Digital transformation of Audi Cam into an eCommerce platform
The Situation
The Managing Director of Volkswagen Group UK instructed the Audi retail network to offer customers the choice to spread the cost of any vehicle repair work across a number of interest-free instalments or to pay straight away if preferred and with or without pre-agreed costs, directly within their personalised Audi Cam.
These options built on and added to the historic ability for a customer to submit approval of any repairs to be carried out and pay on collection of their vehicle at the network dealer.
Audi Cam is a world first for carmakers, allowing Audi owners to watch online video of their car while it’s in for service or MOT.
Any work required is visually pinpointed using Audi Cam, with expert commentary from an Audi technician working on a car.
Technicians focus handheld ‘Audi Cams’ on specific problems to record visual and verbal diagnoses. Service Advisors then send clips to customers’ computer or mobile devices, who then authorise the work before any remedial steps are taken.
The Task
Vehicle Vision’s ‘open platform’ approach to integration, belief in being as agnostic as possible for their user community’s benefit and wanting to enable their partners to supply a true end to end digital service experience for their customer, were the driving forces behind the decision to develop payment functionality that ‘spoke’ to any specific provider.
With the system incorporating the functionality already and mutual discussion with Audi UK to align Audi Cam with digital payment, Vehicle Vision’s collaboration with their preferred payment provider Bumper (formerly Auto Service Finance) was made that much easier when embarking on the project to integrate.
The Action / Approach
Working closely with Bumper to map out the technical API requirements and aligning with Vehicle Vision’s expertise in user experience, tried and trusted Audi Cam workflow, customer communication and reporting, I managed the delivery of a solution and played back to Audi UK before their approval to offer the functionality to the entire dealer network, following which Vehicle Vision managed the dealer ‘switch-on’ for them.
In addition to the technical piece, a parallel workstream to make sure Vehicle Vision and Bumper documented separate data sharing and integration agreements was put in place to protect customer data. All digital payment transactions are completed within the Bumper software, Audi Cam does not store any additional customer data, for example; credit card information, date of birth or address.
Support for dealers pre- and post-launch was further boosted with key education pieces that included, but weren’t limited to, FAQs and best practice user guidelines in easy to digest formats.
The Result
From the short term onwards, the ability to spread cost interest-free online in particular has provided customers with financial flexibility and the dealer an opportunity to convert work that may have been declined previously due to invoice value / other factors; in effect, increasing the probability of a positive buying decision.
Approved to launch in early January 2021 after a successful dealer group rollout in December 2020, half of the entire network that have been offered the digital payment functionality have switched it on either using Pay Later (spread the cost) or a combination of Pay Later and Pay Now.
Close to a fifth of all submitted customer jobs result in a Pay Later transaction, and that number increases to almost a third when it’s Pay Now, and this continues to grow as more dealers switch on the functionality and customers adapt to the positive changes that are naturally familiar to them in any eCommerce transaction outside of Audi Cam.
Not only is there customer convenience from an established Audi Cam trust and transparency point of view, there is also additional convenience in how they wish to pay, which leads to greater customer satisfaction and reassurance from a fully digital experience.
Customers on average transact in under 115 seconds once they have reviewed their Audi Cam, so this provides a significant time saving to service departments. Through Vehicle Vision’s work, Audi UK and Audi Cam act as a digital service advisor – an additional resource for the dealer that brings about its own efficiency savings as well as increased revenue and customer satisfaction / retention in the medium and long term.
