Digitalization is on the rise everywhere in the automotive industry. Dealers and workshops should have a strong online presence. They should also strengthen their relationship with the customers. Motor Magasinet has written a piece about the novel technological expansions in Denmark. They interviewed experts from Connected Cars and Semler Mobility as well. In this article, you can read the most important takeaways of this piece.
Investing in the future
In Denmark Semler Mobility is the exclusive importer of Volkswagen brands. They recognized that investments in future technologies are essential. That’s how Connected Cars came to life as one of Semler’s forward-thinking investments. Since 2016 Volkswagen dealers across Denmark, increased their aftermarket revenue and customer loyalty. Thanks to the Connected Cars solutions.
“There is much more in digitalization for dealerships than a strong online presence. Using real-time car data to foster a proactive service approach in dealerships is a massive step forward. It is changing the rules of the game for the service advisors,” says Martin Nørgaard Høgh, VP of Commercial at Connected Cars.
Connected Cars’ OBD II Device is able to transmit car data directly to ConnectedWorkshop. Here the service advisors, and work intuitively with valuable leads and insights. Simultaneously the car data is also sent to the car owner’s smartphone via the MyConnectedCar. This app is a white-label app that can be rebranded for dealerships. Rie Egeskov, Product Manager at Semler Mobility, added:
“Customers have gone digital. Workshops’ customers consist still of classic workshop customers but to a greater and greater extent also the digitalized customers. There is a higher expectation from customers for digitalized services, as they got used to it from other companies also and it is our responsibility as a car importer, to follow and act on the customer trends”
The CC-Link hardware unit is a unique product; it not only collects a vast amount of data for the workshops but also provides a solid knowledge bank for them so they can do remote diagnostics and give the customers the most accurate service, even without seeing the vehicle.
A proactive service approach for customer retention
Rie continues: “Semler Mobility installed the first Connected Cars Device five years ago. Our strategy as an importer was to act on the general trends that we’re seeing in the market with greater distribution of Hybrid and electric vehicles but also looking a bit further into the future with autonomous vehicles. Basically, we as an importer make a living by importing cars, selling them, and keeping them long for workshops for steady revenue. But with the technological changes in the industry, this business model is at risk. We still truly believe that by having close and loyal customer relations, we will secure our spot in the future. Connected Cars is one of our most important initiatives to keep and increase customer loyalty, by providing relevant and proactive customer service, based on data.”
It’s a well-known fact that authorized car dealers are struggling with customer loyalty at the aftermarket when the warranty period ends on new cars. This is a huge loss of potential revenue for every dealership. Additionally, with the rise of EVs workshops’ revenue will drop, due to the different service needs of an EV. With all these circumstances workshops should focus more on retaining customers as long as possible, especially with the traditional combustion engine customers; and Connected Cars does just that.
Conclusion
Connected Cars offers a new and innovative way to connect customers to workshops, leaving the free choice to customers. Based on the last five years of experience there is a growing demand for digitalization across companies, services, and customers. If dealerships want to win the race they should adapt to the emerging digital trends.
