Is the writing on the wall for traditional car dealerships?

The rise of digital continues to disrupt many industries – and the automotive sector isn’t immune. So let your imagination skip to the perhaps not-so-distant future. To a place where cars are only available online, and not available at physical showrooms.  In fact, the entire customer journey is digital, and customers purchase or lease through an end-to-end self-service process.

From media activation to routine maintenance – all online

Customers complete the entire process in the comfort of their own surroundings, no matter what the time of day it is or where they are, through their preferred digital channel – voice-in-car, mobile, tablet, desktop, home entertainment system, or by another means yet to be developed.

To make this a reality, customers would be supported throughout the entire customer journey by an expert digital team – the ‘human touch’ – augmented with technology, who support all of the key customer touchpoints. The entire customer journey could be considered in this way – from media activation through to hand-over of the vehicle and ongoing brand loyalty.

All of the usual documentation for the order and vehicle registration would be digital and a post-delivery follow up, support to set up connected services and booking the vehicle in for its routine maintenance would all be done online.

Expert support when customers need it – the personal touch

To drive this vision, the support team would have specific skillsets to deliver a best-in-class service for each step of the customer journey. For example, digital sales agents would be highly skilled and trained sales specialists. And, with the right permissions, they’d offer financial and debit adjustment advice if discussing a customer’s current vehicle, or the way they would like to pay / fund their new vehicle.

The same approach could be applied via the marketing team to ensure the right traffic is being driven to digital platforms and to maximize proactive Social opportunities within communities and personal conversations.

The Digital Dealership – a world-class customer experience

To make the customer experience truly unique and personal, the sales team would be able to share with customers a “real showroom” (but digital!) to showcase the vehicle through the use of video technology and virtual reality.

While this scenario might sound like the future, Majorel is able to support all these services today.