Volkswagen Group Catalyst For Aftersales

WAA Chosen has worked with Volkswagen Group for over 15 years, and in 2023 were appointed lead agency to manage the aftersales CRM programme in the UK, covering the lead Volkswagen Group brands; Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Škoda, SEAT, CUPRA, and Audi. This encompasses all communications related to any Aftersales events, issued on behalf of the dealer for their parent brand.

Customers often start considering their next vehicle from the moment their new car is delivered, and statistics show that 87% of customers who are highly satisfied with their ownership experience will purchase from the same brand again. This makes Aftersales management and communications critical not only for generating revenue during the average three-year ownership period but also for sustaining long-term customer loyalty, and future revenue generation.

As a result of this, Volkswagen Group required robust, efficient, and scalable CRM strategies to manage over 2.5 million emails, SMS, and direct mails annually. They needed a system capable of delivering personalised, timely, and brand-consistent communication that seamlessly integrated with multiple internal systems and supported real-time data processing.

Our Approach:

WAA Chosen overhauled the Retailer Aftersales CRM communications, incorporating an average of 16 personalised elements per email, including complex pricing lookups and deep integrations with multiple internal systems. This redevelopment was critical not only for enhancing customer experience but also for ensuring consistency in brand messaging across all touchpoints.

Key initiatives included:

• Transforming Templates: Conversion of 456 individual email templates, 300 direct mails (DMs), and 250 SMS messages across six brands into dynamic, automated communications, allowing for thousands of permutations
• Brand-Consistent Redesign: Templates were redesigned to align with each brand’s aesthetic, focusing on a mobile-first, action-driven design and executing monthly bespoke campaigns alongside always-on activity.
• Performance Monitoring and Reporting: Implementation of self-serve dashboards and a centralised reporting API for real-time metrics tracking, such as open rates and conversion rates, which supports agile decision-making.
• Continual Integration and Improvement: Future plans include deploying sophisticated real-time integrations across the digital estate to enhance responsiveness and efficiency, underscoring the critical nature of this work in driving forward the aftersales strategy.