What it is
Aria answers vehicle questions from Inventory at the conversation's location. Customers can ask in their own words: a make, a model, a body style, electric or hybrid, new or used, or a budget.
She lists cars that can be offered in channel-sized pages: five on Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and website chat, three on SMS and ten in email. Price and mileage come from the current listing. She offers a next step only when the customer has not declined it. If you have nothing that fits, she can offer to message the customer when one arrives.
A customer can also send a photo of a car and ask "Is this available?". Aria says what car it looks like, then checks Inventory for it or similar cars the same way. See "Photos, voice messages and files customers send Aria".
Corrections and comparisons. Aria keeps the latest requested year, budget, currency and transmission. Explicit ceilings are hard limits. A bare budget such as "$20k", "20k" or "10,000" is read in your dealership's currency (USD for a US dealer); Aria never asks which currency. If a customer names another currency, she explains that prices are in your currency, without converting. Named factual comparisons do not establish affordability. Missing warranty or accident history stays unknown, and an arrival estimate is not a collection promise.
Counts and scope. Exact totals need a complete authorized count for the conversation location. A returned page or partial list does not prove the total. Active listings, matching cars, available cars and displayed rows can differ.
Illustrative calculations. Explicit hypothetical subtraction or payment-times-count uses only customer-supplied amounts, with taxes and fees excluded. A payment subtotal excludes the down payment. It is not a valuation, finance offer, approval or reservation.
Customer choices. A stock-only question can be answered after a saved sales request or a declined booking/referral. Cancelling one reminder is not a global opt-out; unknown status is never a claim that it was cancelled. Explicit STOP still applies. Owners and Staff with Inbox permission can inspect the saved requests there.
How to use it
- Open Inventory and mark the cars you want offered Available or Inbound. Mark a car Sold, or archive it, when it should no longer be offered.
- Record each car's price and mileage. Aria only repeats what is recorded; a missing value is left out.
- Add a photo to each car, or import your stock file with an image link per car. An uploaded photo always comes first.
- When a customer asks for photos, Aria sends the photo of that car, or of up to three cars she is offering, each with a caption: year, make, model, price, mileage and availability.
- If a car has no photo, she offers that your team sends them. When the customer says where, a My Work task "Send photos of … to …" is created. Your team sends the photos.
- If nothing fits, she asks whether they'd like a message when a matching car comes in. On a yes she saves a stock watch, then confirms.
- Find active watches on the contact's Stock watches card and in My Work → Commitments under Stock watches.
What the data means
Which cars she offers. Only Available or Inbound cars not held by a deal. An inbound car is "on its way", never "available". She never offers cars marked Unknown, Unavailable, Sale pending / Reserved, Sold or Needs availability review, or archived ones. If the customer names a car you don't have, she says so and offers the closest ones.
Photos by channel. Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, website chat and picture-capable text numbers show the picture itself. A text-only number or an email reply gets a link to the photo that works for 48 hours. Before sending, each car is checked again; if it sold or its price changed, the reply is held back.
Stock watches. A watch lasts 60 days without a match, then shows Expired. When a matching car becomes available or inbound at that location, the customer gets one message through the follow-up journey. Consent, opt-outs, allowed hours and the 24-hour window on Meta channels apply. Website chat can't hold a watch.
Discounts. A genuine request goes to sales; she confirms this only after a saved discount request. Denials, fees questions and a different-car budget are not negotiation. A customer quote does not prove an approved offer.
Possible issues and fixes
Aria doesn't offer a car we have
Symptom: A car on your lot isn't mentioned.
Why: It isn't marked Available or Inbound, a deal holds it, it belongs to another location, or it is on another page.
Fix: Fix the car's status and location in Inventory.
How to check: Ask about that car by name in a Chat test.
Aria says she can't show our stock
Symptom: Aria says the team will check stock instead of listing cars.
Why: Nothing is listed for the location, your data-source rules hold stock back, the lookup failed, or Inventory lookup is off for her.
Fix: Add stock for the location. An Owner checks Inventory lookup in Aria Lab and publishes.
How to check: "What cars do you have?" gets a list.
Aria didn't send photos
Symptom: Aria offered that the team sends pictures instead of sending them.
Why: No photo is on file for that car, or the channel refused the picture.
Fix: Add a photo in Inventory, and handle the "Send photos" task in My Work.
How to check: Asking again sends the photo.
