Tesla is breaking down traditional practices in the automotive industry. The company is an industry leader in providing the best customer experience and is leading the way in developing a new customer experience model in the automotive industry. The next 2 years will be crucial for Tesla’s growth as at the end of 2019 the company was generating quite a momentum in terms of car sales and venturing into new markets.
For many though, Tesla direct to customer approach is something fresh in the industry. To start with, Tesla doesn’t sell any of their cars through 3rd party franchised auto dealers. Their cars come directly from manufacturer. This paves way for transparency as customers wont feel as if they are being taken advantage off by a 3rd party.
Tesla recognizes that customer experience is as important as the product itself. In an industry where consumers just want an honest and easy car buying experience, Tesla gives customers something to look towards.
Here’s how Tesla excels at customer experience compared to other industry players:
- Tesla showrooms are sleek, made specifically to order cars, and their sales personnel do not haggle price
- Customers can purchase vehicle from Tesla’s website from the comfort of their own home. They can also customize their order from Tesla factory through a customizer on Tesla’s website as the cars are completely customizable.
- Tesla stores have minimal design philosophy (similar to Apple)
- Tesla provide facilities like coffee bars, free international calls, and free internet stations in their showrooms for customers.
- They have a delivery team responsible of guiding customers through documentation signing, payment, and delivery.
- Even after receiving their cars, Tesla continues to make customers happy. 80% of Tesla car repairs can be done outside their service center.
- Mobile service repairs are complimentary
- Software updates are run overnight automatically.
- Speed of service. Tesla claims that their repairs are 4 times faster than the usual repair shop.
Much of Tesla’s stellar customer experience which threatens to disrupt the automobile industry, comes from the vision of its founder, Elon Musk. Constant personalized interaction with customers (on Twitter), addressing their problems and complains and then solving it is one of the main reason why Tesla’s customer experience is top notch. As Elon Musk always maintained that ‘’purchasing a Tesla should be delightful experience for all’’.
The evidence on whether Tesla strategy works, is clear to see for everyone as stated by this report from AutoTrader:
- 54 % of consumers will buy from a dealership that offers their preferred experience even if it doesn’t have a lower price compared to competitors.
- 72% of consumers agreed that they would visit dealerships more often if there’s a simple genuine buying process.
- Tesla customer experience is rated as one of the top in the world. Their lowest percentage approval rating regarding their direct sells approach is at 86% which is quite good.
- The company scores 90% in customers overall satisfaction rating (One of the highest in the industry).
Indeed, a lot can be learned from Tesla as experience providers. Bad customer experience in the automobile industry has been the norm for so long. But with Tesla though, factors like pushy salespeople, stressful pricing negotiations, endless up-sells, and many more are eliminated, paving the way for a much more seamless approach in purchasing vehicle.
