CUSTOMER SUCCESS

Polestar started in the premium segment of a market with a very demanding customer base. The same goes for those who bought a Polestar 2, often an EV enthusiast. Serving these very demanding customer segments trained the organisation well. With customer desires and experience at the forefront of their business, Polestar decided to only sell direct to the consumer and, as a result, to insource all customer services.

At Polestar, manufacturing is now a contract business, and customer care is a key internal department. This highlights the shift in the organisation from a purely engineering focus towards more of a design mentality. Being internally integrated, the team can provide customers with faster access to information, solutions and services, no matter which department is actually responsible. Customer care is the primary point of contact, and owns the feedback loop between product, sales and support, and learns from every interaction

A Meetingpoint To Deal With Cars At Your Own Pace

Polestar Spaces (showrooms) are carefully designed and unique retail environments. Never located on the outskirts of town, they are always down on the main shopping street. In these spaces, you can get to know the cars at your own pace. No salespeople. No pressure. Only non-commissioned product experts available upon request to answer any questions. You can use the car information, the Polestar Explore app, to place a (pre)order and, subsequently, make the choice between a subscription or outright purchase – all done online. The app and space are important touchpoints in the Polestar brand experience and customer journey.

In the car industry, the prices are called 'list prices', which indicates that the given price could be negotiable. Polestar sees this as not transparent, so the price on the website or in the store is the same for everybody.

Listen And Adapt

By having presence on mainstream and building lasting relations also requires local adaption to provide the best user experience. Each of the internal Customer Experience (CX) teams is instructed by the mantra 'Do as the locals do’. Listen and adapt. The team can do so because of the central place in the Polestar organisation, the local presence of teams ánd the global standardization with tools like Salesforce and Genesis Cloud services.

Innovating The Business Model

Polestar does not define itself as an electric car company. Instead, the brand is a set of 'core principles' about what the concept of what 'a car' is. With the underlying technologies replaceable over time, customer relations are becoming the true future value of everything. Which is why Polestar puts the customer experience at the centre of their business strategy. The aim is to enhance all business models through connectivity, as Polestar is extremely interested in building lasting relationships and having a two-way exchange of information. For example, as a Polestar owner you can download certain software features for your car, test them, and then decide whether you would like to keep the settings or not. This provides the user with an experience-based decision, and Polestar with much-needed, rapid customer feedback loops.

A NEW DRIVE: HAILING A CAR

As autonomous-driving technology becomes more prevalent, the interior will play a much larger role in differentiating brand identities. Consumers will focus more on features such as digital assistants, beautiful graphic displays, streaming and other digital services. This implies a shift from a typical engineering mindset towards more of a design-mentality. Especially when looking a horizon further when car ownership will be replaced by ‘hailing a car’. That shift is turning vehicles into living spaces, where passengers can enjoy what’s important to them — whether it be work or play — rather than the stress of driving.