Across the customer service and experience space, the technology is being used to answer questions, guide purchases, and increasingly handle conversations once reserved for human agents.

Yet a familiar problem keeps surfacing: these systems still behave unpredictably.

They can be fluent and insightful one moment, then miss something basic the next. And when that happens, the customer experience suffers.

Salesforce’s latest releases take direct aim at this reliability gap.

Across service, commerce, and AI research, the company is seemingly placing accuracy, consistency, and predictable behavior at the center of its AI system design.

And the CRM powerhouse isn’t tiptoeing around the issue.

This is evident with the launch of eVerse – the vendor’s new simulation environment built by its AI Research department to uncover failures before they ever reach a live customer.

In discussing the motivation behind eVerse, Salesforce pointed to what it refers to as “Jagged Intelligence”, instances where AI excels at complex tasks but struggles with simple ones.

The vendor believes that this phenomenon “creates unacceptable business risk” and that eVerse “directly addresses” the issue.

A Reliability Problem Hiding in Plain Sight

Through its Agentforce platform, vendors like Salesforce have been at the forefront of expanding the capabilities and usage of AI agents in the customer service and experience space.

These tools are moving beyond basic interactions to acting autonomously in key moments of the customer journey – highlighting just how prevalent AI now is within the sector.

As Kishan Chetan, EVP and GM of Salesforce Service Cloud, puts it:

“AI agents go beyond predictions and automation; they can understand context, take action, make decisions, and adapt in real time.”

Indeed, Salesforce’s 2025 State of Service report claims that 30% of service cases are currently handled by AI, with this percentage expected to rise to 50% by 2027.

Given the sometimes volatile nature of AI, this shift has the potential to drastically increase instances of unpredictability.

In an environment where one incorrect decision or confused response can alienate a customer and damage a brand’s reputation, there is plenty of risk accompanying the reward of further automation.

Salesforce appears to be attempting to combat the unreliability of AI so that the technology can become safer while its popularity continues to soar.

Breaking AI Before Customers Do

In a nutshell, eVerse is designed to break AI before customers do.

The training environment is unforgiving. It throws noise, accents, unpredictable behavior, and messy real-world scenarios at AI models to see how they cope.

Salesforce AI COO Madhav Thattai explained how Agentforce Voice was one of the eVerse guineapigs:

“With eVerse, we were able to explore many nuances of human conversation before Agentforce Voice reached production.”

“This type of rigor is what turns breakthrough research into scalable products and dependable customer experiences.

“It’s how we’re expanding that same level of responsiveness and consistency across the full observability stack to solve our customers’ most complex needs.”

UCSF Health is one of the companies currently involved in the pilot phase of eVerse.

Collaborating with clinical experts, the Salesforce team is training AI agents to handle healthcare billing, where precision is essential.

Early tests showed agents reaching up to 88% coverage across routine and complex tasks, with reinforcement learning and clinical oversight shaping the results.

Sara Murray, MD, MAS, VP & Chief Health AI Officer at UCSF Health, summarized the goal:

“When used responsibly, we believe AI can help our teams simplify one of the most complex parts of healthcare.”

Salesforce believes that the continuous trial-and-error training loop “transforms agents from generic language models into enterprise-specialized systems ready for production deployment.”

Retail Has the Same Problem – With a Commercial Twist

Salesforce’s reliability push stretches into commerce too, where a new set of challenges is emerging.

Traffic from consumer AI channels, including upcoming integrations with ChatGPT, is rising sharply. Salesforce forecasts that during Cyber Week, intelligent agents will influence 22% of global orders.

This represents another potential risk if the AI representing your brand gives inconsistent answers.

To combat this, Salesforce has announced fresh capabilities for Agentforce Commerce.

The new features allow retailers to syndicate product data into AI channels with tight control over accuracy, pricing, and brand voice.

Self-described as the “first platform designed to give retailers full control over the entire agentic shopping journey,” Agentforce Commerce lets brands push product catalogues into AI platforms like ChatGPT while delivering personalised, agent-led journeys on their own sites to drive loyalty and higher lifetime value.

One organization currently using the tool is Pandora. The company’s Chief Digital & Technology Officer, David Walmsley, discussed the importance of being able to deliver dependable AI, stating:

“This is more than just commerce; it’s about using trusted AI and unified data to guide every customer, making them feel understood, supported, and valued.”

It is clear from Walmsley’s comments that when AI is steering purchasing decisions, that trust has the potential to become a direct revenue lever.

Fixing the Problem Long Before It Shows Up

Viewed together, Salesforce’s recent updates follow a clear logic: push reliability upstream.

The vendor is building it into the training data, the simulation environment, the risk checks, the decision-making logic, and the human oversight loops.

The logic appears to be: if reliability becomes an afterthought, AI remains a gamble; if it becomes structural, the technology scales far faster.

Salesforce’s State of Service report hints at the same dynamic. AI is already reshaping frontline roles. But adoption still hinges on trust. Service teams want tools they can rely on, not systems that feel experimental.

Security leaders echo this. While 51% report delayed rollouts due to risk concerns, Salesforce’s State of IT: Security report finds unanimous agreement that AI agents can strengthen security posture – once reliability and safety controls are in place.

