The biggest aftermarket challenges and how to overcome them

In this article, we share ideas on how to create a smarter customer journey to cater for the full spectrum of outcomes of customers’ expectations for a ‘successful’ workshop visit experience.

Every car owner enters a workshop with a unique purpose. The exact check-in journey and experience expectations differ from driver to driver, but the end goal remains the same: superior brand- and customer experience.

Historically that workshop visit was a person-to-person experience, and while implementation and expansion of self-service online booking and check-in options over the last years have shifted customer expectations about what a successful workshop visit looks like, it wasn’t until recently that the need and urgency for a more seamless, and smarter, customer journey became critical to a dealership’s aftermarket success.

Changes will come faster than ever — and with greater force and impact
A critical piece of the digital customer journey puzzle is dealership workshop advisors. They play a huge role in ensuring successful experiences. The dealership is in the business of strengthening customer loyalty with their aftermarket activities, and a successful workshop customer journey is not a journey without highly skilled advisors. Making sure service advisors are available enhances the overall workshop visit experience for both the dealership and car owners.

Customers today are more prepared and have often already booked their workshop visit online or by phone with data input so that when they arrive at the workshop, they know exactly what problem they want to be fixed and how quickly it will take to complete the job.

Customer owners want to have control
They want to control the way they spend time and have their car fixed at their own pace. For some customers that pace is short and uncompromising. Fast in, get a loaner or rental, and fast out. For others, the experience is flexible and open to suggestions.

People on the short journey need to feel confident that when they step into the dealership workshop area, their car will be taken care of as they expect it to be, maybe even a no-cost replacement car is available, so they can step in and out of the workshop without potentially waiting for a service advisor — it´s all about speed, efficiency and convenience.

The ones on the long journey may be entering the dealership looking for inspiration on a new model and need the support provided by a sales rep to help successfully complete the evaluation experience — experiential, personal and assisted.

Focus on best-in-class customer experience
For dealerships, every customer journey is important, and whether the experience is short or long, making sure to have the technology in place to facilitate a successful customer experience is critical in retaining and growing customer loyalty.

To always keep customers happy and develop a workshop ecosystem that adapts to the constantly evolving and highly competitive mobility landscape, will be more and more important factors.

To successfully build a digitally assisted customer journey, the dealership must acknowledge the importance of experimental responses and put the customer first across all processes, even with the knowledge that the effects on revenue might not be directly measurable immediately. 

Finally, as dealerships increasingly introduce new workshop visit interfaces, they also need to look beyond touchpoints on the customer journey and optimize structures, workflow processes, and resources across their aftermarket ecosystem.

Posted by Kjetil Faye Lund