Connected car technology has been available since 1996. Nonetheless, automotive importers have shown a strong interest in digitalization over the last decade. Low aftermarket customer retention has long been a problem in the industry and we created the Connected Cars product suite to address these issues with the latest technology at hand. It has everything an importer requires to improve customer retention, increase profit, and optimize dealership customer management processes. All in a data-driven, digital way. This article will throw light on how the Connected Cars ecosystem works and how it can help to digitalize dealerships.
What can a dealership achieve with Connected Cars?
With ConnectedWorkshop, dealerships can manage their customers in a proactive and data-driven way. The fuel of the system is real-time vehicle data, that shows various crucial technical information about a connected customer’s vehicle. By taking action based on this data, dealers will not only become proactive, but they can automate these processes, and be customer-centric and efficient. It allows dealerships to manage vehicle issues for their customers before or soon after they occur. Furthermore, this proactive approach to maintenance discourages customers from seeking vehicle maintenance elsewhere. In the long run, it wins new customers and converts ‘somewhat’ loyal customers into ‘extremely’ loyal ones.
Where the magic happens – the technological backbone
Connected Cars is a plug-and-play solution that can instantly digitalize a dealership. A complex technology creates this technology. The product suite consists of modules that, when combined, make Connected Cars a turnkey solution. This modular system, then, tailors to the technology stacks of importers and dealers.
The Connected Cars Hardware and the Cloud agnostic platform form the backbone of the product, while the ConnectedWorkshop and MyConnectedCar app serve as the Front-end modules. Since we build everything in-house, we have full control over the entire tech stack. As a result, we can provide dealerships not only with high data quality but also scalability and flexibility. In the next section, you can learn how the Front-end modules and Hardware work together to serve automotive dealerships.
Connected Cars Hardware unit
It’s the lifeblood of ConnectedWorkshop. Our engineers created a vehicle diagnostics device.v Compared to the original factory-installed devices or other commercially available devices, it captures a significantly larger range of data from a vehicle’s CAN-bus system. It’s installed in the vehicle’s OBD II port, where it receives all CAN-bus data. The Connected Cars cloud then receives this data in real time. After our data science team processes the data, the relevant information is shown in ConnectedWorkshop and MyConnectedCar.
It takes a few steps to connect vehicle owners to a dealership. The vehicle will remain connected thereafter for the rest of its lifetime.
The Hardware unit collects a broad range of vehicle data that provides in-depth information for both the dealership and the vehicle owner.
ConnectedWorkshop
Dealerships can turn real-time vehicle data into revenue with ConnectedWorkshop. It provides a real-time technical status overview of all connected vehicles.
The system shows different vehicle error codes as ‘Leads’ along with their monetary value, status, and handling time.Dealerships can act right away, get in touch with the customer, and schedule a service appointment for them. The chat function streamlines the system’s communication process. Here, the service advisor can communicate with the customers easily. They can discuss any vehicle-related information, send a quote, and book the customers for the upcoming service.
The system automatically updates the status and progress of the Lead, and it enables tracking of the communication with customers. The Performance Dashboard allows dealers to monitor their vehicle activation rate. This enables data-driven business decisions.
The marketing departments at dealerships also gain a lot from Connected Cars. High-quality consents are collected for every step of the vehicle owner’s journey to guarantee full compliance with GDPR and marketing regulations.
All features require consent to operate and give customers complete control over how their data is processed, kept, and used. Marketers can create targeted marketing campaigns for GDPR-compliant customers with the Campaign Module. These campaigns then will appear as push notifications in the User App. In this manner, dealerships can upsell and provide value to their customers at the right time with the right offer.
Dealerships can customize Connected Cars to meet their specific requirements because it’s a modular solution. User Management, In-app onboarding, Help Centre, Business Intelligence, Robust Support, Training Academy, and Communication Tools are the main modules.
MyConnectedCar
The User App is Connected Cars’ white-label app, that every owner of a connected vehicle can have. Through the app, dealerships can easily communicate with their customers. Vehicle owners get a wealth of useful information about their vehicles. For instance, they see certain real-time information about their vehicle’s condition and are informed when something is malfunctioning or a dashboard warning lamp turns on. Through the chat, vehicle owners can get in touch with their dealership and receive quotes and service appointments that they can accept or deny. Additionally, vehicle owners can get roadside assistance, log their trips and vehicle location or receive insights into their driving behavior. The App opens new opportunities for third-party integrations such as parking services, insurance, and gas station services, making the vehicle owner experience more personalized than ever.
About Connected Cars
We are a product company, developing in-house end-to-end software solutions. The company was born from the recognition of a long-lasting pain point in the automotive industry, low customer retention, and diminishing aftermarket revenue. Connected Cars, as one of the innovative companies of the oldest vehicle importer in Denmark, fuels its mission with over a hundred years of experience and learning in the automotive industry. At Connected Cars, we understand that workshops struggle with customer retention and consequently lose a lot of potential business opportunities. We bring the latest technological innovations to importers through connected car technology.
