because of the ease of which you can send these reviews out and the ease of which you can have customers send them back to you. With a couple minutes, they have a link, they click on it, they fill it out and send it back. Get paid faster with 48 hours on 59% of payments requests sent via text message. And then increase on units sold by 6% per year.

So if you have any questions here, please feel free to give us a call here 888-972-7422, you can also text us and we'll go through this demo and through the integration and how it would look exactly for your business. So we want to make sure there are no questions from you that aren't answered because we want to make sure this is streamlined, this process is easy, and then if you want the integration between the two, it'll take just minutes. So we want to make sure that you see each aspect of this integration and how it would work and how it would all be set up. So there is no mystery around it and that you get all your questions answered.

I really appreciate your time here. Thank you so much. Hope I've answered your questions. Again, if I haven't please feel free to contact us anytime. So thank you so much, really appreciate it, and have a great rest of your week.

‍