BMW Digital Transformation - Financial Services

Reaching out to customers and providing a solution to help them finance their dream vehicle

BMW Leasing Thailand is the banking and car loan arm of the German car manufacturers organisation in Thailand.

Its purpose is to sell cars from the world-famous brand by seeking out customers and providing a solution to help them finance their purchase. They offer a range of options to give customers the flexibility to find a solution that best suits them.

Internally, BMW Financial Services is undergoing a digital transformation. Alongside this, there were several projects already under way that required outside help and technical skills, as well as market knowledge.

They brought in Fluxus to help them upskill their existing team to ‘think digitally’, increase analytics and business intelligence visibility, reduce reliance on paperwork, and personalise, simplify, and improve interactions with their customers.

Setting out on a six-month project where the overall goal was to achieve greater sales, Fluxus conducted a digital transformation of the BMW Financial Services operation and also offered consultancy advice, working towards what would prove to be the successful launch of several new innovations to coincide with the renowned Thailand International Motor Expo 2019.

Improving personalisation & digital interaction with BMW customers

BMW is a car manufacturer known across the world and have already built up an established customer base in Thailand. The overall objective was simple - achieve more sales.

As an iconic industry-leading name with more than 100 years of history, BMW know how to make cars and they know how to sell cars. What they sought from Fluxus was help with the development and creation of digital strategy, messaging and processes that would help them increase the volume of cars they sold.

To achieve this, the first deliverable was to improve and personalise their digital interaction with customers by taking the existing interface of their customer facing leading websites and applications and making them easier to navigate and understand.

New customers were also sought, with attention put on instant messaging application LINE. This could be used for lead generation but also a route to easier interaction between customers and the business.

To help facilitate their ideas, Fluxus sought to upskill the internal team members so they could fully utilise the new ideas and systems that had been put in place.

Finally, with the valuable Thailand International Motor Expo 2019 held at the end of the year, Fluxus were tasked with creating a marketing campaign ahead of the event which would identify and deliver potential customers to the BMW sales team in attendance at the exhibition.

“BMW Financial Services partnered up with Fluxus to drive digital transformation and internal change in order to prepare the organisation for the future as well as starting to offer a digital customer journey ASAP.”

Bjorn Antonsson
CEO, BMW Financial Services Thailand

First external group invited to work in BMW Financial Services offices

Fluxus dedicated a four-person team to the project: a principal consultant, two service designers - one focusing on research and customer journey and one on user experience and design - and a marketing strategist consultant.

This team became the first external group to be invited into BMW Financial Services offices to work, with this decision proving pivotal in the proficiency and effectiveness of the process. The team became an embedded part of the wider office group, working on a specific project with the full backing of the company.

To help resolve the problems BMW Financial Services were facing, Fluxus adopted an evolution rather than revolution approach. Instead of a radical overhaul, the intention was simply to develop a way to better understand the needs of the customer and create an easier way to interact with them.

Initial research revealed the focus of the existing sales website was not tailored towards any particular goal. The emphasis was therefore shifted away from information and instead towards lead generation. This included tweaks to the ‘Your BMW Leasing’ section, which allows customers to price up different financial packages for their purchases. This led to an upturn in sales as it created an increase in leads for the sales team to follow up on.

Internal programmes were also modified, such was the digital sales kit, which is a tool used by dealers to price up sales for customers as well as calculating their own commission, and the My BMW Rewards platform, which monitors targets and incentives for dealers for selling particular finance packages.

Maximising the use of LINE messaging

BMW Financial Services were also keen to maximise the use of messaging application LINE and utilise it as a source of interaction with customers. Instead, customers were encouraged to connect as a LINE friend and check the status of their account through the app via automated responses.

As part of this, Fluxus exceeded their target of connecting with 5,000 existing customers through LINE and generating 100 additional car sales or finance contract sales through those connections within the project’s six-month timeframe.

Fluxus put a big emphasis of the overall process on research. User testing was utilised where each version of the redeveloped website was reviewed via test pools where feedback could be garnered and further enhancements made where necessary. Fluxus were also able to gain feedback and advice from subject matter experts and implement this when required.

Internally, workshops were also run with BMW Financial Services’ staff, where knowledge was transferred and the company’s existing staff were taught how to work in a more agile way. This included, Fluxus working closely with the existing vendors to change the existing waterfall approach into sprints with deliverables that could be tested and approved.

A Lean UX workshop was also run, looking at a new user journey for buying cars online. Tools such as hotjar were also utilised to test new hypotheses and assumptions once implemented to see how they performed against the originals to make sure that the function improved with each iteration.

“Working with Fluxus allows my teams and me to discover digital solutions and opportunities we would not be aware off without them. Together we set up lean projects, creating value for our customers and developing new skills for the teams in the process.”

Head of Sales and Marketing, BMW Thailand

The marketing campaign

A key final focus of the project was the renowned Thailand International Motor Expo 2019, held from November 29 to December 10 at the Impact Arena in Bangkok.

Fluxus were tasked with developing and managing a marketing campaign for BMW Financial Services ahead of the exhibition where unique sales deals would be on offer.

This involved pre-qualifying potential customers to attend in order to maximise the productivity of BMW’s sales team at the event.

Marketing channels

This was achieved through multiple marketing channels, including Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and LINE, as well as the creation of multiple custom-built landing pages. Rather than the internal marketing team at BMW dealing with the numerous vendors and advertising agencies, Fluxus took on the management of the scheme for them and were able to tailor it towards the desired outcomes.

LINE service redesign

Although the exhibition was not a pre-determined finishing point for the overall project, it was viewed as an opportunity to bring everything together. The modified customer focussed ‘Your BMW Leasing’ was completed to coincide with the Expo, with the ‘Digital Sales Kit’ following soon after in early 2020.

The new LINE service was the highlight of the Expo, with a redesigned official account launched to help generate sales. As part of this fresh content was created, mission sticker packs were released for customers to use and a beacon set up.

Record sales

Fluxus’ work on both internal and external projects with BMW Financial Services coincided with a record sales year for the company in the region. Based on Fluxus’ marketing campaign for BMW leading up to Thailand International Motor Expo 2019, 1000+ leads were pre-qualified for the sales team to follow up with at the exhibition. The resulting sales from these are still to be determined.

Exceeding expectations

The LINE oriented aspect of the venture was particularly successful, with the target of getting 5,000 existing customers to register for the new service exceeded by more than 15% as 5,787 signed up. From that, 554 contracts were tendered against a target of 100. The scheme managed to operate well below the target block rate of 49%.

Having initially been brought in to work on a six-month long project in the second half of 2019, the partnership has since been renewed throughout 2020.