“The dealership experience is as old as the car industry, roughly one
hundred years old. While cars have changed, the retail experience is much the
same as it was one hundred years ago,” says Dr. Ian Robertson Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Sales and Marketing BMW.
BMW leaders asked themselves “what business are we really in?” and
determined to move beyond “just automotive”. In fact automotive describes more
of what is done, rather than the result and outcome that is achieved, and in
this digital enabled market it is more important than ever to align the
business to the desired successful customer outcomes.
According to Robertson it led to “a complete redevelopment of BMW’s digital
world, the physical experience at the dealership, and how our people interact
with customers in the sales process.” Looking at next practice in organizations
such as Apple and Disney, BMW created a new role in its dealerships—the product
genius. The BMW product genius is a non-commissioned expert who invests as long
as it takes to help shoppers with their choices. “The product genius is
not encumbered by the sale process and is not motivated to sell a car,”
Robertson responded. “His motivation is customer satisfaction.”
According to BMW,
product geniuses are appearing at dealerships in France, the United Kingdom,
China and the Netherlands before finally arriving in the United States.
"The objective
here is to better support customers with in-depth product knowledge as well as
enabling the customer to better utilize and configure products in accordance
with their particular needs," said BMW in a statement. "As the
product genius needs to be mobile, he or she will be equipped with a
state-of-the-art Information Management System on a tablet device, allowing, for
example, product configuration and in-depth explanation of features supported
by visuals and films."
Robertson made an observation that applies to most business ventures in
today’s digital economy: “What we have done in the past is definitely,
definitely, definitely, not good enough for the future.”
