Vehicle Trade-In Valuation Funnel

Most dealership trade-in pages are a dead end dressed up as a tool. A visitor types in their plate, gets an instant number from a third-party valuation widget, and leaves. The dealership captured a lead record with no mileage, no condition, no finance situation and no idea whether this person is buying next week or next year. Worse, the instant number is usually generated without seeing the car, so it is either optimistic enough to create an argument on the forecourt or conservative enough to send the owner straight to a competitor.

The leak sits in the gap between a number and an appointment. A valuation is not the product. The appraisal visit is the product, because that is where the car gets inspected, the real figure gets agreed, and the salesperson gets twenty minutes with someone who is actively replacing a vehicle. A trade-in inquiry that never becomes a booked appraisal is worth nothing, and most dealerships cannot say what proportion of theirs do, because the valuation widget and the CRM never spoke to each other.

There is a second, quieter loss. Someone requesting a valuation is, by definition, thinking about their next car. That is the single highest-intent signal a dealership receives, and it usually generates one email and then silence. Nobody asks what they are looking to move into, nobody checks whether they are in a finance agreement with equity in it, and nobody follows up in six weeks when the agreement actually ends. This build turns the valuation into a structured conversation that ends in a calendar slot, and keeps the ones who are not ready yet on a dated timer instead of in a spreadsheet.

Funnel and pages

A four-step funnel, each step on its own URL so drop-off is measurable step by step. Partial data is written to the contact record on every step transition, not on final submit. That single decision is what makes abandonment recovery possible.

• Step 1: Your vehicle. Registration plate or year/make/model, plus mileage. Two fields visible. Nothing else, because this is the step that decides whether the other three happen.
• Step 2: Condition. Four quick-select buttons for overall condition, a service-history selector, a keys count, and an optional multi-photo upload with four prompts (front three-quarter, rear three-quarter, interior, dashboard showing odometer).
• Step 3: Your situation. Outstanding finance yes/no/not sure, when they are looking to change, and what they are thinking of moving into. This is the step that turns a valuation into a sales conversation.
• Step 4: Contact and booking. Name, mobile, email, then the appraisal calendar embedded directly on the page. The valuation range is revealed here, above the calendar, so the number and the booking sit in the same eyeline.

• Valuation result page: a unique URL per inquiry showing the range, the vehicle details as captured, what the appraisal will cover, and a prominent booking widget. Sent by SMS and email so it survives the browser closing.
• Stock-match block on the result page, filtered by the Looking To Move Into answer. A trade-in valuation with three relevant cars underneath it converts differently to a bare number.

Pipeline and stages

Pipeline: Trade-In and Part Exchange.

• Valuation Started: step 1 or 2 completed, no contact details yet. Identified by cookie or by the plate alone.
• Valuation Requested: contact details captured, range delivered.
• Appraisal Booked: a slot is in the calendar. The primary conversion of this build.
• Appraised: vehicle physically inspected, firm figure recorded.
• Offer Made: a written figure is with the customer.
• Negotiating: counter-offer or part-exchange discussion live.
• Won – Vehicle Acquired
• Future Buyer: genuine intent, wrong timing. Held on a dated timer, not discarded.
• Lost: coded with a reason.

Calendars

• Vehicle Appraisal: 30-minute slots, round-robin across the sales team, 15-minute buffer, maximum four per salesperson per day so appraisals do not crowd out delivery days. Confirmation includes a short list of what to bring: V5 or title, service book, both sets of keys, any finance agreement.
• Mobile Appraisal: 60-minute slots including travel, capped at three per day, restricted by ZIP code or zip radius. For high-value vehicles where the dealership goes to the car.
• Video Appraisal: 20-minute slots, used when the customer is out of area or just unwilling to drive in. Worth having; it converts a meaningful share of inquiries that would otherwise die of geography.

