Automotive News Canada - January 2020 - v2 - 4

* J A N U A R Y 2 020

Cadillac Canada's James Nava:
"In 2020, we'll likely have a program
in place where we can do dealership
training." P H O T O : G M C A N A D A

TRENDING
STORIES
automotivenews.ca

Cadillac
Live's many
lives
What began
as a way to
show vehicles
to customers
wherever they are
has morphed into
a training tool and
perk for VIP nights

By STEPHANIE WALLCRAFT
TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
conceived as a lead-generation
tool, but the Cadillac Live digital showroom has spawned
several unintended benefits,
a company spokesman says,
enhancing the brand's value
for dealers and customers.
The program, launched in
2019, was designed to connect
live agents with customers on
demand or by appointment,
often outside of dealership
hours.
However, dealers have
other uses for the platform,
from staff training to customer service, said James Nava,
national marketing and communications manager for
Cadillac Canada.
Cadillac Live "in general
is meant to help answer consumer needs and questions,"
Nava said. But "we're open
to exploring different options
and evolving the platform."
Some of the ways dealers
are using Cadillac Live:
STAFF TRAINING: The Cadillac
Live showroom has featured
vehicles that have not yet
arrived at dealerships. For
example, as of December 2019,
the only Cadillac CT4 in the
country is the one on Cadillac
Live.
Individual salespeople or
entire sales teams call in to
Cadillac Live from dealerships to request product walkarounds, which help them
field early questions from customers. Some dealers are taking this a step further, Nava
said, incorporating Cadillac
Live into their Monday
morning sales meetings and
requesting walk-arounds of a
different vehicle each week as
a form of ongoing training.

So far, this part of the program has been unstructured,
but Cadillac is exploring ways
to expand its application,
Nava said.
"In 2020, we'll likely have
a program in place where we
can do dealership training,"
he said. "In the past, we've
gone physically to locations,
bringing vehicles across the
country. This will help us
bring training more frequently to dealerships and more
cost-effectively for them."
CUSTOMER VIP NIGHTS: Some
dealers use Cadillac Live as
a tool for entertaining their
most important clients and
providing a premium experience. Through customer VIP
evenings, dealers host events
in their showrooms that allow
customers to see an unveiling of a new model as well
as a big-screen virtual walkaround of the same or another
product via Cadillac Live.
"We recently had a VIP
product reveal here at the
dealership for the new
Cadillac CT5 sedan," said
Tony Wilson, dealer principal at Ontario Motor Sales
Chevrolet-Cadillac in Oshawa,
Ont.
"Although we were unable
to get the smaller CT4 to physically show our guests, we
were able to log on to Cadillac
Live in our showroom to have
an agent demonstrate some of
the key features to our 75-plus
guests in attendance.
"The experience of visiting a beautiful-looking
remote Cadillac showroom
to go through the CT4 was
... impressive, and I gather
many of [the guests] would be
returning home to continue to
research these new launches."
POST-DELIVERY CUSTOMER
TRAINING: Cadillac Live has
become an after-sales resource
that allows new owners who
need assistance with unfamiliar features to receive answers
to their questions from their
homes or offices. This not only
is convenient for customers
but saves time and resources
for dealerships.
"When they've started to
drive the vehicle, [customers]
may have questions, but they
don't want to go back to the
dealership to ask them," Nava
said. The agents "can show
them how to set up Bluetooth
or use the infotainment system." - ANC

