As discussed in the previous post, Information Technology has rapidly reshaped the sales, administration and parts sectors of our business and it is time for the everyday face of the dealership, the Service Department, to catch up. As with every business, communication with our customers is in some ways more important than the technical quality of our work. Customers expect first class technical proficiency and now, by leveraging IT, we can create a dynamic, intuitive bridge to our customers while reducing work loads and improving efficiency.
Now we have to tackle the issue of increasing customer expectation. We are starting a dealer-wide IT upgradation. We are moving from the manual integration of information that used to be there before in each department. We are considering two vendor products - Autopoint and BZ. These two products will provide us the required dealer-wide information integration. We will try to achieve seamless flow of data, along with secure exchange of data in all facets of our business.
http://www.autopointsite.com/
Service Department IS revolves mainly around basic booking and invoicing software and a customer data base. Our aim is to unite all the information about our customers and their vehilces with live data and automated customer services. Making the car service experience more open and giving the customer more tools to inform us of their needs will build a greater rapor and increase customer loyalty. We want our customers to come back because they feel confident and can choose their level of involvement.
With very little change in hardware, the already available data will be used to boost efficiency and productivity. For instance: Technicians can post progress via existing laptops at their workstations, allowing the Service Manager to monitor from their office. Online factory tech advice can be viewed from the same laptops, linkage with spare parts department will allow them to view service appointments and pre-order specific parts.
By far the biggest change will be seen by the customer. Being that the systems are ownership lifecycle oriented, our customers will have online access to their vehicle's service history and a range of other services such as automated service reminders, email notification of any recall issues.
Though it’s currently not available, what if we could offer live updates available through the service portal? This will free the service staff for other duties and give the customer peace of mind. Why not a customer interface that will enable them, for instance, to upload photos of damage or upload audio or video of any errant behavior their car is exhibiting, instead of having to imitate that embarrasing exhaust sound? Perhaps they could even watch their car being repaired on web cam. The increased contact and following data will build a much richer customer profile with the intention of providing a greater value service, and, will empower our clients.
Here is a table from BZ's webite and a customer input screen.
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