Car Buying Experience
The project objective was to examine a single service industry to understand its best practices, pain points, and areas of opportunity through a combination of a business audit, a brand audit, and a service audit to gain key insights into how the industry functions.
Our team chose the new car dealership industry since it is on the brink of change through new business models from car manufacturers such as Tesla and new product innovations such as the electric and hybrid cars. The introduction of new service and product initiatives is creating tension between what is working and what is changing.
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS
Our team began looking at the new car industry by deconstructing the current business model. By determining what the current offerings are, we could start asking how the industry would change if they introduced customer-driven innovations, resource-driven innovations, and process-driven innovations.
SWOT
The next step in understanding the industry lead the team to creating a SWOT diagram (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). The team analyze the benefits and disadvantages of purchasing a car from a new car dealer over a used car dealer or directly from a previous owner.
RISK ANALYSIS
The team plotted the various opportunities and threats on a matrix comparing the chance of the opportunity or threat occurring and what impact it would make for the industry. Through the matrix, the team was able to determine which opportunities and threats were of most importance.
BRAND ANALYSIS
Since there is such a broad range in new car dealers, the team chose to focus their efforts on premium new car dealers. The team conducted a brand analysis on two car manufacturers that represented the industry: Tesla and BMW. Tesla was chosen since they are innovating both the product and services as a new car dealer while BMW was chosen since they have been a standard in providing premium new car services yet continually innovating their product line.
SERVICE AUDIT
The service audit was the final step in analyzing the premium new car dealers industry. The infographic below describes how the industry functions including a competitor analysis, a customer segmentation grid, personas, a service blueprint, an input-output model, and a gap model. By analyzing each part of the industry, the team was able to identify pain points and areas of opportunity for the industry.
