Auto-makers rev up new systems of engagement for success

To address this situation and enhance the customer experience, auto-makers play a key role in collaborating with dealers throughout the customer engagement process.

The case for auto-makers to transform the way they engage with customers was argued by Forrester Research vice president and principal analyst Frederic Giron in a report in March this year.

According to the Forrester report, “Sustained differentiation and increased customer loyalty in the automotive industry will hinge on an in-depth understanding of the customer journey. Automotive companies must adapt their sales and marketing strategies to these fast-changing customer expectations and be able to quickly adapt their front-office business processes to react to rapid changes on this journey.”

Forrester warns that a major limiting factor in achieving this goal is legacy dealer management systems (DMS). A critical weakness of existing DMS is that they are inflexible systems of record and operate independently of customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

There is no integration between sales and customer service systems, and consequently no value-added interaction between the dealer and auto-makers. 

To better engage with dealers, auto-makers must move beyond the current limitations of legacy DMS and traditional CRM. 

The solution lies in software assets which deliver business processes for seamless connections across sales, marketing, asset management, vehicle services and knowledge management.

Auto-makers should work towards a content delivery management (CDM) platform that embraces multi-tenant architecture for swift scalability and competitive differentiation across countries.

While software assets are the key enablers, there are other critical components to achieve business and market value.

Collaboration – A consultative approach involving auto-makers and dealers is required to ensure relevance, market differentiation and to accelerate time to value. 

Meeting business needs – Software assets should be combined with domain expertise and innovation to create effective business solutions.

Modular approach – Work should be broken into modules to deliver benefits faster and more frequently.

Flexible delivery – A flexible outsourcing and cloud delivery model is required with a major focus on client engagement to meet business requirements and address new opportunities.

The goal is a well-planned and executed transition to a CDM platform which offers seamless services in an increasingly connected, information-driven economy. Such a solution allows automotive companies to integrate information across the auto-maker-to-dealer value chain. 

Get it right, and auto-makers can elevate their products through a superior customer experience and deliver consistently high-quality performance across increasingly numerous and complex touch points.

 

Dhanawat Suthumpun is managing director of HP Thailand.