It's not spam. It's @uto™ mail and consumers like it.

Car buyers are responding enthusiastically to auto dealers' automated, permission-based email messages via @auto™

BOSTON, August 7, 2002 - The first time his customer sent him an email message thanking him for the email message that his dealership had sent, the automobile dealership manager was surprised. Now, receiving those "thank you" emails is routine.

Consumers all over the country are responding positively to @uto™, an automated, permission based direct email program, that a number of automotive dealers are using across the country to stay in touch with their customers. The dealers' customers like the "thank you for buying,' the Happy Birthday messages, service reminders, and after-service surveys those dealerships' are sending.

"Customers like the emails because they can read them and at their convenience. Also, most importantly, the dealers' customers aren't being interrupted at home by dealership phone calls," explained John Miller, CEO of Mav-Mail, the Boston-based e-communications company that developed @auto™.

@uto is quickly becoming part of the automobile dealer's arsenal in their battle to keep their customers happy and to make their dealerships more money. "With @auto™ dealerships can reach out to their customers on a regular basis without having to spend a lot of money on telemarketers or on survey companies,having to spend a lot of money,secret to alers'o™. me by phone calls,"s, and after-service surveys, ers." said Miller.

"@uto™ isn't spam," explains Alan Simon, Customer Service Manager for Hoffman Auto Group in East Hartford and Avon, Conn. "It's a personalized email sent from our dealership," said Simon, explaining that the emails are personalized for the individual customer, mentioning the customer's make and model car and other customer details.

Realizing that email is an inexpensive way to stay in touch with their customers, Hoffman first experimented with their own email program, which they abandoned after customers complained about the spam emails from the dealership. That's when the dealership turned to @uto™. Not only did @uto™ allow Hoffman to send out personalized messages, but Hoffman now had a fully automated email program that customers liked and a program that didn't require the auto group to spend more money, add any additional employees, or buy more equipment.

Customers are responding to these personalized messages, said Miller. "The response rate from an @uto™ eCommunication is four and a half times higher than response rates of direct mail. One reason for that, Miller said, is because the emails aren't spam-type messages, but read like "the dealerships typed the email themselves."

For Acton Toyota in Acton, Ma., customer response to @uto™ messages "has been unbelievable," according to the dealership's General Manager Mike Hills. "It's very effective...I love it," said Hills, who uses @uto™ for multiple programs including sending instant emails to customers after each service visit. Along with thanking the customer for servicing their vehicles, Acton Toyota's eCommunication also includes a four-question customer satisfaction survey.

Customers are answering the surveys, sending them back within minutes of receiving the email, and are also taking time to email the dealership to compliment specific technicians, comment on repairs or even to thank the dealership for staying in touch.

@uto™ surveys give the dealership feedback on service work done in the last 24 hours and, if need be, allow management to correct any problems within minutes of a customers complaint. "Instead of waiting a week, month or two for the factory to get back to you on how well your service department is operating, with @uto™ the response is instantaneous", said Hills.

"I would have signed up for @uto™ if all it did was thank people after they brought their cars in for service," said Hills, who pointed out that @uto™ email works so much better than follow-up phone calls, which usually end up being left on answering machines, and post cards that arrive a week later.

Hills believes that @uto™ works because "it is not intrusive like a phone call that usually comes at dinner time." Customers have the flexibility to read an email message at their convenience and respond when they want to, or they can opt out and elect not to receive any more messages.

Detailed Reporting: Hoffman Auto Group, which uses @uto™ in eight of their nine franchises, likes @uto™ because they can better track results of their service campaigns. Reports from @uto™ "let us know when customers come in and how much they've spent," Simon said.

Also, @uto™ reports show management the success rate of the email collection efforts on a monthly basis. In addition, the reports detail how many emails and the type of emails sent each month, giving the dealerships extensive information as to the results of their direct email marketing efforts.

"Because the @auto™ reports are both conclusive and detailed," said Mav- Mail's Miller, "dealers can easily see the additional profit they've made and how that profit definitely outweighs their monthly investment in the program."

Besides offering detailed reports, @uto™ also helps dealers cut down on direct mail expenses, drive customers back into the dealership, and bring in revenues. Hoffman Auto generated over $20,000 in service work in a ten day period through an @uto™ direct email campaign. At Acton Toyota, one month's email program proved to have brought in over $36,000.

Collecting names: To make a permission based email program effective, dealerships need their customers' email addresses. Both Hoffman and Acton Toyota make a concerted effort to collect those addresses. Salesmen ask for email addresses at the point-of-sale as do the F&I managers, service advisors and even cashiers.

"Once a dealership has an email address, they can then send customers email notices and reminders instead of direct mail, thus saving the dealership a lot of money," explained Miller. "Because it's critical to capture a customer's email information, we train their service writers and finance managers on how to collect email addresses. You only get the permission once and it can be taken away in an instance. Doing this properly is so important."

Another way @uto™ helps dealers collect email addresses is through a direct mail program that Mav-mail offers. According to Miller, each direct mail piece is designed to drive customers to www.autoevip.com, a Web site where customers sign up for email from the dealership. Once the customer registers for email messages, the dealership can move the customer off its direct mail program, saving $4 to $5 a year per customer in mail costs, said Miller. "Since an average dealership can collect 300 emails per month, the dealership can then save approximately $1500 on those customers next year and the year after and the year after," he added.

About @uto™ and Mav-Mail: Mav-Mail, an e-communications company based in Great Barrington, Ma., is the creator of @uto™, the industry's only fully automated permission based direct email program. John Miller, the Mav-Mail CEO who founded the company in 2001, has over 19 years experience in the automotive industry as an executive in several technology companies, including COIN and KEYTRAK, and he was the founder and CEO of UPS (Ultimate Prospecting Services), a company that used database management to build customer satisfaction. Listed twice on Inc. Magazine's list of The 500 Fastest Growing Companies in the U.S., UPS grew to a nationwide multimillion-dollar business in just six years.