Amerirent: one channel for retail customers and another for corporate, each with its own rate

1. A car rental company with tourism and large accounts

Amerirent has a healthy, diversified business. Besides the tourism that comes to the Dominican Republic, it holds agreements with large accounts in the country: companies that send it customers with negotiated terms, permitted categories and their own coverage rules. Its reservation system is Wheelsys, where the rates for each agreement live.

Each customer type requires different treatment from start to finish: what is offered, at what price, with which coverage and with which pickup requirements.

2. The challenge: knowing who is writing before you can serve them

With a single WhatsApp and a single phone line, the team had to identify each customer by hand and explain, case by case, requirements that change from one company to another. A tourist and an employee of a large account received the same first message and then different paths that depended on someone telling them apart.

On top of that came the phone, the most expensive channel to staff and the one that leaves the poorest trail: a call does not produce a vehicle carousel or a written confirmation.

3. What was set up: two channels, one agent, Wheelsys rates

Two entry points were built. Retail customers write to one WhatsApp number and the website chat and see the public catalogue. Corporate customers come in through another number and another chat: an initial question identifies which company they belong to and, from there, the AI agent applies the negotiated agreement, the permitted categories and the coverage rules, with the rates exactly as they are in Wheelsys. Before confirming, it explains the pickup requirements.

• Each customer type has its own service setup, catalogue, rates, coverage and messages, which Amerirent adjusts in real time with no development and no waiting.
• The phone is handled centrally: the agent understands the call and offers to continue on WhatsApp, where the process is in writing with a vehicle carousel, details and confirmation.
• If the customer prefers to talk, it handles the call by voice in real time, with latency low enough for the conversation to feel natural.
• Several channels, one agent, the same rules and a single history per customer.

4. Results

16%

conversion on the corporate channel

2 in 3

corporate sales handled by the AI with no team involved

73%

of retail channel sales handled by the AI

On the corporate channel, requirements and coverage are explained without the team stepping in. A third of conversations arrive outside office hours, in five languages, and the ones that need a person arrive with the context already on screen. At peak demand the agent has handled up to twenty sales conversations started within the same hour and close to forty in a day.

“Each customer type has its channel. Corporate customers write to their own WhatsApp, pick their company and Bota offers them the rate we have agreed with it. Retail customers come in through another number and see another catalogue. We no longer have to ask who each one is.”

Read the full Amerirent case study on Bota's website →

5. What you can copy from this case

1. If you have two customer types with different rules, separate the channels, not the people: one number per customer type removes the "who are you?" question.
2. Leave rates where they already live, in the reservation system: the agent should read them, not copy them.
3. Treat the phone as an entry door, not a final channel: offering to continue on WhatsApp puts the process in writing and makes service cheaper.
4. Configure catalogue, coverage and messages per customer type and change them yourself, with no development.

Frequently asked questions

Sources