In sales and marketing, we do not need new complicated technology that stands in our way; we need tools that help us to look after our customers quickly, efficiently, and professionally. Like Automotive CRM.

Christophe Hébé, Customer Experience & Insight Manager, Axess

About Axess 

Axess operates in Mauritius. It is the second largest automobile dealership by market share. The portfolio includes brands like Jaguar, Land Rover, Ford, Peugeot, Citroen, Mazda, Isuzu and Suzuki. From the basic utility vehicle to the powerful luxury status symbol, they have a car for every potential owner.  

Axess is also a specialized supplier of heavy vehicles and agricultural/industrial equipment and offers professional maintenance and repair of all the vehicle brands they sell. 

 

The Challenge 

Axess used CRM functionalities that were part of otherwise powerful on-premise Dealer Management System. However, the system also created some issues that Axess had to overcome to accelerate its business especially in the digital channels:  

Departmental silos

Lack of unified view of customer (requirements, history, current issues in process, sensitivity, value…) across dealership departments or branches. Salespeople did not know about their customers coming for service appointment in the same building. Sensitive customers with active complaints were not flagged for special attention when visiting another branch or department, etc.   

Time consuming manual processes

Activities like direct marketing or customer service communication waste time when orchestrated manually. Closed DMS system was difficult to integrate to marketing or reporting tools and data for targeting and contacts had to be exported manually separately for each campaign.  

Data quality

Customer data, especially contacts and unique identification was inadequate in current DMS system.  There were duplicities, obsolete data, difficult to access across departments. It caused major problem for Aftersales (who need to maintain the relationship with the customer over several years) and for the Debtors department (who need to ensure that all transactions are honoured). 

The solution

Automotive CRM provided Axess with a set of tools that supports its sales processes, connects its customer data with marketing automation module and integrates with existing DMS. There is also a potential for extension with customer service and advanced analytics modules. 

Axess was already using Microsoft software (Office 365, Exchange Online). The choice of Microsoft Dynamics-based platform for their CRM was only logical and highly efficient. The implementation had several distinctive features:

Unified, 360° view of the customer across all the departments. All the transactions, interactions, preferences, scheduled appointments, opportunities, or complaints accessible to those that need them.

Robust sales business process functionalities – Lead and Opportunity management – as can be expected from any good CRM. Automotive CRM is unique for its support of dealer-specific sales processes like vehicle trade-ins, test drive scheduling, contract, and delivery management.

Marketing automation module, benefiting from unified customer data in targeting and orchestration of omni-channel marketing communication. It allows Axess to create specific, personalized, and automated customer journeys, promote and execute events, generate leads in social media and manage marketing content in one platform.

Custom created graphic data dashboards to improve performance of the sales process.

Integration with dealership legacy systems, customization, data migration and onboarding process to ensure optimal functionality within existing dealership process and IT ecosystem.

Fully remote implementation and onboarding – motived both by the distance and COVID19 restrictions.

Benefits for Axess team

Automotive CRM delivered several benefits that improved business operation of Axess sales and marketing department:

  • One platform instead of constant switching and data transfers between 3+ disparate systems and applications.
  • Instant access to relevant customer data in order to provide the best possible service, Be it sales manager, customer service agent, marketing team, technician, accounting or branch manager.
  • True customer journey orchestration, that starts with online marketing and goes through the whole sales, delivery, and aftersales process, with all the relevant customer data.
  • Increased efficiency of test drive planning. less idle time and no double bookings
  • AutomotiveCRM allows Axess to create their own process automations and specific applications using Microsoft Power Platform.
  • Data-driven management helps to improve efficiency and find hidden value.

 

“Our customers expect our services to be personal, reliable and fast. Automotive CRM helps us do just that.” 

Christophe Hébé, Customer Experience & Insight Manager, Axess