Keyloop’s approach to automotive retail is designed to captivate customers and build loyalty.

In today’s automotive retail marketplace, it isn’t so much about owning the customer experience as capturing it. At Keyloop this has resulted in an Experience First approach where the core focus is to leverage every key touchpoint between customer and dealer into an opportunity to not only captivate clients but build long term loyalty between them and the place where they do business.

Interesting stage

Sebastiaan Roovers, Vice President, Sales for Keyloop, says that in the Canadian automotive retail market, we are at “an interesting stage of evolution.” The growth of digitalization we witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic—a lot of it driven by the need to minimize physical contact—has given way to an increasing focus on personal touch, creating a preference for a hybrid model that combines the efficiencies of the digital/virtual process with the in-person, customized and white-glove treatment consumers are increasingly demanding. “Dealers and OEMs that are able to incorporate both those elements simultaneously, will be those that are the most successful,” says Roovers.

Roovers feels that with the Experience First concept, automotive retailers have a unique advantage over other businesses, since purchasing a vehicle is often a very emotional and visceral experience. He notes that traditionally, in automotive retail, expectations have been relatively low, fueled by a pre-conceived notion of how purchasing a vehicle and servicing it will be. Yet this “perception” provides a real opportunity for automotive retailers to wow” their consumers—allowing them to keeping engaging clients on a regular basis, ensuring they are kept up to date regarding their vehicle purchase, while using each of those opportunities to “create an enjoyable and highly personalized interactions at touchpoints along the way.”

Leveraging data

While there’s been a lot of focus around Machine Learning and how AI tools and data analytics can elevate the customer experience, Roovers says there are some key things to consider. Firstly, that today, OEMs and dealers often have so much data coming at them that without a defined strategy it can be difficult to leverage it appropriately. Secondly, that data is often housed in silos, meaning it can be difficult to access or properly applied where needed.

Roovers says that while AI can “greatly assist us in reading the data and providing guidance and summaries,” it is important for both OEMs and consumers to partner with technology companies that “truly strive to provide a continuous 360-degree view of consumers that builds understanding and targets interactions.

“With the Experience First platform, Keyloop is targeting and building solutions with the end-consumer in mind. These solutions are designed to make the car-buying and ownership journey easier for consumers and for retailers,” explains Roovers. “We’ve invested heavily in the development of this, and I am beyond excited to start showing what we can do for our clients.”

Needs and processes

While there is still a huge amount of noise and [often] confusion, related to digital retail solutions and AI, which can lead to dealers making timely and costly mistakes, what’s important, explains Roovers is not to focus on “ticking the boxes,” but rather fundamentally understanding what the organization’s needs and processes are and then building a customer-centric, experience-driven solution around that. “Today’s consumers are in the ‘driver’s seat,’ and they are very particular in how they prefer to communicate with retailers throughout their sales and after sales experience,” explains Roovers. That’s why, he says, it so important to guide and build trust with consumers and make personalized recommendations for them. “Personalization is not just better for the consumer; but also for retailers,” states Roovers. By having unique background information for each consumer, it allows both OEMs and dealers to better tailor every touchpoint, elevating the experience and cementing long-term retention.