Enhance Your Dealership Customer Purchase Experience

by automotiveMastermind

Using predictive data is such a big part of everything we do that it’s easy to take it for granted. Yet without it, the entire ownership experience would be significantly less satisfying. Indeed, the experience of buying, driving, and owning a vehicle is built on a foundation of predictive data in such a way that it helps to deliver what we want, when we want it, and how the customer experience should unfold.

Here are three ways that predictive data makes the automotive customer purchase experience better:

Sales and Marketing What’s the best way to attract new customers and keep current customers loyal? Get personal. As traditional forms of marketing are fading fast, data-driven and personalized marketing is on the rise. Print, radio, and television are expensive – and becoming less effective at driving customers into the store. On the other hand, customized digital marketing and direct mail executions are now proving to be significantly more effective in terms of reach and cost.Predictive marketing is transforming the “spray and pray” approach to marketing with a more precise and scalable strategy that uses data to focus on a customer’s needs and wants. By combining multiple sets of data (vehicle, personal, demographic information and more), dealership management can customize the right message and plan accordingly. This strategy adds more relevance to your marketing, whether it’s a service promotion, lease pull-ahead offer, incentive campaign, or a desirable new product launch. In addition, understanding which marketing channel is most effective at each stage of the buyer’s journey helps ensure the right message is delivered in the right way.
Maintenance Vehicles carry a wealth of information used to make the service experience better – and more profitable. Data from current sensors, warranty repair, frequency of service, issues, recall notifications, and more, can be aggregated and used for important predictive maintenance opportunities. For example, the ability to compare all data from a specific year/make/model of a vehicle could help identify warranty claim trends. Those are the insights that service advisors can use to better guide customers. That in turn creates a trusted relationship that paves the way for a robust bridge between sales and service. It’s not just a good way to create sales from a service appointment, it also lowers the cost of business. For example, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), last year’s average dealership advertising spend was over $600 per car. Why not leverage the positive relationship and data-rich environment of the service drive to instill retention and lower cost?
Active Safety Perhaps the most overlooked area of predictive data value is in-car safety. Many new vehicles offer alert and avoidance systems based on massive amounts of data and predictive analytics. Active safety systems gather data from sensors located around the vehicle to instantly analyze speed and distance to other vehicles, among other conditions. During hazardous conditions, the system will provide an alert, prepare the vehicle for an impending crash, and, in some cases, even automatically apply the brakes. In a very real way, it’s a perfect example of how “predictive” data improves the automotive experience. Best of all, it’s in place right now. Many cars today offer collision mitigation technology, automatic braking, intelligent cruise control, and more. For example, many Toyota models already come with the automaker’s Safety Sense technology.Amazingly, the power of predictive data in the automotive space is just scratching the service, yet it already plays an important role throughout the experience. For dealers and OEMs, the future of predictive analytics is a great opportunity to get closer to customers – and deliver the best ever sales and ownership experience.

How Can automotiveMastermind Help?

Our vision is to radically transform the traditional consumer purchase journey. Do you have questions or comments about predictive analytics and how it is changing automotive retail? Request a demo to learn how we can help you.

Enhance Purchase Experience with Predictive Data