Providing BMW company car drivers with a customer experience more like that of a retail buyer is a key priority for the manufacturer over the next 12 months.
Rob East, general manager, corporate sales at BMW Group, said: “One thing I’m really passionate about is trying to create a relationship directly with a company car driver.
“As an industry, that’s always been quite challenging. You’ve always had strong relationships with the fleet managers, strong relationships with the leasing companies, but it was quite difficult to build the bridge with the actual user-chooser.”
To tackle this, BMW has introduced two initiatives.
East said: “When a company car driver orders a car, we maintain contact with them and send them targeted emails such as saying when their car is being built, when it’s in the paint shop, when it’s arrived in the UK.
“We try and create that excitement for the driver, because one thing we are really mindful about is that people select BMW with the same expectations as a retail customer, but as we don’t have that direct relationship, it’s quite difficult for us to deliver that.”
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East said BMW has also launched a new online platform called Inside Edge where drivers gain access to rewards, as well as business insights.
There is also a one-off reward from Costa, free movie rental and 20% off Harmon Kardon products.
He added: “It’s a way in which we can engage with customers and certainly give them a really broad and varied brand experience.”
East said another focus of BMW in the fleet sector was electrification. By 2023, the manufacturer will have 25 electrified products, 13 of which are pure electric.
He added: “One trend we’re seeing very clearly is that customers only want to talk to us about one topic: electrification.
“With people working from home more, mileage is dropping and there seems to be a greater appetite for people moving from a traditional combustion engine into pure electric.”
> Pictures from CCIA 2021 below
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Andrew Ryan is the features editor at Fleet News. He has been a journalist for more than 20 years and has specialised in the fleet industry for the past 12.
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