Phone, email, chat or face to face: which channels should you use for your customer contacts? The House of Contact Centers examines this topic every two years. ALD Automotive has already successfully opted for chatbot. And car dealer Malcorps Motors went all-in with a 360° solution.

• Belgians are sticking with traditional channels: among the remote channels, the telephone remains the most popular – even among young people – at 36%.
• Physical contact is declining year on year. 
• Customers prefer physical and telephone contact when it comes to financial questions or questions involving emotion. Then they want immediate action.
• They use email equally in almost every situation.
• Chat is only a preferred channel for simple questions about products, orders and deliveries. 
• A menu of choices or IVR is a source of enormous irritation.

The ‘traditional’ clients that ALD Automotive is in contact with are company fleet managers. “They call us during office hours and we send them info by letter or e-mail”, said Katie De Meerleer. “The private client would rather get in touch with us after office hours – and preferably any time of the day or night. The problem is we don’t have people in our contact center outside office hours.”

The profile of our clients is changing and so are their expectations. Both the private and the professional client want speedier answers to their questions. That got ALD Automotive thinking. “So we came up with the idea of adding extra channels – alongside phone and e-mail – such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. We link up a chatbot to them so we can respond to our clients night and day.”

As soon as he started work at the dealership a few months ago, Dimitri Gose decided to speed up the user experience by, among other things, upgrading communication tools. But the priority was clear: “No compromise. The proposed solution must combine state-of-the-art equipment, efficient service, guaranteed connectivity and seamless integration with our business applications. An innovative package that I found at Proximus thanks to the support and advice of Cartronics (exclusive partner of Proximus).”

Customer experience is a real leitmotif for car dealerships. The ‘Digital Automotive’ initiative is proof, which frames the digital transformation of the entire ecosystem world-wide. Dimitri Gose, Director of Operations for Malcorps Motors: “Car dealerships invest considerable resources in marketing to develop their image and attract customers to their showrooms and workshops. When a customer does contact us, we simply must provide a quality response to their request as quickly as possible.” 

“Technology is logically part of this approach that aims to digitally optimize the entire distribution chain. In other words, after configuring their vehicle on the web, customers come to our dealership and we do our part. To do this, we have opted for a 360-degree solution for our telecommunications in order to support the human factor”, explains Dimitri Gose. And the excellent results in terms of customer satisfaction confirm this winning strategy initiated by the Volvo distributor in Wavre.

Adapt to customers, not the other way around. This is what it is all about, according to Dimitri Gose. “We addressed our weaknesses in customer service by thoroughly optimizing our telephony.” No more lost calls and countless messages that are never dealt with. The Call Connect solution allows each employee, from the workshop to management, to manage everything from their smartphone or computer. And best of all, we have added Voice Assist, an interactive message-taking system using Artificial Intelligence. This way, the customer cannot be forgotten.” 

And that is not the only advantage for the director of operations at Malcorps Motors.  "Our customers are in direct contact with technicians, our employees gain mobility, and we have an additional weapon in the war for talent thanks to a future-proof work culture.”

Dimitri Gose even went further by outsourcing the management of his mobile fleet. Proximus’. Engage Packs are a global solution combining the leasing of mobile devices with high-value services. “As well as reducing operational costs, we can be assured of always having high-performance and robust tools, of managing the fleet remotely and, above all, of ensuring a level of security that is essential in our business.” 

Ever since the integration of the Proximus’ new solutions, our 25 employees have a unique platform that combines Teams, Call Connect, a powerful Wi-Fi network via Meraki antennas, Volvo business applications, and even digital signage screens in the dealership. “Our internal communication has also changed. We have succeeded in seamlessly centralizing needs”, emphasizes Dimitri Gose, without forgetting the security aspect that is at the heart of the Proximus ecosystem. “The fact that the Volvo Cars Belgium infrastructure is already supported by the Explore network was a big plus for us.”

Taking a more global look, Dimitri Gose sees that the automotive industry is shifting from being a supplier of equipment to a supplier of more global mobility solutions. “According to a study by our federation, barely 6% of consumers is ready to follow a fully digital process when purchasing their vehicle. I also acknowledge the impact that disruptive players can have on the market and that we have no choice but to enter this era of advanced technology. We are migrating our resources to the cloud and we are looking at the benefits that 5G could bring us, for example.”

“We addressed our weaknesses in customer service by thoroughly optimizing our telephony.”