Audi Progressive Retail Experience Brings Ease and Efficiency to Sales and Service

• A set of digital tools developed at Audi dealerships over the past year were designed to elevate the customer experience
• The Audi Sales Assist iPad® app launched on January 6 will become the dealer’s primary sales tool
• Audi will continue to introduce valuable and innovative digital tools for dealers in the coming months

Beginning this month, Audi of America will introduce the Audi Progressive Retail Experience, a series of digital tools that will bring ease and efficiency to the dealership experience and improve customer loyalty. Aimed at both dealers and customers, the Audi Progressive Retail Experience features two focus areas – sales and service – and will roll out in the next several months in hundreds of dealerships nationwide.

“Audi is meeting dealer needs with new progressive digital tools that will provide valuable information, improve the sales experience, and help operations run smoother,” said Mark Ramsey, Audi of America General Manager Digital Retail Operations. “These tools are revolutionizing the dealership experience and changing the face of dealership employee customer relations.”

Audi Sales Assist App
The Audi Progressive Retail Sales Assist app was designed to eliminate barriers between a salesperson and a potential Audi customer by providing dealership employees with the information they need to build trust with their customers.

The Sales Assist app is the first digital tool to launch from the Audi Progressive Retail Experience program, allowing employees to present product information to potential clients in innovative ways. The tool is an Apple iPad® application and uses pictures, videos and animations that are both informative and entertaining. Other features allow customers and dealership personnel to compare the specs between Audi models and its competitors, configure an Audi vehicle based off a customer’s wants and needs, and view and search inventory on a dealer’s lot, among other functions. The Audi Sales Assist app was first piloted by a group of Audi dealers in Q2 2013 and is now available to all Audi dealerships nationally.

Also part of the Audi Progressive Retail Experience are negotiation and finance tools that will assist dealership employees in presenting vehicle price and payment options to customers in a professional and collaborative way. These tools will pre-populate information on digital forms so customers and dealership employees can spend less time filling out paperwork and more time building a relationship.

Additionally, the Audi Delivery application is a mobile delivery tool that tailors a dealership employee’s presentation around a customer’s specific wants and needs in an effort to deliver their ideal vehicle more effectively. This tool keeps a record of what is covered in each delivery and allows dealership employees to follow up with additional information around features that require further explanation.

Service
The Audi Progressive Retail Experience brings exciting new improvements to Audi service via mobile, desktop and hardware tools. These service applications create a more impactful customer experience by allowing dealership employees to be more efficient when scheduling, writing a repair order, managing loaner vehicles as well as communicating with a customer and strengthening the customer– employee relationship.

Also coming soon as part of Audi Progressive Retail Experience is an expansion of the capability of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, already in use at many Audi dealerships today. RFID allows dealership employees to create a more personal service experience with customers by identifying them when they arrive so they can greet them by name. RFID also automatically populates relevant service applications with vehicle information and allows dealership employees to track every vehicle that moves through the service process.

Audi Progressive Retail Experience was developed with dealerships in mind. Audi is continuously working to improve and enhance the Progressive Retail Experience by collecting feedback from participating dealerships. Dealerships are now able to order for their sales teams iPad devices which will host the Audi Sales Assist app.