RICHARD COOPER ASKS WHO REALLY “OWNS” THE CUSTOMER WHEN IT COMES TO DELIVERING THE AUTOMOTIVE RETAIL EXPERIENCE
Back in the 1990s, I attended one of Automotive News’ Congress sessions in Detroit. One of the keynote speakers was Francois Castaing, who was then Vice-President of Vehicle Engineering for Chrysler. The title of his speech was “American Binary Logic.”
In Castaing’s words, binary logic “limits our ability to perform our best in this industry.” In my mind, it is also limiting how effectively dealers, manufacturers and finance providers operate when it comes “ownership” of the customer.
In automotive retail, the dealership becomes the focus of contact as soon as the customer enters the store, whether it’s to buy or lease a vehicle or to have a vehicle serviced. The simple answer then, from the customer’s viewpoint is that the dealership owns the customer, though in many cases the dealership is often seen as an extension of the manufacturer.
So operationally, the dealership is on the front line. Does that mean the dealership then takes ownership of the customer? Or is the manufacturer the true owner of the customer because it is their product the dealership is actually selling?
It is here where any tendency towards binary logic can result in the relationship falling apart. I believe there is a joint responsibility for the customer among the dealer, manufacturer and finance provider, even if the “face” the customer sees is that of the dealership. So what are we really talking about when it comes to ownership — is it customer information, or the overall customer ownership experience? I strongly believe it is the latter.
A BLESSING AND A CURSE
Here’s where technology comes into play. Modern technology can solve problems but it can also create them. Even in the context of increasingly stringent privacy legislation, we now have better and faster access to customer information than ever before.
Dealers can track a customer’s behaviour from the purchase, through service and to the trade or next purchase. This information can be linked to customer experience data to see patterns and trends. In this environment, each of the three key stakeholders in the customer experience (dealer, manufacturer and finance provider) has an important role to play.
But technology, particularly as it pertains to the ability of all parties to communicate using both formal and informal channels (like text and social media), creates the possibility of multiple channels of communication and multiple databases. This can cause disconnect or misaligned communication with the customer. Some of the service reminder and service scheduling activities undertaken by dealerships are a clear example of this.
If the information being used is not accurate for any reason, or if the messages are different from the dealership, the manufacturer or the finance provider, the customer begins to get the impression that no one entity truly owns the relationship they have. The old marketing adage that customers want you to “show me that you know me,” is more important than ever in a multi-channel communication environment, only now, it’s theoretically much easier to be consistent in “knowing the customer.” Today’s consumers expect nothing less.
The logical conclusion is that the dealership, with the most frequent direct contact with the customer (and the entity that the customer sees as their first port of call) should assume responsibility for most of the communication with the customer.
Going further, it’s usually the fixed operations side of the business that handles most of the interaction, so the service department should be seen as a priority in terms of owning the relationship.
HOW DOES THE OWNERSHIP ISSUE PLAY OUT?
I recently dealt with a situation where customers in a position of positive equity were surveyed to see how they would react to a proposition to bring their next purchase forward and take advantage of their situation. It was those that had a good relationship with the service department who were most open to the proposition.
This begged the question: who should the message come from? My position is that the message should come from the dealership, but that it is vital all three stakeholders share information and take responsibility of the relationship to ensure that there is consistent and accurate communication with the customer.
Silos between manufacturer, dealership and finance provider (plus sales and service within the store) need to be broken down. The technology is there to do it now, but we are likely in a transition phase. It would therefore seem beneficial to have positions for customer relationship managers at the manufacturer, the dealership and finance provider level — positions where an individual has responsibility to provide accurate and relevant communication to the customer.
So who owns the relationship? Applying binary logic, you’d have to pick one. But we need to step beyond the traditional ways of doing things. The starting point is to begin breaking down the silos and have a single and clear objective of positively impacting the customer experience.
