The digital buying process and customer engagement
Piilola, Laura (2021)
Piilola, Laura
2021
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021120623920
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021120623920
Tiivistelmä
The thesis is commissioned by a company in automotive sales. The case company is one of the largest Finnish car dealerships, with a large variety of services including new car sales and used car sales. The commissioner of the thesis has identified a need to develop customer engagement and after discussion the focus was decided on the digital sales channel specifically the chat.
The goal of the thesis is to discuss how customer engagement can be improved in the digital sales channel and answer the three supporting research sub-questions. The objective is to find information about communications in digital sales and apply these to the communication with customers online. Further, to analyze the targeted messages and data from the case company’s chat provider.
Since the field of digital sales in constantly changing, a variety of digital sources was used to get the most relevant and current information. The theoretical background enabled to understand the customers process when buying online. The thesis process began with a look into automotive sales and the customer buying process. To find out how to communicate with and engage customers, the buying process and where the customers’ needs come was to be understood. From these, the communication and process of buying was compared to the process that customers would go through when buying a car in-store.
Based on the conclusions made from the targeted messages and current situation, the final goal is to suggest improvements regarding digital communication and customer engagement in the chat. From comparing the previous and current chat providers’ messages and processes, results were drawn and analyzed. Conversion from targeted messages was used to analyze which messages were successful in engagement and suggest further research approaches. In addition to this, the aspects that affect digital sales were shown.
The result of the thesis is an analysis on the buying process of customers and the effects of the current targeted messages for customer engagement. From the results we have determined that a change in chat provider was successful, but further research needs to be done to validate the results. Although digital sales is quite a new topic, many competitors in the field have been moving with digitalization to increase sales and keep up with the changes.
The goal of the thesis is to discuss how customer engagement can be improved in the digital sales channel and answer the three supporting research sub-questions. The objective is to find information about communications in digital sales and apply these to the communication with customers online. Further, to analyze the targeted messages and data from the case company’s chat provider.
Since the field of digital sales in constantly changing, a variety of digital sources was used to get the most relevant and current information. The theoretical background enabled to understand the customers process when buying online. The thesis process began with a look into automotive sales and the customer buying process. To find out how to communicate with and engage customers, the buying process and where the customers’ needs come was to be understood. From these, the communication and process of buying was compared to the process that customers would go through when buying a car in-store.
Based on the conclusions made from the targeted messages and current situation, the final goal is to suggest improvements regarding digital communication and customer engagement in the chat. From comparing the previous and current chat providers’ messages and processes, results were drawn and analyzed. Conversion from targeted messages was used to analyze which messages were successful in engagement and suggest further research approaches. In addition to this, the aspects that affect digital sales were shown.
The result of the thesis is an analysis on the buying process of customers and the effects of the current targeted messages for customer engagement. From the results we have determined that a change in chat provider was successful, but further research needs to be done to validate the results. Although digital sales is quite a new topic, many competitors in the field have been moving with digitalization to increase sales and keep up with the changes.