Custom fields

• Registration Plate, VIN
• Vehicle Year, Vehicle Make, Vehicle Model, Vehicle Variant / Engine, Transmission, Fuel Type, Color
• Current Mileage: number
• Condition Self-Rating: dropdown: Excellent / Good / Average / Needs Work
• Service History: dropdown: Full Main Dealer / Full Independent / Partial / None
• Number Of Keys, Known Faults Description, Photos Uploaded (count)
• Outstanding Finance: dropdown: Yes / No / Not Sure
• Finance Agreement End Date: date field, the single most valuable field in this build
• Settlement Figure Obtained: switch
• Purchase Timeframe: dropdown: This Week / This Month / 1-3 Months / 3-6 Months / Just Curious
• Looking To Move Into: free text plus a body-style dropdown
• Valuation Range Low, Valuation Range High, Valuation Issued Date, Valuation Expiry Date: the expiry date drives the urgency step honestly, because valuations genuinely do move
• Appraised Figure, Appraisal Date, Appraisal Type (In-Branch / Mobile / Video)
• Funnel Step Reached: 1 to 4, the abandonment trigger
• Loss Reason: dropdown: Figure Too Low / Sold Privately / Sold To Competitor / Keeping Vehicle / Negative Equity / No Response / Vehicle Not Wanted

Tags

• trade-in-inquiry: the anchor tag
• trade-in-abandoned-step1, -step2, -step3: drive three different recovery messages, because abandoning at mileage means something different to abandoning at finance
• trade-in-finance-outstanding and trade-in-finance-ending-soon
• trade-in-hot: Purchase Timeframe is This Week or This Month
• trade-in-future-buyer: 3–6 months or a dated finance end
• appraisal-booked, appraisal-attended, appraisal-no-show
• trade-in-high-value: above the mobile-appraisal threshold, triggers manager visibility
• sms-opted-out, email-unsubscribed: hard suppression

Forms

• Trade-In Valuation: the four-step funnel form itself, with progressive save on every step.
• Appraisal Outcome: internal, completed by the salesperson at the end of an appraisal. Fields: appraised figure, condition confirmed, faults found, offer made yes/no, customer reaction, next step. Submitting it moves the card and fires the offer workflow, which means the appraisal is written up in 40 seconds instead of never.
• Finance Settlement Request: captures agreement provider, account number and consent to request a settlement figure on the customer's behalf.
• Loss Reason: internal, one required dropdown before a card can rest in Lost.

BO's role and guardrails

• BO does: answer web chat and SMS on the trade-in line; complete the funnel conversationally for people who would rather text than fill in a form, capturing the same fields in the same order; explain what an appraisal involves and how long it takes; explain in general terms how outstanding finance and settlement figures work; book, move or cancel appraisal slots; chase missing photos; answer what to bring.
• BO does not: state or imply a valuation figure, confirm a figure a customer quotes back, comment on whether an offer is fair, negotiate, discuss a specific settlement amount, or give advice on a finance agreement. BO's line when pushed on a number: “I'm not able to put a figure on it without someone seeing the car. That's exactly what the appraisal is for, and it takes about half an hour.”
• Escalation triggers: a quoted figure from a competitor; the words complaint, negative equity, voluntary termination, write-off, Category or insurance claim; any request to negotiate; trade-in-high-value; two stalled turns; an explicit request for a person.
• Knowledge base: what the appraisal covers and how long it takes; what to bring; how part-exchange works alongside a purchase; what a settlement figure is and how to request one; the mobile appraisal radius; why a range is a range and what moves a car to the top or bottom of it; the fact that mileage and service history move the number more than almost anything else.

Numbers and channels

• A dedicated trade-in number so valuation-driven call volume is attributable, with its own ring group routing to the sales floor.
• Whisper message on answer: Trade-in valuation.
• Missed-call text-back enabled, with copy that assumes the caller is mid-funnel.
• Call recording on, attached to the opportunity: useful when a figure discussed verbally is disputed later.
• Channels unified per contact: funnel forms, web chat, trade-in number SMS and voice, email, and WhatsApp where photo exchange matters, because customers send better photos over WhatsApp than they ever upload to a form.

