By Steve Southin, Co-CEO, PAVE
With COVID-19 creating a ripple effect across the socio-economic fabric of America, life (as most of us know it) has been disrupted, especially with the retail customer journey migrating into the digital landscape. As a new normal materializes, even the more technophobic consumers have taken to digital retail platforms and applications to meet even the most basic of needs.
Many dealers had the choice of either providing the tools and platforms to consumers or boarding up the doors and waiting. Dealers that focused on concentrating resources online, through new features, offers, and technology-led innovations were doing more than keeping the lights on, they were building customer relationships that will last long after this virus fades.
We get a do-over – a chance to turbocharge customer experience.
In January, Tim Odom, president of the AAM Group, gave a presentation on what he considered some of the most disruptive trends we have seen in the past decade and how they have shaped customer experience.
“The greatest disruptor of the last 10 years is Amazon,” Odom said. “How have you changed your business in the past decade? The customer at your door today is different – the same person but with different expectations.”
This rings even more true today as curbside test drives, online shopping, and trade evaluation were sometimes the only options for dealers to sell during state shutdowns.
“…The customer at your door today is different – the same person but with different expectations.”
People can have food from their favorite restaurant delivered to their homes with almost no human contact. And as restaurants reopen, they certainly have not shut down their new drive-through windows and curbside services. Consumers will be congregating online for the foreseeable future restricting visits to physical brick-and-mortar stores, not only out of safety concerns but out of convenience as well.
Dealers have the opportunity to create a memorable and engaging digital journey, that ultimately, will amplify their customer experience moving forward. Rather than going back to the past, all businesses must look forward and provide personalized journeys, touchpoints, and the digital shopping tools customers crave.
Contactless shopping and delivery have become the norm in almost every aspect of retail, and brands must curate specialized and memorable end-to-end digital experiences to attract lasting loyalty that extends far beyond this pandemic.
About the Author
Steve Southin, Co-CEO of PAVE, has 25+ years of automotive retail and wholesale experience. Steve also has 15+ years of technical and startup expertise with his second recent successful exit being the Bumper App, which he brought to market in 2012 and successfully exited through an acquisition by Vicimus Inc. in 2017.