Fiat Group continually strives to align activities in all areas, from marketing and technical service to sales, to the needs of customers. To achieve this objective, dedicated Customer Care organizations have been established at Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) and Chrysler Group in order to:
- improve relationships with customers by opening multichannel interaction
- increase customer satisfaction
- build and improve customer loyalty
Customer Contact Centers (CCC), together with dealers, are the main channel of communication between customers and the company. The FGA Customer Contact Center, located in Arese (Italy), supports not only FGA, Maserati and Chrysler Group customers in Europe, but also Case New Holland (CNH), Magneti Marelli, FGA Capital and Fiat Services in 20 countries. Chrysler Group’s Customer Contact Center supports all North America Chrysler Group and FGA brands. It is operated by the Mopar Service, Parts and Customer Care organization.
The Customer Contact Centers offer a variety of services: from information, to complaint management, to roadside assistance. The FGA CCC is a multilingual center with 89% of the employees being native speakers in one of the 15 different service languages. With 428 personnel, the FGA Customer Contact Center handled approximately four million contacts in 2011 (of which three million for the car business only) and is one of the largest such centers in the automotive sector in Europe. The Chrysler Group CCC handled approximately 2.5 million contacts in 2011 (+ 39% over 2010) with 430 personnel in three locations. Both the FGA and Chrysler Group Customer Contact Centers manage the entire process, from the first contact with the customer until a response has been given, ensuring resolution in the shortest possible time.
Phone agents are constantly trained in order to provide a best-in-class service experience: in 2011, FGA personnel received 20,000 training hours and Chrysler Group agents received 9,000 training hours.
Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) and Chrysler Group are equally committed to providing excellent customer care service. Both regularly monitor the results and level of customer satisfaction in order to improve the quality of response for both information and complaint services. Surveys following customer interactions are used to measure the satisfaction level of customers.
FGA and Chrysler Group collaborate on key indicator development and customer care best practice. The key indicators for the Customer Contact Center activities in 2011 were contacts handled, customer satisfaction, response time and average vehicle downtime.
Part of encouraging a positive customer experience is creating a convenient, on-demand channel of communication.
To increase opportunities for contact, in 2011 FGA continued working on the Mobile Customer Service project, which enables customer-company interaction through the latest generation mobile channels: from the iPhone to the most recent iPad. The project, launched in 2010, reached approximately 151,000 users in major European markets in 2011. It will be extended to include the Android platform in 2012.
Chrysler Group offered the industry’s first smartphone vehicle-information applications in late 2010. Building upon the success of this initiative, Chrysler Group launched additional applications in 2011 and made improvements to existing programs. These applications provide general information about vehicle operation, maintenance, and warranty, as well as product-feature video demonstrations, links to other product information, connections with fellow owners via the company’s brand social media sites, direct dial to customer care and 24-hour roadside assistance.
Maximum attention is given to protecting the personal data of customers and others who contact the company. In fact, the process for managing communication with customers fully respects the right to privacy, as established in the Group’s Data Privacy Guidelines and the legislation applicable for each country in which the company operates.
In 2011, Chrysler Group launched the Owner’s Center website, which offers personalized service throughout the customer’s entire ownership experience. By simply entering their Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) on the website login page, customers can access information about their Chrysler Group product.
Because dealerships are the primary channel of interaction for customers with the company, Fiat Group Automobiles initiated a program in 2011 which aims to better understand customer needs related to their recent purchase and after-sales experiences. The program was initiated for all FGA dealerships in the principal European markets (Italy, France, Germany and Spain). To achieve this, customers were requested to describe over the web their dealership experience and level of satisfaction with the service they received. By analyzing the results, it was possible to identify the behaviors and processes within the dealership which led customers to promote the brand or criticize it, or which led a passive customer to become a promoter.
As a result of this ongoing dialogue with customers about their expectations, new services are continually being evaluated and developed.
For example, Chrysler Group is expanding the number of dealers offering express service, which significantly reduces the time required for routine maintenance such as oil change, tire rotation and multi-point inspection.
In addition, dealers are increasing their service hours of operation to enhance customer convenience. In 2011, dealers offering Saturday service hours increased to 77% in the US. The focus in 2012 and beyond will be increasing the total hours of operation inclusive of weeknight and weekend service hours, with expansion outside the US.
