Purchasing a luxury car used to be all about the vehicle, but in 2016, it’s about the experience. This is the philosophy behind Volvo’s new pilot concierge program, which is launching this month in San Francisco.
Offered to owners of the XC90 SUV and S90 sedan, the program lets Volvo owners hand nearly all of their day-to-day upkeep responsibilities back to the automaker. This includes fueling, maintenance, and cleaning services, and Volvo’s concierge will even move the customer’s vehicle to another location if desired.
“Imagine parking your car in the morning at work and when you head home your car has been serviced, cleaned, and refueled,” said Björn Annwall, Volvo’s Senior Vice President of Global Consumer Experience. “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.”
The pilot program will roll out to just 300 Volvo owners in San Francisco for now, but eventually, the brand hopes to integrate these services into the Volvo On Call mobile platform.
“Our approach is a simple one — we aim to make life easier by employing the latest connected technology in an easy-to-use smartphone app,” said Anders Tylman-Mikiewicz, Volvo’s Vice President of Consumer Connectivity Services. “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.”
Clearly this is something consumers want. According to the automaker’s research, 70 percent of its customers would opt for on-demand fueling, 56 percent want their car picked up for maintenance services, and 49 percent would like the option of having their car moved to another location when desired. With this type of convenience at their fingertips, who could blame them?
