By Telecom Lead Team: Auto major
Mercedes-Benz Financial Services (MBFS) announced it has received over $50
million in payments via mobile channels.
The number is growing since
introducing its iPhone app giving customers the convenience to make payments
anytime, anywhere just over two years ago.
The company’s mobile payment
channels, including the apps for iPhone and iPad and the mobile website,
experienced a 127 percent growth rate in 2011, reflecting customers’ rapid
adoption and the growing acceptance of doing business via mobile channels.
Nearly 40 percent of the total
retail portfolio of 511,000 customers is managing their accounts with
MBFS online, self-service methods including mbfs.com, the My MBFS app,
and the mobile website.
In October 2009, Mercedes-Benz
Financial Services became the first captive auto finance company to introduce
an app for customers with iPhones to enable them to make monthly payments.
That innovation was followed in
early 2010 with the launch of a mobile version of mbfs.com, accessible from
all smart phone devices and capable of accepting monthly payments on loans and
leases. In 2011, the first full year that both mobile channels were available,
the company received $38 million in payments.
In mid-2010, Mercedes-Benz Financial
Services became one of the first companies in the world to adapt the
consumer-oriented Apple iPad to a business application by making the MBFS
existing dealer portal, MB Advantage, available on the iPad, thus introducing
mobile capability to more than 350 Mercedes-Benz dealerships in the U.S.
“A significant portion of our
customer base quickly adopted mobile technology as a preferred method of making
payments and communicating with us,” Michael Kanzleiter, senior marketing
manager for Mercedes-Benz Financial Services.
Mercedes-Benz Financial Services is
enhancing the existing app for the iPhone and iPad, enabling customers to
obtain monthly payment estimates on new Mercedes-Benz vehicles, and even
request a quote from a local dealer.
Customers will select their
Mercedes-Benz model, choose a retail or lease product and term, and the app
will provide general payment information. Customers can provide an email
address and phone number to request additional information from a local dealer.
