Smart home assistants like Alexa are now the voice to some of the most popular consumer vehicles in the world, extending that familiar aide from the home, to the road.

That extension makes a car no longer “just a car.” A recent study found that a connected car will send over 25 gigabytes of data to the cloud every hour.

“Everyone in the industry needs to be asking themselves how they are going to turn that data into insightful business decisions,” said Assurant Vice President of Global Strategy & Development, Chad Ammons.

So how should F&I providers be thinking about these merging market places teaming with mountains of data? Let’s take a look.

Blurring the Lines

Did you know, 92% of U.S. car owners perform activities that require mobile or internet connection while driving? ¹

“It’s clear the Connected Car is going to evolve in 2018,” Ammons continued. “We saw that at CES, NAIAS, and NADA. The connected car is blurring the lines of where the home starts and stops.”

Facilitating that connection point are voice assistants like Alexa, Google Home and Siri. Drivers and passengers can voice activate in-car assistants to complete many tasks, making driving more of an enjoyable experience than a laborious task.

Consumers are looking for a seamless, connected experience, and are gravitating towards companies that can deliver it. In fact, they’re judging all companies they interact with against those that deliver the best experience.

In our recent consumer experience study, 83% of consumers stated that their experience with top customer-rated companies raises their expectations for all companies they use, no matter the industry.

So what can the auto industry do with this information?

Rising to the Challenge 

For starters, understand more companies are interested in the auto industry than ever before. For example, in 2018, US mobile carriers added more net subscribers through cars than through smartphones. ²

That stat can be alarming and insightful. Your future competitors might be less identifiable or not even in the market yet. On the flip-side, potential partners may be in different industries all-together, thanks to the blurring lines of the home and car.

Protecting this connected lifestyle, created by the merging of once clearly separable industries, will be crucial for the industry leading companies of tomorrow, as consumers are quite clear in their demands.

“88% of our survey respondents expect their experience with brands they use to keep getting better in the future,” said Ammons. “It’s not enough anymore to maintain the status quo. Brands must continue to improve again and again.”

• How are you enhancing the consumer experience?

• How are you protecting the connected lifestyle of the future?

• Are Vehicle Service Contracts evolving to meet the digital/connected market?

Businesses who can answer those three questions will have nothing but open highway in front of them.

Email us to let us know your thoughts on trends that are shaping the auto industry.

Citations

1 – Parks and Associates