Dealer Spotlight: N3 Auto
For Malaccans, N3 Auto is a name synonymous with Volkswagen. N3 Auto's history goes back to 1968, with the founding of its parent company Seong Hoe Motors in Melaka. A company with multiple-brand dealerships under its belt, N3 Auto launched its Volkswagen 3S (Sales, Service and Spare Parts) Centre in 2015. Its commitment to providing exceptional service resulted in N3 Auto being recognised as a top Volkswagen dealer partner, winning Best Dealer award in its category and finishing in the top two in the country in 2020. Driven by the success, N3 Auto upgraded its Volkswagen dealership to a 4S Centre to incorporate Body and Paint services. Its success story can be traced to its practice of placing customer satisfaction above all else, as shared here by Operations and Marketing Manager Jennie Tang. Read here to find out how N3 Auto is moving on with the times.
What do you feel has been your strengths? And what has been the secret of your success?
A company is only as good as its employees. Seong Hoe Motors has established itself as an industry leader by focusing on its employees and customer service as its core strengths. We believe that happy employees lead to satisfied customers, which in turn converts to well-performing numbers. As such, we treat our employees' satisfaction and well-being as imperative and strive to maintain them.
In the past two years, N3 Auto has steadily worked on enhancing our Aftersales process. The joining of Mr. Will Kuang as our Head of Aftersales catalyzed this improvement in 2018. Since then, he has spearheaded a robust Aftersales system with the central idea that a service well begun is half done. We have minimised errors by doing the fundamental things rights while vastly increasing customer satisfaction and confidence in our brand.
With the current automotive landscape shifting to more digital initiatives, how has N3 kept up with the times?
The rapidly changing automotive landscape certainly is an unprecedented challenge for us, a "traditional" automotive reseller with more than 50 years of experience. However, no challenge is too difficult for the sake of pleasing our customers.
We began to actively engage both existing and potential customers on social media. For example, by posting valuable and relevant content on Instagram and Facebook Live. This way, we can reach more audiences whenever and wherever without being confined to our physical boundaries.
"We hope to develop our customer service to the point where it becomes a compelling reason for consumers to buy a Volkswagen."
What is your strategy in targeting new customers and to get leads? How do you make yourself present and heard?
Our primary strategy is to digitalise our lead funnel through social media and other digital platforms like Carlist. By improving our social media presence, we can increase brand awareness and click-through rate. Moreover, a substantial online presence will help garner trust and confidence in our dealership while building brand loyalty among our customer base.
Recently, we shared an immersive video that showcases the N3 Auto brand, our building, showrooms, workshops, and critical business processes. The video was highly successful, having reached more than 677,000 people with more than 213,000 total clicks. Furthermore, we regularly share helpful information and updates to our target audience about our brand, each Volkswagen model, service maintenance, and our Sales and Service campaigns.
How have you merged your sales and aftersales services with social media?
We have found several digital marketing strategies to be immensely effective. For starters, we changed our business model to utilise digital platforms more. While physical showrooms are great for customers to experience the cars first-hand, the physical confinements limit our prospects' numbers. In contrast, we can effectively and efficiently reach thousands and even millions of customers on digital platforms.
Other digital marketing strategies include:
- Advertising bite-sized information to specific target audiences based on interest, demographics, existing Volkswagen owners for Aftersales, and income groups.
- Utilising eShowroom that allows buyers to browse catalogs and submit test drive requests to their preferred dealers.
- Online channels to book appointments and schedule repairs.
- Promoting two-way conversations with our customers through FB Messenger, WhatsApp, and emails.
Customer experience is a focus for any dealership, tell us about the steps you have taken to enhance the ownership experience of your customers, and how do you stay close to existing owners in a time where "keeping away" is the new normal?
Our central principle is to do everything to satisfy our customers, even the tiny things that are often neglected. As such, we do not overlook staying connected with our customers even during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. We have extended our marketing communications beyond physical appointments to digital platforms for holistic customer service.
We also heavily utilised Service Cam during the pandemic, which allows our service front liners and workshops to keep in touch with the customers. We then use videos to inform our customers about their cars' technical condition and recommended solutions through individual links. This way, customers receive timely updates about their vehicles all through their mobile phones.
Moreover, we promoted the VW Cares App to provide more benefits to our customers. The app offers loyalty programs, sales and service offer announcements, online service booking, 24 hours roadside service assistance, and more. This app ensures that we meet our customers' needs and wants whenever and wherever that is required.
We are living in unprecedented times. As a business, what has been the most important lesson you've learnt in the past one year?
Our biggest lesson learnt is that digitalisation is the future of this industry. We must double down on our digital marketing efforts to keep up with the ever-changing automobile landscape. Currently, our social media efforts are going strong. Nonetheless, we are constantly learning from others and improving our services to stand out from the competition. We cannot afford to plateau our efforts, not with the rapid advancement of digital marketing technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and big data analytics.
Another lesson is to always listen to your customers. We actively engage in two-way conversations with our customers on social media. By understanding and responding to our customer's queries and doubts, we can further enhance our offerings to solve their pain points.