Salesforce launches Automotive Cloud™ to accelerate next-generation mobility with Arlanis Reply as a Strategic Launch Partner

Salesforce has today announced its latest industry-specific product – Salesforce Automotive Cloud™. A solution to enable OEMs and Dealers to connect with their customers and drive a lifetime of loyalty.

The automotive industry is undergoing transformational change, driven by factors such as electrification, autonomous driving, shared mobility, and evolving customer expectations. Today customers are setting higher standards for OEMs and dealers, demanding a more connected and responsive omnichannel experience:

• 99% of customers are dissatisfied with the traditional auto buying experience. ⁱ

• 74% of consumers say that communicating honestly and transparently is more important now than it was before the pandemic. ⁱⁱ

• 73% of customers expect personalized communications across channels like email and text. ⁱⁱⁱ

As such automotive OEMs and dealers must rise to these changing expectations together, delivering a consistent and relevant customer experience which connects on a deeper level at the times and places that matter most to the customer, and ultimately build brand loyalty.

Industry Challenges

Challenges for OEMs

Today most OEMs play a limited role in their customer’s purchase journey, with auto retailers handling most of the relationship with the customer for both on and offline. Combined with internal data silos this lack of direct engagement means that an OEM’s view of their customers is often fragmented and delivers little value. As such OEMs need to transform their relationships with dealers so that data flows freely between customer, dealer, and OEM. Secondly, Auto Manufacturers need a way to then deliver data-driven experiences directly to their customers which are relevant and consistent. Without these, they risk losing out on after-sales opportunities and customer retention.

Challenges for Dealers

Being at the forefront of the interactions with the customer, automotive dealers face different challenges to their OEMs such as:

• Only 23% of retailers believe their companies have adapted well to selling online.^iv

• Less than one in five OEMs and retailers believe their digital storefronts are engaging and mobile-friendly. ^v

• 88% of surveyed automotive executives expect that some dealer groups will not survive the disruption caused by innovative mobility concepts, digitized retail formats, and new market entrants.^vi

To tackle these current challenges many OEMs are turning to an agency or direct-to-consumer sales model, and taking ownership of the relationship with the customer – a move where technology will play a crucial role in delivering an effective multichannel experience for the customer. This is why Salesforce has today launched Salesforce Automotive Cloud.

What is Salesforce Automotive Cloud™?

Automotive Cloud is designed to connect all the stakeholders in an automotive journey such as dealer, OEM, financial institutions, and the vehicle. Built on the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform™ it extends the full power of Salesforce’s core clouds, such as Sales and Service, and provides an automotive-specific data model with pre-built business processes and workflows.

Automotive Cloud comes with out-of-the-box solutions specifically designed for the automotive industry. Vehicle Console combines customer and vehicle data in Salesforce to drive intelligent actions and maximise vehicles’ lifetime value. Household Management enables you to model all the shared users of a vehicle and mark important events in their ownership journey.

Automotive Cloud also has many features focused on strengthening OEM and Dealer collaboration. Dealer Performance Management gives OEMs a clear real-time view of dealer performance, which can be used to define and then share volume agreements, sales manager targets, and dealer incentives which maximise dealer performance. Dealer Visit & KPI Monitoring allows district managers to effectively plan their visits, utilising preconfigured templates to define assessments, and then capture results on a mobile device while onsite.

A New Era of Partnerships

Automotive Cloud comes at a time of upheaval and change within the automotive industry. Its arrival will enable OEMs to capture the clearest picture yet of their customers and vehicles, as well as work more closely with dealers and other partners to meet the changing needs of those customers. This foundation of partnerships and information will empower OEMs and other stakeholders as they pivot to continue to meet their customers’ evolving mobility needs.

This increased connectivity between customer, vehicle and auto stakeholders has the potential to deliver $250 billion to $400 billion in annual value for organisations throughout the ecosystem in 2030 across a range of use cases including R&D optimization, sales efficiency, and in-car experiences.^vii

By bringing together stakeholders and insights automotive companies can capitalise on this opportunity and others, delivering experiences across all touchpoints, both physical and digital, which connect with the customer on an individual level and generate a lifetime of loyalty to the brand.

How Arlanis Reply can bring this to life for customers

Arlanis Reply are the Reply Group’s Salesforce experts and have been selected as the Automotive Cloud Launch Partner for EMEA due to our deep industry expertise in the automotive industry. We have delivered complex multi-cloud Salesforce initiatives for OEMs and dealers across many of the world’s best-known and most popular automotive brands - so we understand the challenges and opportunities faced.

As part of the Reply Group, Arlanis Reply can call upon the knowledge of other experts in the fields cyber-security, app development, IoT, systems integration and other innovative disciplines where necessary, thereby offering maximum value to clients.

Contact us today to discuss how you can navigate the upheaval within the automotive industry utilising innovative solutions, and best practices which harness the power of Salesforce and increase the lifetime value of your customers and vehicles.