It’s not enough anymore for automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to just sell car units – they also need to take a broader, customer-first approach and look at creating and maximizing customer lifetime value.
“Get to know your customer and you can orchestrate quality customer experiences that provide value and meet their needs throughout the entire customer journey,” explains Philip Beil, Transportation & Mobility Lead for EMEA and APAC at Publicis Sapient. “Creating an eco-system that works around their wants and needs is key, and it goes hand-in-hand with data-driven personalization.”
In a recent Epsilon report (a Publicis Groupe company) it was found that 86% of consumers are more likely to engage with an automotive company when it offers personalized experiences like:
- Storing their purchase or maintenance history
- Giving them upcoming scheduled services reminders
- Allowing them to set up recurring car maintenance.
Build a unified customer profile
However, the common challenge that many companies face is knowing what data is available and what do you do with it all.
First party customer data is often incomplete and inaccurate. It’s often scattered across different silos within the organization. Then there is second party data held by dealerships.
“It’s not easy to reconcile activity to a single person and understand where they are in the buying cycle or their intent and desires,” confirms Adam Cannon, International Salesforce Practice Transportation & Mobility Lead, Publicis Sapient. “That’s why Customer Data Platforms (CDP) are needed to enable OEMs to unify information and create a 360-degree view of their customer.”
