Volvo Car Canada teams with Strativity to boost customer experience
New Jersey-based consultancy Strativity has partnered with Volvo Car Canada to transform the customer experience across the country’s 37 Volvo dealers. Having successfully transformed itself into a premium segment auto brand, the Swedish auto manufacturer is endeavouring to deliver a top-flight customer experience across channels to match its luxury brand positioning.
Strativity Group is a consulting firm that provides clients around the world with customer experience design, cultural transformation, and strategic planning services. In a business environment where everybody is zooming in on customer-centricity and experience – exhibited by leaders like Amazon and Apple – Strativity’s analysts, strategists, and consultants fulfill client demand for more purposeful customer relationships and experiences. The company provides strategy and planning, consumer surveys and analysis, education and training, and customer experience technology platform implementation.
The company has completed over 200 projects, and has worked with leading consulting firms like Bain & Company, Deloitte, EY, and Accenture. Strativity has also worked with organizations like WPP, Ipsos, and HP.
Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Hackensack, NJ, Strativity has additional offices in the UK, Australia, and Canada. The Canadian location is in Millgrove, Ontario, outside of Hamilton. Strativity is a subsidiary of LRW, an LA-based research and consulting firm.
The consulting firm will now be partnering with Volvo Car Canada on ‘Evolution Volvo: Rising Together,’ a program which seeks to transform the car company’s customer experience throughout its retailer network, which numbers 37 retailers in Canada. Volvo, which was acquired by China-based Geely Holding Group in 2010, has a network of over 2,000 dealerships, most of which are independent companies. Volvo Car Canada specifically provides marketing, sales, parts, service, tech, and training support to the 37 Volvo retailers in Canada.
The Swedish car manufacturer had a strong 2017, selling 7102 vehicles in Canada for an increase of 16.4% over the 6103 vehicles sold in 2016, with family SUV XC90 remaining the top seller. Volvo has posted continued growth in Canada, with October marking the 36th month of year-over-year growth.
Premium rush
Since being purchased by Geely in 2010, Volvo has transformed itself into a luxury brand – the most profitable segment of the car market. Once a brand more in the middle-price range with messaging related to top-tier safety, Volvo has entrenched itself as a premium competitor in the strata of BMW and Mercedes. Geely, to their credit, didn’t shut down Volvo’s Swedish operations and merely take their patents and technology to China. Instead, they invested billions and said ‘Make it premium.’ Now, Volvo sales are up 50% since 2010.
The company has also endeavoured to stay abreast of, or even lead the vanguard of, emerging technologies revolutionizing the auto industry. This has involved recruiting rafts of technologists from tech companies like Google and heavily investing in automation and electrification. Volvo sent ripples through the industry when it announced that from 2019, every new Volvo model would be powered, at least in part, by an electric motor.
“In recent years, the Volvo brand has undergone a complete transformation,” said Adam Kostanowicz, Director, Customer Experience for Volvo Car Canada. “Our retailers have been critical partners in translating this transformation into remarkable success. Evolution Volvo: Rising Together demonstrates our commitment to investing into the future of our retail network to ensure we are equipped to maintain this incredible momentum.”
Working with Strativity, Volvo Car Canada will build a new cutting-edge brand experience that blends seamlessly across channels, from in-store, to online, and beyond. “Delivering a luxury environment that elevates the way customers experience theses exceptional vehicles is our mission,” commented Lior Arussy, CEO of Strativity. “With extensive experience in designing and successfully transforming customer experiences, we are ready to bring our expertise and passion to accelerate the incredible momentum seen at Volvo Car Canada.”
Last month, the car company launched a new app-based car subscription service called Care by Volvo, which lets Canadians sign up for a new Volvo in 10 minutes on a smartphone. Pricing starts at $949 plus tax per month and includes maintenance, and offers a slightly different take on car leasing to people who want predictable outlays and new models. The service is an already delivered part of Volvo’s strategy to give customers what they want, in an easy-to-use business interaction.
