Technology Specialist: Your Next Hire

[joe.pistell]

Idea: on-demand support* via OEM App

*Automated Support via M2M (Machine to machine) communications.

BMW's building it's foundation:

"BMW also is launching smart-phone apps to walk a new owner through the setup of the vehicle’s features and a Genius Hotline that an owner can call from the car."

http://www.forbes.com/sites/katiekerwin/2014/01/13/bmw-asks-does-it-take-a-genius-to-sell-a-car/

 

[Stefan]

Back in 2012 Lexus made every dealership add two new mandatory positions:

• Delivery Specialist
• Technology Specialist

http://pressroom.lexus.com/releases/lexus+crafting+new+approach+customer+relationships+march12.htm

The Delivery Specialist will take the time to do a full delivery no matter how long will take.
The Technology Specialist will be available after the sale/delivery for more advanced classes and also work with customers while in service.

We recently added delivery specialists in all our stores. We like it.

As far as technology goes, Lexus has a App that every Delivery Specialist must use at the time of delivery. This app has things that a DS Must address with every delivery (e.g. how to turn you lights on or of, climate control, how to operate your radio...) and things that are Optional. After every delivery, Lexus can actually tell how much time each DS spend in each area knowing if the customer actually had a full delivery or not.

Personally i think this is a great tool. Think about it: Customer just purchased a $65k SUV. 3 months later she wants to take drive across US and wants to use the navigation. She can't. Brings the car in service and complains that her navigation system doesn't work... However, after a little investigation you find out that when she took delivery she didn't have time to go over the navigation system. Knowing that, instead of generating a service RO and trying to fix the navigation system, you call over the Technology Specialist and go over How- to use the navigation. While all this happens, your sales people can still focus on selling a car!

 

[Chris Cachor]

Stefan, do those positions have other responsibilities within the dealership?

 

[yagoparamo]

Lexus can have espresso delivery guy mandatory if they want to because their market dominance in some of their locations as well the low number of locations serving their markets. Same goes for BMW, Porsche, and perhaps MB. Their dealer network allows for that.

Things change for Ford, Chevy, Toyota, etc. Many owners would have had a heart attack if Cadillac made those positions mandatory as it is hard to make business sense of many points as it is.

 

[Stefan]

They can... for small dealerships most of them have other responsibilities.

Stefan, do those positions have other responsibilities within the dealership?

 

[Stefan]

Lexus can have espresso delivery guy mandatory if they want to because their market dominance in some of their locations as well the low number of locations serving their markets. Same goes for BMW, Porsche, and perhaps MB. Their dealer network allows for that.

Things change for Ford, Chevy, Toyota, etc. Many owners would have had a heart attack if Cadillac made those positions mandatory as it is hard to make business sense of many points as it is.

We made the change for our Toyota store ( 400 cars/month) and it works great. I think success or failure are a direct reflection of each stores leadership and vision.

 

[yagoparamo]

@Stefan

400 cars/month is not your average store.

Not saying is no viable, I'm focusing on the "mandatory" part. I embrace freedom of business leadership and believe in the automotive operator.

 

[WilliamWalker]

@Stefan How many delivery specialist do you have at the 400 car per month store?

 

[JessicaRuth]

J.D Powers just did a fancy survey and the results are in:

New cars have lots of technology with low adoption. But, I say, before we pull the plug on new car technology we need to actually train the consumer on what their new car does.

Latest Blog

 

[craigh]

I spoke with the owner of a User Interface design company that does very large projects for some very large companies.
They had at one time partnered with RIM/BlackBerry to make a concept technology car for CES. The project went nowhere, but in the process they surveyed many people and gathered some interesting data that we were discussing (unfortunately no white papers).

When surveying people, more than 90% agreed that the user interface on their stereo/navigation/Sync/etc was terrible and unintuitive.
Coming from other technology industries I can tell you that cars have always been years behind and they still remain that way - I imagine this is one of the reasons why Apple is willing to invest so much time and resources into researching and exploring this space. MP3 playback, GPS, harddrive music players and more were available everywhere outside the car years before automakers managed to get them integrated.

I know a service advisor at a Ford store who has to pair customer cell phones to their cars for them multiple times per day on a system that was designed to be seamless and simple.