Lyft for Car Dealerships: Customer Rides With Lyft Business

A customer without a ride is an appointment that never happens. Book them a car from the lead, the deal or your phone, on your dealership's own Lyft Business account, and watch the ride until they walk in.

Every store has the customer who wants the car and has no way to get to it. The trade won't start, the spouse took the other car, the buyer lives two towns over, or the service customer has to get to work. The usual answers are a porter in a personal car, a cab on the store card, or a reschedule that turns into a no show. LeadLocate puts a better answer one click away: book that customer a Lyft from the CRM, on your dealership's own Lyft Business account.

The pink Lyft button on the CRM's bottom bar opens a full screen ride app. Pick the customer from your deals, leads or contacts, and their address, phone and salesperson fill in for you. Choose To the dealership or From the dealership, now or at a set time, and Lyft quotes the exact price before a car is sent. Press Book ride, and Lyft texts your customer the driver and the car while the ride shows live on your screen until drop off. Every ride bills to your dealership's Lyft Business account, with receipts and monthly statements straight from Lyft.

Because transportation is the quiet reason appointments fall through. A shopper who is buying because their car died is the most motivated buyer you will meet all week, and also the one least able to reach you. A couple who agreed to come in Saturday cancels because one of them needs the only car. An out of town buyer lands at the airport and has to find their own way to the lot. None of them has stopped wanting the car. They have a logistics problem, and a store that solves it in one minute keeps the appointment.

A ride also changes the tone of the visit. A customer who was picked up at home arrives on time, arrives relaxed, and arrives knowing the store went out of its way, which is a better start to a negotiation than a customer who spent forty minutes figuring out a bus. On the other end of the deal, a ride home for the buyer who leaves a trade behind, or for the service customer waiting on a long repair, ends the visit the same way. That is what Lyft for car dealerships is for: removing the one obstacle that has nothing to do with the car.

Leave your number and a lead specialist calls you back to answer your questions about pricing, coverage, and setup. Mon - Sat, 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM Pacific.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.

At 9:15 on a Saturday a customer texts that her car won't start and she'll have to move her 11 o'clock test drive. Her salesperson opens her in the phone app, taps Send a Lyft on her lead card, checks the pickup address, picks a 10:35 pickup, and books. She gets a text from Lyft with the driver and the car, and the rep sends her the live tracking link from the CRM's own text window so she knows exactly when it's coming. At 10:58 she walks into the showroom, and the appointment that was about to slide to next week is a test drive.

That afternoon a buyer signs on a used truck and leaves his trade, which isn't road worthy, on the lot. The finance manager picks the deal in the Lyft app, books a ride From the dealership to his home address, adds a note for the driver to meet him at the front door, and he's on his way before the paperwork is filed. On Monday a customer drops her car for a long repair, and the service advisor uses Book for someone not in the CRM to get her to work. Three rides, three customers who stayed customers, and nobody on the team left the building to drive them.

On the desktop, Lyft is the pink button on the bottom bar, and it opens full screen in three parts: customers on the left, the ride you are building in the middle, and every ride on the right under Live, Scheduled and History, with Only my rides for a rep who wants just their own. Search by name, phone, email or deal, switch between Deals, Leads and Contacts, or book for a walk in who isn't in the CRM yet. Pick a deal and the customer on that deal is the passenger.

On the phone, the LeadLocate mobile app has Lyft in the menu and a Send a Lyft button where the customer already is: on lead and contact cards, in the details of a text or email thread, on the Workspace, on an appointment in the calendar, and on the deal. Each one opens the ride builder on that customer, with a map that shows both stops and follows the car once it's on the way.

The settings live on Ridesharing Settings under My Account, where a manager sets the Dealership pickup point, the ride options, the spending limits, the messages and who can book. Every ride starts or ends at that pickup point: customers ride to the store, or home from it.

Without it, a ride is a favor somebody does. A porter or a salesperson leaves the floor in a personal car, a manager calls a cab and pays on the store card, or a rep books a ride on their own phone and files an expense report next week. None of it is tied to the customer record, none of it has a limit, and the manager hears about it at the end of the month.

