When it comes to customer feedback the automotive industry has largely stayed traditional, relying on customer feedback surveys and responses. However, as AI applications grow, Volkswagen Group UK is turning to AI-powered text analytics to process customer feedback.
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Volkswagen Group UK recently announced a partnership with Medallia, a company specialising in customer feedback, and Ipsos, a market research firm, to launch VWG UK CX Health, a programme designed to move away from traditional dealer survey scores. The programme aims to showcase the voice of the customer and utilise AI-driven analytics to drive change across the business.
We spoke to Nick Ratcliffe, Customer Experience Director at Volkswagen Group UK, and Jamie Thorpe, Chief Experience Officer and CX Service Line Leader at Ipsos in the UK and Jodi Searl, Chief Experience Officer at Medallia, to learn more about the programme and what it means for Volkswagen UK customers.
Just Auto (JA): Could you provide some background on the company that you represent?
Nick Ratcliffe (NR): Volkswagen Group UK Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, one of the world’s leading car makers, and is the importer of Audi, SEAT, CUPRA, Škoda, Volkswagen Passenger Cars and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.
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By GlobalDataJamie Thorpe (JT): Ipsos is one of the largest market research and polling companies globally and provides powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees.
Jodi Searl (JS): Medallia is the global leader in customer and employee experience and helps enterprise organizations turn billions of feedback signals into clear, prioritised actions through its AI-driven platform. With deep domain expertise, a powerful partner ecosystem and consistent leadership recognition from top industry analysts, Medallia transforms customer experience into a strategic driver of business growth.
How did working with Volkswagen come about?
NR: Delivering a stellar customer experience (CX) has always been central to Volkswagen Group UK’s operations. When our previous CX measurement platform was up for renewal, we undertook a comprehensive review of potential partners and platforms. We were impressed by the combination of Ipsos’ insights and Medallia’s platform and felt that this was a partnership that would allow us to drive meaningful change across all facets of our organization. Three years on and this new initiative affirms the continued strength of this partnership.
Could you explain the CX Health programme and what it aims to achieve?
JT: Volkswagen Group UK’s CX Health initiative has been designed to move beyond the traditional CX survey and augment the customer’s satisfaction score with verbatim text – better capturing the true voice of the customer and providing a more accurate assessment of the CX health of the organization.
What are the benefits of this method compared to the traditional survey response method?
JS: What I love about this approach is that it focuses on behaviours rather than just scoring, getting to the heart of what truly changes the experience. Traditional surveys in automotive provide scores but don’t show what companies should prioritize.
OEMs rely on independent dealers to deliver a brand promise, yet consumers often don’t see the difference. Understanding every journey touchpoint, from exploration to purchase, is critical as opposed to just measuring transactions around sales and services. These signals can come from apps, websites or social media, and capturing them across the full journey provides a holistic view that allows companies to act in real-time to increase sales, fix a servicing issue or unstick a purchasing decision.
JT: Typically, the automotive sector has relied heavily on incentivising dealers to achieve targets based on customer survey scores. While this is well-intentioned, it can mean that organizations fail to understand the full picture and struggle to capture the voice of the customer.
How does AI come into this solution and how does it work?
JT: Working closely with our team here at Ipsos, Volkswagen UK has redesigned its entire approach and removed the direct incentivisation of survey scores. Its new CX Health programme combines customer satisfaction scores with open-ended, verbatim feedback to generate an overall percentage rating of customer satisfaction.
With Medallia’s artificial intelligence-powered Text Analytics analysing that feedback, the organization now has a real-time understanding of customer sentiment and intent across channels and can make targeted improvements to the customer experience
Do you think this is a shift towards a new era of customer expectations and experience?
JS: I think it has to be. Research shows that buying a car can be one of the most stressful experiences people go through as it’s a big, emotional purchase. What’s more, the next generation is thinking differently about ownership: cars sit unused most of the time but still take a big chunk of income, and alternatives like ridesharing or vehicle sharing are becoming real options.
OEMs need to understand what people want, not just the car itself, but the whole buying, owning and repurchasing experience. Collecting the right data and insights is key to shaping the future of car ownership.