In other words, the enthusiasm is there, but the confidence is catching up.

Maybe reliability will prove to be the missing piece.

A Line in the Sand for AI in CX

As AI agents step further into direct customer interactions, the industry is hitting a turning point.

These systems are no longer side tools; they’re the first point of contact in many journeys. That places reliability above convenience, above cost savings, and above speed.

Silvio Savarese, Chief AI Scientist at Salesforce, linked the research to real-world outcomes:

“Our partnership with UCSF Health demonstrates how applied science translates directly to customer value, proving that when you train agents in environments that mirror real-world complexity, they perform reliably when it matters most.”

That’s the crux of Salesforce’s message. In the agentic era, reliability must be foundational; not an afterthought.

Teams that recognize this early – and harden their AI accordingly – will be the ones who are best placed to fully maximize the potential of the technology.

The bespoke Dealer Management System (DMS), which was built on Zoho’s CRM and implemented by the software provider’s Enterprise Business Solutions team, has been rolled out across Mercedes-Benz dealerships across India.

SKYLine aims to deliver a more connected and transparent experience to customers across the company’s dealership network using AI-driven analytics. The system is designed to make each stage of the customer journey, from booking a service appointment to post-service feedback, faster and more personalized.

Vehicle owners get a unified portal where they can track service updates in real-time, view invoices, and access a full service history through a unified customer portal.

SKYLine replaces legacy systems with a decentralized architecture in which each dealership operates on its own Zoho CRM solution. This gives individual dealers the flexibility to tailor their workflows to their operations, while aligning with brand standards and compliance.

The system integrates with the automaker’s global HQ infrastructure through a middleware layer powered by Zoho’s workflow orchestration tool, Qntrl. This allows real-time data exchange across multiple protocols without requiring the automaker to make changes to its legacy systems.

“Together, we have built a decentralized platform that empowers each dealership with autonomy, while maintaining central control and real-time HQ integration,” said Mani Vembu, Zoho’s CEO.

“To meet these complex needs, we co-developed middleware capabilities alongside our evolving Qntrl platform, enabling seamless communication across legacy protocols.”

The platform was developed over a period of two years and the rollout involved more than 5,000 man-days of user acceptance testing and 3,000 man-days of dealer training, according to Zoho.

Beyond improving customer touchpoints, SKYLine also helps dealerships run smarter. The system digitizes service workflows including technician assignment, quality checks, and feedback collection. Dealerships can also manage courtesy car availability and pre-owned vehicle refurbishments through visual dashboards. Real-time analytics enable dealership managers to monitor efficiency and customer satisfaction, while the automaker gains a data-rich view of its network performance.

The idea is to simplify workflows, eliminate paper-based processes and provide better insights to dealers and Mercedes-Benz headquarters.

For Zoho, SKYLine reflects its growing role as an enterprise technology partner for large-scale digital transformations built on its CRM and workflow stack. Vembu called the project “a technology marvel born of close collaboration and co-creation,” noting that SKYLine highlights the vendor’s ability to adapt its software suite for complex, industry-specific needs.

The company, which serves over 130 million users across its 55 apps, has been expanding its portfolio and enterprise footprint with an emphasis on privacy, integration, and locally developed technology.

For Mercedes-Benz India, the launch is part of a larger focus on elevating customer engagement in the luxury automotive segment, where customer service depends as much on smart technology as it does on the vehicles themselves. The brand has already introduced a direct-to-customer sales model in India, and SKYLine is a further move towards personalizing the purchasing and ownership experience.

AI is one such technology which seemed to enter the mainstream with such suddenness and startling possibilities that it evokes excitement- and not a small degree of worry – and magic.  

That story is just beginning. No one knows what shape it will take, or what its final impact will be. 

But consider another technology that has been around for over a century, the automobile.  

It evolved from a slow, difficult-to-operate invention (with plenty of naysayers) to a vehicle of extraordinary performance and utility.  

Indeed, it’s not a stretch to suggest that the automobile is the most advanced technology we’ve seen because it has had to endure so much for so long.  

It has to function well in all conditions, in extreme weather, and in varied terrains while providing comfort and safety to passengers. And it has to be built to last. No small task. 

The invention and evolution of the automobile share similar antecedents with AI and contact centres. Because both exist and perform where the sum of multiple parts spur tectonic change. 

When Passion Meets AI, Contact Centres Move the Needle

“I gave (my drivers) three things: a sense of optimism, a creative environment, and the ultimate motivator-competition. By competing with each other in-house, we wound up beating our rivals. – Enzo Ferrari 

Cars and contact centres have a lot in common. Both have a lot of moving parts – figuratively and literally. And both exist in highly complex, dynamic and fast-paced environments where anything and everything can happen all at once.  

On the road and in the contact centre, events happen in a split second which can spell success or failure. In those situations, everyone needs the right tools to win. And this is where AI has arrived as the missing piece to help agents just as everything happens all at once. 

Indeed, AI could be the final piece of the puzzle – the missing link – that overturns everything UCC has known and transforms customer experiences in ways we cannot today foretell.  

