At Pinewood
Technologies Asia-Pacific,
Joshua
Bunyan manages
internal and customer projects. Joshua is passionate about striving to provide
exceptional customer service, always looking for ways to improve the services Pinewood
delivers to its customers.
Outside of work, Joshua is
extremely passionate about rugby. Having played rugby for 15 years, Joshua
believes in the strong relationships one can build through sports, along with a
bit of healthy competition. Currently based in Hong Kong, Joshua is more than
excited about the Rugby World Cup being hosted in Japan this year, and can’t
wait to get his hands on some game tickets.
In this deeply insightful
chat with us, Joshua talks about the challenges of a changing automotive
market, the value of great customer service and how an LMS helps in this
regard.
In today’s
information-driven world of the informed consumer, how important is it for the
seller (in your case, car dealers) to have systems which enable them to provide
exceptional customer service?
It is true that the consumers are
more well-informed about their buying options now than ever before. It is
therefore of vital importance that our customers know when and how to engage
with “their customers” in- line with their decision-making cycle, whether
that’s to buy a new car or to service their existing vehicles.
Using a management system such
as Pinewood DMS helps dealers through the use of automated contact plans and
reminders. This helps them engage with customers looking to replace their
vehicle or those in need of a service or routine checkup, thus improving the
customers’ experience.
How does learn-tech,
specifically the Learning Management System, help in this regard?
As with any system, its
effectiveness is only as good as those using it. UpsideLMS has helped us to
develop a platform through which we can administer learning content remotely. This
helps both, with onboarding as well as continual growth
of our users, as our platform evolves and develops to meet the challenges of a
changing automotive market, always providing new tools to improve our
customers’ performance.
Being based out of the UK
and having dealers (learners) in APAC, you have a vantage point to assess the
differences and similarities in the level of technology adoption and
penetration at the workplace. What’s your assessment?
Of
course there are differences in the level of technology adoption across
different markets as well as across different brands. This ultimately depends on
market forces, which can be affected by wider economic conditions of different
markets and the demographics each car brand targets.
For
instance, a high volume brand dealer is more likely to adopt technology which
helps to make the running of their service department more efficient so they
can increase their volume of work, as each job will have less profit than it
would at a luxury brand. A luxury brand may adopt functionality as it enables
them to provide exceptional customer service to ensure repeat visits, as their
customer base is relatively small to a volume brand and retention is vital.
Having
said that, what we always try to do at Pinewood Technologies is to encourage
customers to fully adopt the technology. After all, every business can benefit
from exceptional customer service and efficiency in operations. An increase in
work volume doesn’t need to have an adverse effect on customer satisfaction. As
we have a view across multiple markets and brands, we can help our customer
base to take lessons from these markets and brands and apply them to their
businesses through better adoption of technology, to drive their business
performance.
Pranjalee Lahri
With over 13+ years of work experience in marketing and corporate communications, Pranjalee heads the Marketing function; planning, strategizing and executing marketing campaigns, product releases, and strategic and tactical marketing activities. An advocate of inbound marketing, she demonstrates expertise in creative copy writing, integrated marketing communications and digital marketing. Prior to this, Pranjalee has worked for some of the leading ad agencies in Pune in various capacities and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and Master’s in Business Management. She is deeply influenced by Typography and holds keen interest in advertising, media and communication.
Connect with her on LinkedIn.