What I’ve learned from our enterprise customers about the future of the automotive service industry

Here’s what I’ve learned from our enterprise customers about the future of the automotive service industry -

Having regularly interacted with our (GaragePlug) global customers like Petronas, Aramco, TotalEnergies, Valvoline, etc, a few things seemed to be common.

Since global companies giants across any industry are known to direct the path of any industry, here’s what they are up to -

? They believe “Quick Services” are the future.

• The industry has become so commoditised that the number of differentiating factors has become less.
• In most developed and developing countries, customers have evolved.
• Customers want vehicle services to be part of their regular routine rather than an extra chore.
• Hence, customers are even willing to pay a premium for quicker vehicle services.

?? Due to all these - global giants believe the business that manages to do the quickest services, will win. The industry will move towards quick services.

? They realize that “lack of data” is hindering their decision-making (especially with multi-outlet businesses and fuel retail businesses that have Quick service stations)

• One thing that all our enterprise customers needed was to somehow get access to accurate measurable data.
• Due to a lack of sufficient actionable data, they were unable to properly check the performance of their outlets or marketing activities.

?? Due to these, global giants were on the lookout to find suitable tools. Here’s where they understood the need for the digitalization of their workshops in order to get real-time data.

? They believe “Holistic Customer Experience” is key to increasing their retention rate.

• Here too, the number of differentiating factors has become less in the industry.
• Hence, businesses can stand out only by doing something really extra.
• Giants have started realizing that our service industry is lagging behind in terms of CX when compared to any other industry.
• Giants understand that modern customers have been quite well pampered by CX of other industries.

?? Due to all these - global giants are swiftly looking to build “Digital Ecosystems” for their customers - which they believe will be a new tactic to retain customers.

? They realize that adopting new technologies is a must to survive the competition.

• One thing we all can agree on is that every industry is evolving thanks to technologies and in any industry, the late adopters tend to get badly affected.
• While the entire service industry was stagnant for many decades, just a few years back, some giants started adopting new technologies.
• When one starts, it becomes a competition for the rest to follow, this has led to a race of technology adoption even in our service industry in the last couple of years.

?? Technologies like modern workshop management platforms, Business Intelligence Platforms are evolving and giants are swift to prefer the best and most advanced out there.

? They are not afraid to “Trial and Error” new things with their customers.

• One thing I realised when I get on calls with director-level people is that they realize no one can predict the future accurately for their business, so they understand that the only way is to do trial & error.
• They are always on the lookout for new things happening in the industry and they are now quick to adopt and trial them.

?? Currently, we can see that there is a surge in customer self-service-related setups, similar to fast-food franchises.

These were the few things that I learned to be common from our global enterprise customer base and from our prospects.

Of course, each of them will have some custom requirements mapping to their business needs too, but these were the common learnings from all of them put together.