XCALLY: Driven with Passion – and Heart

XCALLY, headquartered in Turin, Italy (about three hours from Ferrari headquarters by car by the way), is pursuing omnichannel contact centre solutions with a passion not unlike the kind that Enzo Ferrari engendered during his long career.  

For XCALLY, it’s not just the technology. The human being is central to everything – just like the person in the driver’s seat. 

According to Diego Gosmar, VP of International Operations at XCALLY, our software is “constantly updated,” with the intent to constantly improve the human experience.  

In his words, “We are advancing every day, with new features, new add-ons, new things you can do with the plugins, all for the improved efficiency and delight of our customers. 

This dedication to constant product evolution and improvement ensures that XCALLY remains at the forefront of the UCC market, offering businesses innovative solutions to their customer support challenges. 

Gosmar also emphasized the importance of passion at the genesis of XCALLY’s products.  

“At the heart of the XCALLY team is an unwavering passion,” he said. “They have a love of the technology that they create. And I think this is very different from just the mental achievements in the technical world.”  

With that deep sentiment comes XCALLY’s user-friendly design, excellence and innovation. As Gosmar explains, “Our product is very easy to use.”  

And that’s by intent. The company’s emphasis on design simplicity ensures businesses can implement XCALLY’s solutions without facing steep learning curves or needing more staff or outside consultants. 

In addition to its core UCC offerings, XCALLY is emerging as a conversational AI leader.  

Can We Talk? XCALLY and AI

Its dedicated conversational AI platform combines natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to provide businesses with a powerful tool to automate and optimize customer interactions. 

With XCALLY’s conversational AI solution, businesses can streamline customer support processes and improve communication along the customer journey. 

By leveraging NLP and machine learning, XCALLY’s platform understands customers’ needs, automates responses, and directs interactions with appropriate support agents. This reduces wait times, improves customer satisfaction, and increases operational efficiency. 

In conclusion, XCALLY’s innovative approach to unified communications and collaboration technologies is transforming the world of customer support. By harnessing the power of AI, conversational AI, and a passionate team, XCALLY delivers state-of-the-art solutions that enable businesses to provide exceptional customer service. 

Click here for more information about XCALLY’s AI solutions. 

Such murmurs bubbled to the surface in January when The Register wrongly reported that all of its 3,000 job cuts centered on its CRM business.

Since, the publication changed its language to suggest that CRM was only one of the impacted business units.

Yet, the story broke on the same day news surfaced that SAP was looking into selling its remaining 71 percent stake in Qualtrics, the voice of the customer (VoC) platform it acquired for $8BN in 2018.

The move added to the narrative of a retreat from the customer experience space.

Meanwhile, some have highlighted the infrequent announcements surrounding its CX portfolio, which includes eCommerce, customer data, service, sales, and marketing solutions.

However, this doesn’t suggest that SAP is pulling back from CX. Instead, SAP seems to be refocusing its efforts in a way that plays to its ERP-business application forte.

In doing so, SAP has crafted a “one office” vision. This involves pulling its CRM closer to its ERP with the aim of developing industry-specific solutions.

Clarifying this aim in a co-authored blog, Julia White, Chief Marketing & Solutions Officer, and Thomas Saueressig, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, stated:

Some voices across the market are recasting SAP’s commitment to an industry-first strategy to suggest that SAP is no longer committed to key needs of our customers, starting with our CX portfolio. Let us be clear: SAP will continue to deliver customer experience (CX/CRM) solutions.

The post also references new SAP innovations that help to bridge the gap between its CX portfolio and ERP solutions to improve customer experience delivery.

For instance, in retail, it offers a predictive replenishment tool that uses AI to refill stock, which harnesses data from its cloud ERP and customer experience products.

Also, in the automotive space, it connects sales data with production planning and forecasting tools to boost logistics optimization, ensuring traders are ready to meet customer demand.

These are just two examples of how SAP is pulling its cloud portfolio together, looking for synergies, and developing cloud-native innovations to better support CX initiatives in specific industries.

SAP is not alone in doing so, with Oracle taking on a similar strategy after its layoffs.

Indeed, Liz Miller, VP & Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, believes it is a trend that transcends the enterprise technology space. On LinkedIn, she wrote:

We’ve seen several big players in CX get called out for shifts in the portfolio…claims they are exiting or shifting back…when in reality, they had to take time to rearchitect the experience sausage factory to fit the need for more modern, cloud-native solutions.

Moreover, SAP is still advancing the products within its customer experience suite.

In October, it launched the new cloud-native SAP Sales cloud and additional Customer Data Platform (CDP) functionalities to support more B2B use cases.

Nevertheless, SAP must still fight to conquer perceptions of a retreat from the CX market.

Releasing this statement is the first step. Yet, putting SAP CX front and center at its upcoming SAP Sapphire event, amplifying CX success stories, and engaging more with media, analysts, and thought leaders in the space are likely critical next steps.

Otherwise, SAP may have to keep quashing speculation – perpetuated by market rivals – surrounding its CX portfolio, even if its industry-specific focus resonates with customers.

The “Automotive Cloud” is a product built specifically for automotive companies, dealers, finance groups, and automakers.

