As AI-driven misinformation grows, dealers must work harder to preserve trust
Binoculars are typically used to magnify distant objects, making them appear clearer. I use this metaphor today to address our assessment of today’s unpredictable business environment.
We all start each day by grabbing our individually focused binoculars to scour the many facets of the complex business horizon we must somehow navigate. The process sets our daily schedule and feeds data into our medium- and long-term planning.
Today, it is virtually impossible to make sense from the nonsense that has become mainstream to gain clarity of vision, no matter how often we attempt to wipe the lenses clean. Our quest is to produce perfect clarity; however, it is increasingly challenging to discern what lies ahead.
We are constantly subjected to many influences. Perhaps it is the 24/7 unfiltered news cycle, heavily influenced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents, that makes our brains cringe and work overtime as we try to determine fact from fiction.
More and more, I am skeptical of what I hear and read from verbiage in the public domain. Our email inboxes are littered with misspelled messages and doctored images designed to deceive us into thinking they are from trusted sources and personalities.
In today’s online world, we must all be unbelievably skeptical since bad actors use AI to create what appears to be a realistic and trustworthy message, only for us to find out it is not true.
We all start each day by grabbing our individually focused binoculars to scour the many facets of the complex business horizon we must somehow navigate. The process sets our daily schedule and feeds data into our medium- and long-term planning.
Many Canadians get duped into believing these untruths, as these messages contain enough real information to lure us into their web of deception. This is eroding trust and increasing skepticism.
Communication media have exploded to the point where just about anybody can reach the masses with good, bad or ugly messages. And it’s not just mass messaging, but also individual category targeting, like banking customers, fake CRA communications, political leaders, etc.
All this destroys trust in our reliable institutions and contributes to the growing distrust in our Canadian society.
What we viewed not too long ago as wild and far-fetched is now seemingly becoming mainstream. Lies have become mainstream and acceptable.
Although we would like not to think so, our social fabric is being reshaped by outside influences. What happens online, on streaming services, on TV, on radio, and in podcasts all has influence.
Fact-checking is an afterthought, and presentation quality is taking over. Celebrities, politicians and business leaders have tremendous influence, some good, some bad, but influence nonetheless.
Bad actors are using these influencers to deliver their crafty messages, designed to dupe readers, viewers and listeners into believing untruths. The catchphrase “buyer beware” has evolved into “always beware.”
This is eroding the Canadian fabric of trust and is changing our behaviour. For example, many of us no longer answer calls from unknown or unfamiliar phone numbers. Distrust has changed our behaviour.
As dealers, we have a lot of money invested in our businesses and provide critical employment levels in the communities we serve. We are pretty sophisticated in our approach and like to think we are leading-edge entrepreneurs.
We try things to keep and attract customers while still maintaining an eye on the bottom line and our relationship with the brands we represent as franchisees.
How about our own forays into the use of AI? For instance, are chatbots, with their automated, adaptable responses, creating or eroding trust with our customers?
Are our employees and suppliers equally diligent, and do we have the guardrails in place to catch any deviations before they happen? Scary thought.
We depend on many inputs to be successful auto retailers. It’s a virtual melting pot of business ingredients and influences.
By being progressive with our customer communications, are we indirectly eroding trust in our dealerships simply because we use modern communication tools?
We all use automated email, voicemail, text messages, social media and the like when communicating with our current and prospective customers. Do they believe us? Are they skeptical of us and our intentions?
Are we being lumped into the general state of distrust that has evolved, or are we somehow different?
Good, reliable, and trustworthy communication has been the cornerstone upon which we have built our individual businesses. The CADA code of ethics reinforces this. Our customers rely on this.
Our businesses are very complicated and have many different aspects and skill requirements. Customers come in all shapes and sizes and rely on our professionalism and duty of care as a foundation for their transactions with us.
Unfortunately, due to past experiences and impressions, our credibility is under more scrutiny than that of most other businesses. We sell big-ticket items and, as a consequence, are subjected to big expectations.
If one of us skins our knees, we all suffer from the media fallout.
We cannot take trust for granted and must constantly preserve it. Our individual and collective reputations are our lifeline.
We depend on many inputs to be successful auto retailers. It’s a virtual melting pot of business ingredients and influences.
Sticking their fingers into that pot internally are brands constantly giving us directives on how we must operate, governments and regulators subjecting us to various rules and regulations, financing sources that are regularly manoeuvring us against their evolving performance and security requirements, suppliers with evolving capabilities, employee attraction, retention and productivity management, real estate requirements, consumers with their constantly shifting expectations and, to boot, business partner, family and community considerations.
Then there are external influences such as inflation, interest rates, shifts in local employment, municipal growth, and the overall full range of noise in the heads of our customers and employees.
Much of this is manageable, and dealers have been doing this for years. What is new is the sizable range of noise in the heads of consumers and employees. This is something we have absolutely no control over.
It’s these external influences that create the nonsense we are expected to make sense of, all while we preserve and reinforce the trust that built our businesses.
All we can do is perform to the highest possible standard in our dealings with customers and employees, without getting caught up in any negative trends.
We can do this by keeping a watchful eye on consumer sentiment towards things like AI and making sure that whatever we decide reinforces our core values. In this way, we reinforce trust and make sense from nonsense.
