What this helps you do
Your dealer management system keeps the work order, the estimate, the parts order, the invoice and the deal; your CRM keeps the lead and the appraisal; your scheduler keeps the appointment; the manufacturer keeps the campaign. The Hub keeps none of that: it holds the customers who chose to hear from you, the interests they picked, and what you sent. Nothing about a unit, a stock level, a repair state, a serial number, an hours reading or a term lives here, which is why a ready note or a part that is in is something a person sends once their own system tells them. Whatever the system, the doors are the same four: a CSV export you upload on Customers, the inbound webhook that adds one person at a time, signed outbound events that tell your systems who connected or replied, and the Zapier app when both ends are apps rather than code.
When to use it
Use CSV when your opted-in customer or service export is the thing you already have. Use the inbound webhook when a website form or your scheduler's confirmation step should add someone the same day. Use outbound events when your CRM or a spreadsheet should know who connected. None of it is required: plenty of dealerships run the Hub on the code printed on the work order and email addresses taken at the counter.
How to do it
- Export the opted-in part of your customer or service list and upload it on Customers. Email is the only required column; addresses are checked and previewed before any invitation goes out.
- Point your website form or your scheduler's confirmation step at the inbound webhook on Integrations, so a new customer joins within minutes.
- Add your HTTPS endpoint under events out if your own systems should hear when someone connects, opts out or replies.
- Ask for the Zapier app if you would rather wire the dealership and the Hub together without code.
- Send the ready note, the part that is in or the arrival from Conversations or Send when your own system tells you. The Hub is not watching your work orders, your parts or your stock.
Example
An equipment dealership exports its opted-in service customers, uploads the CSV, and points the website's service-request form at the inbound webhook. When a back-ordered hydraulic pump finally lands, the parts manager reads it in the parts system and sends one note to that customer from Conversations; the reply comes back in the same thread. The Hub never saw the order; it just carried the message.
Good to know
- There is no connector to a dealer management system, a CRM, a point of sale, an inventory feed, a manufacturer portal, a parts system or a scheduler, and no message can be triggered by a unit arriving, a job closing, a part landing, a campaign being issued, an hours or mileage reading, or a term ending.
- The Hub holds no VIN, serial, hours, mileage, work-order, parts, stock, deal, financing or valuation data.
- A Blast shows the dealership. Per-person sender identity is not verified, so a message is never presented as coming from a named salesperson or technician.
- A campaign or recall message is a courtesy notice beside the manufacturer's and the regulator's required notification, never instead of it.
- Everyone arriving through a door still picks their own interests and can leave at any time.