Audi is looking to improve customer experience in the U.S. this year following a profitable 2020 for its local dealer network.
President of Audi of America, Daniel Weissland, believes that the recent launch of the e-tron GT has given Audi the opportunity to better connect with its customers.
“What we can influence — and it’s definitely one of our focus points — we want to obviously increase our customer experience,” Weissland told Auto News. “We have the best and most electrified product portfolio in 2021 that we’ve ever had, with the E-tron GT coming, and later the year, the Q4 E-tron and the Q4 E-tron Sportback. We now have a full-fledged electric portfolio.”
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Weissland believes it is extremely important for the brand’s dealerships to be proactive in the way they deal with customers and to tell them, “’No matter what, I’ll take care of it. No matter what, I’ll do that.’”
“From a premium point of view, the customer shouldn’t even have to ask for it; you should not just only meet the customer expectation from the first touch point, you should exceed it,” he explained.
Don Flow, the Audi dealer council chairman, added that the coronavirus pandemic forced dealerships to adapt and make changes, which were made easier by Audi guaranteeing struggling dealerships incentive payments at the start of the pandemic.
“In life, certain things need to happen to change our behavior, because human beings like to sit in our comfort zone, and COVID forced us all outside of our comfort zone,” Weissland said. “Independent from COVID, I think our industry is changing so much, customer expectations are changing so much, behavior is changing so much, that if we’re not willing to step outside of our comfort zone, there’s a risk that we are left behind.”
