Byline: Joe Shaker
In an age where public trust in institutions is suffering, trust in brands remains high. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, 80% of people trust the brands they use—a higher level of trust than any other institution included in the survey.
At TruVideo, we believe that clear, reliable communication can not only build a foundation of trust with customers—it can create an enduring trust that keeps people engaged and creates customers for life. We’ve created a multimedia messaging platform with AI enhancements that give dealerships and automotive shops improvements in customer satisfaction and trust, so much so that revenue-per-customer often increases by up to 30%.
While our solutions focus on automotive industry needs, the philosophy behind our approach applies to any brand that wants to build customers for life. The core of our communication platform and philosophy rests on five principles.
Openness
Customers trust what they understand. Think of a patient in a doctor’s office. That patient would rather hear a diagnosis or advice directly from the doctor rather than from the receptionist. Doctors who fully engage with a patient by showing images, talking through options, and answering questions can make complicated medical issues easier to understand.
Our TruVideo multimedia tools perform the same function for vehicle owners. Service technicians can record videos of automotive findings and provide a comprehensive explanation of possible fixes right from the service bay. They then send those videos directly to customers via text message. Customers can view the videos and share with other decision makers, approve or reject repairs, or engage with further questions right from their messaging app—often within just a few minutes.
Professionalism
Presenting an air of professionalism often isn’t about big, outward demonstrations. Rather, it’s about eliminating distractions or challenges to understanding.
TruVideo’s AI tools help repair shops and dealerships improve understanding by eliminating barriers. For example, auto repair bays are often very noisy places, so our AI noise cancellation isolates a technician’s voice and eliminates the noise from other bays to enhance video clarity. In addition, language suggestions powered by AI improve message grammar, usage, and tone to send a more professional image to customers and minimize confusion.
Convenience
One of the biggest advantages to communicating via text message is customer convenience. Most people like to message and communicate asynchronously. Text message open rates remain consistently high, and brands can communicate with customers on apps native to their smartphones.
With the Truvideo platform, repair shops can communicate with their customers at their convenience and allow customers to approve or reject repairs with the options in the message. As multimedia options improve with the continued rollout of RCS, brands will be able to give customers even more convenient options to complete interactions and transactions right from their phones.
Personalization
If there’s one clear message from recent consumer surveys, it’s that customers want to maximize personalization. According to Attentive, 81% of consumers ignore messages that aren’t relevant to their needs.
With the AI translation embedded in our TruVideo tools, repair shops can communicate with customers across language barriers. Our AI translation tool includes 50 common languages. After all, what’s more personal than communicating with people in their own language?
Service
Even in the best circumstances, things don’t always go the way customers want them to go. When problems arise, customers may need to escalate to a manager or other decision-maker—and they usually aren’t willing to wait!
The TruVideo AI tool detects negative sentiment within messages from customers and, if necessary, can escalate directly to a manager from the text so the manager can intervene to solve the problem. Our tools help repair shops identify where they are making mistakes in real time, boosting the ability to fix problems and improve customer experience in the moment.
Even though consumers have an overall high degree of trust in brands, the auto repair industry still has work to do to build trust. A 2024 article in Consumer Affairs revealed that 78% of consumers don’t always trust their mechanics, and 83% sometimes or always consult someone they know before approving repairs.
TruVideo customers are overcoming those statistics by building trust one message at a time—and they are seeing the results on their bottom lines! For example, Walser Automotive Group saw a 37% increase in business when it adopted TruVideo solutions. Through principles of openness, professionalism, convenience, personalization, and service, TruVideo is bringing trust back to the auto repair and dealership world.
An old Dutch proverb says that trust arrives on foot, but leaves on horseback. With secure text messaging, robust AI tools, and principles that drive solid communication, brands can create enduring trust with customers that isn’t likely to gallop away anytime soon.
Joe Shaker is the CEO of TruVideo, the leader in communication technology for the transportation industry. TruVideo provides innovative, AI-powered video and messaging solutions that build trust and improve customer experiences. The company’s dedication to building trust and enhancing clear communication secured its place as a winner of Bandwidth’s 2025 Textie Awards.
