Frictionless Experience for Consumers at the Heart of the Paragon Honda-Google-Red Cap-Team Velocity Partnership
Paragon Automotive, a Honda and Acura dealer in the US, is utilising technology to make it easier for customers to shop, buy, and maintain their car. They have collaborated with Google, Team Velocity, and Red Cap Technologies to reinvent the customer experience and to create a frictionless future for consumers.
“Time is the new currency so we’ve got to move at the speed of the customer. If we don’t disrupt ourselves, the customer will do it for us,” said Brian Benstock, General Manager and VP at Paragon Honda.
To attract and serve their customers better, the company has partnered with three technology providers to make it easier for customers to do business with them.
It uses Team Velocity’s Apollo platform to attract more customers for less by delivering personalised offers to in-market buyers through a personal website that is dynamically built for each consumer.
After the sale, the company makes it easier for their customers to communicate with them through its Google Assistant app, which allows customers to use their voice on Android, iPhones, speakers like Google Home and more to schedule appointments with the dealership.
Through their partnership with RedCap, the company also offers a free pick up and drop off service so customers can do business with Paragon without visiting the dealership.
“The modern consumer doesn’t want to be sold, so we help them buy, by talking to them about what is relevant to them. Instead of advertising what we want to promote, we deliver personalised offers that are relevant to each individual customer,” said Benstock.
“We are working diligently to build technology that improves every aspect of the consumer experience, with both OEM’s and dealerships. It has been great to collaborate with Google, RedCap and Paragon to make buying and maintaining cars easier for consumers and we look forward to further integrating this technology into Apollo,” said David Boice, Co-Founder and CEO of Team Velocity.
Paragon is also leveraging technology to make it easier for customers to service their vehicle with the dealership after they buy. Car maintenance is an inconvenience that’s amplified when it requires visiting a dealership during working hours.
In an industry first, the company teamed up with Google, Team Velocity and RedCap to build an app for Google Assistant that makes it easy for customers to use Google Assistant to contact the dealership or schedule service with the use of their voice.
With a few words, customers can contact the dealership, book an appointment, and schedule a service. The app guides consumers through a series of voice assisted prompts, resulting in scheduling a service appointment without having to speak with a person.
Paragon began working on the project with Google, Team Velocity and RedCap in August of 2017. After months of working with Google’s automotive team to develop the application, the persona became known as “Paul”.
Work on crafting responses for possible user interactions was completed in early 2018, with a pilot programme for the assistant launching in early February. Paragon revealed the new app at this year’s 2018 National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Convention on Saturday 24 March.
