How Feefo helped Kia engage with customers and increase car sales

Introduction

Kia Motors is Korea's oldest car manufacturer. Its vehicles are sold and served through a network of distributors and dealers covering 172 countries. Kia Motors UK led the industry by becoming the first to select Feefo to harness the power of consumer opinions from verified customers.

The challenge 

Kia knew that online research and social tools are increasingly important and that it can no longer rely on physical dealer sites to generate business.

In addition, perception of the Kia brand was lagging behind the transformation in its vehicles over the past few years. It saw owner reviews of its latest models as a more effective way of speeding up the change in brand perception than traditional advertising methods. Kia also looked to ratings and review collection methods to help get on consumers' consideration lists for new car purchases.

As one of the first automotive brands to implement consumer reviews, Kia needed a vendor who showed understanding of its goals and ability to adapt to its requirements. Kia chose Feefo for the following reasons:

1. Credibility and impartiality of an independent third party brand
2. Experience in other industries such as retail and travel
3. Expert collection that guaranteed plenty of reviews, all from verified owners
4. Ability to adapt to its needs and deliver a compelling solution
   
   

The solution  

Feefo provided car reviews from verified owners and conversations between owners and customers, that were integrated across the Kia UK site. Visitors to the site could read reviews, filter reviews by groups of similar consumers (e.g. families with children) and get rapid, trustworthy answers to any questions or concerns directly from a community of engaged car owners.

“We knew that consumers were leaving our website to read reviews on 3rd party sites. Collecting, collating and sharing genuine verified reviews and conversations from real car owners directly on our site allows us to improve the customer experience and generate more visits and qualified leads to our UK dealerships.”

John Bache
Head of Customer Communications, Kia Motors UK

Social sharing was encouraged by integration with Facebook and Twitter, and timely invitations to share reviews and questions.

To get the most from consumer opinions, Kia chose our fully managed service. Feefo's expert team took responsibility for the success of the solution, creating tailored questionnaires and email communication, moderating content, and advising on how to optimise ROI.

Easy-to-use analytics and management tools enabled Kia to maintain a constant dialogue with its customers and receive feedback rich in ideas for marketing improvements. Kia marketing used results from the semantic analysis of consumer opinions to focus and strengthen its marketing campaigns. Kia product development benefited from rapid market feedback into its new car models that gave them a better understanding of genuine Kia owners' views.

The results 

• Bookings of test drives increased by 300% when reviews from verified car owners were read.
• Visitor engagement soared, with a 280% increase in average time spent on site and 2.4x more page views for visitors who read community-driven Q&A.
• The new online community of Kia car owners, powered by Feefo, has been growing rapidly with 64% of all reviewers opting in to answer car related questions. All the questions asked by prospective buyers on Kia’s site received timely answers from car owners.