Reaching New Heights of Customer Experience: The Strategic Differentiator in Automotive Retail

Where expectations are high, customer experience is the ultimate differentiator, with the guiding principle clear: Good isn’t good enough; you have to be great.

People and Culture
Customer experience starts with people. Both training and empowerment can ensure that every customer interaction reflects trust and reliability. Managing resource levels is key to avoiding friction points like slow follow-up or rushed handovers. A strong culture also drives higher employee engagement, improved eNPS, and better retention.

First Impressions
With over half of car buyers wanting a response after enquiry within 3 hours*, responding to customers in a timely manner is even more crucial than ever for delivering a stand-out customer experience.

Having technology like CitNOW React360 as an enabler ensures you capture 100% of online leads – on any device – so your sales teams can respond, qualify and convert, all while meeting the expectations of your prospective customers.

Technology as an Enabler
Technology is here to support and not replace the human experience.

Tools like CitNOW Sales, CitNOW Workshop and 2-Way Messaging can enhance customer convenience by reducing customer response times by 33%** and allowing retailers to respond to customers within 5 minutes.

AI also offers a powerful means of enhancing the customer experience, through streamlining operations and empowering businesses. Conversational AI for example, can become a powerful ally either as an assistant suggesting customer replies, which dealerships then review and send, or in autopilot mode where the AI chats directly with customers. Both solutions drive business efficiency, build customer trust, and create personalised journeys that meet the evolving expectations of today’s automotive customer.

Excellence into Aftersales
Aftersales is a vital revenue stream for dealerships, with 28%† identifying it as a key driver of profitability.

Dealerships rank timely and personalised contact centre outreach among the topmost effective strategies, highlighting the importance of precision and relevance in customer engagement.

Aftersales solutions like RTC, and intelligent pre-diagnostic tools such as CitNOW Triage, empower dealerships to deliver exceptional service by pre-defining servicing needs. Leveraging a live, business-wide view of workshop activity which not only enhances operational efficiency but also elevates the customer experience, turns routine interactions into moments of delight.

Seamless Experiences
The ultimate goal is a seamless omni-channel experience where customers move effortlessly between digital and physical touchpoints. While achieving this in its purest form can be complex, starting by offering customers choice and flexibility in how they communicate is a strong first step toward delivering personalised, memorable car-buying and ownership journeys.

In conclusion, customer experience should be considered a strategic imperative, not just a service function. By blending people, culture, and technology, businesses can deliver scalable excellence and stand out in a competitive market.

If you want to find out more about how we’re creating memorable experiences across Marketing, Sales and Showroom to ensure dealerships make a lasting impression, reach out to your Account Manager or email us at team@citnowgroup.com

*CitNOW Group: Uniting Customers and Retailers Through Technology – 2022 Report

**Based on pilot program run by CitNOW Group

†“Time to Shift Gears: Rethinking Customer Experience in Automotive Retail”

CitNOW Group at AM Live 2025: Reaching New Heights and Making an Impression 

This year, at AM Live 2025, we’re showcasing how retailers can reach new heights in performance and leave a lasting impression on every customer at every stage of their car buying journey. 

Find us at stand B2 to explore how our connected solutions are empowering dealerships to boost operational efficiency, increase conversion, and deliver standout customer experiences. Whether you’re refining your digital strategy or rethinking your customer journey, our team will be there to guide you through the tools that can help you get there. 

Don’t miss out on: 

Live Panel Discussion: Customer Experience – Are You Getting It Right? 
11:00–11:45am | Theatre 2 

Chaired by Boris Huard, Chief Executive of CitNOW Group, this dynamic session brings together senior leaders from across the industry to explore how dealerships can consistently deliver ‘magic moments’ across sales and aftersales. Joining Boris is Jamie Nash from Group 1 Automotive, Alex Rose from OMODA & JAECOO, Monique Limerick from Vines and Tony Sciascia from Celtic Auto Group.

Expect insights on faster lead response, next-gen CRM, balancing automation with human interaction, rethinking part-exchange, and empowering staff to focus on what matters most – the customer. 

The CitNOW Group Customer Experience Zone
Get hands-on and a first look at our latest innovations covering Marketing, Showroom and Aftersales. 

Climb higher. Stay unforgettable. 
Discover how 100% lead follow-up, AI-powered features, and personalised campaigns can help your brand stand out and connect more meaningfully. 