One inquiry, from a plate typed into a phone to a vehicle on the forecourt.

1. 8:40pm, Sunday. Someone sitting on the sofa searches their car against the dealership's used stock, lands on the trade-in page, and types their registration plate and mileage into step 1. Funnel Step Reached = 1. A contact record exists from this moment, keyed on the plate and the browser session, even though no name has been given.
2. Step 2. They select Good condition, Full Independent service history, two keys, and upload three of the four requested photos. Funnel Step Reached = 2. The missing photo is noted but not blocked. A required fourth upload at this point costs more inquiries than it gains data.
3. Step 3. Outstanding finance: Yes. Timeframe: 1-3 Months. Looking to move into: something bigger, maybe an estate. Tags trade-in-finance-outstanding applied. Funnel Step Reached = 3.
4. Step 4. Name, mobile and email entered. The card is created in Trade-In and Part Exchange at Valuation Requested, tagged trade-in-inquiry, and the valuation range is calculated and written to Valuation Range Low and Valuation Range High with a 14-day Valuation Expiry Date.
5. The range appears above the calendar on the same screen, framed as a range with the reason: subject to inspection, and mileage and service history will move it within this band. Three estate cars from current stock sit beneath it. The customer looks, then closes the tab without booking, which is the normal case, not the failure case.
6. Within 60 seconds, the result page URL arrives by SMS and by email. The number now lives somewhere other than a closed browser tab, which is the whole purpose of that step.
7. 8:00am Monday. With no appraisal booked, the booking ladder starts. The first message is not a chase, it is a reason: the figure firms up once someone sees it, and half the cars we appraise come in above the middle of the range because of service history. Booking link attached.
8. Monday lunchtime. The customer replies by SMS asking whether the finance makes it complicated. BO answers in general terms. How a settlement figure works, that the dealership can request it with their permission, that positive equity can go toward the next car, and offers to send the Finance Settlement Request form. No figures, no advice. They complete it; Settlement Figure Obtained is set and a task goes to the business manager.
9. BO books the appraisal in the same conversation: Thursday 5:30pm, the slot that exists precisely because people cannot come in during the working day. Card moves to Appraisal Booked, tag appraisal-booked, and the confirmation lists what to bring.
10. The reminder ladder runs: email confirmation immediately, SMS the evening before, SMS 2 hours before with parking directions and the salesperson's name. A named person to ask for materially reduces no-shows.
11. Thursday 5:30pm. The customer arrives. The salesperson has the full record on screen. Plate, mileage, the three photos, the finance answer, and the fact they want an estate. The conversation starts at the car, not at the clipboard.
12. 5:55pm. The salesperson submits the Appraisal Outcome form from a tablet: appraised figure recorded, two kerbed alloys noted, offer made. Card moves to Appraised then Offer Made, tag appraisal-attended.
13. The written offer goes out within the hour, by email with an SMS pointer, stating the figure, what it is valid until, and what happens next if they want to proceed. A verbal figure in a showroom is forgotten by the time someone gets home; a written one is forwarded to a spouse.
14. The offer follow-through runs: day 2 a soft check-in, day 4 a salesperson call task, day 7 a final honest message before the offer validity lapses. Every step exits on reply.
15. Day 3. They accept. Card moves to Won – Vehicle Acquired, every remaining step cancels, a handover task is created, and the contact rolls into the purchase pipeline for the estate car, which is the real reason this build pays for itself.

Eight workflows. Every outbound step checks three things first: no sms-opted-out or email-unsubscribed, inside the send window, and no more than two automated messages to this contact today across all workflows.

1. Valuation Request and Range Delivery

Trigger: step 4 of the Trade-In Valuation funnel submitted.

