Guide to Salesforce Automotive Cloud in 2024

Nikita R.

Media-savvy content creator, with a curiosity for all Salesforce experiences.

Updated: Nov 22nd, 2024

Salesforce’s Automotive Cloud has features powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to help a range of companies in the automotive industry, such as:

Manufacturers

Car Dealerships

Financing Companies

Driver 360 from Automotive Cloud is well known for assisting these types of companies when it comes to managing their customer and vehicle data. One of the ways it does this is by speeding up the time it takes to engage with customers for all business departments. 

Additionally, Salesforce has reported that their Automotive Cloud has improved internal operational efficiency and customer satisfaction levels by 20% for companies. 

Do you also want these results by integrating customer and vehicle data across your software systems? What about automating repetitive processes for your teams?

If you answered yes, join us in the article below. We will get you up to speed on Salesforce Automotive Cloud and how it can manage data and digitize processes for your automotive business.  

Overview of Salesforce Automotive Cloud

Often incorrectly referred to as Salesforce Autocloud, Salesforce Automotive Cloud is available in Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer editions. It is THE platform Salesforce has for car dealerships and manufacturers.

As Salesforce Industry is the world’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) customer relationship management (CRM) platform, companies know they are getting the most value from Automotive Cloud for managing their vehicles and customer experiences. 

The Automotive Cloud is also essential for connecting original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and car dealerships, so teams can work together on processes that include managing:

Vehicles

Customers

Finances 

Salesforce Automotive Cloud Pricing

So, what’s it going to cost a company in the automotive industry to get its hands on this software? Salesforce offers a few editions of Automotive Cloud so businesses can choose the right one for their custom needs. Take a look at the table below, we have outlined the different Automotive Cloud editions for you to quickly scan. 

Please note that this table is just a guideline. For the latest information on Automotive Cloud’s pricing structure, contact Salesforce via their official website. 

Salesforce Automotive Cloud Certification

There are many roles within the Automotive industry, such as:

Administrator

Developer

Sales Representative

Service Agent

These are just a few, and each one will use Automotive Cloud in different ways to accomplish the tasks required for their jobs. For this reason, it’s important to check which Salesforce certification can transform your life in the automotive industry. 

As we learned from the table above, Automotive Cloud integrates with Sales and Service Cloud. So, a certification with these Clouds would be an advantage. 

For example, a Service Cloud Consultant certificate will cost $200, but since it is a mid-level exam, you need the Administrator certification with two to five years of experience as well. 

Alternatively, you could hit Trailhead and start the Automotive Cloud Foundations module. It is designed to teach students about the features in Automotive Cloud that support tasks in the automotive industry.  

Take a look at the table below for a quick guideline on the Automotive Cloud Foundations module. 

Salesforce Automotive Cloud Features

If you want to know a little more about Automotive Cloud’s features and how they streamline processes before studying the module or presenting this software solution to key stakeholders at your company, we’ve got you covered.

Automotive Cloud is built into Sales and Service Cloud. Teams that work for manufacturing companies and car dealerships find Automotive Cloud useful for managing the lifecycles of vehicles and customers. 

The data model and workflows used in Automotive Cloud are based on best practices and can be used to automate repetitive tasks so teams can spend efforts on selling cars. Another way to use time wisely would be to create experiences for customers that show how valuable cars are to own or rent. This strategy, when executed well, gets customers loyal to brands. 

Now, let’s take a look at the features of Automotive Cloud, known for changing business and customer experiences.

Driver Console

Businesses use Automotive Cloud to store all customer interactions in a single location. Whether collected from in-person interactions or online, Automotive Cloud can manage it automatically. 

Therefore, by choosing to use Automotive Cloud, you can follow the customer journey and analyze the data to create specific alerts. These notifications are helpful in reminding you that a VIP customer has not visited your dealership for some time. 

Additionally, why not use the real-time data in Automotive Cloud coupled with alerts to personalize all customer interactions? This strategy will help the sales team to:

Nurture long-term business relationships

Increase sales

Keep customers happy and satisfied

Vehicle Console

The vehicle console from Automotive Cloud saves service agents and sales managers the hassle of searching for information from various places. Here are a few details employees can quickly find on the vehicle console:

A Vehicle’s Details

All Related Information About the Vehicle

A Car’s Milestones

Company Events

Warranty Information

Delivery Reports

When employees have these details at their fingertips via the Vehicle’s record page in Salesforce, they can work so much faster across various tasks. Imagine these new work efficiencies at your automotive company:

Increased Customer Response Rates

Efficient Warranty Verification

Faster Updates to Deliveries

Instant Dispute Resolution with Customers

Scheduled Service Appointments

Additionally, customers are used to a digital-first approach with faster services across all their purchasing interactions. We are glad to see that the vehicle console does its bit to help employees create smooth online experiences for customers in hopes of keeping them happy. 

Household Management

The household management feature lets employees get a complete picture of customers that belong to a group or household. Information that can be retrieved with the household management feature includes:

Household’s Car History

Details About All Cars

List of Past Purchases

This information is helpful, especially for personalization techniques. With data from Automotive Cloud, marketing teams create personalized campaigns or messages that increase customer satisfaction levels.

A common use case describes a marketing manager sending out a personalized promotion to a household. Since the marketing manager already knows the household has a preference of buying sedans, they can send them offers that relate to this type of vehicle. As you can imagine, the household would be intrigued and interested in this type of information. 

Additionally, car dealerships use household management to drive lead conversion rates. How it works is they study information gained from leads that belong to many households and come up with personalized strategies to engage with them. 

