Overview
The automotive industry is rapidly evolving, not just in vehicle design and manufacturing but also in delivering better customer experience. Customer data unification presents a critical challenge for automotive companies striving to understand, engage, and retain their customers. The industry faces many obstacles in consolidating and utilizing customer data effectively due to its complex network of dealerships, service centers, and digital touchpoints.
The automotive industry operates through multiple channels. Customer engagements occur at various stages, from initial inquiries and purchases to servicing and after-sales engagements. However, this leads to data fragmentation, with information residing in siloed systems and databases. Customer information, preferences, service histories, and buying behaviors often exist independently across different departments, preventing a comprehensive view of the customer journey.
The automotive industry needs a digital transformation where they focus on creating an interconnected system that seamlessly integrates data, processes, and technologies to enhance customer experiences, drive innovation across the customer journey, and offer end-to-end lifecycle management.
Why Etiya’s Digital Business Platforms for Automotive?
Digital Business Platforms (DBP) for Automotive overcome these challenges with its AI-driven, highly scalable, and modular products and services which provide end-to-end lifecycle management for sales and ordering, customer management, and product management processes. A 360-degree customer view available to all sales and service channels enables a consistent customer experience across devices and channels. AI technologies with natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) services enable companies to enrich customer data throughout the whole customer journey and further improve customer experience.
As a company focusing on CX, we aim to extend our expertise gained from various other industries to benefit the automotive sector as well, by offering our ready-to-use products and services. We use the latest technologies in artificial intelligence and analytics, that enable flawless management of all customer interactions. The algorithm behind our DBP for Automotive helps to understand customers' habits and preferences and constantly improves by learning from new interactions. DBP utilizes a Customer Management Platform, Online Sales Platform, Car/EV Configurator, after-sales management, gamification features, and unified channel management tailored for the automotive industry.
Holistic Customer Experience and Life Cycle Management
The DBP seamlessly integrates various technologies and processes to elevate the entire customer journey, aiming for a unified and seamless experience. Its careful design goes beyond interactions, focusing on enhancing every facet of the customer experience.
This holistic approach extends beyond immediate transactions, embracing the concept of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). The platform, through relationship nurturing and tailored experiences, maximizes the long-term value each customer brings to your brand. It stands as an investment in enduring customer loyalty and brand advocacy.
In essence, our platform represents a strategic investment, with a holistic view to transform your entire enterprise and introduce a truly customer-centric approach across the whole operation. It aims to create a customer experience that goes beyond being memorable – it strives to be truly transformative, to set your brand apart in an era where customer expectations drive industry evolution.
Unified Data Management
The DBP is a centralized platform that can aggregate and unify data from various sources including Sales and Dealer platforms, marketing, customer service applications, and online channels. Integrating disparate systems creates interoperability and standardization in data storage and retrieval mechanisms.
Modular Structure
Thanks to the modular structure of the platform, you have the flexibility to tailor your capabilities by selecting only the modules that align with your specific business needs. Whether you are aiming to enhance customer interactions, streamline customer life cycle management, or need a car configurator, our modular approach empowers you to build your customized solution.
But the advantage of a modular architecture extends beyond this flexibility; it also translates into swift and seamless integrations. The platform effortlessly harmonizes with your existing enterprise applications, ensuring a rapid and efficient assimilation into your current technological ecosystem. This agility in integration not only accelerates the implementation process but also minimizes disruptions to your ongoing operations.
Superior Customer Experience and Personalization
The Platform provides a unified view of the customer journey, enabling personalized interactions, thus, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty by using AI technologies, and advanced and predictive analytics tools. Understanding a customer's preferences, behavior, and service history helps tailor offerings and enhance the overall customer experience.
The Platform utilizes advanced machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP), enabling companies to offer personalized services and propositions through emotional and contextual predictions and recommendation mechanisms. It helps companies to tailor customer interactions throughout the customer journey in real-time. It enables high-return and cost-effective marketing campaigns targeted at selected segments and supports companies in managing every stage of the customer lifecycle effectively.
With the embedded advanced and predictive analytics tools, the platform enables companies to anticipate what customers will desire in the future by analyzing data patterns, enabling companies to respond effectively and drive revenue growth.
Data Privacy
Etiya, as a global software market player, puts high emphasis on compliance with various Privacy Policies worldwide, such as PDPL, GDPR, and PIPEDA. Our platform complies with legal standards and regulations for data collection and processing, protecting the personal data and privacy of customers.
And the technical part?
We know, that easy implementation and system integration is always key and adaptability is at the core of our approach. Etiya uses open APIs and offers a modular system, that is flexible, highly scalable, and allows easy integration. The automotive industry is constantly evolving, as well as the needs of customers, and this will constantly require new features and modifications. We use microservice-based architecture that will ensure this scalability and agility for you, to introduce or modify features and capabilities quickly.
Etiya DBP for Automotive’s open API architecture provides enhanced and easy integration with external data sources and 3rd party applications through connecter microservices as each country may have its own regulations. We always commit that our platform not only meets current customer expectations but also remains future proof.
Leveraging AI expertise and advanced platform capabilities, Customer Management Platform stands out by delivering superior customer insights and personalized experiences. This knowledge of customer behavior and needs enables personalized interactions and targeted services, fostering smart decision-making throughout the customer journey.
