Beyond Automation: Improving the Automotive After-Sales Process by Going Digital

Beyond Automation: Improving the Automotive After-Sales Process by Going Digital

With the numerous choices of workshops and automotive service businesses for consumers to service their vehicles, customer loyalty after the point of sale is no longer guaranteed. This has made it increasingly more difficult for car manufacturers, OEMs, and dealerships to maintain the profit margins from their after-sales divisions beyond the original warranty period.

The challenge for automotive businesses is how to preserve this important touchpoint to service and retain a potential long-term customer. Conversely, this also presents an opportunity for new and used car dealers to develop quality automotive after-sales processes and experiences to build and retain their relationships with customers.

Improving the quality of automotive after-sales is a crucial task that cannot be underestimated. This can be done by deploying an after-sales management solution to automate processes and enhance the customer experience.

automotive after-sale process

What are the benefits of an automotive after-sales solution?

  • It helps to personalize customer experiences through data analysis

For a significant majority of today’s car owners, choosing their car’s service centre (especially after their warranty period has ended) is a make-or-break moment – as many as four in ten customers compare different service offers before making an appointment at a workshop. Younger and price-conscious customers are even more likely to shop around.

To ensure you secure the car owner’s visit and loyalty, you can consider developing special offers that are exclusive to the driver’s needs. In fact, most customers value the ability to pick up a personalized offer for their vehicles even before the mileage interval maintenance date or date of service.

By combining vehicle data with personal information, such as age, gender or even locations visited with an automotive after-sales solution, you can develop a truly unique offer such as customized marketing campaigns for parts and accessories or customized products such as service contracts.

  • It allows customers to make an informed decision

 Car owners are more likely to choose a service workshop if they feel they can trust the workshop to be transparent in pricing and scope of work. Being provided with a detailed estimate before booking the service, and a full breakdown of what was done after the servicing is complete helps to build this trust.

Together with automotive after-sales diagnostic tools and usage data, you can provide a more accurate quote for the cost of a service, based on your knowledge of how and where the car has been used, and the wear and tear of its parts.

Being able to provide an estimate in advance on which repairs if any will need to be carried out, you can give your customers a much better idea of the time their vehicle will spend in the workshop. Furthermore, parts can be stocked before the car arrives for its service, reducing the amount of time the service will take.

  • It can help to provide a holistic customer experience

Customers expect a positive experience when they take their car into the workshop. When choosing where to have their car serviced, more than half say their choice is guided by service experience. This is why most service centres are not only focussing on price but also on the differentiation created by tailored packages and express services.

With connected data from an automotive after-sales solution, you can plan ahead for workshop visits from your customer to maximise your customer happiness potential. It goes without saying, however, that after-sales centres should increase their investment in their workshops’ physical environment and reception area to enable customer-centric retail processes, especially for their known customers.

With automotive after-sales management software, you can add additional enhancements to the experience, such as reducing wait times, having a well-informed service advisor to greet customers and access their details.

Other examples include improving workshop efficiencies by knowing which customer will be sending their vehicles to your workshop, allowing you to reserve parking lots and provide the service advisor with the right information.

  • It allows you to anticipate and manage exceptions

Automotive after-sales management software allows you to be fully prepared for your customers’ out-of-the-ordinary needs. Data from aggregating servicing sessions may be used to create predictive models for the supply and demand of spare parts, allowing greater optimization of inventory.

Soon, onboard vehicle devices can also alert drivers of non-routine issues who can then forward diagnostic scan results to their workshop after-sales solutions, flag out anomalies, and proactively suggest remedial action to book drivers in for servicing.

Similarly, if the technician finds an unexpected issue while servicing the vehicle, he or she could video the problem and share it with the customer to approve any additional work before proceeding.

  • It allows you to build customer loyalty

At the final stage of after-sales service, when the service (whether routine or unexpected) is complete, there is an opportunity to build loyalty and ensure a repeat appointment in the future.

This can be done by seeking feedback from the customer to improve service excellence and improve processes. Feedback is considered invaluable for your business as customers who are given the opportunity to provide feedback often feel appreciated as their opinion matters.

Provide an unrivalled seamless customer experience for your customers with Appvantage’s automotive after-sales management and service booking solutions

Look no further if you are interested in transforming your automotive after-sales process for your customers. Our solution ensures you can provide an optimal customer journey at each stage of the after-sales process; from service appointment bookings, recognition upon entry to service centres, automatic check-ins, queue management, parking guidance, tracking of servicing stages, a centralised communication platform, transparent billing, online payments to customer satisfaction surveys.

At Appvantage, we are constantly innovating with our valued clients to fine-tune our solutions.  Our bespoke solutions deployed by the world’s best automotive brands are a testament to the quality of our offering.

For more information about creating the perfect digital customer journey for your after-sales business, email us at sales@appvantage.asia with your queries or schedule a demo at https://calendly.com/apvsales.