Audi Takes Dealership Training Virtual

Audi in Germany want to make the training of dealership staff a game with its Audi Virtual Training.

In a two-hour training session, service and dealership employees enter a virtual dealership and learn how to better interact and answer questions from demanding customers and navigate complex and unexpected sales situations.

Some 570-partner businesses in Germany already make use of the training program. 

In the computer game, the employee freely moves their avatar through the virtual dealership and interacts with customers. The goal of this virtual training it to improve the employee’s communications skills and handling of often complex and changing customer demands, all the while getting feedback on how successful they have been in their dealings with the customer.

“Learning must be fun,” said Martin Sander, vice-president sales Germany.

In the game, employees choose the learning fields themselves and can test completely different versions of their answers, and learn from realistic situations, Sander added. The training can be done on a tablet, PC or smartphone.

“Mistakes are explicitly desired here,” he continued. “That is how new strategies are developed and this makes the learning process come alive.”