It focuses on enhanced lead conversion, collaboration, intelligence, and automation opportunities.

At present, the automotive industry, like many others, is progressing through a massive transformational period, accelerated by rising customer expectations.

Unfortunately, only around 1 percent of automotive customers say they’re fully satisfied with their car buying experience, and only a quarter of brands feel they’re adapting well to new digital sales techniques.

The Automotive Cloud aims to empower organisations to deliver more meaningful customer experiences across every channel, in every stage of the customer journey.

According to SVP & GM of Manufacturing and Automotive for Salesforce, Achyut Jajoo, Automotive Cloud will give the businesses in this sector a “competitive edge”, while future-proofing their operations.

Introducing Salesforce Automotive Cloud

The Salesforce Automotive Cloud is an all-in-one ecosystem built to deliver relevant, tailored, information and guidance to automotive companies.

Harnessing the solution:

• Sales teams can set parameters to assist with automatically ranking and routing qualified leads to the right agent.
• Dealer managers can rack purchase agreements to examine the performance of inventory.
• Service teams can use alerts to notify them when a customer’s lease is set to expire.

Included in the Automotive Cloud experience is “Driver 360”, a solution which creates a single view of the entire vehicle and customer lifecycle for brands.

One of 13 industry-specific solutions in the Salesforce ecosystem, Driver 360 delivers out-of-the-box solutions to business users, built with industry-specific processes and data models. These include:

• Driver Console: Offers service teams a comprehensive view of every customer interaction and touchpoint, with custom alerts. The Household Management feature even allows automotive companies to see a holistic view of a household’s vehicle ownership.
• Vehicle Console: Provides team members with comprehensive access to vehicle information, such as vehicle market values, odometer readings, and real-time repair and service insights.
• Automotive Data Foundation: Uses industry standards like the STAR standard to create a trustworthy data foundation for interoperability, intelligent data collection, flexible data sharing, and global regulatory compliance.
• Flow for Automotive: Offers intelligent automation with click-based configuration and integration to simplify the delivery of branded experiences, like updating customers on vehicle order status or shipment changes.
• Analytics for Automotive: Delivers comprehensive insights into critical KPIs and metrics, with purpose-built dashboards for a complete overview of sales, business performance, asset and customer lifecycles, and revenue trends.
• Salesforce Genie: Assists automotive companies in unifying customer and vehicle data across all channels and interactions. Users can combine service requests, customer inquiries, and vehicle data into a single profile.

Users will also have access to features like automotive lead management tools to drive collaboration between automakers and dealers with enriched lead insights.

Plus, Dealer Performance Management tools will make it easier for automakers to analyse dealership performance, and monitor lead opportunities in different segments.

A New Solution for Automotive Brands

The Salesforce Automotive Cloud is further enhanced by access to Salesforce’s extensive partner ecosystem, which allows businesses to leverage unique expertise and solutions for their industry.

Brands can leverage solutions from leading consulting partners like PwC, Deloitte, and Capgemini, all within their Automotive cloud landscape.

The Automotive Cloud is generally availability to all automotive companies today.

By accessing the right CX technology, companies can set themselves apart from the competition, connect with customers on a deeper level, and promote loyalty. The trick is learning how to get started with your customer experience strategy.

Today, we’re going to be looking at some excellent examples of automotive brands taking advantage of CX initiatives to delight and support their customers.

Casabaca Toyota and SugarCRM

Casabaca Toyota, one of the largest family-run dealerships in Ecuador, had been serving thousands of consumers for more than 60 years, before it recognised a need to start collecting and using data more effectively. As the world continues to change, and in-store experiences become less common, Casabaca decided it was time to upgrade their customer service plan for the new age of digital transformation. This meant working with a CRM solution like SugarCRM.

With SugarCRM, Casabaca was able to digitize the sales funnel, and start pulling data from multiple sources to gain a better insight into customer needs. The all-in-one ecosystem made it easier for the company to build loyalty among existing customers, and reach new audiences. The brand even converts 3% more leads than usual, thanks to an innovative CRM solution.

Zero Motorcycles and Salesforce

An innovator in the motorcycle landscape, Zero Motorcycles specializes in the creation of sustainable, electric bikes. Hailed as the “Tesla of Motorcycles”, Zero is quickly becoming a leader in its space. However, to achieve the best possible results, the company knew it needed to take the right approach to customer service. Before turning to Salesforce for help, Zero Motorcycles was using a complex, disconnected system to interact with dealers and consumers alike.

With access to Salesforce, Zero has launched a data-driven approach to assisting customers wherever they are. Now, Zero can access key data about motorcycles remotely, diagnose issues, and schedule appointments for maintenance when necessary. The new technology has prompted 50% faster response times, and 25% lower ticket volumes. The “community cloud” ecosystem even improves communication among dealerships.

RAC and Content Guru

The UK’s second largest automotive services company, RAC provides a range of vehicle and breakdown services to more than 8.8 million private members and corporate customers alike. The scale of the company’s operations means contact centres often face high levels of unpredictable demand from customers, exacerbated by weather conditions and other issues.

