Customer Experience Becomes a Growing Priority for Chinese Automakers

The mounting significance of managing, measuring, and enhancing customer experience is being recognized in almost every industry and across almost every country. No longer is it a sustainable customer engagement 

Automakes in China Customer Experience

strategy to simply push a product into the marketplace and rely on clever or persuasive advertising to drive success. Today, brands must truly consider their catalog of product and service offerings from the customer’s perspective.

The Chinese automotive industry is one arena where this growing shift is becoming increasingly apparent. Customer experience management (CEM) is now a priority among the country’s leading automakers.

This was the key finding of a study titled, “Customer Experience Management in the Automotive Industry in China,” conducted by Detecon International, a top global management consulting agency.

After surveying 26 specialized workers and managers across 22 automotive companies, Detecon noted that the vast majority (69%) has undertaken involved efforts to implement a comprehensive customer experience management process. Most now have teams of specialized IT and CEM professionals in place to support these initiatives.

The Chinese auto market is a highly competitive industry, and these automakers are establishing CEM programs to remain viable.

However, while the initial efforts have been strong, there is still progress that can be made.

"While CEM is not as widespread in China's automotive corporations as in countries like Germany or the USA, its fundamental importance has nevertheless been recognized," said Torsten Oppel, head of Automotive Practice and a Partner at Detecon Consulting China.

The ultimate goal of these Chinese CEM programs is to increase overall customer satisfaction, and most of the respondents (27%) believed satisfaction to be the top priority. This was followed by greater customer loyalty (25%). And finally, 18% stated that the development of the company brand was the third most important priority.

CEM programs are obviously important for most Chinese automakers. But even among the minority of brands that do not currently have similar initiatives in place, 38% are already looking to develop and launch a CEM program by 2017.

For these automakers in particular, Detecon’s study also recommended a plan of action. This includes leveraging a CEM program that uses technology to discover and analyze customer opinions, integrates a comprehensive strategy that encompasses a global company-wide approach, and analyses big data to continually maintain a current understanding of changing customer expectations.

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