LinkedCar

53% of customers who purchase a vehicle from a franchise dealership do not return for service during the fourth year. For an average dealer who sells 1,200 vehicles per year this means a loss of over ₤400,000 for only that year.

It’s obvious the dealer-customer relationship needs to improve. Traditionally, this relationship starts and ends as soon as the customer drives the vehicle home for the first time from the showroom. While car manufacturers are connected with customers and dealers separately via their apps, there is no way for customers and dealers to stay connected. Even if the dealers wish to keep track of their customers' vehicles, they have to navigate through multiple applications. In the age of Amazon, where buying things online is so easy, the customer is unable to understand why there is no simple way to connect with a dealer online and book an appointment.

ALL-IN-ONE PLATFORM FOR DEALERS

"The end customer is not loyal to the dealers because the dealer is not providing what the customer wants," says Mario Schraepen, Founder of Belgium based LinkedCar.To address this concern, LinkedCar developed a Customer First Mobility Platform that can help dealers in providing more than just a car; it will help them retain a customer.

The first thing that the platform will enable is efficiency; a consolidated view of different data-sources including connected car-data so the dealer can react pro-actively and make a real difference for the customer. With a strong base of trusted Salesforce technology, LinkedCars’ Customer First Mobility aims to empower the dealers in their sales and after-sales activities as the platform makes the communication simpler, automated and personalized. The platform is connected with all the different social media channels, thereby helping the dealer to identify potential customers and communicating directly with them.

"DRIVER FIRST"

The data is generated - and therefore also owned - by the driver of the vehicle, and they should have the right to sell this data to any stakeholder. LinkedCar offers a Mobile Consumer App with the "Driver First" motto. They call the driver "ambassador" who can use this app free of cost. The app gives access to the data which can be monetized by these ambassadors. They can sell the data to the interested stakeholders, say, insurers, and will have a record of their driving history as proof while selling their cars. The Mobile Consumer App is like a digital passport of the vehicle.

Like the Customer First Mobility Platform, the Mobile Consumer App accumulates data from all the multiple apps that a customer might be using. They can also connect their partners' vehicle and keep track of the vehicle's maintenance history and insurance. To make sure every car is connected, LinkedCar collaborated with Karel De Grote University and developed a BlackBox equipped with AI technology. This BlackBox is attached to a vehicle, and AI technology can translate the generated data into readable information. The efficacy of this BlackBox is such that it can be used in e-bikes as well.

While the dealers are very conservative in using technology, LinkedCar's platform can serve as a breakthrough product for them as this opens additional business opportunities and improves customer loyalty. As for the customers themselves, the ease of booking an appointment and monetization of the data generated by the 'digital passport' is a bonus.