By business type
The two things a dealership assistant must never do
A dealership site has one asset that changes every day and one type of copy that is regulated to the comma. The stock list and the finance wording are the two places an assistant can do real damage, and they are also the two things visitors ask about most. Everything else, aftersales, part exchange process, warranty terms, test drive requirements, is comfortable ground.
What people actually type
Not the questions on your FAQ page. These are the phrasings that arrive in a chat window, lowercase and unpunctuated, and the material has to answer them in those words rather than in yours.
- do you still have the blue focus in stock
- what would you give me for my car in part exchange
- can i book a test drive on saturday
- what apr do you offer
- can i get finance with bad credit
- how much is a service on a diesel
- does it come with a warranty
- how many owners has it had
- do you take cars in part exchange with outstanding finance
- can i reserve a car online
- what do i need to bring for a test drive
- is the mot included in the price
What to feed it
In rough order of how much work each one takes off the front desk. Every one of these is a document you almost certainly already have.
| How your stock listing works, not the stock itself | Where the live list lives, how often it updates, what reserved means on your site, and how a customer confirms a specific car is still there. The assistant should point at the source of truth rather than repeat a snapshot of it, because the snapshot is wrong within a day. |
|---|---|
| The part exchange process | What you need from a customer, whether an online figure is indicative, what the physical appraisal checks, how outstanding finance is settled, and how long a valuation stands. Outstanding finance is the part that catches customers out, so write it out fully. |
| Warranty terms by category of sale | New, approved used, standard used and trade sale each carry different cover, and the differences are the whole point. Set out what is included, the length, what a claim needs and what voids it, per category rather than as one paragraph. |
| Aftersales pricing and booking process | Service and inspection prices by fuel type or engine size, what each level includes, courtesy car availability rules, and how a booking is made. This is repeat business and it is the least risky material on the site. |
| Test drive requirements | The licence you need to see, the minimum age and licence held period, the insurance arrangement, whether an appointment is required, and what happens for a customer with a foreign licence. Getting somebody to arrive with the wrong documents wastes a slot and a sale. |
| Your published finance information | The lenders you work with, the representative example exactly as it is approved for publication, the difference between the products you offer, and the eligibility statement. Index the approved wording, character for character, and nothing around it. |
What has to reach a person
Whether a specific car is still available
This is the biggest single risk on a dealership site. Stock moves daily, cars get reserved, sold and moved between sites, and an assistant reading a crawled listing page is reading a photograph of yesterday. Telling a customer a car is available when it sold on Tuesday produces a wasted journey and a review.
Unless you connect a source that holds live stock, the assistant should describe the car from the listing only as far as the listing goes, say clearly that availability changes daily and is confirmed by the sales team, and take the customer's details against that specific registration or stock number.
Any part exchange figure
A valuation depends on condition, mileage, service history, tyres, damage and the market that week. An online indication is a lead generation tool, not an offer, and the assistant should say so in those terms rather than implying a number will hold.
The useful behaviour is to explain what the appraisal looks at, ask for the registration and mileage, and pass it to the sales team so the call is about a real car.
Anything about a customer's eligibility for finance
Whether they will be accepted, what rate they will get, whether a past problem matters, whether a settlement can be rolled in. Consumer credit is a regulated activity in most countries, and giving anything that reads as advice, or as an indication of acceptance, is not a marketing decision.
The assistant may state the published representative example and say that applications are assessed by the lender. Beyond that it takes the enquiry and a person handles it.
The history and condition of an individual vehicle
Owners, service history, whether it has been an insurance write off, whether the mileage is warranted. These are specific factual claims about one car with legal weight behind them, and they belong to the person who has the paperwork in front of them.
The wording when it cannot help
This is the message the assistant returns when nothing in the material covers the question. It is written by you rather than generated, which matters here more than anywhere: it is the sentence a stranger reads at the worst moment.
I cannot confirm whether a particular car is still available or give you a part exchange figure or a finance decision, because all three need the sales team and an actual look at the vehicle. I can help with our service prices, warranty terms, what to bring for a test drive and how part exchange works. Leave your name, email and the registration you are interested in and we will come straight back.
It names what it cannot do, gives the route that can, and offers to take a message. A refusal that only apologises leaves the person exactly where they started.
Rules and duties that shape the answer
Finance advertising is regulated wording
Where consumer credit is regulated, promoting it carries rules about what triggers a representative example, what has to appear with a rate, and how prominently. That wording is approved as a block, and an assistant paraphrasing it, quoting the rate without the rest of it, or answering what rate would I get has produced an unapproved financial promotion in your name.
The control is to index only the approved wording and to write a refusal that redirects every personal finance question to a person. Do not index a friendly explainer that restates the numbers loosely.
Mileage and history disclosure carries real duties
Selling a used vehicle generally comes with obligations to describe it accurately and not to mislead about mileage, provenance or previous damage, with criminal as well as civil consequences in many places. Any statement the assistant makes about a car is a statement the dealership made.
