eFax drives The Car Dealer¡¦s magazine and website

esolutions eFax is an application that gives almost any PC the power of a fax machine by turning emails into faxes. With eFax, sending a fax to one or a thousand recipients is as easy as sending an email or printing a document from your PC.

„h eFax turns your PC into a powerful fax machine
„h eFax lets you fax and email large groups of recipients with one click of a button
„h eFax can work with other business systems to automate document delivery

The Car Dealer
The Car Dealer is a weekly, regional magazine promoting licensed motor vehicle dealers and their car stock. It¡¦s a free, full-colour, glossy publication available from strategically placed bright green bins enjoying high volume foot traffic.

The magazine has been operating from its Wellington base since the first edition came out in September 2000. Plans for a Christchurch office are currently being developed and there are further plans to grow the business throughout New Zealand.

The many benefits of eFax
¡§There is a whole list of uses for eFax at The Car Dealer. I can alert our database of car dealer customers to the fact that we have extra advertising space available in our upcoming issue, or I can send out newsletters to the entire database in a second. I also used e-Fax to send out invitations for our website launch,¡¨ says Pierre Woon, General Manager of The Car Dealer.

Customisation of messages is easy with eFax. Users develop a template which can be used each time a new fax is created.

¡§Clear branding is the key here. I¡¦ve made up this template and I can use it over and over again. It works really well,¡¨ he says.

Of course, eFax sends faxes to members on the database, but if the recipients are online as well, eFax sends them both a fax and an e-mail.

eFax drives The Car Dealer website
Although Pierre knew a lot about eFax, he wasn¡¦t aware of its internet capability.

¡§I¡¦m always asking our solutions specialist Geoff Weatherley about new products and the best way to use them. He alerted me to the fact that I could integrate eFax into my website,¡¨ says Pierre.

What this means is that customers surfing the www.thecardealer.co.nz website are able to contact dealers by filling in an online form. This generates a sales lead and The Car Dealer immediately alerts the dealer of this lead by both fax and e-mail.

By both faxing and emailing the dealer, Pierre can be sure that the sales lead gets through. Car dealers are busy people and rarely have time to check their e-mail. It is more convenient for them to check their fax machine which is often closer to the shop floor where they spend the majority of their time.

As a result, the communication between the customer and the car dealer is automated, instantaneous and affordable.

This also allows The Car Dealer to monitor the number of leads generated through the site, something that wasn¡¦t able to be measured with the magazine.

The bottom line
But does this system make any difference to the bottom line?

¡§Absolutely. There¡¦s no doubt in my mind that this will drastically impact on our bottom line,¡¨ Pierre says. ¡§The alternative would be to have a whole team of people managing the relationships with the dealers, or to have no control over the customer-dealer relationship.¡¨

¡§With the high volumes of faxes we send, this easy automation saves us hours and money every day.¡¨

Easy implementation and integration
Pierre was sold on the solution from the beginning.

¡§I am in regular contact with Geoff Weatherley at esolutions and as soon as I told him what I wanted and he presented this as an answer, I knew it would work,¡¨ he says.

¡§It took us one week to implement and we skipped straight past the pilot phase and into usage. The beauty of a system as robust as this is that it takes your database and cleans it up for you. I get a report back from eFax¡¦s server stating what messages got through and what didn¡¦t. This enables me to keep the database updated if members go offline or out of business. It saves a lot of headaches,¡¨ he says.

The decision to use eFax
The choice to use esolutions eFax was a simple one for Pierre.

Pierre¡¦s former employer, an established player in the car auction field, implemented the eFax system a while ago. So Pierre knew exactly what eFax had to offer.

¡§Back then, I had a database of around 1000 customers, and it was hard to keep in touch with all of them all of the time. I started using eFax to open up the lines of communication and keep them open with minimal fuss,¡¨ he says.

With eFax, his customers can carry on doing what they do best - selling cars. And with eFax, The Car Dealer can carry on doing what it does best - promoting car dealers and fostering relationships with prospects.

eFax makes for a beautiful business relationship.

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