New technologies and trends are collectively creating massive disruption in the car industry, which will be entirely re-invented. Michel Alsemgeest, Chief Digital Officer, and Marcio Hociko, Digital Transformation Director RMT, explain what digital trends and technologies mean for LeasePlan and how we use customer journeys to improve the service experience of our customers.
What technologies and trends are we talking about? Michel: “Think, for example, of technologies such as artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, blockchain, autonomous electrified cars, hyper connectivity and the internet of cars, but also the emergence of clean, renewable energy sources.
Apart from these new technologies, the car industry is also dealing with a huge shift in how consumers think about car ownership. More and more people choose to share or subscribe to a car in order to fulfil their mobility needs. This is a real megatrend and a game changer for the automotive industry.
Together, these developments are enabling the creation of new products, services and business models. Batteries-as-a-service, tyres-as-a-service and new approaches to financing and insurance services are already a reality.”
What do these developments mean for LeasePlan? Michel: “With LeasePlan we want to be leading in these developments. So, over the next few years, LeasePlan will undergo a total transformation from an analogue business to a fully digitally-enabled business, delivering digital services through digital platforms and leveraging the latest digital intelligence technologies. Ultimately, we will become a digital service integrator.
The Digital LeasePlan strategy we have developed is all about creating an effortless service experience for our customers, enabling them to interact with us the way they want. Furthermore, digitalisation will also help us to get as close as possible to the ‘naked cost’ of a car, delivering cost-reduction opportunities and ensuring we can further grow our businesses cost effectively.”
And what does it mean for customers? Marcio: “As part of our digital strategy, we are organising ourselves around customer journey’s, focussing on improving the customer experience at every stage of the process. One of the first things we did is mapping every customer journey, ranging from getting your car delivered to handing it in at the end of the contract.
The customer journey I am responsible for centres around driver safety: how do we make sure that the car is in the best condition at all times? How do we make it as easy as possible to make a service appointment? How do we minimise the ‘off-road’ time of your car?”
What are the benefits to LeasePlan of setting up these customer journeys?
Marcio: “First of all, asking these questions provides focus and direction to the new products, services and business models we are developing. Furthermore, each customer journey is formed by a cross-functional team of specialists, which blurs the lines between business and technical disciplines. We really put our collective weight behind tackling one challenge at a time. Everyone joins in achieving a shared goal. That’s very exciting!”
Speaking of customers, what can they expect from these digital innovations? When we look at driver safety for example, one area that I find particularly exciting is predictive maintenance. Based on car and usage data we are now able to ‘predict’ when is the best time to bring the car in for a service check.
Making predictive maintenance part of a digital and hassle free process not only benefits our clients and drivers, but also our partners such as repair shops. Ultimately, this is good for LeasePlan as well. We are now introducing predictive maintenance solutions in our processes and we will further roll this out in the next quarters. I find it very rewarding to work on predictive maintenance and driver safety, because at the end of the day, wanting to be safe on the road is something that all our 1,8 million drivers have in common.”