CarOnSale: Driving Success with Aircall & Salesforce

CarOnSale’s mission is to connect car dealers and suppliers with buyers throughout Europe. 

After all, a European auto marketplace makes sense on many levels. Some of the makes manufactured in northern countries are worth much more than used cars in southern Europe—plus former rental car fleets from the south do very well in the sales market in northern Europe.

CarOnSale’s vision is to offer automotive markets in individual countries—which still operate in a largely fragmented fashion—a common platform for the B2B sale of used cars. Beyond allowing customers to buy and sell vehicles in digital auctions, CarOnSale also supports customers with vehicle valuation, transaction processing, and transport.

To better understand how switching to Aircall has benefited CarOnSale, we spoke to Associate Strategy Director Jan-Patrick Cap, Ph.D., who works to establish new partnerships, finalize contract negotiations, find funding opportunities, and service new market segments.

Building Trust Through 1:1 Communication

For CarOnSale, “The phone is our most important means of communication in day-to-day business,” Dr. Cap says.

He continues to say that especially in today’s climate, when people are bombarded with emails and ads, CarOnSale works to develop customer relationships in a personal, trust-based way. 

“Our customers know they can call us and talk to someone,” Dr. Cap says.

Dr. Cap stresses how important “reachability” is in the used-car business. In addition, speed is often of the essence. When a car has just been auctioned, for example, it’s key for customers to be able to quickly straighten out the logistics over the phone.

For CarOnSale, it’s important that they’re flexible in regard to its customers’ needs. And in an industry that is often associated with problems like manipulated mileage or hidden defects, trust is an important currency.

It is for this reason that CarOnSale strives to provide a personalized service rather than relying on standardized response texts and anonymous transaction handling.

“For us, it’s important to respond promptly and to take a personal and dependable approach to resolving our customers’ concerns. We gain their trust by being contactable in person,” Dr. Cap says. “Clearly, the phone is the number-one tool in this context. If customers initiate contact by email, our support and sales teams are happy to take up the issue by phone as the quickest route to clarifying it.”

Accessing Quality Data via Salesforce

The CarOnSale relies on the phone to communicate with customers, but another key reason the team chose Aircall is because of its Salesforce integration.

Aircall and Salesforce help sales and support teams access relevant data at any time from any location—and get in touch with customers directly. There were other features they considered too. 

“Our focus on pan-European markets meant we were interested not only in the range of countries covered by a telephone provider but also whether it could cover them cost-effectively,” Dr. Cap says.

CarOnSale was also looking for an easy-to-implement business phone solution that featured:

• Intelligent call routing

• The option to set up voice menus

• The ability to track KPIs such as average call time

Making the Switch to Aircall

In a company where employees previously relied mainly on business cell phones, implementing Aircall’s cloud phone system was a big step in the digital transformation of the auction platform.

Carl Wollenhaupt, CarOnSale’s senior growth manager, reflects on the seamless transition.

“Aircall replaced our previous use of cell phones. When we re-evaluated the providers, we found that … Aircall was a scalable solution that could be easily integrated into our systems. As a result, we chose to actively build on the use of Aircall going forward,” Wollenhaupt says. 

For CarOnSale, it’s an investment that is expected to pay off in both the short and long term. 

“Any international, digitally oriented organization that views trust as the foundation of its business should consider a suitable cloud telephone solution as a route toward more efficient processes and personalized customer care,” Dr. Cap says.

By switching to Aircall, CarOnSale made this choice at an early stage. The results to date have been more than worth it.