How does the industry keep pace with fast-changing
vehicle options and specifications, asks Debbie Fox
Anyone who has ever worked at a
motor manufacturer will have a sense of how rapidly vehicle pricing
and specifications change.
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The frequency with which brochure
material needs to be reprinted is simply astounding, as the
manufacturer marketing teams tweak their offering in response to
competitor actions and market forces. By September of this year,
23,953 individual specification and pricing changes had been
implemented across UK market passenger car product ranges. This is
a simply staggering figure to conjure with.
But the truth of the matter is that precious few
people in the industry are able to keep pace with that rate of
change. Staff in customer-facing roles cannot do their job to the
best possible standard without the most up-to-date information at
their fingertips; as a consequence, many customers are making
poorly-informed decisions. Furthermore, this difficult state of
affairs applies equally across the retailing, fleet, leasing and
finance environments.
So what issues does the industry face through poor
access to the right specification data and how can those issues be
resolved?
Decisions, decisions
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By GlobalDataFundamentally, all companies
involved in the downstream supply chain need to offer customers the
ability to narrow down their vehicle selection options to a
rational and meaningful shortlist.
The emphasis is on creating a buying environment
where customers can manage their financial, environmental and
specification requirements, right through to considerations
relating to corporate responsibility and health and safety.
For example, the subject of fleet-wide fitment of
tyre pressure monitoring equipment is an increasingly common
consideration, but matching the right vehicle specifications to
those needs can be prove very hard indeed.
Furthermore, leasing and finance organisations in
particular need the tools to support a faster response to customer
enquiries and reduce the time it takes for each order to be
processed, and, crucially, to reduce the number of quotes produced
at back office, and therefore to reduce the cost of each sale.
It may seem unlikely to some, but industry insiders
know how often cars are configured which dealers cannot order or
manufacturers cannot build.
Cost can be excruciating
Worse still are the vehicles which do get built,
but to the wrong specification. Often, the complexity of related
but mutually-exclusive/inclusive option packages are the root cause
of the problem. The number of failed builds remains high, and the
rectification cost can be excruciating.
So the argument for perfectly accurate and
up-to-date vehicle data is immensely strong. From the ability to
promote alternative green vehicles or create a better fleet model
mix to spread financial exposure, to the disposal risk caused
through poor model selection: these are all very real challenges
faced by fleet, lease and finance players.
The truth is that no organisation needs to find
itself in a position where these problems cannot be easily managed
and eliminated. Having the right data in the right format and
accessed in the right way should be a prerequisite for the entire
fleet, leasing and finance sectors, and, more to the point, the
information has long been out there.
There are tools in the marketplace that cater for
the provision and manipulation of accurate vehicle specification
and pricing data.
The right data makes sure that organisations and
business drivers have all the knowledge at their fingertips to
select, configure, compare and select vehicles for fleet and
personal finance or lease.
Crucially, the right intelligence also adds an
extra dimension to the vehicle sales process at dealerships, fleet,
leasing, finance and consumer portals.
It should be entirely possible for internal systems
to identify the advantages of buying one vehicle rather than
another and for that system to simplify the critical decision
factors, thus driving customers to a specific, best-fit
vehicle.
There are numerous specific factors and vehicle
attributes that need to be considered during the decision making
process. Typically, these might be for example:
• Vehicle price
• Body style
• Fuel type
• CO2 emissions
• Fuel economy
• Transmission type
• Engine size/power
• Number and position of airbags
The right data should fully support vehicle
selection by comparison of individual models and features, thus
creating a fact-based system which acts as an informed guide to
customers on the models that best meet their needs. Furthermore,
the right provider should also be able to integrate its data into
any third-party organisation’s existing IT infrastructure.
The car market remains a rapidly changing
environment with ever-growing data complexity. With each passing
year, consumer and industry decisions are being influenced by a
changing legislative landscape, with environmental, taxation or
corporate responsibility concerns increasingly on the fleet
agenda.
Corporate prudence brings with it a whole world of
different considerations in the vehicle buying process. Parallel to
that, manufacturers are constantly reacting to a fickle consumer
environment and embattled marketplace by updating and modifying
their product offering.
Only direct access to the fastest and most accurate
product intelligence can allow front line staff to keep up-to-date
with that ongoing revolution while maintaining high levels of
customer service.
The author is regional sales manager, GB,
Ireland and Nordics at JATO
