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The opportunity for automotive is moving online

Daniel Davenport
2020-05-14

CX and EX design and development has never been more important than it is now. Consumer and employee work and life patterns have been disrupted by the pandemic, and everyone has become even more dependent on digital channels to buy and sell goods and services, including automobiles.

We know from our global teams in China that restart and recovery efforts are driven by enhanced digital touchpoints. Online channels that communicate quality information and deliver useful tools have separated laggards from leaders.

With this in mind, we celebrate Capgemini’s inclusion in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CRM and Customer Experience Implementation Services. These are the components of building the CX touchpoints so critical to our automotive clients’ ability to recover and reclaim their customers.

There are indications that the pandemic will influence future buying patterns. Recent research shows half of under-35s aim to use public transport less often and take their cars more often in the future and 44% will make less use of ride-hailing due to health and safety concerns. The market demands CX solutions that build relationships, across any touch point, context, or time – and many of those will need to be contactless.

From our work with Chinese OEMs, we know that companies which have placed a premium on enhancing customer-centric digital channels have seen faster sales recoveries.

“Our colleagues in China have led the way as the world adapts to contactless sales and service delivery,” said Michael Hessler, Leader, Capgemini North America, Automotive Practice. “We believe our capabilities to deliver personalized and relevant customer experiences allows us to create sustainable competitive advantages for our automotive clients.”

Working with platform partners like Salesforce, we have developed an accelerator called the customer engine that provides a jump start for CRM projects to address all the audiences in the ecosystem, from consumers to OEM employees to dealers and third-party providers. Having an end-to-end view of CRM from sales to service is more important than ever to ensure a seamless process across the full sales and ownership journey.

Our partnership with Salesforce reaches into our deep global understanding of the automotive sector. Working with our industry experts and our Salesforce colleagues, we have built a platform accelerator that connects the complex ecosystem of manufactures, dealers, and third-party providers with the customers they serve. We know that buyers around the world are facing new conditions and concerns, and our Salesforce solutions can meet those needs.

At Capgemini, we work with our clients to integrate online and offline touchpoints to create an omni-channel experience to meet the changing needs of consumers. Being recognized as a leader by Gartner at this critical time, for these critical capabilities, shows our clients and partners they can rely on us to bridge the gap between beautiful creative and powerful data to provide seamless, simple CX platforms to serve our clients’ customers and partners.

Daniel Davenport works with mobility providers to create the next generation of transportation products and services. As a Principal in the Automotive Practice, he uses his experience as a marketer, technologist, and strategist to help companies transform. He can be reached at daniel.davenport@capgemini.com.