How Automotive Manufacturers Can Cut Support Costs Without Hurting CX

Why You Need Vertical and Horizontal Consolidation

Car manufacturers are under more pressure than ever to trim operating costs and customer support is a natural place to look. Many are looking at merging customer support for all their brands. This makes sense—unified operations that handle all products instead of separate support teams for each brand. On paper, it sounds efficient.

But those who stop at brand consolidation will be disappointed with the cost savings. The problem is that you still need all the same specialized functions, just bigger versions of them. You might consolidate five brand-specific teams into one, but you still need product specialists, finance experts, emergency services, breakdown assistance, information support, and many other functions across the customer journey.

Merging brands can water down the unique experience each brand is known for. Premium brands need different interaction styles, language, and service levels compared to volume brands. Simply merging teams without preserving brand identity can damage customer relationships that took years to build.

Brand Consolidation Alone Doesn’t Pay Off

When you merge brand-specific support into one giant team, you don’t eliminate specialized roles. The fundamental cost structure remains unchanged because you still need all the same specialized functions:

• Pre-purchase specialists: Lead generation teams to capture prospects, product experts who understand vehicle details and help with selection, finance specialists who handle loan and lease options, administrative staff who coordinate test drives, etc.
• Post-purchase specialists: Emergency contact centers for accidents, breakdown assistance for mechanical issues, information services for general questions, warranty and recall specialists, service scheduling teams, etc.

Each function still requires dedicated staff, management overhead, and separate systems to retrieve required information. You end up with the same number of specialized teams—they’re just larger versions handling multiple brands instead of single brands.

That means the cost structure doesn’t really change:

• You still need roughly the same number of advisors across all functions.
• You still have management overhead for each specialized function.
• You’ll still juggle separate systems for different interaction types.
• Training becomes more complex, since advisors now have to learn multiple brands.

Meanwhile, operational complexity increases because larger specialized teams need more coordination to handle customers across multiple brands. Handovers between functions become more complex when each team serves all brands rather than knowing the specifics of one brand.

The Real Opportunity: Horizontal Consolidation with Brand Integrity

To achieve dramatic cost savings while preserving brand experience, manufacturers need to consolidate functions horizontally, not just brands vertically. Instead of maintaining separate teams for every specialized function, the goal should be fewer generalist teams that can handle multiple functions across the entire customer journey while delivering each brand’s unique experience.

This is where significant cost reduction becomes possible. If you can reduce the number of specialized functions by half or more—cutting multiple specialized teams down to just a few generalist teams—the savings ripple across salaries, management overhead, training, and system complexity. But this consolidation must enhance, not compromise, the brand experience for each customer.

The key is enabling advisors to deliver brand-appropriate interactions regardless of which function they’re handling. A premium brand customer calling about financing should receive the same elevated service experience they’d get from a dedicated premium brand team, even when served by a generalist advisor handling multiple brands and functions.

But there’s a fundamental barrier: the knowledge requirement for cross-functional, multi-brand support exceeds what any human can master. A single advisor would need expertise in vehicle specifications across all brands, financing options, technical diagnostics, emergency procedures, service requirements, administrative processes, and each brand’s unique service standards and communication style.

Traditional training can’t prepare someone for this breadth of knowledge. The information changes constantly as new models launch, financing rates adjust, procedures evolve, and brand standards update. No individual can stay current across all these domains while maintaining the depth needed for quality, brand-appropriate customer interactions.

How AI Removes the Knowledge Barrier and Elevates Advisor Value

AI makes horizontal consolidation possible by giving generalist advisors instant access to specialist knowledge and brand guidelines during customer conversations. Instead of expecting advisors to know everything, AI systems provide the right information and communication style at the right time based on who the customer is and what they need.

This changes both the cost structure and how advisors spend their time. You don’t need specialists because AI can make generalists just as effective for most interactions while keeping each brand consistent. The few complex cases that need human expertise can be handled by much smaller teams of senior specialists.

What’s even better is that AI handles the routine questions that eat up most advisor time, freeing them to focus on activities that build relationships and drive growth. Instead of answering the same basic questions over and over, advisors can provide concierge-level service, spot opportunities to sell additional products or services, and create stronger connections with customers.

This shift turns contact centers from cost centers into profit centers. Advisors become revenue generators, not just problem solvers, while still giving each customer the brand experience they expect.

Here’s how it works:

• Frontend AI (chatbots, voicebots, digital assistants) handles the routine questions, e.g., vehicle features, financing options, service scheduling, and account information, before they reach human advisors. Customers still get responses in the right brand voice, but without tying up valuable advisor time.
• Backend AI supports advisors live during interactions, surfacing customer history, product data, and brand guidelines in real time so they can resolve issues quickly and in the right style.