Using Content Guru’s “storm” contact centre solution, RAC was able to ensure they could dispatch critical repair services more quickly and efficiently. The storm service ensures countless enquiries and requests are processed simultaneously, leading to a more effective contact centre, and better customer service overall. There’s even ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) which allows callers to identify themselves by Vehicle Registration Number.

DriveNow and Twilio

DriveNow is an exciting joint venture between the Sixt car rental company and BMW. The fleet includes some of the world’s most coveted cars, and allows drivers to reserve vehicles at nearby car parks and leave them in designated areas. To keep this environment running smoothly, DriveNow needed an effective way to support and connect with customers.

Twilio’s SMS solutions allowed DriveNow to implement text-based conversations into multiple stages of the customer journey. Users receive confirmation PIN numbers for reservations when registering for a car. They also receive important information about car model and location this way. According to DriveNow, the SMS solution ensures they can reach their customers consistently and immediately, wherever they are.

KAR and Five9

The KAR Global company helps buyers and sellers across the used vehicle industry with technology-driven remarketing solutions. With more than 800 agents spread across a dozen contact centres, the brand was experiencing a significant disparity in systems connecting with eachother. To upgrade CX and streamline operations, the company decided it was time to leverage a more unified and flexible service, with the help of Five9.

Using Five9 technology, KAR Global was able to connect distributed organizations, with seamless integrations to ServiceNow and Salesforce. The resulting technology enabled an improved agent experience across all business units in the cloud, while delivering enhanced reports on customer contact centre trends.

DPI Offroad Brands and 8×8

DPI Offroad brands is an automotive brand providing aftermarket accessories and parts for powersports vehicles, light trucks, and Jeeps. The company is committed to helping customers get peak performance from vehicles wherever their journey takes them. To deliver the kind of service and support customers are looking for in today’s fast-paced world, DPI decided they needed to shift away from a limited on-prem CX system.

Researching top cloud communications solutions, DPI Offroad Brands decided to work with 8×8, to rollout intelligent tools to employees across the company. The 8×8 contact centre also provides comprehensive analytical features allowing managers to monitor the performance of operations, helping to optimise outcomes for teams.

Autociel and ZOHO One

One of the most significant independent car dealers in Switzerland, Autociel specializes in car buying, renting, leasing, importing and insurance services. The company knew to stay ahead of the curve in today’s competitive landscape, it needed to go above and beyond with its customer service strategy. Looking for an intuitive and simple CRM solution, Autociel wanted a way to centralize all customer contact and sales processes.

After exploring a handful of CRM provider options, Autociel decided to work with ZOHO. The easy-to-use ecosystem was perfect for the team, and provided employees with a range of tools to make life easier. Customer data was accessible and centralised, allowing for easier access to sales opportunities. The team even managed to reduce customer acquisition costs.

To stay ahead of the curve, all businesses in the automotive landscape need to reconsider their CX strategies, with a focus on innovation. Leader in Ecuadorian business, Casabaca knew it was time to upgrade its service strategy in recent years, as the automotive space grew more digitized. The company recognised data was its most important asset moving forward, but it needed an effective way to leverage and understand the data collected.

SugarCRM’s intelligent ecosystem, designed to integrate with existing tools used by modern companies, provided Casabaca with the solution it needed to stay competitive. Here’s how SugarCRM and Casabaca transformed customer service.

Taking Advantage of Data for Customer Service

For more than 60 years, Casabaca, Toyota has grown its position as one of the most trustworthy dealers in Ecuador. The company is committed to constant innovation and exceptional customer service, which has helped power the development of a loyal consumer base.

Unfortunately, some parts of the Casabaca were less modern than others. Only five years ago, the majority of the company’s sales processes were still reliant on manual workflows, paper, and phone calls for leads and customer service. By implementing SugarCRM, the organisation hoped to digitise more of these processes, starting with data collection and invoice management.

Eventually, the team wanted to use the same CRM ecosystem to gather more analytical insights. For instance, the team wanted to learn how many times buyers visited dealerships, which services, and products they were offered, and if they scheduled meetings or test drives.

Upgrading their investment in SugarCRM, Casabaca decided to use the technology to house all of the company’s crucial data. This made it easier for sales reps to find the information they needed to serve users effectively. Even during this update, however, the team’s processes were still largely reactive. Employees needed to wait on new customers to visit a dealership to start the sales process.

Because Casabaca’s call centre wasn’t integrated with its CRM, the reps also only had visibility of buyers who physically visited the store. When customers did call in, reps could only tell sales someone was visiting, without any details into their interests, or whether they had spoken with the business in the past.

The pandemic in 2020 demonstrated a clear need for yet another change in the business. Public places were closed, and companies were forced to conduct more business digitally. To stay afloat in this changing automotive landscape, Casabaca needed to find more efficient ways of leveraging data correctly, and building powerful relationships online.

Updating the CRM Platform

According to Alison I, the CRM Manager for Casabaca Toyota, the company was sitting on a goldmine, but it didn’t know how to use it correctly. SugarCRM was already optimized to help the business access better tracking tools, for nurturing and supporting customers. Working with the Casabaca marketing team, Alison dove deeper into the features of SugarCRM, including its integration capabilities.

