Customer satisfaction: BMW enables tracking of your order

A few days ago we were dealing with digital innovation in Brussels’ BMW Flagship store.

BMW inspired us once again with an IT innovation proposed to customers ordering a new car.

Ordering a car can be an amazing and joyful experience; accepting the delivery time can be much more frustrating especially with German cars which have long waiting lists. If you are an oversea customer this frustration is even higher as you know that you long awaited car will have to cross the ocean and spend countless weeks on a boat. BMW found the solution to make you happy.

Online tracking of delivery process

Most cars take 24 hrs to be manufactured (it’s however not true for high-end exemplars which can take weeks to complete the manufacturing process). Ordering and delivery remain however a black box for most customers and BMW decided to change it.

What they propose to their clients is to follow in real time the different steps of the ordering process, from order intake to delivery through shipping.

A fellow customer from USA was kind enough to provide me with a screenshot of his recent order.

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The different ordering steps in a comprehensive view

New BMW owners gets a unique code with which they can log in and follow their very order online. You won’t harass the salesguy anymore asking “where the hell is my car”. By giving more transparency to the process, BMW empowers the customer and gives him/her some control back. This is a very wise initiative that customers can even enhance with some complementary tools

Real-time tracking of the boat

For instance future owners are also able to follow the boat carrying the car (you get the identifier of the ship) through real-time applications like marinetraffic. You can even find websites offering for a small amount of money webcam views of the boat. Isn’t that incredible ?

Advice for your marketing strategy

Fedex and UPS were the first ones, so many years ago, to introduce real-time tracking of shipments. This technology is now applied to bigger object (cars) to bring more added value to the customer, reduce his/her stress and improve the customer experience. What an amazing step ?

By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab Dr. Pierre-Nicolas Schwab is the founder of IntoTheMinds. He specializes in e-commerce, retail and logistics. He is also a research fellow in the marketing department of the Free University of Brussels and acts as a coach for several startups and public organizations. He holds a PhD in Marketing, a MBA in Finance, and a MSc in Chemistry. He can be contacted by email, Linkedin or by phone (+32 486 42 79 42)