Volvo launches dealership initiatives

With the imminent launch of the all-new XC90, Volvo Car UK is introducing two new initiatives to its dealerships, Volvo Personal Service (VPS) and Volvo Retail Experience (VRE).

The new concepts are designed to remove some of the perceived barriers between dealers and their customers and improve trust, customer service and overall impressions of the brand.

New to the Volvo network is Volvo Personal Service, which streamlines aftersales functions to improve workshop efficiency, job throughput and revenue opportunities for dealers, while delivering a much more personal service to Volvo customers via a dedicated service technician.

VPS, the new name for Volvo’s ‘One Hour Stop’ service, is shaped by trust, transparency and respect for a customer’s time. It works by utilising teams of Personal Service Technicians (PST) working on cars as groups rather than individually. This allows for work to be carried out twice as fast, nearly halving customer wait times.

PSTs then become a single point of contact for the customer, who knows that the person they are talking to is the person directly responsible for their car.

David Baddeley, VCUK customer service director, added, ‘Delivering the Personal Service programme isn’t simply the implementation of another ‘initiative’, it’s about delivering a complete, and uniquely Volvo, aftersales customer experience. Keeping pace with new car technology, engineering and design, while integrating operations and aligning departments, developed a need for a change in how things are done and Volvo has tackled this head on with VPS.’

Also new to the network is Volvo Retail Experience which focuses on the space and design of the dealership and is designed to reflect Scandinavian-inspired values of calm, clean lines with ‘cool on the outside and warm on the inside’-style architecture.

The aim of VRE is to create an environment for customers in which high levels of visual transparency are key. Large exterior and interior glazing allows customers to see all activity in the new workshops, turning the spotlight on what is often regarded as ‘back of house’. Inside the showroom, there is a balanced focus on physical and digital presentation, making sure the sales and service areas are completely integrated to deliver an open, holistic environment.

Having been piloted in various sites across the UK since 2013, Volvo is committed to launch the VPS programme into all dealerships by 2017, whilst all UK sites are to be converted to the relaxing and ‘more Swedish’ VRE style by 2020.