TagRail
Driving Frictionless Vehicle Purchase

Step into a ritzy automotive showroom and a graceful sales executive greets you with an iPad. Gleefully walk into the space where you get the digital catalogue of the dealership’s car inventory on the iPad and information pertaining to the specifications and features of each car that skids through the screen in one tap. Select your vehicle and you have got one price to pay. Mode of payment is worked through the backend integration with financial institutions which is swiftly and quickly completed as the paper work is done right there on the same iPad through digital signatures. Walk out with the car knowing that the sales person will be at the door the next time you come back to the showroom for servicing. The entity behind this reality is TagRail, a Customer Experience Management (CEM) technology company, which has enabled rich customer experience for Toyota’s luxury brand, Lexus North America. “We don’t sell a technology; we sell a process and then the enabling technology. That is the whole essence of customer experience management,” says Kiran Karunakaran, CEO, TagRail.

Having years of experience in the Customer Relationship Management technology space, Karunakaran’s cognizance about CRM’s limitations led to his foray into CEM that holds promise for driving business results. "CRM is a commodity, a database and CEM is the way forward for most retail organizations,” says Karunakaran. “Relationship building is an afterthought. Experience should be the forefront." TagRail’s first product is the collaborated effort with an automotive dealership who wished to deliver elevated customer experience enabled through technology.

The “DealerTag” platform, which became an instant hit among the automotive retailers, supports upselling and cross selling by recording the customer interactions in the past and sharing it with all the sales personnel. With this information, every sales person can have a thorough understanding of the customer, which enables them to customize their approach in a way that drives business results. The platform provides the dealership with the 360 degree view through the various stages of customer journey ranging from the initial interaction, the buying process, to the aftermarket service and to the reputation management.

The ultimate goal of TagRail is to make the first time customer, the customer for life and a brand enthusiast

The company also offers tools for the dealerships to manage customer experience and brand appearance.

Automotive dealerships are already reaping gains from these investments. For example, Toyota Oakland has been able to deliver digital experience to their customers visiting the dealership, which has boosted their sales by 150 percent. Through DealerTag, the dealership could automatically allocate a sales person for each of the customer walking in to the dealership in a systematic manner.

TagRail is forging ahead by testing virtual reality capabilities into its solutions that will bring even more advanced visual experience for the customers. The company is also expanding its technology capabilities through integrations with IBM Watson and Microsoft Azure Machine Learning. “Retailers everywhere are realizing that every prospective customer interaction should be converted into a business transaction and the customer should be retained for life. TagRail provides them all the tools for businesses in this endeavor,” says Karunakaran.

With customer experience process being central to its business model, TagRail uses technology advancements in building innovative products for the global businesses in automotive retail and beyond.

The company is expanding in other markets like Canada, Middle East, and Latin America bringing its simple and effective solutions designed to accentuate customer experience. “The ultimate goal of TagRail is to make the first time customer, the customer for life and a brand enthusiast,” concludes Karunakaran.