Not a very long time ago, when we talked about the automotive industry and its concerns, the things that came to mind are manufacturing, management of the supply chain, showroom sales, and finally, after-sales services. As simple as it sounds, the approach often lacked focus on customer experience and didn’t set any grounds for a relationship. The industry has witnessed a growing need for upgrading the approach. The need is so eminent that it can’t be overlooked. The drivers for this need are many. Competition has changed, technology has changed, and most of all, the customer is changed. The modern customer has much higher expectations and is spoilt for choices. More and more industries are recognizing the fact that the present and the future market has to be customer-centric. CEOs and professional are persuading their organizations to go digital. The automotive industry is also following suit. Customer data has never been so important. And that’s where the automotive industry sees the need for Salesforce CRM integration. Here we will talk about what benefits a Salesforce CRM application provides to the automotive industry.
The abbreviation CRM stands for Customer Relation Management, and one can easily make out its definition and purpose just by going through the full form. A CRM defines the strategies and practices that a company follows while interacting with its customers. The Salesforces CRM is one such cloud-based CRM application that provides the industries with a plethora of features that help them achieve growth by optimizing data and providing a 360-degree view of the customer. The Salesforce packages also aim to provide the customers with a seamless and personalized experience and pave the path towards a loyal relationship with the brand. The business wins, and the customer wins. Everyone goes back home happy.
Let’s look at some of Salesforce CRM’s features and how they are set to become a game-changer for the automotive industry.
Automation
Thanks to AI and automation, the Salesforce CRM helps sales teams add tremendous value to their leads handling efforts and capabilities. Real-time data analytics provide ample insight into the customer’s buying history and behaviour. This information plays a crucial role while engaging with the customer and allows higher rates of conversion. The platform also facilitated direct contact with the customers and ensures satisfaction, ultimately resulting in term loyalty. AI-supported analytics also helps create customized and targeted campaigns. It gives the business to engage with the costumes at every touchpoint.
Inventory and Dealership Administration
The Salesforce CRM comes with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) features and considers all kinds of day-to-day business processes in an enterprise like accounting, risk and project management, inventory management, and supply chain management, to name a few. An ERP system streamlines all the functions and processes of businesses. It allows for a never before collaboration between the various branches of the business like sales, marketing, management, etc. The need for this is so much that thousands of companies of all sizes rely entirely on it. By adopting this technology, the automobile sector can save a lot of money and valuable time—car sales, servicing, after-sales care, spare parts order, and customer complaints. Salesforce CRM handles everything smoothly.
Customized Buying Experience
It’s always the customer that receives the best of any system. It is undoubtedly safe to say that the need for Salesforce CRM is actually and ultimately about the customer. Customers today have high expectations and demand satisfaction at every step of their product buying journey. The Salesforce CRM allows the business to interact and engage with the customer on a multitude of platforms like mobile phones, social media, and even in showrooms. The business is able to be present with the customer at every touchpoint. It gathers feedback and inquiries through different mediums and allows for a deep insight into customer behaviour and needs. Engaging with customers is made easy and convenient. The path from searching to test drive and buying becomes much faster and satisfying with this approach.
Database Centralization
Businesses today depend entirely on data for achieving growth, and automotive is no exception. All the data related to sales, inquiries, products, and customers are stored in a centralized server and can be accessed as per requirement. Loss of data and information can mean a serious loss of opportunities, and the Salesforce platform ensures that it doesn’t happen to you. This seemingly easy and generic feature is of tremendous use. It helps create a workflow relating to various aspects of a business like leads tracking, order management, updating records, and much more.
Personalized Customer Service
With its Service Cloud, The Salesforce platforms take customer service to another level. It is designed to address customers’ queries and provide solutions quickly. It enables the executives to engage with the customers at the right time and provide excellent response to their problems and issues. Along with increment in customer satisfaction and loyalty building, it also helps bring down the support cost. According to published data, the Salesforce service cloud increases the customer satisfaction rate by 35%.
The need for Salesforce integration is progressively recognized by many automobile manufacturers and dealers worldwide. The platform is set to become the backbone of growth across all major businesses. The standards are rising, and the automobile sector has to meet customer demands. The automotive industry is going through a slowdown around the globe. And the COVID pandemic has pushed this slowdown to another low. The sector is trying to recover from the slowdown. But the fear of the pandemic is going down really slow.
The Salesforce CRM can be the tool of choice for automotive businesses to acquire and serve their customers with confidence and without much need for in-person interaction, except for delivering the car, of course.