Actions in order:

1. Apply trade-in-inquiry. Calculate the range, write Valuation Range Low and Valuation Range High, stamp Valuation Issued Date, set Valuation Expiry Date to issue date plus 14 days.
2. Create the opportunity in Trade-In and Part Exchange at Valuation Requested, named [Vehicle Year] [Vehicle Make] [Vehicle Model]: [Registration Plate], value set to the midpoint of the range.
3. Clear every trade-in-abandoned- tag. They completed, so recovery must not fire later.
4. Branch on Purchase Timeframe: This Week or This Month → apply trade-in-hot, assign immediately and notify the sales manager by push. 1-3 Months → standard assignment. 3-6 Months or Just Curious → apply trade-in-future-buyer and route to workflow 7 instead of the booking ladder.
5. Branch on Outstanding Finance: Yes or Not Sure → apply trade-in-finance-outstanding, add the settlement explainer to the result email, and create a business-manager task.
6. SMS within 60 seconds: “[First Name]. Your valuation for the [Vehicle Year] [Vehicle Make] [Vehicle Model] is ready: [link]. It's a range because the final figure depends on what we see on inspection. Book a 30-minute appraisal from that page and we'll firm it up. Reply STOP to opt out.”
7. Wait 2 minutes. Email the same result link with the vehicle details echoed back, what the appraisal covers, what to bring, and three matching stock vehicles.
8. Round-robin assign. Create task Call trade-in inquiry: [Registration Plate], due in 1 business hour for trade-in-hot, 4 business hours otherwise.

Exit: stage reaches Appraisal Booked or beyond, or Lost.

2. Funnel Abandonment Recovery

Trigger: Funnel Step Reached set to 1, 2 or 3 with no step-4 submission within 30 minutes.

Condition: a contactable mobile or email exists. From an earlier visit, an existing record matched on the plate, or an identified session. If there is none, write the plate and mileage to an anonymous record for retargeting only and exit.

Branch by step, each with its own message, because the reason they stopped is different:

• Abandoned at step 1 (tag trade-in-abandoned-step1), 30 minutes later: “Looks like you started a valuation on the [Vehicle Make] [Vehicle Model] and didn't finish. It's three more questions and about 90 seconds: [link]”
• Abandoned at step 2 (tag -step2), 30 minutes later: “You're nearly there on the [Vehicle Make] [Vehicle Model] valuation. Just the timing and contact bit left: [link]. If photos were the hold-up, skip them, we don't need them to give you a range.”
• Abandoned at step 3 (tag -step3), 30 minutes later: “One step left on your valuation: [link]. And if the finance question stopped you, outstanding finance is completely normal and doesn't complicate a part exchange. We handle it every day.” This message exists because step 3 is where people get nervous, and naming the worry resolves it.

Then, common to all three:

1. Wait 24 hours. Condition: still not completed? Email with the resume link and a plain explanation of what the valuation gives them.
2. Wait 3 days. Condition: still not completed? Final SMS offering the alternative route: “Last nudge. If the form is a hassle, just reply here with your mileage and I'll sort the valuation by text.” Hand any reply to BO (workflow 3).
3. Wait 4 days. Condition: still nothing? Move to Lost, Loss Reason = No Response. Stop. Three touches on an incomplete form is the limit.

Exit immediately on: step 4 submitted, any inbound reply, or sms-opted-out.

3. BO Conversational Valuation Capture

Trigger: inbound web chat, SMS to the trade-in number, or WhatsApp message where the conversation is unassigned.

