"We delivered 441,500 new vehicles to our Chinese customers in the first half of the year, up 27.6% year-on-year." Faced with many challenges in the industry, Zhang Yan, senior executive vice president of Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Service Co., Ltd., admitted that the achievements were not easy to come by.
Zhang Yan, Senior Executive Vice President of Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Service Co., Ltd
Behind this set of data, it reflects that with the continuous upgrading of consumption in China, the vitality of the high-end market continues to be abundant, and it also highlights The accurate judgment of Mercedes-Benz on the market, with the products of "new luxury" and the service of "heart luxury", and continues to explore future travel.
However, in the current era of great changes in the industry, what is more critical is how to continue to maintain the momentum of attack and how to lead the high-quality development of the industry?
In Zhang Yan's view, this needs to closely focus on the core concept of "sustainable luxury", on the one hand, accelerate the electrification of the entire product lineup, and achieve product carbon neutrality as soon as possible; on the other hand, we must explore new retail models, actively optimize experience touchpoints, and enhance online and offline luxury experiences through improving the digital platform and implementing the "2020 Network Upgrade Plan", from "market-oriented" to "customer experience-oriented" to achieve sustainable development.
Do not pursue digital growth one-sidedly
"We will not pursue digital growth one-sidedly, but more importantly, build sustainable relationships with our customers." For the data that set a new high, Zhang Yan was not too excited. In his view, the key is to focus on optimizing the balance between sales volume, price and channel mix to ensure that the marginal benefits of existing and future product lineups are enhanced.
At present, China is not only the largest single market for Mercedes-Benz in the world, but also the forefront of its insight into the consumer trend of digitalization, electrification and rejuvenation, injecting innovative vitality into the continuous promotion of global strategy.
"In order to meet the growing demand for new energy vehicles from Chinese customers, we are accelerating our own electrification transformation and launching more pure electric products and plug-in hybrid products." Zhang Yan said that Mercedes-Benz in China will be committed to the electrification of all products and carbon neutrality of business development.
As a "new force" in the sub-brand, Mercedes-EQ will launch three new pure electric products after the EQC pure electric SUV, including the new EQA pure electric SUV, the new EQB pure electric SUV, and the new EQS pure electric sedan. Among them, the EQA pure electric SUV and the EQB pure electric SUV will be produced in Beijing Benz. At the same time, the main model E-class car and GLE SUV also provide plug-in hybrid options with a pure electric range of more than 100 kilometers.
"With the EQC pure electric SUV launched at the end of 2019, we have a deeper understanding of electric vehicle customers, and dealer partners are more fully prepared for the arrival of the era of electrification." Zhang Yan revealed that by the end of this year, nearly 600 dealers in China will have EQ sales and customer service capabilities.
New retail transformation "heart" exploration
In addition to the abundant electrification products, how to build a more conceptual and powerful retail network and build more convenient charging facilities to better adapt to changes and better serve customers is also a key part of sustainable development.
At present, Mercedes-Benz has more than 700 authorized dealer outlets, covering 244 cities across the country, covering 6 models: 4S stores, showrooms, service centers, convenience service centers, AMG brand centers, and EQ experience stores.
"How to really start from the heart and serve our customers well?" On the one hand, it is the upgrading of hardware measures, including service facilities, service processes, etc.; on the other hand, it is to improve service consensus from attitudes and concepts, including the Service Convention, the Way of Hospitality, and the My Starbucks Rewards Guide. Zhang Yan said that Mercedes-Benz has been insighting into and understanding new trends, new needs, new models, but no matter how to seek new innovation, the core is unchanged: how to provide customers with efficient and high-quality services, to meet the needs of customers in the new market environment, starting from customer needs, improve the efficiency of the retail system.
It is understood that Mercedes-Benz is launching the new retail transformation of the "2020 Network Upgrade Plan", and it is expected that by the end of 2021, more than one-third of the hardware transformation of the showroom will be realized, and the upgrade of the process and personnel will be promoted in the whole network. Among them, through the "Retail Certification" to enhance the professional skills of sales personnel, by the end of 2022, the certification rate of 8 key positions will reach 50%. At the same time, the management guide of the "My Starbucks Rewards Guide" was launched, focusing on a personalized and customized in-store service experience.
Zhang Yan revealed that Mercedes-Benz is building a "digital new infrastructure" that combines retail digital solutions, client digital platforms and data management, empowering operational efficiency and customer experience improvement.
Among them, on the user side, Mercedes-Benz has created an official website, WeChat, mobile phone application, and vehicle-machine interconnection digital platform for Chinese customers, covering a full range of convenient services such as model overview, online car purchase, customer service, and intelligent interconnection, covering the entire customer journey.
According to the data, in 2020, the cumulative number of visits to the four major online platforms of Mercedes-Benz exceeded 3 billion times, the number of online visitors reached 46 million, 4 million registered users could be reached through the cloud, and the sales and customer service orders exceeded 200,000.
Strive for carbon neutrality across the value chain
In the new Mercedes-Benz showroom, dealers have realized digital retail due to the use of the OTR+) operating system, the industry's first digital mobile solution, which can achieve a completely paperless office and promote green retail.
This is the latest attempt by Mercedes-Benz to achieve carbon neutrality in the retail sector. In addition, authorized dealer stores upgraded by the "2020 Network Upgrade Plan" have also adopted energy-saving measures such as air source heat pumps, roof greening, water recycling, and rooftop solar photovoltaic power generation.
At present, Daimler is one of the first automotive companies to release a vision and path for sustainable development, and strives to achieve comprehensive carbon neutrality covering all aspects of the value chain such as raw material collection, production, operation and service.
In the field of manufacturing, Beijing Benz is committed to improving energy efficiency, protecting the environment, creating green logistics and green supply chains; the photovoltaic system of the new factory in Shunyi can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 21,000 tons per year. In terms of power batteries, Mercedes-Benz cooperates with NINGDE Times and Fu Neng Technology to enhance the competitiveness of power battery cells.
"Sustainability is an important guiding principle for Mercedes-Benz." Zhang Yan said, "In the broader field of corporate social responsibility, Mercedes-Benz is also exploring ways to drive public welfare partners, drive dealer systems and car owners, and jointly promote carbon neutrality.
[Reporter] Guo Xiaoge
【Author】 Guo Xiaoge
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client
Source: South+ - Create more value