Premium after-sales service

The challenge
After-sales service is a key component of dealer profitability for all premium car brands, and Mercedes-Benz is no exception. However, a number of challenges have arisen over recent years: independent service centres are improving their game and lowering their prices, and changes in European law mean that garages other than manufacturers authorised dealerships can service vehicles without invalidating warranties.

Mercedes-Benz asked Engine to help substantially differentiate their servicing offer - to create compelling reasons for customers to choose, remain loyal to, and recommend them, while ensuring the change was desirable and achievable for the franchise network.

A customer journey map for Mercedes-Benz

The approach
Ethnographic research with Mercedes-Benz owners, observation behinds the scenes and creative workshops with stakeholders and premium car owners gave us a vital sense of the priorities, limitations, and challenges faced by those providing the service and the needs, desires and ideals of the service users.

From these insights we built frameworks and conceptual models to inform a high-level strategic vision for the Mercedes-Benz after-sales experience, underpinned by five service principles to guide development and actual delivery. We were also able to start to visualise the underlying service ecology - the framework of people, systems, environments, and tools required to support the experience and develop customer journeys into four distinct propositions, each of which complements the others.

Using unbranded collateral to prototype the service architecture

Iterative prototyping and review sessions with customers, staff and stakeholders ranged from desktop walkthroughs to a full-scale installation at a dealership, and the final phase saw a fully functional pilot with detailed specifications around service implementation and delivery.

Finally, we engaged with third party suppliers, designers and producers to ensure that the look, feel and message was aligned with and supported the new vision.

Working on the full-scale prototype

The results
The new service has been piloted for a year to great effect with increases in customer satisfaction, average spend, acquisition and recommendation. Roll out across the network begins in 2011.