Actions:

1. Hand to BO with the trade-in knowledge base and the hard no-figures guardrail.
2. BO collects in this order, two fields per message: plate → mileage → condition → service history → outstanding finance → timeframe → what they want next. Each answer written to its field immediately.
3. BO requests photos conversationally: “If you can send me four photos (front corner, back corner, interior and the dash showing the mileage) it makes the appraisal much quicker.” People send photos over a messaging thread far more readily than they upload them to a form.
4. Once mileage and condition exist, BO triggers the range calculation and sends the result page link rather than reading a number out. The page carries the framing and the booking widget; a bare number in a text message does not.
5. BO's immediate next move is always the booking: “Want me to find you an appraisal slot? Evenings and Saturdays are the easiest to get.” Offer two concrete times, not an open link, when the customer seems hesitant.
6. Escalation branch: a competitor figure quoted, any negotiation attempt, or the words negative equity, voluntary termination, write-off, Category, insurance claim or complaint → BO stops, applies trade-in-escalated, assigns to the sales manager, and posts “That's one for a person: I'm getting [Sales Manager] to come back to you shortly.”
7. High-value branch: if the calculated midpoint exceeds the mobile-appraisal threshold, apply trade-in-high-value, notify the manager, and offer the Mobile Appraisal calendar first.

Exit: appraisal booked, or conversation assigned to a human.

4. Appraisal Booking Ladder

Trigger: opportunity sits at Valuation Requested with no booking.

Actions:

1. Wait until 8:00am the next business day (or 4 hours, whichever is sooner, for trade-in-hot).
2. SMS: “Morning [First Name]. That range on the [Vehicle Make] [Vehicle Model] firms up once someone's eyes are on the car, and mileage and service history often move it upward. 30 minutes, evenings and Saturdays available: [booking link]”
3. Wait 1 day. Condition: no booking? Email a short explainer: what happens in the 30 minutes, what to bring, and that no obligation attaches to an appraisal. Most hesitation at this point is fear of a hard sell, and saying so directly is the fix.
4. Wait 2 days. Condition: no booking? Create a call task on the owner: Call. No appraisal booked, [Registration Plate]. One real phone call converts a meaningful share of inquiries that ignore three messages.
5. Wait 2 days. Condition: no booking and no reply? Offer the alternatives: “If coming in is awkward, we also do a 20-minute video appraisal, or we'll come to you if the car's over a certain value. Either work?” with both links.
6. Wait 3 days. Condition: still nothing? Honest expiry message tied to the real date: “Your valuation on [Registration Plate] expires [Valuation Expiry Date], used values move, so after that we'd need to re-run it. Happy to do that any time, just reply.” Then move to Future Buyer and hand to workflow 7.

Exit immediately on: appraisal booked, inbound reply, or Lost.

5. Appraisal Reminders and No-Show Recovery

Trigger: appraisal booked on any of the three calendars.

Actions:

1. Immediately: apply appraisal-booked, move stage to Appraisal Booked, send email confirmation with calendar attachment, the what-to-bring list, and the salesperson's name.
2. Wait until 6:00pm the day before. SMS: “See you tomorrow at [time] for the [Vehicle Make] [Vehicle Model] appraisal. Bring the V5, service book and both keys if you have them. It keeps it to half an hour. Reply R to reschedule.”
3. Wait until 2 hours before. SMS with parking instructions, the address and who to ask for.
4. If Appraisal Type = Mobile: replace step 3 with a 30-minutes-out SMS naming who is traveling and giving a live arrival window.
5. If Appraisal Type = Video: send the join link 15 minutes before, plus a one-line prompt on what to have ready: good light, keys, service book.
6. Wait until 20 minutes after the slot start. Condition: Appraisal Outcome form not submitted and no attendance marked? Apply appraisal-no-show, notify the owner, and send: “Sorry we missed you today, [First Name]. No problem at all. Pick another slot here and we'll keep your valuation valid: [link]” No reproach; the rebooking rate collapses the moment the message sounds annoyed.
7. Wait 1 day. Condition: no rebooking? Call task on the owner. Wait 3 further days: final SMS, then move to Future Buyer.

Exit: Appraisal Outcome submitted, or rebooking made (which restarts this workflow).

6. Offer Delivery and Follow-Through

Trigger: Appraisal Outcome form submitted.