Connecting the website to the CRM meant the team could more closely track the data collected. A digital sales funnel of online leads was also created and combined with the physical sales funnel. Where the team didn’t have any information on prospects visiting dealerships in the past, the digital sales funnel changed this.

Teams could now track where leads were coming from, and gather better information about what the prospect was looking for. This took more of the guesswork out of selling and service. Casabaca also implemented Zoom meetings and live chat to connect with interested parties wherever they were. Though the workforce was initially nervous about conducting video calls over Zoom, customers loved seeing the brand’s new digital presence.

Today, Casabaca can more effectively capture information from customers once, and use that data to power the entire sales and service journey. The process makes reps more efficient, saving them time searching for data. Plus, the data collected allows agents to deliver more personalized experiences.

Driving Digital Transformation Forward

With a new ability to connect with buyers effectively online before seeing them in store, Casabaca sold almost its entire inventory by the close of 2021. The dealership now converts 3% more leads, while creating more loyalty among customers.

Because the process is digitised, Casabaca has also opened the door to further-reaching sales communications, allowing it to expand its market to outlying areas. The dealership can even drive test models to buyers’ homes, to help them get an insight into the vehicle first hand.

Digital transformation with SugarCRM has enabled far more than just great business results for Casabaca. The solution has also helped the company to better serve its community during times of need. The business was even able to develop a program which allows customers to trade cars in for a less expensive model and receive the cash needed for financial support.

According to Alison, the CRM software is strategic and cultural, helping the business to create happier customers and a stronger community. Going forward, Casabaca will be working with Mexico-based SugarCRM partner, Intelli-K, to develop further innovative projects. The business plans to launch an appraisal system managed fully within SugarCRM.

Casabaca also plans to incorporate service and mechanics departments into the CRM solution, to provide a more consistent customer experience beyond the sales journey. According to Alison, Sugar is flexible enough to adapt to any strategy the business has. The solution has allowed the team to take ownership of the software in its own way, and adjust it to the automotive industry, and the brand’s needs.

Today’s buyers are setting higher standards for what they expect from the automotive sector. Whether you’re purchasing a fleet of vehicles for a business, or a single family car, you want to be able to trust in the quality of service you’re going to get. To create this sense of confidence, automotive brands need to invest heavily in the right CX strategies.

As the automotive marketplace continues to evolve, and the purchasing journey grows increasingly digitised, companies need to reconsider how they connect with their audience and build a sense of trust. Currently, 92% of dealers say CX will be critical to their future growth.

Let’s explore the evolving nature of CX in the automotive sector.

The Potential for CX in the Automotive Sector

Like in many industries, the buying process in the automotive sector has changed significantly in the last couple of years. Consumers are spending less time in showrooms, and more time interacting with service agents and professionals remotely. Around 60% of car buyers under the age of 45 are set to purchase their next car entirely online.

In this digitally evolving and fast-paced world, the majority of shoppers expect real-time customer service (across a range of channels), excellent resources to help them make their choice, and a fantastic commitment to ongoing service.

By examining the CX landscape, and making changes to the way they connect with customers throughout the purchasing journey with the correct tools, automotive companies can:

• Streamline the buyer journey: Automotive shoppers spend an average of 14 hours researching cars online before making a purchasing decision. Making it easier for customers to retrieve more of the information and guidance they need in a digital world can help automotive brands outshine the competition. For instance, Honda can provide “test view drive” videos to customers conducting research, then allow those customers to connect with an agent online to ask questions about their model of choice.
• Improved productivity: Running an effective automotive business in today’s evolving landscape means unifying employees from a range of environments. Manufacturer representatives need to be connected with on-floor sales assistants and so on. CX solutions like workforce management tools make it easier to track all of your specialists in the same place. A CCaaS solution also means you can track conversations with customers across a range of channels, as they move between shopping online and offline.
• Data-driven sales and processes: Data is an important tool in ensuring sales in the automotive industry. A connected CCaaS solution with in-built CRM tools can help to provide a better insight into the customer journey, and even allow vendors to keep track of when a vehicle may need maintenance. As cars grow increasingly intelligent, IoT devices will also be able to send information back to the CCaaS environment, to help vendors track when vehicles might be having issues.

Trends Driving CX in the Automotive Industry

Customers commonly see buying automotive products as a painful task. Not only do they need to make the right choice of vehicle, but they also need to ensure they’re buying from a distributor who will help them to preserve their investment over time. As the automotive landscape continues to change, with more people buying cars in a contactless environment, and new forms of technology hitting the streets, teams have a lot of transformation ahead.

