Overcoming business silos in the automotive industry to improve customer experience

In our previous blog we talked about reimagining the customer relationship in the automotive industry and how customers want to connect with brands on their own terms. Here we look at the siloed structure of how manufacturers and dealers manage their operations, how it is at odds with customer perceptions, and how it can change.

Business operations in the automotive industry tend to be managed in departments depending on what they do, how they view customers and how they see themselves. For example, there are sales and aftersales departments, prospects and buyers, brands, and dealers. But this is not the way that car buyers and owners see brands.

Customers often feel a sense of disconnect when one department effectively disowns them and leaves them to fend for themselves with the next one. While one department may have provided good customer service as a standalone entity, the customer’s perception of customer service from the brand is poor.

Brands that can take a holistic view of the process of buying and owning a car will stand out from the crowd. A superior customer experience can be crafted once an organisation has a better understanding of how each department fits into each part of the process. They need to understand how the initiatives, actions and programmes of different departments can impact on other areas of the business and on the retail customer’s experience.

Embracing and investing in the service design process will signal where this process can be fixed or reimagined and provide opportunities for creative innovation. As we know, the key to brands remaining relevant and differentiating themselves from the competition is in transitioning from a transactional approach to a relationship-based one. In our next blog we will be looking at how digital and physical experiences can be merged seamlessly: this will be a crucial part of this relationship.

If you have any questions about how service design could help you create services or experiences your customers will love, please get in touch: we would love to help.