BELLINGHAM, Wash. — AutoFerret.com announced that its Automated Virtual Assistant (AVA) has sent its five millionth message to auto dealership customers. The message was sent right after the recent NADA Convention and Expo in February, one year after the tool’s official launch.

“AVA has effectively engaged tens of thousands of customers in conversations on behalf of dealerships,” said Ben Brigham, president and CEO of AutoFerret.com. “Because she works 24/7, she is able to work thousands of new and old leads every month, compared to the industry standard of 80-100 leads per month for the average salesperson.”

Considering that it takes an average of two minutes to compose an e-mail, AVA has added 10 million minutes of productivity to dealerships’ Internet sales departments nationwide, according to AutoFerret.com. For each dealer using AVA, that breaks down to more than 16,000 e-mails that the sales team did not have to write.

AVA is an artificial, “military grade” intelligence technology that responds to every lead, engages them, validates their intent to purchase, sets appointments for the sales staff, then follows up. Potential customers believe they are exchanging emails with a customer service representative and do not know that AVA is a virtual assistant, according to AutoFerret.com.

For more information, visit AutoFerret.com.