Automotive Industry: Top 4 Challenges in Customer Support  

In a rapidly evolving automotive landscape, great customer support has become a key differentiator for car manufacturers and dealerships. The automotive industry is undergoing significant transformations, with the rise of electric vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems, and connected car technologies leading the charge. At the same time, customer expectations are evolving, and the demand for efficient, personalized support continues to grow. To stay competitive and maintain customer loyalty, automotive companies need to evolve the way they provide customer support. 

The data supporting the importance of customer support is clear: According to Innovation Nation report by Capgemini, 80% of customers report that immediate responses to requests influence their loyalty to a given brand. Furthermore, Personalization Pulse Check research by Accenture found that 91% of automotive consumers are more likely to make a purchase from companies that offer personalized experiences. In this article, we will discuss three common customer support challenges in the automotive industry and how Documill can help address these challenges. 

Challenge #1: Centralizing support for brands and dealerships 

Automotive manufacturers typically oversee a multitude of brands and dealership networks, which results in a fragmented and inconsistent customer support experience. In fact, 70% of customers say that companies should collaborate on their behalf so that they do not have to communicate the same information again and again to different representatives. Meanwhile, support teams face the challenge of accessing and consolidating information from various sources, making it difficult to provide consistent and personalized support. 

How, then, can automotive companies overcome these hurdles and create a more cohesive, efficient, customer support experience? The answer lies in embracing a holistic customer communication strategy;, one that unifies support for brands and dealerships into a single platform. This approach empowers support agents to have a 360-degree overview of their customers —purchase history, service records, personal communication preferences—thus enhancing their capacity to deliver tailored support across various channels. 

Not only does this unified approach enhance the customer experience, but it also streamlines internal operations and fosters collaboration among support teams, creating a more proficient support ecosystem. One of our automotive customers, a leading German car manufacturer, has consolidated support for its network of brands and business units into one single Salesforce organization. This unified approach grants support agents real-time access to all necessary customer data, allowing them to provide personalized support experiences and respond swiftly to customer inquiries. Consequently, the group witnessed a remarkable reduction in average response time and an uptick in customer satisfaction scores. 

Challenge #2: Meeting the evolving expectations of digitally savvy customers 

 Today’s automotive industry is rapidly transforming, and a significant driver of this change is the rise of digitally savvy customers, specifically the millennial generation. According to McKinsey, millennials are expected to represent more than 45 percent of the potential car-buying cohort in 2025. Raised in the digital era, millennials have grown accustomed to seamless, convenient experiences provided by consumer-tech giants like Apple, Amazon, and Uber. These high expectations don’t wane when engaging with automotive manufacturers and dealerships. 

The need of the hour for automotive companies is to leverage insights from consumer-tech sector leaders and overhaul their digital customer support services. They must strive to offer a connected, consistent experience across multiple touchpoints, online and offline. This means around-the-clock available customer support, omni-channel presence and personalized communication. 

Challenge #3: Keeping pace with rapidly evolving technologies 

The automotive industry is witnessing a technological revolution with the emergence of electric vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), connected car technologies, and other innovations. These advancements present a significant challenge for customer support teams who need to stay informed and competent in addressing an expanding range of customer inquiries and concerns. 

 The importance of knowledgeable and efficient support staff cannot be overstated, especially in light of Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer report. The report found that 88% of customers believe the experience a company provides is as crucial as its products or services. Having their burning issues solved and questions promptly answered is a major part of an ideal experience.  

For instance, a dealership faced with questions about the latest EV charging infrastructure or ADAS functionality must be prepared to provide comprehensive answers. This requires a robust knowledge management system and continuous support staff training to keep pace with the rapidly evolving landscape.  

Challenge #4: Ensuring data security and compliance across borders 

 As the automotive industry continues to innovate and digitize, the volume and sensitivity of data being handled has exponentially increased, elevating data security and compliance to a critical challenge. This is especially important in the realm of customer support, where sensitive customer data such as personal contact information, vehicle data, service history, and even financial details are routinely processed. Automotive companies also often operate across multiple geographical regions, each with its own data protection laws, making compliance even more complex. 

Given that vehicles are becoming more connected, the sensitivity and value of the data they generate have grown dramatically. A study by McKinsey predicts that the value of car data could reach €450-750 billion worldwide by 2030. This heightens the responsibility for automotive companies to secure this data, especially in customer support interactions. 

Furthermore, in another research by McKinsey, survey respondents consider trustworthiness and data protections to be nearly as important as price and delivery time. Data breaches not only result in substantial financial losses but also damage a company’s reputation, emphasizing the necessity for robust data security measures and compliance protocols. 

How Documill and Salesforce help solve these challenges?

Staying ahead in the rapidly evolving automotive industry starts with equipping support agents with powerful tools and a 360-degree customer view. Storing all customer data into one central platform like Salesforce eliminates the inefficiencies that occur with disconnected teams and data silos.  

Integrated with the powerful Salesforce Service Cloud, email-centric customer communication solutions by Documill are designed to address the unique customer support challenges faced by the automotive industry. Below are some ways that Documill elevates Salesforce Service cloud capabilities, enabling your support teams to deliver consistent and personalized customer experience: 

Support for multiple brands and languages 

Documill enables support teams to work efficiently across various brands and services, with advanced logic handling multiple brands, markets, and languages. Advanced logic ensures that the right response templates are automatically selected based on pre-defined conditions, such as case language or agent’s business unit, ensuring that all communication is accurately tailored and relevant, enhancing the overall customer experience. 

Easy to access knowledge base 

Documill’s advanced features, such as the drag-and-drop knowledge base, empower support agents to provide tailored answers, for example to a specific car model’s specification, quickly and accurately. The centralized knowledge base, curated by service managers and technical experts, ensures access to up-to-date and accurate information, allowing agents to seamlessly incorporate pre-approved text modules into their email responses. 

Solid integration within service console 

Documill’s seamless integration with Salesforce service console, connected to vehicle and related data, provides support agents with a single platform for a 360-degree view of the customer. This comprehensive view enables agents to quickly understand the customer’s history, preferences, and any previous interactions with the company, allowing them to deliver personalized and efficient support.

Leading security 

Documill is committed to upholding rigorous international standards including ISO 27001 and the specialized automotive industry Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange (TISAX). This robust security framework ensures a secure environment for support agents to handle customer queries, keeping customer trust intact, and enhancing your brand’s reputation. 

…And we can offer even more!

In the face of rapid industry transformation, the automotive sector stands at a crossroads. Navigating the complexity caused by multiple brands, languages and product configurations, meeting the soaring expectations of digitally savvy customers, and taking advantage of the rapidly evolving automotive technologies are the key challenges that automotive companies face. Digital transformation of customer support is no longer a luxury, but a must-have. And those who can deliver exceptional customer support experience will gain a significant advantage in the ever-increasingly competitive automotive market.

Contact us to get a demo – or just to drop a word.