Volvo is aiming to make life easier for you

Published Date: 21st Nov 2016

Just announced from Volvo cars, is the new concierge service that will tie in with the premium image the brand has recently been implementing with every new car released. A pilot program of around 300 Volvo customers will begin this November in San Francisco and will only be available to owners of the new XC90 and S90 luxury saloon.

 

The service will form part of the already available Volvo On Call app. On call is an optional monthly subscription service that will give you a direct line to roadside or emergency services from inside the car, the system is will also automatically contact the car in the event of a collision and send the emergency services to your location. Theft alert is another feature of the On Call service that will notify you of suspicious entry or theft of the car and find it using GPS.

Getting back to the concierge service, Volvo is promising that you will never have to take your car in for a service, stop at a petrol station or go to a car wash ever again with the new service.

Research by Volvo themselves shows that 70 per cent of customers would like fuelling services at their fingertips, 56 percent want their car picked up for routine maintenance and a further 56 per cent would like the option of their car picked up and delivered to another location. Volvo is looking to meet the customer demand with this new service.

Anders Tylman-Mikiewicz, Vice President, Consumer Connectivity Services at Volvo Car Group said “Our approach is a simple one. We aim to make life easier by employing the latest connected technology in an easy to use smart phone app. We are taking an open and agile approach to this, and welcome collaboration with partners with new and innovative service offers. This is just the beginning”

SO HOW WILL THE NEW CONCIERGE SERVICE WORK?

Owners participating in the test program will be able to use the app to view the available services in the area and order them straight from the app, Requests are then sent to an Authorised Volvo service provider, who will be provided with a one-time use digital key, which is location and time specific. The provider will then use this digital key to unlock and start the car, carry out any the customer requests without the need to meet the customer for the real keys. The car will then be delivered back to its original pickup point or to another location on request, the car is then locked up and the digital key will expire.

“Imagine parking your car in the morning at work and when you head home your car has been serviced, cleaned and refuelled. These are the kind of services we want to deliver to our customers. Our research shows that people spend hours every week doing these small errands – we want to give that time back to Volvo drivers, so they can do something more valuable instead,” said Björn Annwall, Senior Vice President, Global Consumer Experience at Volvo Car Group.