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The automotive customer experience of the future is here today

“It used to be that the auto industry, and the car itself, were part of a self-contained ecosystem. That’s all been turned on its head; we now have disruption coming from every angle.”

—Bill Ford, Executive Chairman, Ford Motor Company

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Digital is disrupting industry fundamentals

A major player in the automotive world concedes to change. Now that’s a disruption. And we think Mr. Ford’s statement couldn’t be more relevant for today’s automotive industry. In fact, we’ve adopted it as a springboard into launching the next generation of the automotive experience.

The driver experience is no longer all about the car and the open road. Today we have congestion and distraction, and an expectation on significant integration. Vehicles are becoming part of the larger ecosystem, and that means a constant flow of disruption with things like autonomous cars, changing customer expectations around ubiquitous services, car-sharing services, pay-as-you-go insurance, and vehicles that are now an extension of home management systems. Ten years ago, many of these products and services were not even an option. But digital trends continue to break barriers at a rapid pace.

What we need is transformation and automotive companies need a partner that’s committed to this journey, and that’s where Microsoft comes in.

Digital transformation offers a critical advantage across your business

We are heavily invested in the automotive industry as we partner with its leaders to continually drive innovation. Our focus is on walking alongside both vehicle manufacturers and suppliers through their digital transformation path, delivering unique automotive experiences around cloud infrastructure and services.

The automotive industry is first and foremost a product-driven industry and the importance of digital transformation has never been more important as it is today. This is all about how companies take advantage of a connected experience to:

  • Engage customers, such as the work Volvo Cars is doing with HoloLens to make the car buying more experiential.
  • Use productivity tools to empower employees wherever they may be, like what Dana Holding Corp. is doing to achieve greater accuracy and better product launches with Office 365.
  • Leverage data to predict problems before they happen so operations are stronger than ever before, modeling after the breakthrough work Jabil is doing to set new standards in manufacturing with predictive analytics.
  • Utilize technology to transform the products and business models, including Delphi Automotive’s work to make any car a connected car.

chris-auto-2-300A new brand of customer experience: The Incadea Dealer 4.0 showcase

How we are investing in the automotive industry? By partnering with its leaders to continually drive innovation around Automotive Customer-Experience Management. Our strategy is to help automotive OEMs and their dealers deploy consistent processes across all channels; unite data to provide a single, 360-degree view of the customer; and provide insight across all data to facilitate better decision making.

To bring this new kind of customer experience to life, Microsoft has partnered with Incadea, a Cox Automotive company, to transform the traditional dealership into an interactive, customer-friendly, high-tech experience. Dealer 4.0 is the experience of the future, realized now and powered by Microsoft technologies including Microsoft Azure, Windows 10, Cortana Intelligence Suite, Microsoft Cognitive Services, and Microsoft Kinect.

By bringing the brand to the customer, Incadea’s Dealer 4.0 supports the customer journey from OEM and dealer websites and social media through to physical retail locations. This starts by drawing in consumers to a boutique showroom situated at, for example, a shopping mall, where consumers then can discover and decide through state-of-art digital and non-digital tools and consultation. The journey ends with prospective customers receiving a quote for the car of their interest and discussing next in the prospective sale—from having a test drive to signing the deal.

Throughout this process, comprehensive data is being captured in incadea.myengine, then analyzed in the background using Azure and Cortana Intelligence Suite. This empowers the dealer to better understand customer needs in order to more fully customize the overall experience and in the end, increase the conversion rate.

This business model is an exciting technology-rich concept with nearly limitless capabilities, helping to revolutionize the way car manufacturers and dealerships sell cars, position their brands, and do business with a seamless, end-to-end lifecycle. I encourage you to check it out for yourself by watching the Dealer 4.0 demonstration from the Automechanika Frankfurt trade fair in September 2016.

LinkedIn: Chris Harries

Twitter: @chrisharauto