Examples of Functional Consolidation

• Post-purchase consolidation: Currently, most manufacturers run three separate functions for post-purchase support: emergency contact centers, breakdown assistance, and general information services. With AI and telematics integration, a single advisor can handle all three while delivering the right service level for each brand. When a customer or the car calls, the system immediately shows vehicle location, live diagnostic data, service history, and what that brand requires for this type of call. The advisor can dispatch emergency services, arrange roadside assistance, or answer routine questions based on real-time information and brand guidelines.
• Pre-purchase consolidation: Instead of separate teams for lead generation, product expertise, finance, and administration, fewer generalist advisors can handle multiple functions while keeping each brand distinct. A premium brand customer calling about financing gets elevated service that matches their brand expectations, with an advisor who sees their browsing history, research patterns, and can coordinate VIP test drive experiences. AI provides instant guidance on product specs, current incentives, loan calculations, scheduling, and how to communicate with that specific brand’s customers.

Technology Platform Requirements

Achieving this level of horizontal consolidation while preserving brand experience requires four integrated AI-supported systems working together:

1. CRM/CDP systems track customer behavior from initial website visits through purchase, ownership, and repeat purchases. These systems capture vehicle research patterns, financing scenarios explored, questions asked, purchase details, service history, warranty claims, recalls, breakdowns, and more. This creates continuity across all interactions, no matter which advisor is responding.
2. Journey orchestration platforms use AI to predict what customers need next and ensure smooth transitions between different types of interactions while keeping brand consistency. When a customer moves from researching vehicles to requesting service, the system provides personalized content through the right channel at the right time, using the appropriate brand voice and style.
3. Contact center systems bring all customer communications into one place and provide real-time AI support to advisors handling any customer interaction. These systems connect with telematics data for post-purchase calls and access all information through the knowledge management system. They also provide brand-specific guidance to ensure each interaction meets the right brand standards.
4. Knowledge management systems bring information together from different manufacturer knowledge bases, car configurators, vehicle ordering systems, and other systems that hold information about car specs, stock, finance options, procedures, guidelines, warranties, recalls, training materials and more. Some of this information gets updated when changes happen, while other data is pulled in real time as needed. These systems also store brand-specific protocols, communication guidelines, and service standards.

The key is that all platforms work together to create complete customer and vehicle visibility while keeping each brand distinct. Every interaction—whether someone is researching vehicles online, calling about financing, or requesting emergency assistance—happens with full context of their complete relationship history and the right brand experience standards.

Implementation Strategy

Start with your highest-impact consolidation opportunities while establishing clear brand experience metrics. Post-purchase support is often the best pilot area. Combining emergency calls, breakdown assistance, and information services shows immediate cost savings and customer experience improvements through telematics-enabled consolidation, while maintaining the right service levels for each brand.

Focus on routine, high-volume interactions first. These scenarios offer the clearest opportunity to show AI value while building organizational confidence and freeing advisors for higher-value activities. Look for functions where advisors currently spend significant time searching for basic information or coordinating with other teams, rather than building customer relationships or finding revenue opportunities.

Make sure your technology platforms can work together effectively while maintaining brand differentiation capabilities. Your CRM, contact center, and journey orchestration systems need to work together seamlessly to create the unified customer view that enables cross-functional consolidation without hurting brand experience.

Plan for step-by-step rollout across functions with brand experience validation at each stage. Start with one complete journey segment, prove the consolidation value and brand consistency, then expand to additional functions. This approach builds momentum while allowing system refinement based on real usage and brand experience feedback.

Measuring Cost Savings and Revenue Impact

The financial benefits come from multiple sources that compound when you consolidate across functions while elevating advisor activities:

• Reduced headcount across specialized teams: Instead of separate staff for every function, you work with far fewer generalist advisors supported by AI, while those advisors focus on activities that bring in revenue rather than routine questions.
• Lower management overhead: Fewer specialized teams mean fewer supervisors, simpler scheduling, and less coordination complexity.
• Simpler training costs: Generalist advisors need broader, less deep training, and AI help reduces how much they need to remember while enabling them to deliver consistent brand experiences.
• System consolidation: Fewer specialized functions need fewer specialized systems, cutting technology costs and integration complexity.
• Better efficiency and revenue generation: Cutting out handovers between teams reduces contact times and increases first-contact resolution rates, while advisors spend more time on valuable activities like upselling, cross-selling, and concierge services.
• Better brand experience: Fewer silos, fewer handovers, and AI-enabled personalization create better customer experiences that build loyalty and repeat business.

Track metrics that reflect complete vertical and horizontal consolidation impact, not just traditional support improvements. Measure reduction in total customer-facing roles, elimination of inter-team transfers, customer experience improvements across the entire journey, revenue per interaction, upselling success rates, and brand experience consistency scores.

The Competitive Advantage

The tools exist today. The question is: who will act first?

Automakers who invest in technology platforms and embrace AI to enable vertical and horizontal consolidation across the automotive customer journey won’t just reduce costs—they’ll create stronger brand experiences and turn support into a growth engine. Those who stick with siloed, brand-by-brand models will be left behind.

The opportunity is clear: lower costs, elevated customer experience, and lasting competitive advantage. The time to move is now.

Discover how Concentrix can help you create seamless, end-to-end experiences across the entire automotive ecosystem—fueling deeper connections, stronger loyalty, and lasting value.