VIRTUAL AND CONTACTLESS SALES PROCESS 2.0
1. Contactless TVC Shoots (for Pre Sales)
Some companies gave a social message for Staying at Home through shooting contactless advertising from home. Below is one such example from Honda Civic Ad shot at home.
2. Video Platforms and Live Streaming
In a sign of how the coronavirus is changing car buying, millions of potential Tesla Inc. customers in China just tuned in to a celebrity-led online Livestream touting the U.S. company’s vehicles.
Almost 4 million viewers watched the hour-long show on the Taobao shopping platform on Tuesday afternoon, seeing live streamer and influencer Viya demonstrate Tesla features from the music player to air conditioning, even climbing into the cargo space of a Model S sedan to show how spacious it is. Viewers were asked to book test drives through the site, with a sales rep calling back within 48 hours to make the arrangements.
Brands and dealers are stepping up their presence on video platforms such as Bilibili, Weibo and Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese twin, to launch new models, showcase vehicles, host live broadcasts — and increasingly to close sales. While such apps and websites were previously used mainly to lure buyers to showrooms, this year’s virus pandemic forced dealers to transform them into their primary sales channels.
Electric-car maker NIO Inc. organized more than 2,000 Livestream sessions to “plant seeds” in potential buyers. Many viewers took a test drive as soon as stores could re-open, resulting in sales. To alleviate any concerns about human contact amid the virus, NIO made changes to the test-drive process: customers now can pick up disinfected cars from where they want, receiving instruction videos and authorization codes to unlock the vehicle.
3. Virtual Tours (for Virtual Walk-ins):
Buying a car is all about the experience and feel which was only possible by visiting the showroom and getting live tours of their dream cars, until now. With Virtual Tours, any client can understand and all the real-time experience through their screens while relaxing at home. Although practiced before, this method wasn’t prominent enough since people always had the option of visiting everything old school way. But now when no one can go out, this method has automatically become one of the most useful ones.
Many major brands such as BMW give consumers the ability to visit a digital online showroom that is also incorporated into WeChat (China). Sales workers with whom they can communicate in real-time are directed to customers through the showroom. They can also view images of the various models and prices simultaneously.
4. Live Video Interactions (for Product Demo and explanations):
Live Video Interactions is a great tool to connect with your customers and clients via videos. Buying a car is a long process. Any person buying a car will make sure to investigate everything properly before making the purchase. Financing and meetings are also a huge part of it. All of this can now happen over Live Video Interactions. This not a recent technology but it is now being openly adopted by the Automobile Industry due to COVID-19 lockdown. Industries are completely relying upon such technologies for their sale.
Jaguar Land Rover, UK launched Virtual Showroom and recently upgraded its website with Live Video Interactions as an option. Through these Video sales meetings, consumers can talk directly to experts to respond to questions and answer specific needs, removing the need to visit a showroom.
5. 360-Degree view (for Product demo):
The best and most awaited part of the whole ‘buying a new car experience’ is a complete car tour. It is important for any customer to like the ambience of a car too apart from its other features. This can be tough to do when everyone is locked down at their homes. To counter this problem, technicians came up with a 360-degree view and experience. Many companies even launched a VR Experience to enjoy the 360-degree view to the fullest. Even though this was launched by a few companies before, more companies are using it now and coming up with ideas to make it more interesting. It is not possible to physically come to the showroom and experience any of it, people came up with this method to fight with issues caused by the Coronavirus.
Porsche launched the VR Experience with its new Panamera 4 e-hybrid and technical features in the USA for its customers. They did this through an app that was meant for all the car lovers who cannot come there now.
6. Live Chat Support (for any query or service):
Customer service is of utmost importance to any industry. The automobile industry due to the latest restrictions is now facing trouble to communicate with their customers on a personal level and develop a rapport with them. To overcome this problem, many came up with Live Chat Support. This allows the clients to interact with the professionals on chat and tend to their queries. Live Chat Support is not a new feature, but it was still not common in Automobile Industries. It has been recently adopted by many companies since the hit of COVID came into effect and is giving better results than before.
Mercedes-Benz, the multinational car brand of the company Daimler AG has driven for decades the prestige of the German engineering and automotive industry. They started using live chat to offer a premium service experience on their website for current and potential customers.
7. Contactless Test Drive:
This is a new way that people came up with during COVID times. Customer can simply book a contactless test drive at home after which one of the executives drives the desired car to their location, wipe off interiors and exteriors of the car and the customer gets to keep the car for a few hours. They can do a test drive and the same person will take it back when they are done. Apart from this, online live support enables the customer to directly interact with the people in the showroom to know more about the features of the car or if they have any issue.
Recently, Tesla has begun to offer customers in Beijing and Shanghai “contactless test drive” options. Customers can make a phone appointment and sign an online e-contract. Sales helpers remotely unlock the car and customers can view In-Car video instructions on the centre screen, reducing transmission risks during the entire cycle.
8. ONLINE Ordering and Payments
Customers can now book, buy and pay online. Many OEMs have already started doing this.
9. CONTACTLESS DELIVERY
After choosing vehicle specs, financing and insurance, buyers can opt for a delivery with no human interaction: a driver brings the vehicle to the user’s home or workplace, and a drone then delivers the keys to the customer’s doorstep or balcony.
In six weeks, more than 10,000 consumers ordered and paid for vehicles on Geely’s online mall with a further 110,000 users registering their interest to purchase a vehicle in the short term.
The world, market, and industries are all reshaping in this pandemic. To fit in and grow it is important to adapt to the new methods and rise above all. Studying and researching consumer is the best way to start. You should be aware of everything happening around and keep up with the pace. Providing your customers with an option of online assistance, purchasing, and services is a great solution to all these problems. Look closely, take quick steps, and move further for this is the time of evolution for both, the market and the industry.
These initiatives are just the tip of the iceberg and there are many more actions that can and will need to be done towards Digital and Contactless Transformation. We at Wiserfeed will be happy to support OEMs and Dealers towards evaluating and enabling a rich Consumer Experience across Customer lifecycle through developing an effective new age CX Strategy 2.0.
Please connect with atul@wiserfeed.in for any requirements.
