The Future of Buying a Car
The Context:
To create an in-house conceptual pitch to encourage existing automobile clients to initiate future-thinking digital projects.
The Problem:
Auto-shoppers say that the sales experience at the dealership is the N.1 influencer of brand loyalty but with the dealer visits declining from an average of 5 in 2005 to an average of 2 a day, brans have fewer opportunities to influence customers in person. Buying a car nowadays is stale: a long lengthy and quite overwhelming process for the car-enthusiast as well a the regular Joe. How do we inject excitement and ease into this process? What does the future of car buying look like? We were commissioned in-house to create a sales-piece on the future of the car-industry
The Solution:
A fully fledged eco-system connecting the digital and physical experiences of car buying, creating a two-way interactive omni channel approach that creates a win-win for OEM'S and customers. A conversational approach: guiding the user seamlessly from device to device as they embark on their car-purchase journey.
Customer buying trends included shared ownership, subscription models, personalisation, more transparency etc
My Role:
User Experience Design and prototyping animation - I was involved heavily from beginning to end of crafting the entire conceptual user journey flow working closely with the Creative Directors
The Year:
2020
The Storyboard
It's all about the conversation
Personalise your experience
Branch of preferences to give user control over their experience
Eva can at any time, modify where and how she interacts with the ecosystem. She feels she’s in control of the experience and an active part of the conversation
Proactive & Intelligent Solutions
With a CDP and an empathetic approach the ecosystem can not only make more relevant suggestions, but it can also find the right moments in the customers lifecycle to act on these insights.
The user experience in the ecosystem is all about enabling a dialogue regardless if you’re in traditional chat mode or pure interaction mode. The user can at any moment switch between: writing, using voice or use the interactive elements in the interface.
Eva get’s the optimal options for her at the right moment and is guided through it in the way she prefers at that moment.
Suggesting realtime options with empathy
The ecosystem gives the AI access to the users behaviour and preferences and can not only make an educated guess, compile several options for the customer but also make sure that whatever it suggests is actually available in the local inventory.
Eva doesn’t have to research, the research is done for her, and it’s based on her interests and prior behaviour making it easier for her to narrow down her options. And quickly dive into the option that suits her best.
Building context with relevant content.
Leveraging single customer view, the AI can build a stronger relationship by educating, providing content and suggesting experiences relevant to the car they’re having a discussion about.
Eva feels exited about a potential test drive, it’s not just a test drive for her, it’s also an opportunity to go out on an adventure and get a real sense of how this car can enable her lifestyle.
Leveraging a community.
By incetivising a community to take shape not just around the brand but car models, the ecosystem can expand the inventory of vehicles available for test drives. This allows allows the OEM not only to find suitable options in the viscinity of the customer, but also pair the customers with community members that has interests in common. With this approach, we leverage true word of mouth from brand advocates
Eva gets the opportunity to not just go out on an adventurous test drive but also connect with a community member that uses the car in similar fashion..
Immersive configurator.
Enabling the customers to view and modify the vehicle within their own environment, building a visual and scale reference closer to reality. Helping them make more well informed choices.
Eva can clearly get a sense of size and dimensions and see how modifications affects the final product.
Including the community.
The ecosystem leverages the community to take on parts of the journey by providing them with the tools to connect, track and complete tasks.
Eva gets a more personal and friendly experience of not just the test drive but also what the community is like.
Leveraging third party technology.
By expanding the ecosystem through multi module interactions, the conversation is kept alive with multiple sources being involved in the experience. Reducing the weight of the owned AI, and being able to adapt to the customers sensitivity.
Eva gets a clear overview and summary of her all the details and add-ons that she’s discussed with Jim so far.
Genuine social validation.
Integrating 3rd party digital applications helps the ecosystem build trust by bringing the conversation to the customers own social circles.
Eva feels taken care off and not only pushed to buy, which builds trust as well as making it easier for her to bring in the opinions of people she truly trusts.
Conversational check-out.
By accommodating the customer in the way they want to interact, the ecosystem can be flexible enough with the conversational design to breakdown heavier content into manageable pieces of information that flows naturally into a dialog. Creating a greater transparency between the customer and the brand.
Eva has support in shape of a conversation with Jim throughout the entire check-out process. Helps her get a clear understanding and realtime suggestions and answers at the moment of purchase.
Customized delivery.
The customer can choose how they want to get the car, they can pick it up, or get it delivered anywhere they want either with using reward points that they have accumulated or for an extra small fee.
Eva gets updates and can follow the delivery until the car arrives at her doorstep. Making her feel comfortable and secure about her vehicle.
Personalized set up.
Knowing Evas preferences, the new car experience can be customized for her. Ensuring customer satisfaction while giving her information about her new car.
Building community and loyalty.
By leveraging partnerships through an open API platform, the ecosystem could use for example OTA’s as added value building opportunities to create brand advocates.
Eva always gets interesting suggestions suiting her lifestyle and interests, that elevates her driving experience and keeps car feeling new and interesting in a seamless way.
Concierge customer service
By automating the booking process for services and repairs, the ecosystem is able to assist customers with somewhat tedious tasks and offers a frictionless solution.
Eva doesn’t always have the time to look after her cars needs due to her busy lifestyle so by simplifying the process Eva is able to get on with her life without much disruption.
Proactive & intelligent suggestions
With a CDP and an empathetic approach the ecosystem can not only make more relevant suggestions, but it can also find the right moments in the customers lifecycle to act on these insights.
Eva get’s the optimal options for her at the right moment and is guided through it in the way she prefers at that moment.