Some of the major trends driving opportunities in the automotive sector today include:

• Omnichannel experiences: Customers in every industry are looking for more versatile, omnichannel experiences. This holds true for the automotive sector too. People don’t want to have to visit multiple automotive dealers to get the right car. They’re just as comfortable purchasing products online. With the right CCaaS solutions, companies can provide assistance to their customers through video, chat, and various other forms of conversation outside of the showroom, enabling omnichannel sales.
• Extended Reality: As consumers search for more convenient ways to purchase vehicles, they’re also experimenting more with disruptive technology. With AR and VR experiences, combined with a contact centre and CRM solution, companies can deliver new levels of service. Extended reality can essentially allow users to experience what a vehicle might look and feel like at a distance, without ever visiting a showroom.
• Self-service: As mentioned above, a lot of the research involved in searching for a new vehicle or fleet happens before a customer ever connects with a sales representative. Companies need to invest in CX tools to make this research experience more effective. This includes using FAQ bots, and chatbots to answer customer questions about models. The right self-service tools can even allow users to schedule maintenance and test drives without the need for human input from an agent.
• Employee experience: Various members of staff are involved in keeping an automotive company running successfully. Sales, marketing, and production teams need to be aligned in the same environment, with the same access to tools and knowledge. Workforce management tools can provide users with a hub of insights to help them do their best work, while CCaaS solutions can draw insights from CRM systems and other data. In a more aligned environment, distributed teams can work more effectively together.
• AI and automation: Intelligent tools are making a significant impact on the automotive landscape. As vehicles become more intelligent, they can send information back to the dealership or manufacturer about customer preferences, car performance and more. AI and automated tools can then provide insights into when vehicles need repairs or maintenance, paving the way for a more proactive level of service.

The Future of CX in the Automotive Industry

The automotive industry is changing at an incredible pace, as companies strive towards more efficient and intelligent vehicles. At the same time, customers are becoming increasingly demanding when it comes to the level of service and support that they expect throughout the entire buying experience.

Investing in the correct CX solutions will be the only way for future automotive brands to ensure they’re delivering the service customers need, to maintain a sense of loyalty. The right tools could even pave the way for a more convenient purchases and automotive services in the future.

The RAC is currently the second largest automotive services brand in the UK. Employing an average of 4,000 people around the country, the brand provides breakdown and vehicle services to more than 8.8 million customers, resulting in 2.3 million rescues per year.

To maintain the loyalty of its customer base, and improve overall credibility, RAC decided it needed to invest in the best possible technology for connecting with and supporting clients. Here’s how RAC leveraged the features of Content Guru storm to achieve its goals.

Delivering Rapid Service in Times of Need

The RAC serves millions of customers on a regular basis throughout the UK, from everyday drivers, to private customers and corporations.

The scale of the RAC’s operations on a daily basis mean its common for the company to see significant levels of unpredictable demand in its contact centres. Calls are frequently exacerbated by adverse weather conditions, leading to a higher number of accidents and delays on the roads. During these events, the contact centres often receive massive volumes of enquiries for general maintenance, and emergency breakdown support.

In the past, the RAC’s premises-based communication systems often struggle to scale according to contact centre volumes. Additionally, agent resources were often distributed inefficiently, with specialist professionals wasting time on callers in need of routine callouts. With endless tasks to complete, including manually creating, cancelling, and relaying the status of repair callout customers, the business wasn’t running at its best.

To overcome the problems the team faced on a daily basis, the RAC decided to integrate a new cloud-based contact centre solution. With Content Guru, RAC was able to integrate the “storm” cloud contact centre platform with its existing infrastructure and frontline communications. This created a new level of scalability to handle changes in requirements on-demand.

The solution can automatically process any number of simultaneous enquiries from customers, reducing the burden on agents, even during periods of high demand.

Creating a More Efficient Workplace

The solution also offered a custom integration with the RAC’s back-end I/CAD (Intergraph Computer-Aided despatch) technology. This automated lookup service identifies customers by Calling Line Identity, or Automated Speech Recognition, using a Vehicle Registration Number.

With the integration, customers can quickly access personalised and automated messages informing them about the status of their callout. Alternatively, they can also use the system to cancel a request. The storm technology instantly updates the I/CAD after interactions, enabling the RAC to reduce costs by eliminating wasted callouts. Field engineers receive an SMS update the moment a request is cancelled.

The service also allows customers to make bookings without speaking to an agent. These automations provide agents with more free time to complete valuable tasks, like dealing with complex vehicle enquiries. Customers simply call the RAC contact centre and have their queries processed by a proprietary cloud communications platform.

For customers making a new call out or enquiry, the technology routes the call to the RAC contact centre. Alternatively, customers enquiring about existing callouts, or cancelling repair requests are routed to an automated environment.

An Intelligent Approach to Customer Service

In the past, RAC’s technology meant it was consistently struggling to deal with rapidly changing volumes of enquiries in the contact centre. These demands increased exponentially during periods of high demand, placing significant strain on agents. The manual processes took up significant employee team, and cancellations had to be managed by contact centre agents. These agents would then have to pass information over to technicians, which wasn’t a streamlined process.

Now, with storm’s effectively unlimited cloud environment, the RAC can manage massive volumes of enquiries at the same time. This means consistent service is offered, even during peaks in demand volume. The integrations with existing technology allowed the RAC to automate a number of repetitive tasks, like identifying cars and feeding information on repair status back to a customer.

What’s more, by automating updates sent to engineers, the storm solution ensures less time is wasted sending specialists out to customers who no longer need assistance. This means team members are distributed more effectively, to give customers the support they need as quickly as possible. The full process runs more smoothly, with minimal strain on the team.

With storm technology from Content Guru, the RAC has been able to effectively improve service and performance levels, minimise turnover, and improve resource allocation. The result is lower costs involved with keeping operations running, as well as happier customers overall.