Actions:

1. Apply appraisal-attended. Write Appraised Figure and Appraisal Date. Move stage to Appraised.
2. Branch: offer made = yes: move to Offer Made and, within 60 minutes, send the written offer by email with the figure, what is included, how long it stands, and the exact next step. SMS pointer: “[First Name]. Your written offer on the [Vehicle Make] [Vehicle Model] is in your inbox, valid until [date]. Any questions, just reply here.”
3. Branch: offer made = no (vehicle not wanted, or condition changed the picture): notify the manager, create a task to call with an explanation, and do not send an automated message. A declined vehicle is a human conversation.
4. Wait 2 days. Condition: no reply? Check-in SMS: “Just checking you had a chance to look at the offer. Anything you want to talk through? Happy to go over how it works against the [Looking To Move Into] you were after.”
5. Wait 2 days. Condition: no reply? Call task on the owner, flagged to discuss the figure and the next vehicle together rather than in isolation.
6. Wait 3 days. Condition: no reply? Final message before the offer lapses, stating the date plainly and offering a re-appraisal rather than pressure.
7. Condition: still no reply at offer expiry? Move to Lost with Loss Reason = No Response. If a reply names a reason, require the Loss Reason form instead so the coding is real.
8. On acceptance: move to Won – Vehicle Acquired, cancel all remaining steps, create the handover and paperwork tasks, and create a linked opportunity in the vehicle sales pipeline pre-populated with Looking To Move Into.

Exit immediately on: acceptance, decline with a coded reason, or stage change to Negotiating, which hands to a human and suppresses all automation.

7. Future Buyer and Finance-End Timer

Trigger A: stage set to Future Buyer, or Purchase Timeframe = 3-6 Months / Just Curious.

1. Apply trade-in-future-buyer. Suppress all booking-ladder workflows.
2. Add to a low-frequency nurture: one email every 3 weeks: relevant new stock matched to Looking To Move Into, nothing else. No SMS. The entire discipline here is not messaging people who told you they are not ready.
3. At 60 days, one SMS: “[First Name]. You looked at changing the [Vehicle Make] [Vehicle Model] a couple of months back. Values have moved since then; want a fresh figure? Takes a minute.”
4. At 150 days, repeat once. Then the contact stays on email nurture only.

Trigger B: the dated approach: Finance Agreement End Date minus 45 days.

1. Apply trade-in-finance-ending-soon. Create a task for the business manager with the card link and the end date.
2. SMS: “[First Name]. Your agreement on the [Vehicle Make] [Vehicle Model] is coming to an end around [month]. That's usually the best moment to look at changing, and there's often equity in the car you can put toward the next one. Want us to run the numbers? [booking link]”
3. Wait 5 days. Condition: no reply? Email with a stock match and a plain explanation of the options at agreement end: general information, not advice.
4. Wait 7 days. Condition: no reply? Call task on the business manager. This is the highest-value call in the whole build and should never be left to a message.
5. At Finance Agreement End Date minus 14 days with no engagement: one final SMS, then return to nurture.

Exit: appraisal booked, or stage moves out of Future Buyer.

8. High-Value Routing and Missed-Call Capture

Trigger A: trade-in-high-value applied, by BO, by the range calculation, or by hand.

1. Reassign from round-robin to the sales manager or the named used-car buyer: these cars should not sit in a general queue.
2. Push and SMS notification to that person immediately, with the card link.
3. Replace the standard task SLA with a 1-hour callback task, regardless of Purchase Timeframe.
4. Offer Mobile Appraisal ahead of the in-branch calendar: “For a car like this we'll come to you. It's about an hour, at your home or work. Pick a time: [link]”
5. If no contact is made within 4 business hours, escalate to the dealer principal.

Trigger B: inbound call to the trade-in number ends missed, abandoned, or with a voicemail.

