SHOPSMART AUTOS – CUSTOMER INFORMATION – APRIL 2, 2021
Customer Service in the Automotive Industry: The most effective strategies
The question,
“Why is Customer Service so decisive in the automotive sector?”
can be answered in various ways. We’ve talked about the central role of the customer in the age of digital transformation. But let’s go even further. According to data (source), in 2025 about 45% of car buyers will be “
millennials
” (those born from 1981 to 1996) who are, more than other generations, are used to a fluid, one-to-one relationship with brands. Car manufacturers (but also dealers and the huge supply chain that revolves around this sector) must get to know this target and adapt to its characteristics in order to anticipate their needs.
This segment of consumers is used to dealing with companies such as Amazon, Airbnb, and Uber, companies that employ the best digital strategies and rely heavily on the Customer Experience.
Translated: 24/7 support, a strong and well-studied presence on social networks, a perfectly omnichannel and mobile-first approach, and a growing focus on personalization. For an industry as huge as automotive, with its complex and typically slower sales dynamics, this is not an easy transition. Let’s think about the gap between customer expectations and experience when it comes to service and support: slow service times, phone-based appointments, and a lack of transparency when it comes to expenses.
A customer takes, on average, 15 hours to purchase a car. The hours invested in all service processes, however, are 50 hours
(source). This is where loyalty is built. It’s easier to sell a new car to a customer who has already had a satisfactory experience with the brand and the dealer. It is no coincidence that, according to a survey by McKinsey,
when buying a new car, the consumer’s experience with service is more decisive than the previous purchase
(source). At this point, how can you improve your Customer Service—the relationship and dialog with customers—to generate loyalty? There is no single recipe. However, there are some guidelines that are valid for everyone.
The three key points
Upstream of everything there is the need for maximum awareness “inside” the company
(from the car company to the dealer). This is the first point. We need to define a common purpose, a common mission, shared at all levels, from management to the front line. To do this, it is essential to put effective
B2E
(Business to Employee) actions on track.- The second key point is
analysis of the customer journey
. The purchase path for a car can be very long and typically takes place through very different touchpoints. We focused on this topic extensively in this post. It is important to underline\ how essential it is to analyze this path in an omni-channel way, to be in the right place, at the right time, and with tailored communication. To do this, a simple analysis of Big Data is not enough, you need to go deeper (this is why we prefer to talk about “Smart Data” or “Deep Data”). - With this, we come to the third key point, the fundamental one:
personalization
. Here, the challenge for customer loyalty is played out through Digital Transformation. It is essential to know as much as possible about the individual customer in order to to address him as an individual. Of course, all this is possible thanks to the most advanced technologies such as those provided by
Doxee
. This is all the more important for the Automotive sector, where the quantity, but above all the quality of the data owned by the brands is very high. Personalization is a strategy that must be set in motion at 360 degrees: from traditional (but still effective)
email marketing campaigns with the possibility of inserting personalized videos
(we have talked about it extensively here), to restructuring the dynamics of assistance and service, to the creation of personalized mini-sites or applications for smartphones and tablets.
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