Customer Management Platform facilitates end-to-end customer journey management, data management, and customer service. This cloud-native platform is pre-integrated into partner solutions and seamlessly supports customer operations.
The Customer Management Platform empowers the comprehensive management of the entire customer journey, spanning from the initial potential customer phase to retirement. All customer data is centralized within a single platform, ensuring consistency across channels. Furthermore, a suite of customer service tools is seamlessly provided, delivering a unified and streamlined customer experience.
The platform’s comprehensive customer service through its back-office applications enables internal users and agents to engage with customers through calls or emails. Agents can review and authorize/reject customer-uploaded documents via the mobile app. This channel offers a holistic view of customers, facilitating easy searches and document uploads.
The platform also provides easy and efficient ticket management. It configures workflows to handle tickets created by users/system based on category/subcategory. Tickets can be assigned to different layers of the organization based on authority. They can also be linked to Car/EV records. Once closed, customers receive notifications through email/sms/phone calls. A satisfaction survey is sent after ticket resolution. The ticket details can be shared across various channels via APIs.
Consumer preferences have shifted towards online shopping across various industries including automotive. Online sales offer a more convenient way to browse, customize, and purchase cars from anywhere at any time. Customers can explore a wide range of models, compare prices, check availability, and configure their desired vehicle without visiting dealers.
From the automotive manufacturers’ perspective, this shift to online sales channels allows them to have access to richer customer data and have more control over the sales process and customer experience. DBP’s advanced data analytics and AI-driven products and services enable personalized recommendations and tailored experiences for customers based on their preferences and browsing history.
The online sales platform provides a seamless transition from configuration to the purchasing process. Integrated with the car configurator tool, customers customize their model before proceeding to checkout.
The sales process begins with Car/EV configuration, with the product catalog determining prices based on customer preferences and country-specific taxes.
The configuration is followed by a down payment, and order status is enriched with manufacturing system data. Various payment methods, including online credit, bank transfer, e-wallet, and credit card, are supported based on fintech integrations per country regulations. Digital wallet usage allows top-ups before the sales process or on-the-fly payments. The payment transaction is reflected across channels, allowing partial payments and flexible payment methods.
The platform facilitates the purchase of insurance and licensing within the mobile app. Once the down payment is made, DBP initiates the sales order to manufacturing and accounting systems to begin the car manufacturing process.
Agreements are dynamically generated at the payment step via agreement microservices. Notifications keep customers informed of order status changes, and invoicing options are selected and entered. The platform digitalizes the entire sales process, encompassing insurance, licensing, and invoicing through a built-in system.
The appointment system enables customers to schedule test drives and deliveries. After delivery, a satisfaction survey is sent to the customers through a generated ticket, ensuring a comprehensive and streamlined customer journey.
The car/EV configurator contains a list of available car models with brief descriptions, filter options to narrow down choices based on preferences, and the ability to select a specific car model to proceed to customization. All this information and contents (images, video, etc.) are defined in the product catalog and exposed to front-end channels (Mobile App, Web, etc.) in the same manner regarding the “unified digital channel” principle. Moreover, compatibility of the items per Car version is defined in the product catalog, for example, a specific rim size might be an “included” item for version 1 whereas it might be an “optional” item for version 2. These are dynamic configurations. Similarly, some packages / equipment might be configured as “included/optional” packages per car version.
With its customization interface, the car configurator allows customers to see a visual representation of the selected car model over the website or mobile app. It provides options to customize various features like paint color, wheel size, seat configurations, technology packages, and additional accessories like panoramic glass roof and entertainment systems. Whenever customers make changes to the car’s features, pricing information and the car’s visual representation are updated in real-time including the tax, and prices are calculated per country’s regulations.
The platform allows customers to connect with the company through all digital channels including the website or its mobile app. Customers have a chance to switch from one channel to another without losing any choice or progress once they log in. There is also an AI-supported virtual assistant option available for both the website and the mobile app.
The mobile application is a crucial part of the platform and is crafted to align with customer needs. It hosts a range of functions, including a car configurator, real-time price updates, car order screens, financial solutions, insurance options, charging station management, and accessory purchases. With post-vehicle purchase and registration, customers can leverage features such as registration updates, service requests, and participation in exclusive campaigns organized with business partners. The application's adaptability allows for the incorporation of any additional functionalities, or integration with 3rd parties, as needed.
The platform offers a comprehensive after-sales solution. Customers can easily create appointments through their mobile app or customer service channel. Appointments are assigned to agents based on availability. Following this, a detailed work order is generated, capturing customer information and car/EV issues. Technicians assess the required spare parts and labor, applying discounts as needed. The work order life cycle is managed and impacted by technician actions. Catalog-defined spare parts are checked for availability in third-party systems. Customers can upload photos and generate printable forms. The solution ensures a seamless payment process, automatically calculating prices and offering convenient payment options via link or wallet.
Supported by a robust ticketing system, this process ensures smooth communication with customers. Each work order is linked to a ticket, establishing a connection with the associated Car/EV. Upon closure or resolution, customers receive timely notifications via email, SMS, or phone calls
Considering customer loyalty, our solution incorporates gamification across different scenarios. This includes creating tasks/quizzes for customers to play and earn points. Customers can earn digital rewards based on their Car/EV journey through maps. The gamification period can be time-limited, and customers can redeem points with various digital partners like shopping markets, airlines, charging systems, etc.
