Top 3 Things Customers Expect From Their Automotive Dealer In 2017
Many changes have occurred in the automotive retail industry over the past few decades, including three big paradigms in particular.
The first one is what our grandfathers like to call ‘the good old days’ when the main driver for selling a car was… the car itself. Occurring in the 70s and 80s, each dealership had its own brand niche and competition was moderate.
This changed in the 90s-2000s with the consolidation of automotive manufacturers and the rapid spread of large multi-brand dealerships. Competition strongly intensified as retailers began selling the same brands within driving distance from one another. Customer loyalty and margins went down as a result, and offline customer service became the new basis for competitive advantage.
The third paradigm emerged within the last five years — driven by digitalization, social media, smartphones, and car aggregator websites. All of which have created more visibility for customers, and 2.0 customer expectations, among which:
1. Real-Time Availability on Multiple Devices
Customers, especially millennials, are not used to waiting for the availability of businesses to serve them. They order food on their smartphone in just a few clicks, do shopping online, receive items the next day, and get immediate support thanks to 24/7 answering services and live chats.
The automotive retail industry is no exception. Customers want to get in touch not only during working hours over the phone, but also on a website, social media pages, & dedicated mobile apps etc. for vehicle and service queries. Heading into 2017, they’ll also want & expect to purchase cars online from brands other than Tesla.
Additionally, they expect continuity across every channel. Across every interaction, they expect the dealer to have ready access to the information they shared on that journey. Dealers, importers & OEMs will need to collaborate — using dealer, customer, and vehicle data — to provide this seamless, digital brand experience throughout the retail network.
2. Personal Relationship & Trusted Expertise
This day & age, customers expect something from dealers they can’t find online: a personal relationship based on trust and expertise. A Mckinsey study* showed that over 40 percent of customers rank product expertise as the most important element of a dealer consultation. Even when purchasing a second-hand car, customers expect to have a closer consultant relationship and better service than they did in the past.
“As customers increasingly collect general information online, dealers are ever more being viewed as an advanced ‘second-level support’ for questions and doubts that neither the online configurator, the OEM Web site, nor the various car forums or third-party Web sites are sufficiently able to clarify,” advises McKinsey.
Going forward, showroom teams will need to arm themselves with constant updates of real-time stock, pricing, & customer preference notes in order to provide the personalized, transparent experience consumers are looking for. Transforming salespeople into trusted advisors who provide deep technical and market expertise, will become a competitive advantage for brands throughout the shift.
3. Country-Wide Connected Brand Network
Customers no longer automatically purchase and maintain their car with the same dealer. Much like other industries — banking, insurance, telecommunications — they expect to walk into any brand-recognised dealership for maintenance or emergency repair, and easily retrieve their own history. This is a challenge for dealers, if disconnected from the rest of the retail network.
Forward-thinking OEMs are beginning to realize this; knowing that a connected framework, utilizing dealer, customer and vehicle data, will lead to a plethora of modern consumer experiences. Automated service appointments coordinated between dealer & car; Instant software updates; More timely parts management, and personalized, worry-free maintenance experiences regardless of location. Together, dealers can leverage their extensive network to share the same database, and standard of quality, to increase customer loyalty and retention.
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Overall, three core customer expectations are reshaping the retail automotive industry; forcing dealerships and manufacturers to become increasingly interconnected and customer-focused. The customer expectations will certainly grow and strengthen in 2017 and beyond, notably with the emergence of connected cars and autonomous driving.
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