Customer Experience Pillars
Automotive retail will shift from a product-driven to a customer-centric approach to drive customer loyalty and to adapt to changing customer behavior and expectations.
While doing a little research I found an Ernst & Young report from 2015 that presents a paradigm shift in auto retailing based on 5 pillars; trust through the customer life cycle, customization of value propositions, creating engaging digital experiences, transforming distribution networks and onmi-channel brand management. Though a few years old, the report predicted what we are experiencing today. How well dealers and the industry at large embrace these pillars is critical if retailers are to effectively address the needs of customers, and remain relevant and competitive. The key takeaway in the executive summary reinforces what we’re already seeing happening: “Automotive retail will shift from a product-driven to a customer-centric approach to drive customer loyalty and to adapt to changing customer behavior and expectations.” Being a data and former agency guy, from my perspective, these are the key points that jumped out for me:
Key concepts and critical success factors:
- 70% of organizations believe that an increasing emphasis on customer experience is driving business growth strategies
- Establishment of new roles (technical and financial experts, mobile sales force, etc.) are required to respond effectively to changing customer needs and new technologies
- Improving the customer experience at the dealer
- Use of big data (CRM, social media analytics, connected car data, DMS, etc.) to fulfill customers’ expectations, effectively manage their life cycles, and steer the overall sales funnel
- Customer analytics should drive performance: large amounts of data generated from customer interactions will be analyzed to impact all facets of the retail organization, ranging from identifying relevant customer touch points to marketing campaigns and sales forecasting
Download the EY executive summary here: The future of automotive retailing