From driverless and electric cars to ride-sharing apps, the automotive industry is experiencing its biggest period of disruption for years. This includes a significant shift towards customer service as being a key driver of sales. How can channel partner incentive programs help businesses deal with this disruption?
When companies like Nissan are announcing they're in collaboration with NASA to research autonomous vehicles, you know the sector is heading towards some major changes.
The automotive industry is going through a period of intense disruption. From driverless and electric cars to ride-sharing apps, this may be the biggest revolution the automotive sector has seen for many years.
Customer service becoming a key differentiator
It's not just the technology behind the cars that's changing, however. Manufacturers have moved away from simply relying on the quality of the car to make sales, and are now much more dependent on customer service. In fact, customer satisfaction has become almost as much of a differentiator as the car itself.
This is especially important in the wake of the Volkswagen emissions scandal. In an attempt to regain trust, the world's second-largest car automaker is now offering six-year or 72,000 mile warranties (whichever comes first) for its new Tiguan and Atlas SUVs, Business Inside Australia reports.
Any attempt to increase trust and satisfaction in the automotive industry must take into account the fact that a very high proportion of manufacturers use channel partners to sell their cars. So encouraging your resellers to improve their customer service while at the same time make sales is an essential part of dealing with the current disruption in the automotive industry.
How to do this? Channel Partner Incentive Programs are the answer.
Channel Partner Incentive Programs in the automotive industry
Channel partners tend to sell a number of different products from a variety of companies. Businesses will offer partners certain deals to incentivise them to sell their products, as opposed to their competitors. The trouble is that most brands will be doing this already, so you have to find an innovative way to differentiate your company from the competition.
A Channel Partner Incentive Program is an easy way to do this. The power of these rewards is clear. A Model N survey found that 60 per cent of respondents believed an effective incentive program can increase sales of a particular vendor's product by up to 40 per cent.
It involves offering rewards that will incentivise your reseller to focus on your brand. Power2Motivate's program is customisable to your organisation's needs, meaning you can reward a variety of different behaviours. From customer service to brand awareness, there are plenty of ways to get your partners on the right track to dealing with automotive disruption.
60 per cent of respondents believed an effective incentive program can increase sales of a particular vendor's product by up to 40 per cent.
Dealerships tend to have diverse workforces made up of people with a range of ages and backgrounds. Traditional rewards programs will often offer the same prize for everyone, regardless of what their individual interests are. To really get the best customer service from your partners, you need to ensure you're offering a high degree of choice. Only then will they be encouraged to work towards the goals you've set them.
Fortunately, Power2Motivate's Global Rewards Gallery lets employees choose from a huge range of rewards, including travel and trips, as well as household appliances and electronics.
Analysis the key
When dealing with such widespread disruption, it's important automotive businesses are able to measure the effects of the steps they are taking. Data analysis is important not just when seeing how well individual car makes are performing, but also in a Channel Partner Program.
Power2Motivate's platform has real-time reporting as well as ROI and KPI tracking, so you can easily see the impact your program is having.
For more information on how Power2Motivate is helping deal with automotive disruption, contact the team today.