Does your EVHC provide the human touch?

Aftersales service operations strive for optimal workshop utilisation and increasingly rely on digital strategies like Electronic Vehicle Health (EVHC) to boost part sales and billable labour.

Even though the user experience may vary greatly, many EVHC’s provide the same core functionality – a digital checklist, capture images and video recordings and send an online health check report to the customer with the ability to approve the identified additional work.

But do the current EVHC solutions deliver a personalised interaction, or is there a risk that it creates a new barrier to a truly customer-centric approach?

As we often see reported by industry experts and aftersales professionals, customer behaviour is changing the face of the Automotive retail space with omnichannel services more and more present. That’s why it should be no surprise that we have seen the advent of ‘customer experience’ roles becoming the norm at the OEM’s and dealer groups.

Grow your business with happy customers

Customer behaviour tends to lean more and more towards convenience. The easier the interaction between the customer and the service organisation, the more likely they will enjoy the experience and return. Moreover, a happy customer is more likely to be more trusting and likely to spend more.

If we consider the typical customer journey when having their vehicle serviced at their chosen dealership or service location, it looks something like this.

A. Car needs a service – Phone the dealership and book it in.

B. Travel on the day of the appointment from home to the service location.

C. Park up and enter the reception.

D. Explain who you are and what you need to be looked at on your vehicle.

E. Drop-off keys.

F. Courtesy car (if you are one of the fortunate ones), dropped off by the dealer, make your own way home or to the office.

G. Receive unwanted phone calls that further identify items needing attention on the vehicle.

H. Or receive an EVHC digital report with video recordings, Images, and additional costs to approve online.

I. “How much”!?

J. Repeat the same in reverse at the end of the day, and pay the bill.

K. Wait around for the car to be washed.

L. Receive a survey or call from a call centre asking about your experience.

M. Roll on 6/12 months and do the same again.

The above likely resonates with many, but I've also seen examples of significant customer journey improvements. Organisations sticking to steps A:M create barriers, adding wasted time, cost, and frustration. This results in underwhelmed customers who may seek alternatives next time

Engaging at every stage: Empowering customers for sustainable returns

This is compounded further when vehicles enter segment 2 (vehicles from 4-6 years old) when the warranty has expired, and the customer needs more reason to go back to the dealership where the car was purchased from.

Price impacts customer behaviour, but customer convenience should be considered. Personalised comfort, where customers feel involved and in control throughout the journey, can make a significant difference. I call this Absolute Customer Centricity.

Customer centricity in the Aftersales process should factor in time savings, transparency, feeling in control, deeper understanding of technical-related topics, familiarity with front-facing staff,?and always knowing the dealership ‘has my back’ and understands me.

Nowadays, of course, every customer has different ‘needs and wants’ regarding how they like to interact with their dealership. But I haven’t met a customer yet, who likes to feel underappreciated, not in control or inconvenienced.

If we consider the journey steps, from point A to F and J to K, Absolute Customer Centricity and Personalised convenience can be achieved with an online booking solution. This solution provides real-time availability for customers' preferred service advisors and technicians. With the system already aware of customer and vehicle history, it plans collection and drop-off services with committed or promised times. Customers receive personalised automated updates via WhatsApp or their preferred communication method throughout the process. This saves time and enhances the overall experience by eliminating the need for phone calls, traffic congestion, and costly fuel expenses.

Free your workshop from the clutter of paperwork

Looking at the steps from G:I, the vehicle health check process is moving towards electronic adoption, replacing paper check sheets and telephone calls to inform customers of additional vehicle maintenance. The electronic version offers benefits such as reduced paperwork, a standardised check process and categorisation of work as red (safety), yellow (recommended replacement) and green (in good working order). Once the electronic health check is complete, parts availability and pricing can be checked, and videos and images can be shared with customers for approval. This digital approach effectively increases average parts sales and labour hours on service invoices. It also captures unsold follow-up work to maintain workshop capacity.

It’s arguably a marked step forward to the paper check sheets and provides a level of convenience to customers to be able to approve work online, but does it really support a true personalised service and interaction between the customer and service operation?

We have seen several comprehensive EVHC platforms enter the market that offers video recording functionality, as well as video-based solutions that provide, to a lesser degree, the functionality required to capture the full value from the health check process.

EVHC’s are designed to be online for convenience but, at the same time, risk encouraging less interaction between both parties as everything is through an electronic process.

Take advantage of the XXI century: digitise your workshop

At Getac, we believe that the path to Absolute Customer Centricity can be achieved through the convergence of technology and human touch. Why not use the benefits of a fully comprehensive online health check to give the customer peace of mind, AND at the same time create the ability to provide a real-time guided tour of the vehicle health check process, where customers and service professionals can interact, customers can visualise and have a two-way dialogue, ask questions if they don’t understand and reach a decision in a timely manner. Ultimately done well can build a repour and trust factor that will really make the difference.

Our solution provides a comprehensive Electronic Vehicle Health Check solution, with dynamic check sheets and maintenance tables, automated messaging and follow-up of unsold items and full hands-free live-streaming video functionality for optimal interaction with the customer and service agent.?See how live stream video can make a difference in your service operations and keep customers at the centre of your operations.