While the average person buys a new car every three years, dealerships often struggle with the fact that advertising is expensive and a lot of people don’t have stellar credit. Most auto dealerships can’t afford to spend thousands of dollars on television ads every month, or spend the time vetting every loan applicant that walks into the showroom. That’s where CloudOne, LLC comes in.
CloudOne, headquartered in downtown Vancouver on the corner of 20th and C St., has refined a proprietary call center scripting platform that bridges the gap between lead generation, showroom traffic and return on investment for dealers. The company focuses on the automotive industry exclusively, and offers three main services to auto dealers across the nation.
The CloudOne call center operates on the principle that answering the phone correctly and consistently for every caller results in more conversions to appointments at the dealership. The company uses scripts to guide every conversation, whether the caller is responding to a dealer buy-back offer, needs credit pre-qualification or wants to refinance a car loan. If you have recently received a mailer from an auto dealer, the chances are good that the phone number listed is for CloudOne’s call center.
“The call center is an important part of what we do,” said Bryan Hunter, CloudOne cofounder and chief technology officer. “We make sure we answer the phone the same way every time. Dealerships don’t give a consistent experience like that.”
CloudOne also offers a new-car lead generation program. When an auto manufacturer makes a lease or purchase special offer, CloudOne designs advertisements around the offer, and uses third-party data to search out people within 10-15 miles of their client dealerships who are most likely to be in-market shoppers. The company sends online marketing communications to those people through email, Facebook and Google apps. CloudOne is confident in the results, typically guaranteeing a dealership a certain number (10, 20 or even 30) additional deals.
The third service CloudOne offers is the CreditYes service, which is a sub-prime lead generation service. The program provides a steady, long-term .solution for driving qualified traffic to client dealerships.
The company has been growing steadily over the last six years. From eight employees in a 3,000-square-foot office in downtown Portland, CloudOne has grown to 150 employees. In 2013, the firm moved from Portland to Vancouver and occupies a 14,000-square-foot space. They recently expanded, adding a second, 12-000 square-foot location on Mill Plain.
“Our call center business has taken off,” said Hunter. “Based on our current growth, we will probably have to find a third location for our call center in the next couple years.”
Hunter said that CloudOne’s revenue is doubling every year, and that they process 100,000 calls every month for a total of about 1,000 dealerships across the nation. One of CloudOne’s largest call center clients is Uber drivers – the firm answers the phone for Uber’s weekly lease program.
“It’s been a tremendous experience to see this company grow, and from what we’re seeing right now, the sky’s the limit,” said Shannon Page, CloudOne executive vice president.
She added that the company has done very little advertising – the growth has been primarily organic and the company is just now in the process of developing an internal sales force.
Hunter attributes his company’s success to two differentiators: speed to market and use of technology.
“We don’t have a conventional style of product launches,” explained Hunter. “We launch as fast as we can and fix bugs along the way.”
Because CloudOne has “invested heavily in IT” and employs a fair number of product developers, Hunter said that it typically takes less than one month to take an idea from the boardroom to www testing. In comparison, competitors often take six months to a year to deliver a concept.
CloudOne lets clients use the www version of a new service for free, and these clients provide feedback.
“We make changes real-time and roll it out to the rest of our customers,” said Hunter.
Currently, the firm is working on adding two services to their call center using this agile approach to development. One of the new services will be handling service appointments, and the other is fielding purchase requests (where a consumer wants a specific model or certain features).
Hunter said CloudOne also tries to make sure they have the most cutting-edge technology.
“We’re always evaluating what’s emerging,” Hunter said.
For example, the firm is currently researching artificial intelligence solutions to see how machine learning can help people get answers to questions faster. He explained that in this digital age, millennials want to use their cell phone rather than personally visit a dealership.
“We focus on making sure the products we have are the best out there and continuing to grow those products,” said Hunter.
Cloud One
2105 C St., Vancouver 150 employees www.cloudone.com Founded 2010
