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Learn How Improved Daily Customer Interactions Set Navistar Apart From Their Competition!

 

 

Trish Reed, VP Zero Emissions, Navistar, discusses how CX is not about the score, or about managing performance of a dealer. “CX is about us learning together, this is a journey, focusing on the human element of things, and helping our dealers improve interacting with customers.”


Transcript

Lynn Daniel:

Welcome everyone. Today, I’m here with Trish Reed. She is VP of Zero Emissions at Navistar, and we’re going to be talking a bit about CX. So before we get started into that, Trish, just give us a real quick summary of your background with Navistar.

Trish Reed:

Great. Lynn, thanks for the opportunity to be with you this morning. I really appreciate it. Yes, so I started with Navistar in 1989, right out of college, with Navistar Financial, who was the captive finance company for international trucks at that point in time. So my first job was actually collections. That’s how everybody started at Navistar Financial. I think they wanted to see what could go wrong before they progressed you through all the other roles. So I was doing collections and wholesale dealer inventory audits. So did that, progressed through 11 different roles in 20 years at Navistar Financial, from sales, credit underwriting, collections, a lot of management positions. But one role stood out, I went and did something very different. I went and managed the processing center, which also had a customer service department in it. So very customer centric before that, but that really grew my appreciation for what our internal folks did, and then the importance of that interaction with customers and dealers.

And I would say Navistar Financial, my last few years at Navistar Financial, we actually stood up with a third party, a CX survey with customers and with our dealers, because our dealers didn’t have to do business with us necessarily as well. So that was a great insight. So did that for 20 years, then went and ran a standalone parts division for Navistar, and then became vice president, general manager of IC Bus. And that was a great experience. I think the bus industry, it’s smaller than the truck industry. And not that customer satisfaction experience is not important in the truck industry, but in the bus side, I would say you can really see the connection between customer experience and loyalty of customers. So that was fun. And then just recently, the last four or five months, moved into this role kind of developing our electrification strategy for international trucks in IC Bus and Navistar.

Lynn Daniel:

Thank you. Fascinating background. I didn’t realize the involvement with the credit side of the business so much. One of the things that I remember when I first met some folks at Navistar, they very quickly talked about the vision for what Navistar wanted to deliver around CX. What drove that visioning process? Why think about that, Trish?

Trish Reed:

Yes, well, I think like everything, it’s a journey, right? And so Navistar, International Trucks, IC Bus, we actually… We had some challenges on some in engine performance probably about 2012. Again, very challenging time for us and our dealers. And when we were coming through that, I think one, we appreciated the importance of customer experience through that. But what we did was we stood up what we called Vision 2025, and it was a collaboration effort between… First started with International Truck, and then IC Bus became a part of it as well, but set up a collaborative group of Ford dealers representing the international truck brand, and then Ford dealers representing the IC Bus brand, and we did a strategy map together. And that vision group was really set up to be, let’s not think about the tactical of what’s happening today. Let’s think about what the future holds by 2025.

And as a part of that vision map and strategy map, obviously the customer was in the center of everything we do. And you know that, right? We all talk about it every day. But I think having that strategy map, vision map with this collaboration effort with our dealers was a good reminder for all of us that every time when we would talk about what we’re focused on together between us as an OE and our dealer body was it brought you back to, are we thinking about how the customer is impacted by our decisions and how we work together? And again, great visual of just the customers in the center of everything we do, in every decision we make, in every conversation we have.

Lynn Daniel:

And I realize that since there’s been a lot of changes at Navistar over the past few years, and that vision is still there.

Trish Reed:

Still there. Still there from a standpoint of how we work together with our dealers, and I think it’s been a great backbone to different strategic decisions we’ve made with our dealers, and I’m speaking both from the International and the IC Bus side, and has been the driver again of… It takes a village, right? And it takes us as an OE, and it takes the dealers to provide that customer experience. So it’s been a good roadmap of what we’re doing together. And I think when you have that, what I call the North star there, we’re all going towards that direction together, you might have to make some adjustments along the way. The road maybe never goes exactly the way you think it’s going to go, but when you have that vision and that alignment, and it’s been so powerful to do that with our dealers in that collaborative effort. And I think it’s been proven. We want to stick to that. It might change and evolve over time, but again, I think having that vision of working together with our dealers and how we take care of our customers will continue on.

Lynn Daniel:

Thinking back to your time as head of IC Bus, what were some of the greatest challenges in getting this program, which now covers not just IC, Navistar, but also your dealer network, what were some of the greatest challenges you had to deal with?

