Review the car buying and ownership experience and play back insights and recommendations to Suzuki
Lack of hospitality as part of the test drive experience results in a missed opportunity for building a personal relationship
The introduction of a cup of coffee to the dealership experience along with dealer guidelines and ‘Meet Swara’ film
Business
discovery
Category review
Experience audit
Audience discovery
Journey mapping
Experience principles
Strategic initiatives
Experience idea
Comms
We were mapping the end-to-end car buying and ownership experience to help identify key moments that matter and opportunities for Suzuki. We carried out 50 in-depth interviews with customers – but human insights from my personable experience audits already helped Suzuki improve its dealership experience.
I’m a strong believer in getting out into the real world to test an experience. It’s pointless just sitting in front of one’s own laptop, staring at a screen passively, when reviewing an experience in pretty much any category. Where’s the creative spark going to come from like that?
So, when I got the opportunity at Iris to work on a project to review Suzuki’s Customer Experience, I knew I had to change gears. Cheesy puns aside, but that’s exactly what I did.
“I’m a strong believer in getting out into the real world to test an experience.”
To review a whole automotive Customer Experience is a big undertaking – especially when the remit is the end-to-end journey from car buying to ownership. A true experience will take years and we didn’t have endless time to spend on auditing.
Some real-world action is always better than none. The natural thing I could do was to put myself through one of the key Moments That Matter in the car buying journey: the test drive experience.
If you think about it, going on a test drive really involves many nuts and bolts of an experience: search, website, CRM, dealership experience and, of course, the car itself. It also has a before, during and after stages to it, so it’s a mini journey on its own right.
Put yourself through a test drive process, and you’ll see first-hand how well a brand uses different touchpoints along the way and whether they have an omnichannel strategy in place or not.
So, off I went and started researching various car brands.
“Put yourself through a test drive, and you’ll see first-hand how well a brand uses different touchpoints and whether they have an omnichannel strategy.”
Despite my very proactive hand raising combined with ample digital traces and personal data I left trailing behind me, there were a couple brands that didn’t even get me as far as the test drive. Instead, their Customer Experience put the brakes on. Talk about a real missed opportunity.
My client Suzuki kept the journey moving rather nicely and I was able to happily test drive a Suzuki.
As I put myself through various test drive experiences, I made several observations. The process took real commitment and felt like arduous work at times: research, planning, time – as well as my own fuel. A fickle customer may not persist the whole way. Those little bumps in the Customer Experience can easily sway someone from one brand to the next.
At the point of going to my test drive appointments, I found myself often left to my own devices trying to work out where exactly I was meant to go again. Double-checking hygiene factors like address details took more time and effort than anticipated and were often lost in my inbox.
When you’re rushing for an appointment, it’s small things like this can turn into a bigger pain point. Help me out, Customer Experience!
Going to the dealership is where it all got very real. One thing that really struck me was the absence of follow up. Apart for one manufacturer, I literally had no follow up from the rest. There was surely a role her for a personal phone call and CRM to work together.
These practical observations aside, there was a more fundamental human touch missing in each of the half dozen test drive experiences I put myself through: not a single dealer asked if I’d like a drink. Never mind tea or coffee – I didn’t even get offered a glass of water!
There were times I felt completely parched. Having a glass of water would have made me somewhat chattier; offer me a coffee and I would have happily started chatting about my lifestyle and what I’m looking for in a car to begin with. Perhaps the car I had picked for a test drive wasn’t the only option for me available in the dealership! But alas, the dealers never made the effort to travel this far with me.
Make me feel welcome and wanted; especially when I was walking through the door putting as someone interested in buying a new car! It’s a hugely important and a big-ticket item purchase.
I had good rant about the lack of basic human hospitality to our Suzuki clients and did a whole song and dance about the urgent need for bringing a cup of coffee into the experience. To their credit, they took it all very well, and humoured my personable videos that I had prepared from my experience audits.
“I didn’t even get offered a glass of water! Make me feel welcome and wanted.”
I documented my experience audits on a selfie style video, which I had edited down into short, punchy reviews.
I offered our Suzuki client an example of some very human hospitality from another brand, albeit from a very different category: DoubleTreeHilton.
If you’ve ever checked into a DoubleTree Hilton, you’ll know that after completing your mundane paperwork in the reception that you get a warm chocolate chip cookie in a paper bag. It’s a famous signature brand experience that elevates the end of the check-in process giving you a homely welcome to your DoubleTree hotel and your new room.
Our Suzuki client felt compelled to put things right. They even issued new dealer guidelines where they put the cup of coffee at the heart of the test drive experience. We featured the coffee in a mini-campaign film that was designed to drive people back to test driving a Suzuki, inspiring the ‘Meet Swara’ creative.
We went on to carry out a rigorous audience discovery, interviewing altogether 49 Suzuki and competitor customers, and did a thorough end-to-end customer journey mapping exercise. However, so many actionable things came from my real-world test drive experience audit.
A Customer Experience audit carried out with the full swagger by an experienced strategist will typically deliver quick wins – and identify pain points and opportunities for creative exploration.
Get in touch for a free consultation.
DoubleTree Hilton has developed campaigns around its signature cookie experience, including offering recipes during the pandemic so customers could replicate the DoubleTree style comfort at home.
“An expert CX audit will typically deliver quick wins and identify pain points and opportunities.”
"We did the cappuccino just for you, Antti!"
Copyright © Finntastico Ltd 2024
