The automotive retail customer experience is set to change in South Africa after Germany-based information and communications technology multinational T-Systems released its customer experience management (CEM) system last month.

The automotive CEM system enables customers to access information about vehicles on a showroom floor quickly and easily and to interact with sales and service dealer staff or the automotive brand using their smartphones, says T-Systems South Africa automotive manufacturing industry head Michael Frans.

The system is an integrated platform for customer engagement, focused on sales and after-sales engagement, and can be effectively deployed at individual sites or across multiple sites of a company. The software-as-a-service system in South Africa uses the Midrand-based T-Systems cloud infrastructure.

Small wireless beacons are placed within or near the vehicles, motorbikes and accessories in a showroom that communicate with smartphones within a 5 m radius. The beacons enable customers to access information, videos and images, as well as download technical specifications and book test-drives using their smartphones, says T-Systems Germany CEM expert Andreas Neundorf.

The system gives a singular view of clients and enables multiple communication channels to be used collectively for sales and after-sales services, which improves client information available to personnel and customer experience when engaging the company.

“An automotive retailer can manage customer experiences more effectively and the sales personnel benefit from using high-quality information that provides good sales leads for them to pursue. Sales can be impacted on by a poor after-sales experience, while after-sales services can lose clients if the sales experience was poor – hence, the need for a unified view of client experience,” says Neundorf.

The system can also improve customer service and experience in used-car showrooms, with users also able to access information about vehicles easily, and in service dealerships by enabling clients to easily book their cars in for services and be kept notified of progress.

“We advise that automotive retailers provide free WiFi for clients in their showrooms during working hours. As customers have to sign up, it enables basic details to be collected and linked to the time and proximity of a customer’s device to a specific vehicle or the time spent viewing information about the vehicles,” says T-Systems Intervate head Lionel Moyal.

The T-Systems CEM system is one part of the digital transformation of the automotive industry, and complements and reinforces the connected car systems that T-Systems can deploy, says Frans.

The connected car system uses on-board diagnostics, which most post-1990 automotive models have, connects this to a cloud-based service and then uses the information to provide broad, detailed and personalised services for owners, explains Neundorf.

“For example, using the on-board diagnostics, we can inform a client that his or her car requires repairs or maintenance well ahead of time, enabling the person to plan. A connected car system can provide significantly better customer experiences,” he says.

However, the connected car system has much broader functionality than just providing customer experience management, as drivers can be informed if the on-board diagnostics indicate a potential breakdown, thereby improving safety. The information can also be used to determine driver behaviour and risks, enabling the systems to feed information to many industries linked to the automotive industry, explains Frans.

“The connected car system is ready for deployment in South Africa and we have proved the concepts through the more than one-million connected cars on our systems currently,” he concludes.