Which is the strongest argument in this trade for keeping the assistant on process material and letting the sales team make the vehicle specific claims.
Consumer rights differ between a dealer sale and a private one
Buying from a trader normally carries statutory rights on quality and description that a private sale does not, and in many countries there are extra rights when a car is bought at a distance without seeing it. Customers know this vaguely and ask about it directly.
Index your actual returns and complaints process rather than a general statement of the law, and let the assistant explain your process while pointing at a person for anything about a specific dispute.
Never, whatever the documents say
Out of bounds
- Whether a specific vehicle is still in stock or unsold.
- A part exchange valuation, or a range one might fall in.
- Whether somebody will be accepted for finance, or at what rate.
- Any finance figure outside the approved representative example.
- The owner count, service history or accident history of an individual car.
Playbooks for this trade
One page per recurring question, written for a car dealership rather than in general. Each carries the phrasings, the material that answers them, a reply worth copying, and the line where it has to stop.
- Describing a car from the listing without claiming it is still thereA crawled listing is a photograph of yesterday. The assistant can describe a car in detail and still must not say it is unsold.
- What your car is worth, and the appraisal that decides itA valuation turns on condition, mileage and history, and none of them survive a chat window. The appraisal is the quote.
- Four ways to sell a car, four different warranties behind itNew, approved used, standard used and trade sale carry four different levels of cover. The sale category decides the whole answer.
- The documents that decide whether the drive happensA licence, a minimum held period and an insurance arrangement decide whether a test drive happens at all. Say all three beforehand.
- The buyer who has chosen one, handed over before somebody else doesA reservation holds a vehicle and usually takes a payment. That belongs to a person, and the assistant's only job is speed.
- The number in the windscreen is not the number on the invoiceThe screen price, the admin fee, the first registration cost and the road tax are four separate numbers, and only one of them is on the advert.
- A car is not a parcel and there is no tracking numberTwo very different waits behind one question: a build slot the dealership does not control, and a used car sitting in the workshop before handover.
- Which piece of paper the customer is actually afterA sales invoice, a service bill and the registration document are three different pieces of paper, and customers ask for all three using one word.
- The order is signed, the car is in the queue, and they want outA signed order for a car being built to one buyer's specification is a contract with terms on it, and the deposit is the part everybody is asking about.
- Whose policy is it, and does it get the car off the forecourtThree different policies get called insurance in one sale, and only one of them is the buyer's own, which is the one that gets the car off the site.
- The honest answer to a dashboard light is what not to driveSome lamps mean book it in and some mean stop as soon as it is safe. The only useful answer here is about what not to drive.
- The complaint has stages, and the last one is not yoursAftersales complaints run through published stages towards a final answer, and the stage a customer has reached decides what can be said to them.
- Three departments, three timetables, one addressThe showroom can be open on a Sunday with the workshop shut. One set of hours produces somebody standing at a locked service door.
- The front of a dealership is a display, not a car parkTwo entrances at one address. The spaces at the front are cars for sale, and service reception is round the side behind the workshop.
- Bought online or bought here, and why that decides everythingA car bought without seeing it sits under different rules from one driven off the forecourt, and neither of them is a change of mind policy.
- Money down on one specific car, and what it actually buysA reservation fee takes one registration off sale for a few days. Whether it comes back is on the form and is not settled in a chat window.
- Getting into the showroom, and getting into the carTwo unrelated questions share one word here: getting into the building, and whether a car can be adapted for the person who will drive it.
- Money back is easy to say and complicated to routeWhere a lender paid for the car, the customer is not who the money returns to, and that single fact reorders the entire conversation.
Questions
- Can it answer questions about cars we have for sale?
- It can describe what the listing says, which covers most of what a buyer asks about specification. What it must not do is assert that the car is still available, because a crawl is a snapshot and stock moves daily. Have it point at the live listing and take the enquiry against the stock number.
- How should it handle finance questions?
- By quoting the approved representative example exactly and nothing else, then handing over. Personal eligibility and rate questions are regulated territory, and the version of the answer that keeps you safe is also the version that gets the customer to the person who can actually run an application.
- Is aftersales worth putting behind it?
- It is the most comfortable material on a dealership site and probably the highest volume. Service prices by engine, what each level includes, courtesy car rules and how to book are all fixed, published and asked constantly, with none of the risk that sits on the sales side.
- Can it book a test drive?
- It does not write into a diary. It can tell somebody exactly what to bring, which prevents the wasted visits, and then take a name, an email and their message so the sales team arranges the slot.
Keep reading
- For a plumbing and heating firmSorting an emergency from a routine job, quoting call out rates, and never suggesting a fix on gas work that only a registered engineer may touch.
- For a electrical contractorCall out charges, EV charger enquiries and landlord certificates are answerable. A described electrical fault is an escalation, not a question.
- For a removals companyPrice depends on volume and access, so a survey comes first. Insurance limits are what customers misunderstand most, so say them plainly.
- Every business typeWhat an assistant has to know before it can answer for a trade.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.