1. Text-back within 1 minute: “Sorry we missed you. This is the trade-in line. Tell me your registration and rough mileage and I'll get a valuation moving, or reply CALL and we'll call you straight back.”
2. Create or update the opportunity at Valuation Started. Transcribe any voicemail and attach it to the card.
3. On any reply, hand to BO (workflow 3). On CALL, create an immediate callback task on the ring group.
4. Wait 20 minutes. Condition: no reply and no outbound call logged? Callback task on the sales floor.
5. Wait 1 business day. Condition: no two-way contact? One final SMS, then Lost with Loss Reason = No Response.

Exit: inbound reply, or an outbound call connecting.

What is different afterwards

• A valuation produces an appointment, not a number. The entire funnel is built so that the booking widget and the figure appear together, and so that the figure is explicitly described as provisional until someone sees the car. That framing is what makes the appraisal the obvious next step rather than an inconvenience.
• Abandonment is recoverable. Because every step writes to the record, someone who gives a plate and mileage and then stops is a lead with a vehicle attached, not a bounce. Three different recovery messages, matched to where they stopped, replace one generic chase.
• Finance timing becomes an asset. Finance Agreement End Date turns a not right now into a dated, scheduled approach four to six weeks before the agreement ends. The moment the customer is most likely to act and least likely to have spoken to anyone else.
• The salesperson walks into the appraisal prepared. Photos, mileage, condition self-rating, finance position and desired next vehicle are all on the card. The appraisal becomes a conversation about the next car rather than twenty minutes of data entry.
• Appraisals get written up. A 40-second form beats a note that never gets typed, and because the form moves the card and fires the offer, there is no version of this where the appraisal happened but the offer never went out.
• No-shows get recovered instead of resented. A missed appraisal triggers a same-day rebooking attempt, not a shrug.
• Loss becomes a pattern you can read. Coded loss reasons separate our figure was too low from they sold it privately from they never replied. Only the first one is a pricing problem, and without the coding every loss gets blamed on price.

Metrics to watch

• Step-by-step funnel completion: the percentage reaching steps 2, 3 and 4. Step 3 is where most funnels bleed, because it asks about finance; watch it closely and consider softening the wording before removing the question.
• Valuation-to-appraisal-booked rate. The headline number for this build.
• Appraisal attendance rate, and separately the no-show rebooking rate.
• Appraisal-to-offer rate and offer-to-acquisition rate.
• Spread between the valuation range and the appraised figure. If appraised figures consistently land at or below the bottom of the range, the range is set too optimistically and is manufacturing disappointment on the forecourt.
• Abandonment recovery rate by step: recovered inquiries as a share of abandoned ones, split by step1/step2/step3 tags.
• Share of trade-ins that become a vehicle sale: the number that actually justifies the build, and the one most dealerships have never measured.
• Future Buyer conversion: cards parked in Future Buyer that later convert on the finance-end timer.
• Loss reason distribution, reviewed monthly.
• Time from funnel completion to first human contact. Keep this under an hour during opening hours; the inquiry is shopping around while you decide who owns it.

Decisions to make before building

• Where the valuation number comes from. Three options: a third-party valuation data provider via API, a published guide applied by rule, or a bracketed internal matrix based on make, model, age and mileage. Pick one before the funnel is built, because the whole result page is designed around it.
• How wide the range is, and whether you show a range at all. A narrow range looks confident and then disappoints on the forecourt. A wide one looks evasive. Decide the band, decide the wording that explains it, and keep both consistent across the page, the SMS and what the sales floor says out loud.
• The high-value threshold that triggers manager routing and the mobile appraisal offer.
• Mobile appraisal radius and which vehicles qualify.
• Who owns trade-in inquiries: a round-robin across the sales floor, a dedicated used-car buyer, or the duty manager. Round-robin is simplest; a dedicated owner converts better. Decide before launch, not after the first argument about a lead.
• Appraisal capacity. Count the slots you can genuinely staff across evenings and Saturdays. The booking ladder is pointless if the only availability is Tuesday at 11am.
• How long an offer stands. This date appears in writing, so it has to be a figure the business will honor.

