How Toyota dealerships turn vehicle alerts into aftersales opportunities

With a network of 71 rooftops across Denmark, Toyota faced a challenge all too common in the modern automotive industry: an overwhelming influx of connected vehicle alerts.

Vehicle alerts, while designed to be helpful, often lead to three significant pain points for car dealers:

• OEM-owned connected vehicle applications lack real-time integration with Dealer Management Systems (DMS). This can result in an onerous amount of manual work for the aftersales team, as they strive to sort out alerts that require a follow-up from alerts that come from customers who have already booked an appointment.
• Routine diagnostics can create unnecessary noise. Almost half of all vehicle alerts are false alarms and are not relevant for dealers to follow up on. These alerts are either triggered while the mechanic is working on the car, or they are duplicate alerts triggered repeatedly over multiple days.
• Multi-brand dealers need to work across OEM solutions. Relying on OEM-provided solutions restricts multi-brand dealers and forces them to work in silos.

With almost 50% of vehicle alerts being false alarms, the dealership was swamped with notifications, many of which were triggered during routine maintenance, leading to unnecessary emails, inefficiency and wasted time. “We receive a lot of alerts daily – connected vehicles being one of them,” explains Kaare Kristiansen, Customer Advisor at Toyota Køge.

The primary challenge for Toyota dealerships was to distinguish between irrelevant alerts and those that could lead to genuine customer engagement and aftersales opportunities. “In the start, we realised that a lot of the connected services leads were customers that didn’t need any contact at all,” Kaare recalls. The dealership needed a solution that could cut through the ‘noise’, filter out irrelevant alerts, and leverage these alerts to enhance customer service, loyalty and operational efficiency.

Autoflows was implemented to address this challenge. Kaare highlights the transformative impact of Autoflows:

• Time-savings across the board: By combining vehicle alerts with DMS data, Autoflows automatically filters out irrelevant alerts, translating to significant time savings.
• Proactive customer engagement: Autoflows prompts customers to book an appointment via personalised, interactive email and SMS notifications.
• Targeted follow-ups: The dealership now follows up with customers via phone using targeted call lists.
• Data-driven optimisation: Toyota dealers can measure exactly how vehicle alerts contribute to aftersales revenue.

“We save so much time. Whether it’s an irrelevant alert that needs to be filtered out or one that leads to customer activation, the automation saves us time, as it eliminates the need for manual processes,” says Kaare. By combining vehicle alerts with Dealer Management System (DMS) data, Autoflows automatically filters out irrelevant alerts, saving the dealership approximately “5 to 10 minutes per alert”, according to Kaare.

Proactive customer engagement became a reality with Autoflows. Toyota dealerships now engage customers with personalised, interactive email and SMS notifications, prompting them to book appointments proactively and turning potential issues into aftersales service opportunities. “There’s no question that we are delighted with the eCare module, and it has become essential to our operations,” Kaare Kristiansen states.

Targeted follow-ups have also been streamlined. The dealership now follows up with customers via phone using focused lists that prioritise high-alert customers, those who haven’t completed bookings, or those unresponsive to digital notifications. “Just the other day, we had a connected services event on a tyre pressure warning, and we had to contact the customer,” Kaare shares, “and he was actually on his way to an unauthorised tyre centre.”

Data-driven optimisation is another cornerstone of Toyota’s strategy. With integrated reporting, the dealership can measure the value of bookings generated from vehicle alerts, providing a clear overview of how these alerts contribute to aftersales revenue.

Toyota’s success story demonstrates the significant impact of technology on transforming traditional dealership operations. By leveraging Autoflows, the dealership has not only improved its efficiency but also enhanced its customer service. Connected vehicle alerts have evolved from mere noise into valuable opportunities for growth, proving that in the digital age, being proactive is the key to success. “It has become essential to our operations,” Kaare Kristiansen concludes, “cutting through the noise and focusing on the alerts that really matter.” Contact us to learn how to start a trial with a 60-day money back guarantee.