On June 28, Citroën India announced a unique first-time-ever sales strategy for the Indian market, one that would see its partner CarWale deliver the company’s flagship C5 Aircross SUV to customers at their doorsteps. This unique sell online (SOL) model is one of Citroën’s many customer-centric initiatives in the country.
The SOL model offers an end-to-end buying experience online, said Joel Verany, Vice President – S&M Synergies, Stellantis India in a recent interaction with Mobility Outlook. Verany was earlier the Vice President – Sales & Network, Citroën India.
Part of Citroën’s ATAWADAC (anytime, anywhere, any device, any content) strategy, the SOL model is a seamless and omni-channel customer experience that offers the customers a lot of choice. Towards this, the French manufacturer has developed a full digital ecosystem that allows customers to configure a car, personalise it, avail finance, insurance and service benefits along with other enabling tools like an e-sales advisor.
Building strong digital tools
When Citroën entered India in 2017, the company clearly wanted to make a difference in terms of its approach to the market and consumers. It was a huge opportunity, Velary said, since Citroën was starting from scratch. There were no legacy liabilities, no mind-set needed to change, and the company focussed on introducing new digital tools that it could bring to India in order to reach the new customer expectations.
Considering India’s tech savvy population, and the opportunity created by the pandemic, Citroën saw a swift uptake in digital. Its ideas were backed by the fact that more than 90% of potential customers, who were shopping for a car, spent time online before making a purchase and before going to the dealership.
The Indian customer’s digital exploration was on a rise, and Citroën wanted to ensure it offered every bit of convenience to make their buying journey exciting, transparent and comfortable. The ATAWADAC experience was thus born to give customers the flexibility and choice.
While digital acceptance among customers grows, Citroën knows well the importance of physical dealerships. “Our SOL experience is complementary with what we are doing with the dealers. It is not in opposition with the dealers. It is an answer to new customer expectation. We know that people will be happy to be at the dealership and we have a fantastic network to do it,” Verany clarified.
The company has set-up 10 La Maison showrooms in the country, and through the SOL model in partnership with CarWale, will now offer the C5 Aircross in over 50 additional cities.
CarWale’s role in the whole process assumes strong significance, considering it will not just ensure the last mile delivery. Being the touch point with the end customer, CarWale will have a big impact in terms of the quality of the delivery and customer experience. In the SOL process, CarWale will also manage the registration for the customer.
As Citroën builds its portfolio for the Indian market, Verany confirmed the SOL process would be used across all its future product lines in India. That apart, Citroën’s other initiatives – the C-Cubed programme for localised cars, the La Maison showrooms, the Citroën Future Sure programme and the Citroën Advisor – are all developed to make for an exciting customer buying experience.