Automotive leader builds proactive outreach program to surprise and delight customers

As conversations move from dealerships and garages to social media channels and online forums, automotive companies have more detail than ever about their customers and prospects. The challenge that remains is exactly what to do with that information and how to shape it into a premium and engaging customer experience that drives brand loyalty.

Recently, a leading multinational automobile manufacturer found a fun and creative way to crack that nut. While the company has had a social media team since 2012 — with team members using Sprinklr Social to address inbound customer concerns on social channels — it had not yet attempted to run proactive campaigns focused on positive engagement with fans.

When the automaker’s new social media and customer experience manager joined the team in 2018, he was excited to explore new ways to listen to and engage with customers on social channels. He set his sights on reshaping the social team into a more empowered unit, where they could take advantage of the full suite of tools at their disposal to surprise and delight customers.

First, the new manager renamed the team. As the Customer Experience team, they were now charged with shaping the customer experience rather than simply fielding inbound inquiries. They set about executing a three part strategy.

1. Engage customers who love your brand

Many companies are forced to do the best they can with what they’ve got, which means their social strategy is more of a fire-fighting strategy: they only have enough bandwidth to respond to unhappy customers who have a problem with the product or service they’ve received. Using Sprinklr Social together with Sprinklr Insights has enabled the Customer Experience team to do much more: not only can they identify and help customers who need it, but they can also engage with customers who love the brand.

The Customer Experience team is equipped to provide dealership locator information for vehicles to test drive, accessory information, and resources to determine the best vehicle to fit the customers’ needs. Team members also work closely with Sales Call Center agents, who engage directly with customers and dealerships to assist with purchases. In addition, the team

2. Surprise and delight them with free merch

The Customer Experience team now uses Social Listening to find people sharing their love for their cars in order to surprise and delight them with company swag. As part of the Mileage Milestone Program, the team keeps an eye out for owners posting photos of odometers with significant mileage milestones. When the team spots these photos, they reach out to send free, celebratory stickers that customers can put on their cars, laptops, or water bottles. "It's a physical connection for our fans," says the manager. "And the Customer Experience team really, really loves doing it."

They also love being empowered to turn around bad experiences to regain and retain customer loyalty. The company established a Virtual Service Credit program that allows them to do just this: if a customer complains about a service experience, agents can issue a digital credit to help them pay for future services or car accessories at a dealership.

3. Follow up with those you left hanging

The Customer Experience team has made a habit of following up with customers for whom they did not have an answer when they first reached out. If a customer asks when a new car model is coming out, for example, but the company doesn’t have the answer yet (or can’t share it at that time), the team can tag the comment and follow up later, once they have more details to share. “​​We had thousands of customers asking us about a hot new car, and we didn't have any information to share with them other than to stay tuned and keep following,” explains the manager. “So we started applying the re-engagement tag to those comments, and we would reach back out to them with more information when we had it. Customers were just absolutely blown away that we remembered their questions and followed up with personal messages.” Automated tagging capabilities in Sprinklr’s Sprinklr Service product suite enable this.

Smart Replies use AI to analyze conversations with the customer and automatically surface suggested responses based on previous answers and pre-loaded responses. A Salesforce integration now pulls in CRM data to create efficiency for agents that need historical data. If a customer has a case in Salesforce, the information is automatically pulled into Sprinklr for quick, easy and accurate documentation. Social care automations have also helped to increase the number of outbound messages by nearly 10 percent. More than 675 work days have been saved thanks to workflow automations.

"We’re honored to celebrate a 10-year partnership milestone this year, as we continue to support their focus on proactive customer experience management," says Ragy Thomas, Sprinklr founder, advisor to the CEO and chairman of the board. "Our strong relationship over the past 10 years reflects our shared commitment to provide seamless and unified experiences on whatever channel customers choose. Congratulations to the team for its outstanding customer experience success. We look forward to what we’ll accomplish together for our next milestone."