ONGOING WEB COVERAGE

: YOUR MOVE, CANADA
USMCA
The U.S. House of Representatives in December approved

Service expands
to U.S. but still is
based in Toronto
CADILLAC LIVE, IS CURRENTLY
available as a pilot program in Texas,
California, Illinois, New Jersey and
New York. If successful, there are plans
to expand it across the country by the
end of May.
While the U.S. market operates on
an independent digital platform, the
studio, inventory and staff that will
handle all calls from across North
America are based in an office in the
east end of Toronto.
"As long as our agents can handle the call volume, we [will] use this
space," said James Nava, national marketing and communications manager
for Cadillac Canada.
"There may be a point in time where
we have so much volume and [have]
ramped up the agent level as much as
we can and we need another space, but
we'll look to do that at that point in
time."
Cadillac Live agents have been
trained on the product differences
between the Canadian and U.S. markets and are able to answer questions
tailored to the customer's location,
which is visible to the agents before the
connection is established.
While at least one French-speaking
specialist is available at all times
to serve the Canadian market, the
U.S. expansion includes a part-time
Spanish-speaking agent.
Since Cadillac Live launched in
March 2019, the program's hours have
expanded to seven days a week from
four, with four live agents plus a team
leader available 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Eastern
time Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m.
to 9 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday.
Of those who make calls to Cadillac
Live, 18.7 per cent book a test drive
with a Cadillac dealership, and eight
per cent of those test drives result in a
purchase, said Nava. - ANC
- Stephanie Wallcraft

the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. It's now headed
to the Senate for final approval. Canada hasn't ratified the
deal. Parliament resumes in late January, but the NDP
and Bloc Quebecois are pushing back on the deal.

THE
NEXT PHASE OF OSHAWA
Now that the last vehicle has been assembled and the line has

stopped at GM's Oshawa, Ont., factory, the transition begins to
aftermarket parts production and development of the AV test track.

HOW THE UAW HURT CANADA'S ECONOMY

CANADA'S ECONOMY SHRANK SLIGHTLY IN OCTOBER,
partly because a UAW strike against General Motors in the
United States hit Canadian manufacturing, according to data released
by Statistics Canada in mid-December. "The biggest story there was
spillovers from a U.S. auto sector strike that sent transportation
equipment manufacturing 2.5 per
cent lower, but there were addition- PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
al drags," said Brian DePratto, a director at TD Economics. The
strike, which began Sept. 16 and ended Oct. 25, affected auto
assembly and parts production in Canada.

CANADIAN SUPPLIER TO ACQUIRE SIX PLANTS
PARTS MAKER MARTINREA INTERNATIONAL INC. IN
December signed a US $19.5-million deal with Metalsa S.A.
de C.V. to buy a unit of the Mexico-based company that makes
structural components for passenger cars. Martinrea will acquire
six plants around the world with about 2,000 employees. The
deal includes a large facility in Bergneustadt, Germany, as well
as plants in Mexico, the United States, China and South Africa.
Martinrea says the largest customers of the business being
acquired are Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen.

MAGNA'S EXOTIC ORDER FROM FERRARI

THE SF90 STRADALE, A NEW SUPERCAR SET TO
arrive in 2020, will feature an eightspeed paddle-shift transmission
from Canada-based supplier Magna
International. The car is Ferrari's
first series production plug-in hybrid.
Magna's transmission, which makes
its production debut in the SF90, is
small, light and aids fuel efficiency. "It P H O TO : F ER R A R I
comes with all attributes necessary for
outstanding driving performance in urban traffic as well as on
racetracks," said Jörg Gindele, senior director of engineering at
Magna Powertrain.

CX-30 ORDERING KEPT SIMPLE FOR CANADA

WHILE MAZDA USA HAS UPDATED THE TRIM LEVELS
for the new CX-30 subcompact crossover to a more package-based pricing structure, Mazda
Canada will go to market with its
traditional GX, GS and GT models. "We had long discussions about
that," said Mark Peyman, national manager of product strategy and
development for Mazda Canada.
PHOTO: MAZDA
"There's a fine line between offering the customer too much and not enough, and there's also the
dealer body we need to be mindful of."

'ATHLETIC ELEGANCE' FOR GENESIS UTILITY

As long as agents can handle the
call volume from the United States,
Cadillac Live will be based in Canada,
said James Nava of Cadillac Canada.
PHOTO: GM CANADA

THE UPSCALE DIVISION OF HYUNDAI UNVEILED ITS FIRST
crossover in early January: a production version of the GV80
Concept. It features the brand's so-called Parabolic character
line accentuating the sides and wheel arch treatment for "athletic elegance." The vehicle builds on the GV80 Concept. (Images
of the production GV80 can be viewed at automotivenews.ca).
"With the launch of GV80, Genesis will elevate expectations for
excellence within the luxury SUV market," William Lee, executive
vice-president, said in a statement. - ANC

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Automotive News Canada - January 2020 - v2

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