The visually and technically fully-refreshed MyKia customer platform raises the standard of information, communication, and customer interaction to a new level.
Challenge:
High Customer Expectations and the growing importance of digital services beyond the car
Outcome:
Outstanding Digital User Experience with a redesigned frontend aligned with Kia Europe’s CI
Outcomes
A seamless, state-of-the-art digital user experience
through a revised frontend based on new CI innovatively adapted to both business and design needs
Consistent data at any time
by developing a new backend that accesses all connected systems in real time
Scalability and flexibility
thanks to modular backend structures, use of the latest technologies, and modern programming languages
Intro
MyKia: World-class, industry-leading customer platform bundling customers across Europe
Kia Europe is the European sales, marketing and service division of Kia Corporation and is located in the heart of Frankfurt, Germany. Kia’s European headquarters is also home to the Kia Design Centre, which has contributed to making Kia a highly desirable brand in Europe through products that have their own distinctive design signature, coupled with a comprehensive range of innovative, people-oriented services.
To strengthen its role as a lifetime partner for its customers, including moving beyond automobiles, Kia Europe decided to refresh technically, visually, and functionally the existing MyKia online portal. This is the hub of the brand-customer relationship, offering a centralized information, communication, and interaction platform for Kia customers to interact with the authorized Kia sales and service network across Europe.
For the overall redesign of the customer portal, Kia Europe selected Wiesbaden-based AOE GmbH as a service partner with many years of experience in the realization of complex digital projects. AOE not only provides a solid foundation of expertise in domain and technical elements, but the Wiesbaden team also carries the creative capacity to develop state-of-the-art, appealing frontends.
Challenge
As customer expectations continue to grow, the importance of the aftersales experience in the automotive industry is increasing, with a particular focus on services beyond the vehicle itself.
To keep pace with these evolving customer needs, it became evident that the existing MyKia platform was not fully meeting modern standards for user experience. The primary challenge was that the platform's underlying technology required modernization, leading to issues with data integration. Specifically, data from connected external systems like CRM or ERP software for vehicle information, as well as online appointment solutions, were stored in separate, country-specific databases that were not consistently synchronized or consolidated across Europe. As a result, data quality issues limited the platform's functionality, impacting the overall customer experience.
When the joint AOE-Kia project team started to comprehensively overhaul the MyKia platform, a list of four key priority issues was established: Simplification of data synchronization, improvement of maintainability, creation of a basis for simplified rollouts to other countries and markets, and an increase of attractiveness and usability of the platform through a revised frontend. Sweden market, due to its comprehensive database containing extensive information on Swedish consumers, was selected as the initial country focus for the project launch. Following the go-live in Sweden, a further 9 European countries were selected for connection in phases 2 and 3.
Solution
The first stage in the development of the solution was the design of the new frontend to match the new CI of Kia Europe and to sustainably improve the user experience.
AOE selected a proven content management system, the Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), as the optimal enterprise CMS solution. AOE deemed AEM the most effective option to adopt for multilingual high-traffic websites with sophisticated requirements and complex infrastructure. Thanks to smart commerce integration, practical inline editing, and comprehensive multi-site management, a hybrid CMS frontend was built that is flexible, scalable, and performant. The platform’s powerful technical capabilities are complemented by a strong emphasis on the design side to greatly enhance the UX, both functionally and visually, particularly in making the online service booking process much easier for the customer. This included ensuring that all the information required by the customer was accessible and coherently arranged on a single page, supported by the visual and functional adaptation of the map used for dealer selection.
The backend was also completely redeveloped. To address data inconsistencies, the backend was improved to provide real-time access to all external systems, such as CRM, ERP, SSO, online appointments, and specific dealer data like workshops, opening hours, and geolocation. A key gain was the removal of the issue of error-prone data synchronization. Furthermore, an additional software solution was developed to support Kia’s market managers, providing each market with observability and management functionalities regarding their customers.
As a result, an ideal base feature-set was created for the MVP market in Sweden for subsequent country-specific rollouts in phases 2 and 3, supporting the Kia team through the latest technology to drive better performance and easier maintainability. In a further refinement, as most of the modules are required across all countries but some are not, the modularity of the system enabled AOE to provide tailored platforms to make the rollouts in other markets as easy as possible.
Quotes
Thanks to AOE, we managed to refresh the MyKia portal both technically and visually. At Kia, we were very happy to have AOE as a sector-leading partner who contributed to our project with immense creativity as well as a deep technical understanding through many years’ experience in platform development. At the same time, our Kia project team benefited from AOE's agile methods and know-how and further training from the AOE Academy.
After the successful go-live in Sweden, the rollouts to 9 further markets are ready for kick-off. To make this as simple and systematic as possible, we have made sure that our solution for the MVP market in Sweden is completely modular. To further support this, we have designed a guiding questionnaire where the individual countries can choose from a menu of modules, simply selecting only what they actually need. Here at AOE, we always see ourselves as partners and enablers for our customers and we plan to equip the country project team with the necessary know-how to configure individual modules themselves, if desired.
Business benefits
Competitive advantage
by strengthening customer loyalty due to enhanced UX
Easier internationalization and localization
due to the set-up of a fully integrated Kia ecosystem
Consistent data in real time
due to direct access to related systems
Smoother rollout to other markets
due to maximized modularity of the solution
Optimized technical solution with best practices and operations leads
to reductions in both complexity and failures and less effort required in operations
Management Summary
Kia wanted to take a transformative new approach with its customer platform, MyKia. Fronted with an engaging contemporary design but, above all, strengthened with numerous new functions, MyKia was ready for its next advance in digitalization. Through this strategy, this leading car manufacturer can further enhance customer loyalty, bring products and services to market in a more tailored manner, and gain a competitive advantage.
The first successful go-live of the new MyKia platform took place in Sweden in July 2023 and formed the modular prototype for 9 other countries. Consistent data, an appealing user interface based on Adobe Experience Manager and numerous new functionalities characterize the solution. Phase 2 of the project comprises Austria, Benelux, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, and Slovakia. Phase 3, will cover further EU countries, which will follow and be planned for 2025.
The platform’s strength is built on the robust standard feature set and is enhanced by the versatility of the modular backend, much of which can easily be reused and adapted. In addition, a series of new functionalities, such as an adaptation of the registration process or a ‘News and Offer’ page, are already being advanced. Within this progression, some country-specific requirements, such as a different CRM-Core-System in Germany or the proof of ownership in Spain for example, are also under consideration.
The decision of Kia to join forces with AOE to advance its digitalization strategy in an ecommerce-driven market, and to introduce data-driven commerce with the new version of MyKia, has been a great success. Together, the two companies have already completed a key milestone in the project with the successful go-live in Sweden and the roll-out to further 9 markets.
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