Trish Reed:

Well, I think first, if you go back to that vision 2025, I thought one, what really helped us get there was the IC Bus dealers that were on the vision committee were very adamant and very, I think, committed to the fact we needed to do something different with getting voice of customer, right?

Lynn Daniel:

To set the brand apart?

Trish Reed:

And I think to set them apart, If we don’t know how… We can sat around each day between our dealers and an OE and guess what the customers are thinking about us and make decisions that could impact our customers, but getting that voice of customer was so, so important. So I give the dealers who were on our vision committee a lot of credit to push that, and then get the other dealers to buy in. But I think getting back to the challenges first internally, we didn’t have much of a challenge internally to get it stood up. I think when people know it’s the right thing to do, people buy in and move forward. So I think everyone understood the importance of getting a CX process stood up here, and we all thought it was really great with the bus dealer network and the bus industry to start with and really thought, “Hey, that’d be the first step.

Let’s learn from there, and then we’d move it over into the international brand and the truck dealers. So I think that was probably the easiest thing to do. From the dealer standpoint, having those dealers from the vision committee be very committed to it and be the advocates within our dealer channel made that relatively easy to get the dealers to buy in. Dealers tend to want to hear it from other dealers versus the OE, so I think that was good. I think the biggest… Couple of challenges I think we ran into with that was timing. I think we all committed and we said, “Hey, this is the right thing to do” in early 2020, and then this thing called a pandemic and COVID started in March. So that was about the time I think we were getting ready to go into planning of launch.

So we all… Because no one knew what was in front of us, so we took a step back. But again, I think that summer, we had a call virtually with those dealers, and we said, “Hey, what do we want to do? We want to continue on with it.” And again, give the dealers a lot of credit. They’re like, “Hey, more than ever, this is important to get voice of customer. So let’s forward.” So they did that. And then I think the second challenge we had was we were the first bus OE that not just got purchase and delivery CX feedback, but we wanted CX and customer feedback from their parts and service experience with our dealers.

So getting that data from our dealers so the Daniel Group could do those interviews, I think was a big challenge for us as an OE, and for our dealers. And that’s probably an area we’ve worked the hardest on to do that, but again, I think a testimony to our dealer body on how important, not just purchase and delivery was, but their daily interactions with customers on the parts side of the business and the service side was really important for them to get that voice of customer.

Lynn Daniel:

Trish, from my outsider, it looks like the program at IC Bus gaining traction. Why do you think that’s happened? What caused it to gain traction?

Trish Reed:

Yes, I think a couple of things, was one, I think having this bigger strategy map with vision 2025. And again, we’re going after a future together with our dealers, so I think keeping dealers engaged in that was important. When we launched the program, a lot of overcommunication, I would call it, and again, appreciation in the fact that we started this late 2020, so we’re still in a pandemic, different environments going on with people working virtually, et cetera, so I think the importance of communication with our dealers. And again, I think those dealers that got super engaged first in sharing their experiences with other dealers and what they were learning from the surveys was an important step in engagement of our dealers and the success of the program. And I think having them share that and some of their best practices with our other dealers was really, really important.

And I think a couple of things too, we learned in all that was some of the dealers listening to the actual interview and hearing things in the customer voice. Even if the customer provided was a promoter, those dealers, again, I think did a couple things, was one, they reached out to customers and just thanked them for the feedback. And then in the exchange of information, even if that was a customer that was a strong promoter of their dealership, and us as an OE, in that conversation, either a new opportunity came up or some other piece of feedback came up that the dealer responded to. And I think the other piece that made this successful was we iterated time and time again as an OE that this is not about the score, and this is not about us managing performance of a dealer.

This is about us learning together, this is a journey, and let’s really focus on the human element of things, how our dealers can be better interacting with customers.

    • But I think the other thing as an OE is what are we doing that prevents our dealers from providing good customer service?
    • Are there barriers or things we’re not even knowing we’re doing that makes it difficult for our dealers to deliver that high quality of customer service?
    • Or where are the opportunities that we can help them facilitate even a better customer experience?

So I think it’s listening and engaging and responding.

Lynn Daniel:

Interesting, because you really have engaged these dealers throughout, again, from my perspective. Any surprises?

