Dealerships risk losing contact with their customers as connected cars shift control of data into OEMs’ hands. But what are manufacturers really doing with the information? Jack Carfrae reports.
The agency model is a good indicator of how much OEMs like direct access to the car-buying public. Or rather, they like the idea of it. Fewer made agency work than embarked on it, while the same could easily be said of dwindling manufacturer-owned retail groups and other ‘worth a shot’ initiatives to leapfrog dealers.
Connected car data is a different beast. OEMs have a direct line to the person in the car, and the likes of connected services, apps and over-the-air updates bring them ever closer to customers.
On the face of it, these contact routes look like yet other ways to muscle in on what would have been the retailers’ turf, usurping vital contact points and making them the preserve of manufacturers.
The theory is worse than the reality, though. While OEMs’ proximity to customers has unquestionably increased, what they actually do with the data is less impressive than the tech’s reach.
Suppliers believe connected cars have, if anything, boosted dealers’ opportunities to contact customers, but state that the onus is on them to exploit the opportunities.
Equal opportunities
“The manufacturer has more opportunity than ever to contact the customer because of connected vehicles. But, equally, the dealer has the same, if not more, opportunity if they’re proactive,” says Jeremy Evans, director of marketing services at TekCor4.
“We know people are holding onto their cars for longer, so, in the later stages of an ownership cycle, it’s conceivable the vehicle is not connected to the mothership at all, and the only point of contact it has for its maintenance is through the dealer.
“Data creates more inbound traffic to the dealer when the car pings up something and says, ‘you need to take me to a dealership’ – it’s just not as controlled a process of reminding a customer and then getting them in when you’d expect them.”
iVendi CEO James Tew agrees that connected car data has created opportunities for manufacturers to cosy up to customers, but is not convinced they have taken advantage of it.
He believes they have, instead, focused on short-term gains through subscriptions.
“The OEMs certainly could intervene a lot more because they have far more data, but the question is, do they?
“My experience is that they’re not particularly active or any more engaging than they have been previously… they seem to want to gamify some of the apps on the vehicle and move to a subscription model, but does that really help them?
“And do they start to lose customer information off the back of it?
“If I were acquiring a customer to a brand – even on a used vehicle – why wouldn’t I want to incentivise that customer to give me all their data? Why wouldn’t you give them a free app and update their satnav off the back of it?
“Whereas the OEMs just think, ‘let’s make £250 on a subscription package’. Then what do we all do? Waze, Apple Maps, Google Maps and any other free maps. Thank you, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.”
Communication breakdown
Evans points out that the messages customers receive ultimately direct them to dealers, at least in a service, maintenance and repair (SMR) context, while the disparity between OEM data and anything captured by a DMS is sufficient to counteract the risk of the former impinging on the latter.
“The customer still has to bring the car to a dealer at the end of the day, regardless of whether the dealer has told them they need to come in or whether the data’s been smashed around a million algorithms, made a prediction and the customer’s been messaged.
“And the manufacturer systems that are flagging up that your car needs a service or that you need to do something, they’re not connected to the dealer systems anyway, so they can’t really offer you a slot in a workshop without pushing you to the dealer.
“My first-hand experience of that was when the app told me my car was due a service and asked me to click through to make a booking. My next phone call was from the dealer saying, ‘we can’t do that day; can we book it in on a different day for you?’”
If anything, retailers could benefit from greater integration between OEMs’ systems and their own.
Evans says it frequently crops up in his conversations with dealers, simply because better correlation between the information a driver receives from a connected car or an app and what appears in a DMS would make service and repair bookings much slicker.
“The main feedback from dealers is, ‘I wish the data could all be integrated, rather than us have to have a separate process for it’,” he says.
“Typically, data from the manufacturer telematics system lands on somebody’s computer and doesn’t connect to the DMS or to a service provider, so we end up building processes for them to enter it manually.”
Merging OEM and dealer data
Jon Sheard, operations director at Auto Data Solutions – who believes dealers are safe from manufacturer encroachment when it comes to all things aftersales – cites an example of meshing OEM and dealer data to good effect.
“If you try to book a service in the UK, probably 80% of the time you’re not quoted a price for it. You have to fill a form in and say, ‘I’m interested; I want my car serviced,’ you can’t book it in there and then, and the dealer rings you back with a cost.
“I always compare it to going to John Lewis, Next or any other retail outlet – would you buy anything without being told how much it actually costs or when or whether it was available?
“In the automotive world, which is a £200/£300/£400 job, you’re not told how much it’s going to cost, and you’re not told when they can do it. It’s complete madness. We’re doing a lot of work at the moment on using data to quote accurately, link it directly into a booking system, get manufacturer parts pricing, and do a proper quotation. Then, miraculously, more consumers will book a full manufacturer service if they’re quoted for a manufacturer service in advance. Who’d have thought it?”
Given the degree to which EV drivers interact with them, Tew thinks there is more potential in reaching customers via a manufacturer app than by almost any other means today.
“If it was all served up to me on my app – which I do go into on a regular basis to charge the car – and it’s something that is personalised to me, then you’ve probably got more opportunities with EVs than you had with ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles.
“You can’t be notifying customers too much in the car while they’re driving, but the data that’s going into the phone is going to be key.”
Boxing clever: good data management
Evans, Tew and Sheard unanimously agree that retailers need solid customer datasets. That is not to stave off any perceived threat from OEMs in the connected car age, more that clean, accurate information is a prerequisite of a good customer relationship management (CRM) system.
Evans tells AM that 15% of the service due dates his company sees in DMSs are either blank or in the past, while Sheard says 30%-35% of customers in dealer databases have already sold the car in question.
“If the dealer has a robust contact plan and process in place, which, let’s face it, is driven by OEM data anyway, then there should be no cause for concern for the dealer whether the car is flagging that it’s due something and sending it through telematics or whether the dealer is predicting it,” says Evans.
Tew believes the current market, with its influx of new entrants, provides retailers with an advantage, because groups with multiple franchises can navigate the downturn in brand loyalty – again, with a solid database.
“Brand loyalty is on the decline,” he says. “Dealer groups do have an advantage, because they carry the brands, but they’ve got to box clever, and it’s imperative that the dealer maintains their own CRM.”
Who will own customer data?
As for the future of data ownership, Evans believes dealers and manufacturers should aim for a greater degree of collaboration, merging information for a common good instead of concerning themselves with who has what.
“It should be a partnership. We’re all in it for the same thing – dealer and manufacturer. We’re trying to sell cars of our brand to people and we’re trying to retain them and bring them back for servicing. The manufacturer wants to sell parts, the dealer wants to sell labour, but you only sell those if the car is in the workshop.
“Everybody should be working together to say, ‘what tools have we got in our armoury to bring these vehicles back into our dealerships where the customers will buy original parts, pay labour, and we get them in front of the next generation of cars that we’re launching so we can keep them with the brand?’”
This feature first appeared in the 2026 AM Dealer Technology Guide which brings together leading technology providers to showcase the latest innovations available to help dealerships improve performance across both customer-facing and back-office functions. Read the report HERE