Digital Air Strike, a consumer engagement technology company, has announced it will be a new contributor on the Fortellis Automotive Commerce Exchange platform built by CDK Global.
Scottsdale-based Digital Air Strike provides a broad suite of digital marketing solutions, ranging from SMS messages to website chat to social media channels, to car dealerships across the country.
The solutions are meant to minimize the time sales associates and other dealership employees spend on the time-consuming but important tasks of tracking down leads, following up with potential buyers and marketing promotions.
According to Digital Air Strike COO Erica Sietsma, car dealerships are often left to their own devices to increase sales, even if they are a franchise of a major vehicle manufacturer. Both Sietsma and Digital Air Strike CEO and co-founder Alexi Venneri worked in the automotive industry for years and were all too familiar with this problem.
This partnership with CDK gives Digital Air Strike the opportunity to further pursue its mission to streamline the consumer’s experience of buying a car.
CDK Global provides integrated data and technology solutions to several industries, including the automotive, heavy truck, recreation and heavy equipment, and serves nearly 15,000 retail locations in North America.
The company’s Fortellis is the world’s first open, agnostic platform for developing and marketing API-based automotive solutions. The integration of Digital Air Strike on the Fortellis platform will improve back-end experience for car dealers and ultimately make the process more seamless.
Digital Air Strike has already published its patented Response Logix technology on the Fortellis platform. This technology is designed to provide car dealers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with a variety of automated solutions.
Digital Air Strike’s clients rely on its patented Response Logix Engagement Platform, which uses AI and advanced inventory matching technology to help dealers respond quickly to inquiries. Clients also use the technology to automate responses to consumer leads, increase the visibility of dealership promotions and improve customer satisfaction in order to sell more vehicles.
According to a release from Digital Air Strike, dealerships can see a 56% increase in the number of cars sold by using Response Logix. Additionally, a Nissan dealership near Long Beach, California, had 52 new leads reactivated and 532 new custom prospect sites built in one month for interested car buyers. With the integration, Digital Air Strike was able to data-mine their CRM and send additional custom prospect communications that resulted in activating 20 other leads.
This partnership is a major step in Digital Air Strike’s quest to build relationships with more partners and incorporate more mediums. The idea is that these partnerships will help Digital Air Strike evolve even as consumer buying habits continue to change.
For example, as driving significantly reduced during the pandemic, cars weren’t being used and batteries died frequently. People still needed to get their cars fixed, and Digital Air Strike provided a way for people to message their dealership.
“Being able to stay on top of those trends is really a great opportunity,” Sietsma told AZ Tech Beat.
“Digital Air Strike is always looking for ways to partner with leading automotive vendors to help our dealerships streamline processes and improve engagement with consumers,” Venneri said in a statement.
According to a statement provided by the company, Digital Air Strike is the first non-CDK company to be brought on board for this CDK/Fortellis integration.
“We’re really excited and honored that they worked with us on this integration,” Seitsma said.