With Lyft Business rides booked from the CRM, the cost is simply the ride. Lyft quotes the exact price before a car is sent, charges every ride at Lyft's own price to your dealership's Lyft Business account, and sends the receipts and monthly statements itself. LeadLocate never handles ride money and adds nothing to the fare. Opening a Lyft Business account is free on Lyft's side. Your LeadLocate subscription is separate, and the plans are on the pricing page.

Rides are money, so the controls sit with the manager. Spending limits on Ridesharing Settings set Most for one ride, Most for each salesperson each month and Most for the dealership each month, and Lyft's exact price is checked against them before a car is sent. Ride options choose which Lyft rides the team may book and which one is the default, whether scheduled rides up to 30 days ahead are allowed, and whether a rep may book to any address or only the address on the customer record.

Who can book follows Access Control: everyone has the Lyft switch unless a manager turns it off, person by person, in User Management. Before any ride is booked, the rep confirms that the customer agreed to get ride texts from Lyft at that number, so consent is part of every booking. Finished rides stay in the ride history, and because billing runs through your own Lyft Business account, your office gets Lyft's own statements rather than rides buried in someone else's invoice.

The ride itself carries your name. Lyft texts the rider the driver and the car, the Note for the driver can greet them with the customer's first name and your dealership's name, and the rider never sees the LeadLocate name anywhere.

Connecting takes a few minutes, once, and every step is laid out on Ridesharing Settings. First, open your free Lyft Business account, or sign in if the dealership already has one, and add the card Lyft should bill. Second, add a Concierge program named after your dealership; Concierge is the Lyft Business program made for sending cars to customers. Third, add LeadLocate to that program in Lyft Business, following the short instructions on the settings page. Then press Finish connecting with the program name, which we fill in for you.

Our team confirms the connection with Lyft, and booking turns on by itself; you never need a program number. The person who pressed Finish connecting gets a text the moment rides are live, and the settings page shows Lyft rides are on with a link to open Lyft Business. If Lyft shows as switched off for your account, your account manager turns it on. Want a hand with any step? Our team walks you through it on a call, booked through the contact page.

Rides work best on top of the tools that set the appointment. Pair them with booking links and the shared team calendar, so the appointment and the ride belong to the same customer and Send a Lyft sits right on the calendar entry in the phone app. Pair them with the two way texting inbox, where the tracking link goes out and the customer's "I'm here" comes back on the same thread. And pair them with In-Store Now, so the moment the rider walks in, the team knows who is on the lot.

On the deal side, a ride in for signing or a ride home after delivery pairs naturally with deal pages with e-signature and digital retail, where most of the deal is done before the customer arrives. Every capability in the platform is listed on the all features page.

Do we need our own Lyft Business account?

Yes. LeadLocate works with your dealership's own Lyft Business account. Opening one is free on Lyft's side, and Ridesharing Settings walks you through the three steps in Lyft Business and the Finish connecting button in the CRM.

Who pays for the rides?

Your dealership, through its own Lyft Business account. Lyft charges each ride at its own price to the card on that account and sends the receipts and monthly statements. LeadLocate never handles ride money and adds nothing to the fare.

Does the customer see the LeadLocate name?

Never. Lyft texts the rider the driver and the car, the note for the driver can carry the customer's first name and your dealership's name, and nothing in the ride shows LeadLocate.

Can we book a ride for later, or only right now?

Both. Choose Now, or set a pickup date and time up to 30 days ahead when scheduled rides are turned on in Ride options. Scheduled rides wait under Scheduled in the Lyft app until the car is on its way.

How do we keep ride spending in check?

Spending limits on Ridesharing Settings cap one ride, each salesperson each month and the dealership each month, and Lyft's exact price is checked against them before a car is sent. A manager can switch Lyft off for any user in User Management.

Can reps send a ride from their phones?

Yes. The LeadLocate app has Send a Lyft on lead and contact cards, in text and email thread details, on the Workspace, on calendar appointments and on the deal, plus Lyft in the menu with a live map of every ride.

Watch the pre-recorded demo to see a ride booked from a lead, or ask our team to walk your manager through connecting your dealership's Lyft Business account. Month to month, no long term contract.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.