The Power of Automation

According to the Project Manager of RAC, Alan Gormley, storm has been a powerful tool for the evolution of business operations. For the RAC, enabling rapid repair services to be dispatched to customers as soon as possible is critical to customer loyalty and ongoing success. However, when severe disruptions occurred in the past, the contact centre would often be overwhelmed by demand.

When customers were unable to get through to cancel requests, the team also found they would often waste valuable resources who could have been solving problems elsewhere. Automated contact centre feature ensures more customers can get the services and support they need, even without having to speak to an agent. Now customers can cancel requests in real-time, and agents get updates automatically, the RAC is saving money, while delivering the service customers expect.

Going forward, the RAC plans to continue leveraging the full flexible capabilities of the storm ecosystem. The team wants to continue automating repetitive enquiries and requests, to free up as many agents as possible, so they can do their best work.

Now, newer technologies like AI, ML, and IoT are influencing customer decisions, and companies are delivering a wider range of products as a result, from solar panels to AI assistants. The purchasing journey is evolving too. Dealerships are using the online landscape as a way to simplify and enhance the buying experience. People are even enjoying “contactless” car purchases.

In this quickly changing landscape, 92% of dealers say CX will be a critical part of their future growth. Let’s take a look at some of the use cases for CX technology in the automotive space.

1. Create Truly Omnichannel Experiences

Omnichannel purchasing experiences are growing increasingly common across every industry. We’re living in a world where consumers are increasingly comfortable with bringing digital avenues into their purchasing experience. Many companies are even offering their consumers the opportunity to purchase and customise cars entirely on the web.

With 60% of car buyers under the age of 45 now set to purchase their next vehicle online, companies need to think more carefully about how they can streamline and enable omnichannel experiences. This could include looking for ways to simplify certain parts of the purchasing experience online.

For instance, 74% of customers say they’re more satisfied with their purchase from a dealership when they can complete paperwork digitally. Using a CCaaS solution which allows employees to connect with consumers online, provide documents, and collect e-signatures can help with this.

Companies could even use the same CCaaS solution to provide a video tour of a car for a customer when they call to ask questions about a vehicle. This can allow consumers to make better decisions before coming to collect a car in-person.

2. Transform the Customer Experience

Consumers often perceive the process of buying a car to be a complex and time-consuming feat. However, if automotive companies can provide a more streamlined and efficient experience, they have an opportunity to set themselves apart from the competitors, and gain customer loyalty.

Surveys by McKinsey & Company reveal around 50% of customers believe a better service experience is more influential than anything else in the purchase experience. Providing consumers with more ways to simplify their buying and service journey can open the door for new opportunities. For instance, businesses could use chat bots and AI solutions to automate the process of booking an appointment for a service or test drive.

This allows customers to complete tasks quickly, while reducing the amount of work assigned to employees. Alternatively, brands could make a name for themselves in the industry by offering new forms of customer service communications via their CCaaS environment. XR solutions allow companies to showcase product ranges and give users an insight into what a vehicle might be like from a distance.

3. Collect Valuable Insights

As customers grow more demanding, and the automotive landscape continues to change, companies will become increasingly dependent on data to drive better business outcomes. Already, the potential to collect and use valuable data in the automotive space is evolving. Connectivity and AI elements in cars allow vehicles to become a platform for capturing data insights.

Manufacturers and dealers alike will be able to capture information about average mileage, accidents, battery performance, and how a car is being driven. This can be used to build a productive model for customer service. Teams can learn what kind of issues their customers are likely to face, and provide guidance on how to solve those problems with AI bots and virtual assistants.

Data could be used to determine when peaks in service demand will increase, to help with scheduling and workforce management. The same information can also help to guide self-service strategies, making sure users have

4. Build Customer Loyalty with Proactive Service

There’s even the potential to improve the long-term relationship after a car sale. Data collected and attributed to customers in a CRM system can allow for predictive and proactive service. For instance, a vendor or manufacturer can track a car’s performance and send automated alerts to buyers when they need to arrange for a service.

Information collected about specific cars can also be placed into the CCaaS knowledgebase, so team members within any organisation can access insights and immediate guidance on problems. This will make it easier to track down solutions to issues faster when someone calls in with an issue.

The right CX technology can even help to deliver a more personalised and consistent experience to customers over time. The data collected from each conversation across a multi-channel CCaaS environment can be stored in a CRM, and used to customise the services offered.

5. Improving Productivity

Finally, CX solutions can also be a powerful tool in improving the overall productivity and performance of the automotive team. The information collected by CCaaS, CRM, and Workforce management tools can all provide insights into how to arrange teams and resources more effectively. What’s more, integrations with the UCaaS landscape can help distributed team members to connect and work together on issues in a remote environment.

AI and automation solutions in the CX landscape can also be extremely useful for boosting productivity. Not only can chat bots and tools in the automotive industry help customers to serve themselves, but they can assist professionals in tracking valuable information too.

Additionally, automated tools for storing and collecting information, or completing common tasks reduce the strain on a fast-paced workforce. This provides team members with more time to focus on the most value-added activities in their workflow.