On the other hand, since Automotive Cloud also gives us a way to view relationships between many parties, OEMs can use it to understand the complexities between:

Accounts

Contacts

Contacts Related to Many Accounts

Then, teams can create personalized projects for households, such as: 

Custom Services

Attractive Subscriptions

Clear Warranty Terms

Automotive Lead Management

One goal listed by marketing and sales teams across industries is to prioritize high-value leads. The automotive industry is no different, but they tackle this task with the help of smart algorithms found in Automotive Cloud. 

As Automotive Cloud has lead management features, dealerships and OEMs can collect lead data and identify high-quality ones. Here is a list of lead data Automotive Cloud can capture for your business:

The time a lead has shown interest in vehicles or original equipment.

The individual items that are interesting to leads.  

The account the lead belongs to.

The dealers the lead prefers.

After analyzing the above lead data, teams can decide which dealership the lead can be directed to. The sales team will take into consideration the following points to ensure that lead engagement is successful:

The location the lead resides in.

The brand of cars the lead is interested in. 

The closest dealership available for the lead.

The dealership that the lead would prefer to visit.

Routing leads with the support of Automotive Cloud’s technology creates a smoother experience for the dealership as well as the prospective client. Overall, interactions with leads will be more positive, which can lead to a boost in sales if they are interested in purchasing a vehicle. 

And that’s not all from Automotive Cloud for lead management. Businesses can track when a high-quality lead is converted into an opportunity. Therefore, they can use Automotive Cloud to monitor the entire journey of an opportunity.

Track Opportunities in Salesforce

To view your opportunities, simply follow the two steps outlined below.

1. Open your Salesforce CRM Analytics app.
2. Go to the Leads tab on your Dealer Performance dashboard. 

Here you can find data related to:

Lead Conversion Rates

Lead Pipelines Categorized by Location

Lead Pipelines by Period

Before your lead has converted to a customer, they will need to sign a contract with your dealership. Have you considered elevating the process with digitized driver contracts pushed to Salesforce? Contact Titan for more information. 

Partner Performance Management

Does your business also have to manage retail partners? If you use Automotive Cloud, you get to manage these relationships better by assessing the performance of dealer groups and subgroups. Take a look at the dashboard analytics you get from Automotive Cloud to manage partner performance:

Track partner performance in real-time.

Observe sales and customer satisfaction levels.

Create more accurate sales forecasts. 

Follow up on site visits.

Collaborate on incentive programs.

Check the availability of inventory.

Access to sales metrics.

View agreements.

Meet compliance targets with performance metrics.

Keep an eye on lead conversion rates.

Create processes for submitting vehicle or parts sales reports.

Add rebate claims and transaction journals to reports.

The best part about using Automotive Cloud for partner performance management is that all tasks related to this field can be done in one location with tools designed to make processes easier. 

When businesses use Automotive Cloud for partner performance management, they get a clear view of activities and can collaborate with different teams to build strong alliances. By connecting all employees and ensuring they enjoy work thanks to smart software, the dealership can see boosted sales. 

Automotive Data Foundation

Since Automotive Cloud manages customer and vehicle data, we are sure you want to know about the security it provides. Automotive Data Cloud has technology and automation features that meet compliance and global standards to set a good foundation for companies to safely share data with partners and authorities.

For example, car dealerships can configure access control in Salesforce to keep all customer and vehicle data secure and compliant. These security features show customers that Salesforce is committed to protecting their data. Additionally, you get to build trust with your customers as they know you are using reliable software products, like Automotive Cloud.  

With data security being handled automatically by Salesforce, businesses can focus their efforts on delivering exceptional customer services and making sales. 

Benefits of Salesforce Automotive Cloud

There are many benefits Salesforce Automotive Cloud offers so that car dealerships and other companies in the automotive industry can elevate customer journeys. Let’s explore some of them in more detail. 

#1 Automated Processes

The first benefit that we recognize from Automotive Cloud is that it automates business sales processes. This enhancement to workflows gives the sales teams more time to collaborate on creative tasks to reach business goals. 

#2 Increased Customer Satisfaction

Customers have high expectations from businesses. They have become accustomed to a digital-first approach to interactions and services. To engage with these types of customers, Automotive Cloud makes communicating with leads and customers simple and fast. This platform dedicated to automotive services also provides teams with tools to track orders and payments accurately and resolve customer queries quickly. 

#3 Analyze Customer Data

Since Automotive Cloud collects customer and vehicle data in a single location, you can study the data to understand your customers and their behaviors better. Then, you can create reports that try to predict future demand for products. These forecasts can help a business prepare for more sales by giving them an idea of how many customers are interested in purchasing vehicles. 

Titan’s Solutions for the Automotive Cloud

Today, automotive companies are transforming their processes into digital ones to meet the demands of customers and technology. And how are they doing this? Many use Salesforce’s Automotive Cloud to connect with customers faster than before while delivering exceptional digital services.

If your goal is to focus on providing customers with the best digital automotive experience, we recommend integrating Titan to Automotive Cloud. Titan extends Salesforce’s CRM and connected editions to help automotive companies scale with custom solutions.

For example, Titan helps teams to create websites, portals, complex forms, surveys, and more on a single platform. Whichever project you choose to build integrates with Salesforce and supports bi-directional data flows. What does this mean for your dealership? Essentially, customer and vehicle data is pushed and pulled to Salesforce and your custom web projects in real time. This digital transformation saves everyone involved time and resources. 

Titan Web is an all-in-one solution to perform any business process you want! For a full feature list, make sure to contact us through one of our social media channels found at the end of the article.

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Disclaimer: The comparisons listed in this article are based on information provided by the companies online and online reviews from users. If you found a mistake, please contact us