Opel/Vauxhall embraces the social side of Customer Care

RÜSSELSHEIM, Germany/LUTON, United Kingdom - 19 July, 2010: As the first European automotive manufacturer, Opel and its sister brand Vauxhall in the U.K. have started offering customer care via web 2.0 channels. As part of an initiative to strengthen the relationship with customers, Opel in Germany and the Vauxhall in the U.K. have launched pilot projects monitoring the web for customer complaints and information requests and actively getting in contact with consumers by using social media communication tools, such as Twitter, offering help and information.

“Strengthening our relationship with customers is an important element of our plan to move Opel/Vauxhall forward. It is vital for us to connect with them where they are. This is why we are excited about the fact being the first in Europe when it comes to engaging in this innovative form of customer service through Web 2.0 channels.” says Alain Visser, Vice President Sales, Marketing and After sales for Opel/Vauxhall.

Customer care meets Social Media

The initiative of Opel/Vauxhall’s customer care center pays tribute to the fact that consumers increasingly start using the web space to voice their feedback, concerns and questions. Members of the Opel/Vauxhall service team check about 5,000 posts per week in web 2.0 channels in Germany and UK. So far they identified about one percent where help was needed and could resolve the problem or answer the request within a short number of days.

Building on learning’s derived from a similar project at GM in North America, the customer care agents in each market, Germany and U.K. use the latest in web monitoring tools to identify potential requests. Once a potential case has been identified the agents contact the respective customer and offer their help. In addition, customers can directly interact with the agents via the Opel Germany Service and Vauxhall Service Twitter accounts or simply add the #Opelservice or #Vauxhallservice hash tags to a tweet.

Rolling out social media across all functions in Europe

Opel/Vauxhall has successfully been embracing the social web for the past years on different levels across Europe. Among others developer blogs for the Opel Insignia (2008), Opel Astra (2009) and recently Opel Meriva that feature engineers, designers and marketers which give behind the scenes insights on the development of Opel/Vauxhall’s newest family members and actively participate in the online conversation with the numerous followers.

Opel/Vauxhall has consolidated its social media activities by setting up a cross-functional team which manages the strategic development and roll out of all social media activities across its more than 30 markets around the globe. On top of developing and rolling out Web 2.0 governance and guidelines as well as setting up monitoring tools, the team is in charge of maintaining the growing social media portfolio, that includes a number of blogs such as the Opel/Vauxhall Executive Blog, featuring key members of the companies leadership team, Behind the scenes a blog that reports live from the many international events and motor shows that Opel and Vauxhall are involved in up to Opel’s International Facebook page and the Opel, Vauxhall Twitter accounts.

Visit Opel/Vauxhall on the web at:

Connect & “Like”:

www.twitter.com/opelblog, www.facebook.com/opel , www.youtube.com/opelblog, www.flickr.com/opelblog , http://www.twitter.com/vauxhall

Blogs

www.astra-blog.de, www.meriva-blog.com, opel.posterous.com, www.drivingconversations.com

Information & Help:

twitter.com/opel_service_de twitter.com/vauxhallcustsvc www.opel.com www.vauxhall.co.uk