The Cadillac Live online shopping tool was initially launched to help Cadillac drive additional sales leads to dealerships. After the COVID-19 pandemic forced General Motors to temporarily close its dealerships, though, the service morphed into one of the most important pieces of equipment in Cadillac’s proverbial sales arsenal.
Not surprisingly, the automaker is now looking to expand Cadillac Live into China. Speaking to Portada Online, Cadillac marketing manager Pamela Arteaga explained that Cadillac’s strategy for implementing online tools previously differed in Asia versus North America, but that is soon set to change.
“There are differences between Asia and America in terms of how consumers react to digital tools,” Arteaga explained. “Canada and U.S. have the Cadillac live online platform while China is planning to implement it.”
Cadillac Live allows prospective customers to book an online, one-on-one session with a Cadillac brand representative. The brand rep, equipped with a phone, gimbal and headset, can then show the customer the latest Cadillac vehicles, demonstrate features and answer any questions they may have about the vehicle. The video chat-based service allows the user to see and hear the brand rep, but the rep cannot see the user on the other end.
This service proved beneficial at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many automotive showrooms were either completely closed or running at limited capacity. Using Cadillac Live, customers can interact with a knowledgeable Cadillac employee and check out the brand’s latest products without ever having to leave their home. At the end of the session, the Cadillac Live representative can pass the customer’s along to the dealership to help close the potential sale. The transaction could also be complete via a contactless delivery method to ensure the safety of the customer.
Arteaga says sales practices like this (ie. online-driven with contactless delivery) actually began in China before the COVID-19 pandemic spread to North America.
“We started to hear about the pandemic situation in China early on and we developed some best practices from China and we started tailoring material and using guidelines from our Asian and Chinese teams,” Arteaga said. “These guidelines include the cleaning of cars, the use of apps so that they don’t have to go to dealerships, pick up processes and other actions to connect with customers through non-physical channels.”
GM may be looking to expand Cadillac Live into Mexico one day, as well, Arteaga explained. Chevrolet already offers a very similar service in the country, so it would only make sense to expand it to the Cadillac luxury brand and give those customers the same premium car buying experience.
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This article was written in collaboration with our sister site, Cadillac Society.
Comment
I am interested in any posts that involve the cue screen failures that appear to be a very expensive failure for a lot of people, and cadillac’s lack of caring to do anything about repair or compensation. They pretend that it isn’t an issue, and that if they continue to do nothing that we will just go away. I have already read many of the posts, and possible fixes, but I would really like to know what a person with some clout at cadillac has to say,,,come out from under your desk you coward.