Integrations

• Valuation data provider: API access, and a fallback path for when a plate returns nothing. A lookup failure must not dead-end the funnel; it should fall through to manual year/make/model entry.
• Plate or VIN lookup service for pre-filling vehicle details from a registration. This single integration does more for completion rate than any other change, because it removes four fields.
• Stock feed from your website or inventory system, so the stock-match block on the result page shows real cars that are actually on site.
• Dealer management system: at minimum one-way export of acquired vehicles; ideally two-way so an acquired car appears in stock without re-keying.
• Google Calendar or Outlook for all three appraisal calendars, two-way, so a salesperson's own calendar blocks appraisal availability.
• Finance provider portals: usually manual, but record which providers the business can request settlements from and the typical turnaround, because the customer will ask.
• Video conferencing for the video appraisal calendar, with the join link auto-populated into the confirmation.
• Analytics on each funnel step URL, so step-by-step drop-off is visible without inference.

Numbers and messaging registration

• Provision the dedicated trade-in number first. Registration takes longer than everything else in this build.
• A2P 10DLC registration is required before automated SMS will deliver reliably in the US. Note that this build sends both transactional messages (valuation results, appraisal confirmations and reminders, offer notifications) and marketing messages (the 60-day and 150-day future-buyer nudges, the finance-end approach). Register the campaign use case to match what you will actually send, and if the mix is wide, consider separate campaigns. A mismatch between the registered use case and the traffic is the most common cause of messages silently vanishing.
• Opt-out handling. STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, QUIT, CANCEL and END must apply sms-opted-out and halt every workflow instantly, including the finance-end timer which may be scheduled months ahead. Test that a scheduled future step honors a tag applied today. This is the single most commonly broken part of a build like this. Include the opt-out line in the first message of every sequence.
• Quiet hours. An 8am to 8pm local send window is a sensible default and some jurisdictions are stricter. Check that the 6pm day-before reminder and the 8am booking nudge sit inside it, and that queued messages hold rather than drop.
• Frequency caps. Two automated SMS per contact per day, maximum, across all eight workflows. Someone mid-abandonment-recovery who also books an appraisal should not receive both ladders.
• Marketing consent. Collect it explicitly at step 4 with an unticked checkbox and clear wording, separately from the consent to be contacted about this valuation. The future-buyer nurture and the finance-end approach depend on it.

Data protection and compliance

• Vehicle identifiers. Registration plates, VINs and mileage tie directly to an individual and are treated as personal data in many jurisdictions. Agree a retention period for lost and dormant inquiries and apply it, rather than accumulating a plate database indefinitely.
• Finance information is sensitive. Agreement provider, account number and settlement figures should be access-restricted on the record, and the Finance Settlement Request form must capture explicit, recorded consent to approach the provider on the customer's behalf. Do not store a settlement figure anywhere the whole sales floor can read it.
• Regulated activity. Anything that moves from describing how finance works into recommending a product or a course of action may be a regulated activity depending on jurisdiction. BO's guardrails are written to stay on the general-information side of that line, and anyone editing them should understand why the line is there.
• Photo uploads commonly include number plates, house frontages and occasionally people. Treat the upload store accordingly and limit who can access it.
• Call recording requires disclosure and, in some jurisdictions, all-party consent. Put it in the greeting on the trade-in number.
• Valuation claims. Whatever framing you use for the range must be defensible. If the page implies a guaranteed figure and the appraisal routinely lands below it, that is both a consumer-protection exposure and a reputational one.
• BO discloses that it is an automated assistant on request, and proactively where required.

None of this is legal advice. Messaging registration, consent requirements, regulated-activity boundaries around consumer finance, call recording and retention all vary by jurisdiction and by how the dealership is licensed. Confirm the specifics with the client's own counsel or compliance function before launch, and record what was agreed.

Scoping

What this build costs depends on the valuation data source, whether plate lookup and the stock feed integrate cleanly, and how many appraisal channels you run. Book a call at bookings.appbo.io to scope it against the dealership's actual setup.