Trish Reed:

I think the biggest thing is, one, just going back to what I mentioned, I think the dealers learning things that they could be doing better even with the promoters, right? And I think that was a good aha moment for them. And I think one, that this could turn into more sales opportunities when they reach out to the customer and thank them for their feedback, and how that really fosters the relationship, and I think how that encourages the customers continue to give us feedback, right? Because we always hear, if you’re going to ask for feedback, the person giving the feedback needs to know you’re listening to it and acting on it.

So I think having that circle come back, and how strong our dealers and committed our dealers were in it. I think the other, maybe not a surprise, but I think it did reinforce areas that we knew as an OE, that we had opportunities to get better. So again, maybe not a surprise, but the benefit of it is it helped us, as an IC Bus brand within Navistar, advocate for our dealers and customers in certain ways because we had the actual voice of customer coming back at us and reaffirming areas of improvement.

Lynn Daniel:

It’s interesting you mentioned about the promoter customers. We find that if they’re promoter customers, about a third of the time, they mentioned something that they’d like to see different.

Trish Reed: 

Right.

Lynn Daniel:

Not a complaint necessarily, but just something there that they say, “But I would like this.”

Trish Reed:

Right.

Lynn Daniel:

And it’s seldom about price.

Trish Reed:

Exactly. It’s something either in the process or the communication. I think that was one of the things our dealers picked up on, especially the importance of the voice of customer and the CX process during the supply chain disruptions, was, “Hey, we can’t control what’s going on.” Right? And sometimes the customers are disappointed, whether that was parts availability or the timing of the vehicle getting built and delivered. But I think the biggest aha moment, which again, you think this is sometimes what we should know, but what our dealers and us as an OE took away from that was the importance of proactive communication. The customers don’t want to chase you down to find out what’s going on. If you’re just more proactive with that communication and giving them constant updates and status on what’s going on, they appreciate that. And even though they’re still disappointed that something’s not there when they want it, that proactive communication certainly helps solidify the relationship, and they’re not wondering what’s going on. So I think that’s been a good proof point for us in this process.

Lynn Daniel:

Now, shifting gears a bit, thinking about your new role in zero emissions, where does CX fit in this effort?

Trish Reed:

Yes. So I say this all the time, I am so happy we started this journey with CX and the Daniel Group when we did, because today, more than ever, that understanding the customer experience in this new space of electrification and new technology is even more important because we all are learning, and it is complicated. Now, you’re talking about, how do I charge my vehicle? Which is your fueling, right? And what’s my infrastructure? The deployment of the vehicle is so different. So we’ve actually started a process so we’re getting specific feedback from customers that are taking delivery of our electric school buses. Important for two reasons. And probably more important than ever is one, we’re both learning, the customer’s learning, we’re learning as an OE. So to have that process, to get that customer experience feedback that’s so critical that we learn where our improvements are, but it keeps that communication between us and the customer going.

And again, I think we have to appreciate the fact that we’ll see more change in our industry in the next five years than we’ve seen in the last 50. So having that level of engagement with our customers is so important. And again, we talk about, in this electrification space, this is less about selling a vehicle than it is about making sure our customers have a successful adoption of electrification in their fleet. So having this ability to get their feedback through the customer experience management process is, again, more important than ever. And when I think back about decisions that we made, I’m so happy we did, so happy we started this journey when we did so we’re at this point now.

Lynn Daniel:

Good. And lastly, how do you CX changing and evolving? You’re an industry that’s competitive, that’s a tough industry. You’ve got all this technological change happening as some moving from diesel to gas to electric, all kinds of technology that’s changing out there. So how do you see CX evolving over time?

Trish Reed:

Yeah, I would say, first of all, just as I mentioned, more important than ever for CX. And I would say as an OE or a dealer body, if you are not engaged in starting a CX journey, you should really, really think about it because we are in a very disruptive space, for us and our customers, right? New competitors coming on the scene. And not just in products, but in services as well, because again, when you have this disruption, it creates new opportunities that new startups and new businesses take advantage of. So having, again, that interaction with your customers to get their feedback, that you can act on it and you’re not setting guessing about what’s going on in the marketplace, again, it’s more important than ever because we’re facing a lot of disruption. And this will help us, as OEs and dealers, help our customers navigate even the disruption they’re facing together.

And again, I think any OE or any dealer group, I would say again, if you haven’t started this journey, you start it now because it’s valuable, and it’ll be even more valuable as we face the change over the next five years.

Lynn Daniel:

Trish, thank you so much. This has been a great chat. I really appreciate it, and I also want to wish you the very best in your new role.

 

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