The Connected Car Must Enhance Consumer Relationship with Vehicle OEMs

Vehicle Related Information Provides Meaningful Service to Consumers

Boston, MA – October 20, 2015 – While much of the focus on the connected car is around infotainment, location-based services, and providing big data to the OEM, another aspect that cannot be overlooked is the opportunity to enhance the customer’s relationship with the OEM. Providing vehicle-related information and services while outside the vehicle gives another touch point and the opportunity to provide meaningful and beneficial services that enhance the brand perception of the OEM. A new report from the In-vehicle UX (IVX) group at Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com) has investigated consumer interest and preferences for sharing vehicle fault messages, receiving vehicle service and maintenance reminders, and receiving vehicle health reports.

Surveying consumers in the US, Western Europe, and China, Strategy Analytics found that these services provide great benefits for consumers, OEMs, and dealers alike. Consumers have convenient access to vehicle information either in-vehicle or via a mobile device; and in the case of faults, more knowledge about the issue with which to communicate to the service center. The majority of respondents in the US and China were interested or very interested in each feature surveyed, while consumer interest in Western Europe was strong for several such services. Importantly for dealers, consumers were more likely to want to share vehicle data with dealers than they were with independent garages.

Click here for report: http://bit.ly/1Oys6wb

Chris Schreiner, Director, User Experience Innovation Practice (UXIP) and report author commented, "The challenge for OEMs when providing these services is to increase user awareness and make it easy for the consumer to receive and access the information. The more pertinent the information provided, the more likely that consumers will be connected to their cars when outside of them.”

Kevin Nolan , VP, UXIP added, “OEMs will need to work more closely with dealers to educate them about the benefits these types of features have for them, and better train their sales staff on how to use them so they can make new buyers aware.”

About In-vehicle UX

The In-vehicle UX group forms part of the User Experience Innovation Practice (UXIP) at Strategy Analytics. Focusing on user behaviors, motivations and interests within in-vehicle, mobile device, connected home and media & services research areas, UXIP helps clients meet consumer needs, develop usable solutions and deliver compelling user experiences. Extensive expertise and highly experienced in large-scale survey work, in-depth interviews, focus groups and observational sessions, UXIP’s research methodology allows strategic user-centric analysis on the potential for new technologies that would otherwise be unavailable. Providing actionable insight, go-to-market strategies and business recommendations, UXIP is a leading supplier of consumer knowledge to the technology industry. Click here for more information.