How Maruti Suzuki’s Shivam Autozone Automated 700,000+ Messages With WhatsApp Marketing
If there’s one brand that needs no introduction in India, its Maruti Suzuki. Founded in 1981 as a public-private partnership between the Government of India and Suzuki Motor Corporation; it was them who launched the beloved Maruti 800 — making it the first car for an entire generation of Indians.
The brand garnered such love and affection, that when the last Maruti 800 was sold in 2014, Amul ran this particular ad ⤵️
In many ways, the journey of Maruti, has been the journey of a young, growing India. Today, Maruti Suzuki is the highest-selling automobile brand in the country — leading the passenger vehicle segment consistently, with an incredible market share of over 40%.
To put that in context: its market share is more than all its major competitors’ combined. Talk about ginormous scale!
Key to Maruti’s rise as an industry leader, has been their formidable pan-India distribution network — the building blocks of which are authorized dealerships / franchisees. Not only is this distribution model the largest of its kind in India, its also become synonymous with Maruti’s unmatched after-sales service and customer support.
Naturally, its these authorized dealerships that serve as laboratories of constant experiment, with each dealership choosing to compete in their own ingenious ways. One such dealership, on the cutting-edge conversational-tech, is Shivam Autozone.
Started in 2011, Shivam Autozone stands tall today as one of the leading Maruti Suzuki dealerships in Mumbai, Thane and Palghar, with over seventeen locations in Mumbai itself. Their USP is their seamless service framework that expertly fulfils every Maruti customer requirement and gives them an unmatched experience in all their car-related needs!
Now with background done, here’s the story of how Maruti Suzuki’s Shivam Autozone automated 700,000+ Messages with WhatsApp Marketing👇🏼
Why Did Shivam Autozone Need WhatsApp Marketing?
Remember that iconic commercial from the 90’s declaring ‘Mera Sapna, Meri Maruti‘ (My dream, My Maruti)?
Seems amazing right?
Alas, in 2022, even a cult-classic commercial is not enough to market to your existing customers. Since these customers have already experienced the magic of Maruti, what they need instead are service reminders along with fresh discounts and offers, so as to increase the dealership’s service revenue.
In other words, what Shivam Autozone needed was an effective tool to supercharge their Customer Marketing + Lead Conversion.
Initially, the automotive dealership experimented with SMS and Email Marketing Campaigns to achieve this end. However they quickly realized that they were facing three major problem with these traditional channels:
✅ Low Open-Rates
✅ Low Response-Rates
✅ Difficulties in Lead Attribution
Clearly, SMSes and Emails were not going to cut it. What Shivam Autozone needed was a brand-new high-engagement tool that leveraged the power of automation, to boost their Customer Marketing efforts.
Enter Tars WhatsApp Engagement Suite.
How Did Shivam Autozone Use WhatsApp Marketing
Step 1️⃣ : Using the One-Time Campaign feature in the Tars WhatsApp Engagement Suite; Shivam Autozone sends a WhatsApp Notification to their existing customer base. It tends to look something like this ⤵️
Step 2️⃣ : In reply, the customer can simply choose from a list of services – from appointment booking and warranty extension, to body & paint work ⤵️
Step 3️⃣ : Let’s say, you as the customer choose the option to ‘Book Appointment‘. The chatbot then thanks you for choosing Shivam Autozone, and as the next step asks whether you would like to avail their pick up & drop facilities⤵️
Step 4️⃣ : Each positive response is then individually called by call-centre executives, to finally convert these customers! Than means in this case, you too will be contacted for your appointment!
Step 5️⃣ : While you are busy benefiting from a seamless service experience, Shivam Autozone rakes in the ₹₹₹. A win-win!
What Was The Impact?
In short, we knocked it out of the park. Using the Tars WhatsApp Engagement Suite, Shivam Autozone automated 700,000+ WhatsApp messages with a jaw-dropping open-rate of 77 %! Compared to emails which struggle to touch even a 20% open-rate, WhatsApp is in a different league altogether.
Why? Because of the coming together of WhatsApp and conversational-tech. With WhatsApp, chatbot automation gets an extra edge as users typically tend to treat WhatsApp as a non-spam channel for communicating with their friends and family. WhatsApp Marketing successfully leverages this trust to increase the likelihood of lead conversion.
And that’s clearly visible in the numbers! Upto 8% of customer responses were then converted, with an average ticket size between ₹ 5000 and ₹ 50,000!
As they say, fortune favours the brave: and the brave decision on the part of Shivam Autozone to get in early on WhatsApp Marketing has reaped them extraordinary dividends. In this coming decade, many a fortune will be similarly made in WhatsApp Marketing — we invite you to join us on that journey.
How To Get Started with WhatsApp Marketing?
Book a demo with us today and one of our in-house WhatsApp Marketing Experts will personally walk you through the entire process!
Soham is a content marketer on the Tars team. When he's not writing kickass blog posts like the one you just read he's reading obscure articles from history's foremost anti-enlightenment thinkers and writing treatises to send to his 3 substack subscribers.