Where rising expectations meet standout experiences. 
Explore how memorable showroom moments build long-term customer relationships and turn every interaction into something special. 

Elevate your service. Leave a lasting impression. 
See how intelligent, proactive aftersales solutions continue to impress long after the sale is made. 

Expert Advice 
Have a business challenge or ambition in mind? Our team will be ready to listen, advise, and help you find the right solution to move your business to new heights 

If you haven’t registered yet, secure your place now – we’d love to welcome you to the stand and show you what’s next from CitNOW Group. 

Real AI, Real Opportunity, Real Successes… with some Real Challenges

Written by Lisa Arrowsmith, Chief Product Officer, CitNOW Group

In a world where the hype around AI is deafening, it can be challenging to cut through the noise. It requires careful consideration to decide between what’s truly transformative and what’s just clever branding. As a product leader working closely with automotive retailers, I often hear the same two questions: How do we know which AI solutions will actually help our dealerships become more profitable? And how do dealerships protect their software and process estates from becoming a patchwork quilt of vendors and platforms, as new AI players come on the scene and gain interest from different business stakeholders?

These are very fair and real concerns faced by dealership technologists today. At a high-level, both can be addressed by grounding AI in a strategy that clearly prioritises objectives, defines outcomes, and considers AI tools in the context of the wider technology and platform landscape.

AI Actually Works – But Does it Work Together?

While AI is often discussed in general terms, it’s already making a tangible impact across retailer operations. From using AI to personalise marketing content and optimise customer engagement, to reducing call centre handling, or transforming how stock is priced, AI can offer a smarter, faster, more personalised and more profitable ways to manage your dealerships and delight your customers. However, can you easily adopt what you perceive as “best in breed” across each of these applications in a way that delivers a connected, seamless experience?

The answer to that today depends on the make-up of a dealership’s software estate and the ability – and willingness – of your software providers to partner with you on that journey. At CitNOW Group, we’re targeting an extensive yet specific range of marketing, showroom and workshop workflows where we believe AI can drive the biggest impact – from handling customer communications to operational workshop improvements, or transformational data unification. The landscape of AI solutions – and vendors – is vast and ever-growing, but we partner with our customers – and other vendors – to co-innovate.

Finally, efficient digital journeys and access to a holistic view of data is key to unlocking cross-platform visibility and reduced double-keying, enabling dealerships to take advantage of a range of AI opportunities, driving data-sharing and integration.

Navigating a New – But not Insurmountable – Risk Environment

AI can be transformational for dealerships, but leveraging evolving technologies means navigating new risks. Beyond ensuring AI partners meet your organisation’s tech, compliance, and GDPR requirements, these projects demand deeper scrutiny to define appropriate guardrails. They often involve cross-functional decision-makers, business, IT, legal, and compliance, with final approval at senior levels. Engaging these stakeholders from the outset helps streamline implementation while maintaining a strong focus on risk management.

The concept of “responsible” AI will continue to grow, particularly as consumers are faced with public examples of its misuse, such as deepfake videos. A dealerships’ use of AI must demonstrate that it doesn’t intend to deliberately mislead a consumer, and this is a core tenet to the way we deploy AI at CitNOW Group. Tools like CitNOW Workshop are using AI not to manipulate content, but to ensure quality and consistency of videos. AI assesses workshop videos against OEM or dealer group standards, removing the need for manual checks and speeding up delivery to customers. This builds trust! Customers see high-quality, authentic videos that reinforce transparency. And that trust is critical. One of our guiding principles is that AI should never be used to enhance or alter the vehicle itself in a way that could be perceived as deceptive. Responsible AI is non-intrusive, supportive, and always focused on the customer.

AI as an Ally, not a Silver Bullet

Ultimately, AI offers a powerful means of enhancing the customer experience, streamlining operations, and empowering businesses. When applied thoughtfully, AI becomes a powerful ally driving efficiency, building trust, and creating personalised journeys that meet the evolving expectations of today’s automotive customer.

However, and finally, the old adage holds true – with great power, comes great responsibility. From managing the new but not insurmountable risks, to ensuring the responsible utilisation of a powerful technology, AI can heighten the need for careful foresight in its deployment. Yet by starting projects at a pace that provides visibility and control, alongside a partner who can support an appropriate risk management framework that meets the needs of an increasingly multi-functional set of stakeholders, the opportunities enabled by AI truly are transformational.