Luxury brands differentiate themselves with bespoke craftsmanship, customization, and service at every turn. Yet, it’s become difficult in the digital age to translate these moments into an online experience of the same caliber.
Bentley Motors has been perfecting the luxury car-buying experience for more than 100 years with handcrafted expertise. But data and systems abound across a century of business, and Bentley needed a way to not only build cleaner, more connected customer data but set itself on a path toward digitized excellence for the next 100 years.
Let’s take a look at how Bentley Motors is reimagining the customer experience by creating a 360-degree view of each customer and prospects.
1. Integrate for ultimate visibility
When data is all in one place, the opportunities for connected experiences are endless. Bentley Motors began by integrating its legacy systems to increase response times, add personalization, and streamline work for brand advisors. Now, Bentley Motors can unlock and integrate data from various back-end systems to form a 360-degree view of customers for more personalized experiences.
Bentley Motors’ brand advisor team can view customers on a single pane of glass for deeper personalization and faster response times in managing inbound and outbound sales and service queries. Plus, increased visibility across systems also means Bentley Motors can quickly analyze its data in real-time. With a clear view of data and simplified extraction, employees can examine and analyze multiple data sources, automatically, driving real-time decision-making.
2. Build a single view of the customer
Bentley Motors has been tailoring offline customer experiences since its founding. To build engaging moments online, Bentley Motors set out to create a single view of each customer, leveraging industry expertise and technical guidance to redefine customer interactions and deepen personal relationships. These ideal customer records may consist of purchasing interests, vehicles owned, previous inquiries, lead source, and so on — made possible by connecting every touchpoint in one source of truth.
And because sales, service, and marketing functions are all integrated in one platform, Bentley Motors can keep customer data current, ensuring messages always reach customers at the moments that matter most.
3. Optimize sales and service interactions.
Instead of manually processing web and social media leads, Bentley Motors now has a lead management process that can streamline and automate sales for ultimate efficiency and flow. With optimized web forms, web-to-lead processes, and built-in intelligence (like lead scoring and next best action), brand advisors can immediately act on leads, forming a relationship when prospects are most engaged.
Plus, brand advisors can easily prioritize cases, driving faster response times and improved customer satisfaction. Bentley Motors has further revolutionized its customer service by piloting a live chat tool, providing a new and convenient digital channel for customers to engage with the company in real time. Going forward, no matter which channel customers engage on, brand advisors will be able to view every service touchpoint on a single screen.
4. Personalize customer journeys.
Bentley is planning to unify, segment and activate audience data to further personalize customer experiences. Armed with a 360-degree view of each individual, Bentley Motors has endless possibilities for reaching customers on their terms. By fueling digital marketing with sales and service data, Bentley can personalize every marketing journey to improve customer engagement and drive quality demand.
Whether customers want to hear from the brand via email, SMS, web, or social media, Bentley Motors can deliver, triggering campaigns at the right moment based on customer behavior, new promotions, and so on. Some interactions (like clicking on an email campaign) also trigger lead qualification actions, such as calls or appointment requests. Bentley Motors brand advisors can then reach out to form one-to-one relationships with customers using data collected inside the new platform.
“We want to make sure there’s a consistent journey and piece it all together, be it digitally or physically, into a very consistent customer experience."
Robert SavinChief Digital Officer, Bentley Motors
5. Create a new category of sustainable luxury.
Bentley Motors’ digital transformation doesn’t just improve customer experiences. It also sets the auto manufacturer on a path to enhance global wellbeing for automobile occupants and the wider world. In its next 100 years, Bentley Motors is committing to more sustainable business practices like ethical wood sourcing, lighter batteries, an electric grand touring car, the largest solar carport in the U.K., and even a project to combat the declining bee population.
Sustainability starts right at the source for Bentley. The Bentley factory in England is completely carbon neutral, relying on solar panels and green energy sources to provide power. Plus, the company is exploring more responsible materials like carbon neutral wood and paint made from rice husks to achieve its vision of being fully sustainable.
Bentley Motors’ new digital platform is a crucial component of its century-long goal to become the undisputed leader of sustainable luxury mobility. With the ability to connect data for increased clarity across the business, Bentley Motors can accelerate business growth and personalized customer engagement to deliver a new generation of luxury services.
