NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA–(Marketwired – Jan. 23, 2014) – Quorum Information Technologies Inc. (Quorum) (TSX VENTURE:QIS) announced today that its innovative dealership and customer communication system, Communicator, has achieved significant adoption and is continuing to grow rapidly among the dealerships that use its DMS, XSELLERATOR™. The Communicator technology was first introduced in 2012 and began to roll-out across Quorum's customer base on a wide-spread basis in mid-2013. Communicator gives dealerships the ability to use their DMS to communicate with their customers (and internally) through email and text, including automated messaging triggers based on the customers' preference.
Maury Marks, Quorum's President and CEO, explains, “We first conceived of Communicator as a way for our dealership customers to leverage the DMS technology they already have to help them improve their customers' experience and provide efficiencies in their operations. Even we were surprised with just how quickly it caught-on and grew. Since we started rolling it out to dealerships in 2013, over 85 dealers in the US and Canada are now set-up for the feature.”
Since September 2013, the total messages flowing through Communicator has grown from less than 8,000 to nearly 50,000 messages per month. “There are about 55 dealerships truly taking full advantage of the value that Communicator offers. However, ten, in particular, have really embraced it and average well over 1,000 messages each per month! We expect that the total volume will exceed 80,000 messages per month by March, and will most likely hit 100,000 per month by this summer. It is so exciting to see our vision come to fruition. It is very much changing the way our dealership customers work with their customers, as well as communicate internally.” Marks added.
“Communicator is nothing short of amazing,” stated Brent Kennedy, Dealer Principal of Edwards Garage in Alberta. “Time and again Quorum has brought us advanced new features in the areas of factory integration and process efficiency, but this one is truly 'the next big thing.' As Quorum's test dealership for Communicator, we were impressed with how well thought-out and integrated the new functionality was,” Kennedy continued. “The real test was when we started using it with our customers and the results are outstanding. Customers are wowed and we can use Communicator to truly delight them. At the same time, we are recognizing significant efficiencies as our service advisors no longer use valuable time playing phone tag,” he concluded.
Communicator is embedded functionality within Quorum's XSELLERATOR DMS that takes advantage of Microsoft's Lync messaging technology. With Lync at the core, Quorum's team built extensions to handle 2-way communication via a mixture of email and mobile texting and attaches the entire dialogue with the transaction that it is associated with. As an example, a customer may indicate that they prefer to be texted when their vehicle is ready for pick up in service. The service advisor notes that preference with a couple of clicks, and at the completion of the final case on the repair order, a text message is automatically sent to the customer. The unique feature, however, is that the customer can reply and the advisor can reply to that (to schedule a shuttle pick-up, for instance). Communicator then stores all the messages with the customer's repair order infinitely.
The same functionality can be used for ad-hoc communication like sending the customer a quick text for authorization of a repair, or to ask a question about their vehicle. Or, the customer's request for a shuttle pick up can quickly be routed to the shuttle driver along with their location and, once again, stores all messages with the repair order.
Mark Allen, Quorum's VP of Sales, Marketing and Services commented, “Communicator is a game changer in the DMS field. It is difficult to explain in words, but when dealers see it in action, they instantly 'get it.' Since we first introduced it, Communicator has become ubiquitous throughout XSELLERATOR. In addition to the base functionality with new, enhanced, unified communication management, we now have over 20 plug-ins which allow a dealership to set-up Communicator to automatically send out messages on their behalf based on transactions within the DMS. We are showing all of the latest Communicator features in our booth at the NADA conference in New Orleans this year (Booth #6031) and I invite all dealers to come take a look there or call us for a demonstration. You have to see it for yourself.”
About Quorum
Quorum is a North American company focused on developing, marketing, implementing and supporting its XSELLERATOR product for GM, Isuzu, Chrysler, Hyundai, KIA, Nissan, Subaru, NAPA and Bumper to Bumper dealerships. XSELLERATOR is a dealership and customer management software product that automates, integrates and streamlines every process across departments in a dealership. One of the select North American suppliers under General Motors' DTAP and IDMS programs, Quorum is the second largest DMS provider for GM's Canadian dealerships with 25% of the market. Quorum is a Microsoft Partner in both Canada and the United States. Quorum Information Technologies Inc. is traded on the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSX-V) under the symbol QIS. For additional information please go to www.QuorumDMS.com.
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Contact Information:
Mark Allen
403-777-0036
AllenM@QuorumDMS.com
www.QuorumDMS.com
