The automotive industry is in the midst of the second great inflection point, shifting from car ownership to mobility solutions. They have to optimise the current business and ramp up for Mobility in parallel - with the same resources on board. Auto makers indeed face change from multiple angles, including:

• Technology: ACES (autonomous, connected, electric and self-driving) vehicles enable a wide range of new use cases. For instance, Audi recently launched functions-on-demand to enable a temporary upgrade of optional equipment and services; an idea well suited to changing vehicle design and on-demand utilisation.
• Culture: It is clear that the perception of a car as a status symbol is changing. In an increasingly urbanised world, getting around cities without a driver's license becomes easier. Self-identification is no longer associated with car ownership.
• Communityy: Increasingly, many cities and governments are imposing clear restrictions on the use of privately owned ICE cars. Singapore, for instance, sets a clear tone, freezing private car ownership since the end of 2017 to fight congestion.

As a result, auto makers are facing a classic “innovator's dilemma”, with its legacy business focusing on vehicle sales, while the market is looking at mobility solutions. This is clearly reflected by Uber's IPO ($70 Bn market cap, at time of writing), while traditional OEMs (e.g. Renault / FCA) are seeking scale to remain afloat.

3 Customer Perspectives from Salesforce World Tour London

At our Salesforce World Tour in London, we had the privilege of seeing a variety of perspectives of the impact of these changes.

1. "Great service for both drivers and passengers is key for Addison Lee, especially as the industry will gradually shift to self-driving vehicles."

Addison Lee is Europe’s largest premium car service, operating in more than 350 cities and transporting 10 million passengers every year. The company's 5 year strategy focuses on growth, whilst putting the passenger at the heart. “Our service is key to getting an emotional connection with the brand”, Matt Baker, Head of CRM at Addison Lee, explained.

Leveraging Service Cloud, Addison Lee improves services for the passengers (e.g. simple escalations of lost items) as well as for the drivers (e.g. contract changes). In the next months, the company will explore how messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp can be leveraged, how bots can automate the volume of incoming requests and how voice AI/NLP can create even more seamless experiences.

Clearly, these initiatives are key for the future of mobility. “As the industry evolves to driverless vehicles, putting the passengers in control through voice AI and giving them the right control through their preferred channels is absolutely key.”

2. "Jaguar Land Rover is exploring a variety of new retail and mobility models and mobility solutions, as part of its ACES strategy."

Jaguar Land Rover is the UK's largest automotive manufacturer, having grown from ~150K units in 2009 to ~600K in 2018 and delivering award winning vehicles such as the I-PACE. Equally as impressive as the vehicles, is JLR's approach to the future of mobility, as Matthew Simpkins, GM Overseas Customer Experience, explained.

On the one hand, JLR is enhancing its retail activities by exploring new channels to reach the customers. For instance, it has launched an online sales advisor in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore to streamline the online/offline experience.

On the other hand, JLR set up its InMotion subsidiary to provide new mobility solutions whilst still connected to its R&D and engineering functions. These include Carpe Drive (all-inclusive, unlimited driving for 12 months), THE OUT (On-demand premium car rental exclusively for Londoners), Earn as you drive (sharing non-identifiable vehicle telemetry data to improve road services and earn drivers credits for smart services such as tolls, parking and charging) and its self-driving partnership with Waymo.

“All OEM's are exploring a range of mobility services, recognising that the next generation will demand the same level of convenience and personalisation as Netflix and Amazon deliver today”, Matthew concluded. 

3. "Inchcape aims to become the world's most trusted automotive distributor and retailer. We are preparing for new mobility solutions, whether it's an evolution or revolution."

The role of the retailer and distributor will undeniably change, given shifting customer behaviors and new business models resulting from ACES.

Inchcape, a global retailer and distributor group active in 30+ markets representing 40 brands, is clearly at the forefront of this change. Paul Leon, IT Director for Business Development and Customer Experience, explained how the company is currently personalising marketing and service, building a 360-degree customer view that is closely integrated with its legacy systems, leveraging Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud and MuleSoft.

With regards to the future of mobility, Paul stated clearly that “the implementation will be influenced by a number of market factors such as size, emerging or established, and rural or urban which may have their own complexities”. In Singapore, for instance, Inchcape has a strategic partnership with Grab and Toyota to optimize vehicle utilisation. In Australia, new network configurations such as pop-up experiences and small service workshops in shopping centres, for example in Subaru Australia. Finally, in South America, the mobility approach focuses more on commercial vehicle telematics.

Collaboration in the value chain is clear: “We continue to support our valued Brand OEM partners, and look to Salesforce and other technology partners to be able to collaborate with us in the execution of our vision.”, Paul concluded.

Creating a connected customer experience

Connected customer management is the key to successfully implement mobility services and customer centricity has to be the starting point. In order to add value and deliver a seamless and convenient journey for a customer, new capabilities along the value chain have to be developed. A unified platform requires 4 fundamental elements:

1. Customer management to steer personalised customer journeys, from engage from unknown, to known to connected, covering a.o.

• Registration: Mobile-first, 24/7 service and assistance, bots, certification and customer self service
• Booking & Payment, Usage: One-click only solutions needed. Multi-channel real time booking (home, mobile, in car)
• LBS (location based services), FOD (functions on demand): Usage of the service combined with IoT and Analytics to offer the right service based on user behaviour and location situation in real time
• Experience, Sharing & Loyalty management: Communities, recommendations and experience sharing will be key for success for the services to be successful in a complex growing mobility landscape. Instant feedback and rating will be key (similar to Airbnb, Uber, Amazon), personalised offers based on user behaviour

2. Vehicle Management to manage different solutions in every city

• Service, After Sales, Parts: Overnight service, predictive maintenance, insurance and order management. Scheduling of all partners for repairs in cleaning, real time information about cars, damages
• Payment Solutions and Communication: Partner Communities, integration of pricing, offers, billing for extended vehicle partner network and local dealers
• Analytics & IoT: Real-time dashboards, predictions and information about weather, traffic, break down of public transport (higher need of fleet)

3. Mobility Ecosystem Management to interact efficiently with different partners in each country, region and city

• Dealers: Insurance management, predictive maintenance, overnight service, parts, local on demand solutions etc.
• Logistic Partners: Car fleet move (till full autonomy), fleet exchange, cleaning, on demand parts delivery…
• Steer cooperation with Mobility Platform providers and Aggregators: Data integration in order to make service available for already existing Mobility users. Everywhere there are local solutions that are ”best in town” (democratise the service and speed up roll out in different cities / regions)

4. Business Operations Management to focus on scale and easy onboarding of all stakeholders

• Governance: 360° view to the customer, maximum reliability and transparency within the whole partner network. Right access to right information between all partners, data integration, customisable lightning tools, secure and easy to implement sales and payment solutions for partner network, management of partner communities etc.
• Roll-out and Scale: Customisable solution elements for maximum speed 
• Education, training and on boarding of key stakeholders: Customisable online learning tools to speed up local partners, extended partner network network, knowledge sharing about new technologies and services in real time

Find out more

The future of mobility is a superbly interesting and deep topic. If you are keen to hear more, feel free to reach out to Jessica Geutner (jgeutner@salesforce.com) or me (bpannecoeck@salesforce.com) directly.