Challenges Ahead:
The modern-day customers are highly influenced by the communication model provided by popular brands like Amazon, UberEATS & Grab food. The Automotive customers are now expecting a similar after-sales experience with their vehicle/equipment. Dealerships today must adapt to these communication channels and make information available to their customers through these commonly used platforms.
Furthermore, today’s Dealerships have a high multitude of (customer & vehicle) data which could help them understand their customers better, but high volume of these complex data sits across multiple non-integrated systems that limit their ability to analyze or act on it. Data that sit unused are no different from the data that were never collected.
Improving the customer experience and unlocking the true potential of data through seamless integration of social media feeds, customer engagements and aftersales service information into ONE unified business platform will be the key game changer for future dealerships.
How do we make dealerships stand out from the crowd using Annata Solution?
1. Enhancing customer experience
In today’s dealership ecosystem, consumers expect frequent and meaningful updates. If a customer has been well informed throughout their visit, they are more likely to return to the same dealership for service in the future. The major success of the food delivery apps such as UberEats or Grabfood is their continued updates which creates transparency and trust between product and the Customer. Example: – Customer purchases food from menu-> Receives confirmation Email-> Food dispatch notification-> Food delivery notification.
Annata’s AI-powered Text and E-mail notification framework effectively engage customers throughout their Service lifecycle. This kind of highly transparent service process will greatly enhance the customer experience leading to improved customer retention rate
“5% increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by 75% -Brain & Co”
Annata’s notification framework automatically triggers E-mail/SMS notification to the custodian upon vehicle arrival to the workshop.
The rental management module in Annata 365 offers the capability to browse for available replacement cars and assign it to the customer.
The selected replacement vehicle is delivered to the customer (Get extra points by offering customers with options for self-pickup or delivery to home/office address.)
Once the service job is finished the custodian is notified again via E-mail and Text. The customer returns the rental car and picks-up his car from the workshop location.
2. Unlocking The True Value of Data
Annata 365 enables dealers in making the customer data useful and more meaningful by providing a single integrated view of customer and vehicle information. It provides a unified ecosystem that seamlessly integrates CRM, Dealer management system, Analytics & AI into one single business platform.
Annata unlocks the maturity of data by effectively combining social media feeds, customer purchase history, and vehicle lifecycle information. This richness in data empowers the dealerships with predictive marketing campaigns to the hyper-target customer, the right mix of sales & after-sales data provides the ability to better understand customer behavior, maximizes aftermarket penetration and increases profit.
Annata’s “Customer 360-degree” view unlocks new business opportunities by intelligently combining the Pre-sales, Sales & Aftersales information. E.g. Social media feeds, leads, opportunities, sales history, dealership walk-ins, test drive history, previously owned vehicle information, warranty extension opportunities, Service contract extension opportunities, open recall notifications, scheduled service due dates, previous service history, All can be viewed in ONE screen.
3. Improving Customer Awareness & Support
According to the research, more than 50% of customers rely on notifications from dealership for awareness on upcoming service and recall needs. The majority of customers prefer to receive notifications and recall reminders via email. (*Cox Automotive maintenance & repair study,2016)
Annata automatically triggers personalized E-mail/Text Notifications based on upcoming estimated mileage or periodic due date.
Annata 365 sends multiple reminders to all the customers on any potential open service campaigns / recalls as recommended by OEM. Example: In the below, snapshot owners of three different trucks are Notified for open service campaign.
Furthermore, the study also revealed that 76% of customers who scheduled service online would come again to the same dealership for subsequent services.
Annata’s AI-powered Virtual agent enables dealers to design their chatbots with customized bot responses. The customers no longer need to wait for a salesperson to respond to e-mail or deal with phone calls. The AI-powered chat solution provides 24/7 instant support to the customer, schedules service appointments, automatically create a service ticket in Annata and finally sends an appointment confirmation E-mail to the customer.
Virtual agent books Service appointment sends an email confirmation to the customer and creates a Work request in Annata solution.
4. Improving Customer Loyalty & Profit Margin
The Service and Parts Department is the real workhorse of dealership profits, one of the major revenues contributing factors are extras like extended warranties, insurance kickbacks, and service contracts. For these extras, the mark-up can be as high as 100% and most importantly they greatly help dealerships in improving customer satisfaction and loyalty. On average almost 80% of the customer who visited the dealership with a warranty or service contract was very satisfied and always go back to the same dealership. (*Cox automotive study)
Annata’s AI-powered DMS platform effectively analyses the historical after-sales data and intelligently alerts the customer with discount offers and possibilities of extensions. The system can also create activities or opportunities for a salesperson to manually follow-up with customer responses. Additionally, as a bonus point, Annata adds more value to the data by combining the warranty and contracts information into the customer record.