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Fixico: Optimize Repair and Service Digitally

The handling of repairs and service remains an outdated, time-consuming, and unfortunately often disappointing process. More digitalization could change that and instead offer straightforward and personalized solutions.

Repair management also benefits from digitalization. | Photo: Unsplash/Jon Tyson
Repair management also benefits from digitalization. | Photo: Unsplash/Jon Tyson
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Especially in the service and workshop sector, there is still a lot of dissatisfaction among customers. However, nowadays, they have a voice that they are increasingly using. Social media, review portals, online shops, forums, and much more offer everyone the opportunity to share their own opinions, experiences, and feelings about a company, its products, and especially its service. Customers can thus be better informed and switch more easily to a provider whose offer better suits their own needs. This also applies to service and repairs in the event of damage. Therefore, companies and their fleet managers should always consider the preferences or feedback of customers - the drivers - and make the handling in the event of damage as comfortable as possible.

Especially with repairs, there is still (too) often stress.

But especially in the event of damage, this often still means an extensive process with many manual activities. Numerous phone calls, emails, and other communication channels with different contacts are often necessary before the car finds its way to the workshop. It is obvious that this is anything but efficient and leads to longer repair times and a lot of frustration.  

This unfavorable situation affects not only the drivers but also the companies and their fleet or damage managers, who also have to spend more time on this tedious administrative process. Additionally, companies typically have only limited insight into the process. For example, they cannot track the trips to the workshop, the performance and quality of their own workshop network cannot be monitored, or they receive no feedback. An optimization of the process is thus not possible. By digitizing services in repair management, comfort and clarity can be increased for all parties involved. 

Interesting survey results

According to a recent Salesforce report, 67 percent of consumers believe that the way a company uses technology indicates how it generally operates. Additionally, 72 percent of consumers expect companies to use new technologies to create a better customer experience. When implemented effectively, digitization can increase profits, as technological tools can enhance customer loyalty.

Satisfaction creates loyalty

If drivers have a positive repair experience, this will increase their satisfaction and create a sense of loyalty towards the company. It also helps the company to speed up processes, increase productivity, and reduce costs. The profit increase is also confirmed by 80 percent of the companies surveyed in an SAP study. A report by McKinsey also suggests that companies could more than double their profits within five years by digitizing existing workflows.

Time savings is also one of the most important benefits of digitization. Nowadays, most repairs can be handled online without relying on many manual intermediate steps that can prolong the process over weeks. For example, 72 percent of all damage reports submitted to Fixico - an end-to-end platform for handling car damage - were fully processed digitally. A physical inspection for creating an estimate by a workshop was not necessary.

It is therefore obvious that the traditional repair process needs to be redesigned. Digitization can not only improve this in many ways and save time but also provide valuable insights for the company, for example, about the driver's behavior. This feedback can then be analyzed to gain a clearer understanding of the possibilities for service improvement. With the help of digitization, it is possible to transform the previously long and complicated process for everyone involved into a quick and convenient one. Let's look at what this means exactly for drivers and companies. For drivers, their repair can now be planned within a day of the damage report, at a time that fits into their schedule and at a qualified workshop nearby. And all this without spending much time on phone calls, emails, and often even back and forth for a physical inspection.

Drivers receive a personalized solution to manage their vehicle damage from start to finish. During the process, they have more control and can select additional services such as pickup and return or a replacement vehicle. This personalized repair journey increases driver satisfaction. Data from Fixico shows that drivers' opinions about the entire repair process in 2020 achieved an average rating of 9.5/10*.

Information ensures satisfaction

Interestingly, studies show that customers who receive their repaired vehicle a day late but are informed about it in advance are more satisfied than customers who receive their vehicle on time but are not informed. Through the digital repair process, fleet or damage managers retain full control during the process, while drivers are informed in real-time via their preferred channels - emails, in-app notifications, or text messages. This way, driver satisfaction and their loyalty to the company continuously increase - a win-win situation.

For companies: Digitally enhanced service 

Companies receive a complete overview of the repair process. By collecting and using historical data, all general vehicle and driver information is already prefilled in the system, every additional piece of information is entered and immediately sent to the right parties. Thanks to this data, better decisions can also be made in the future. Additionally, fleet and damage managers who have access to a real-time overview of each repair can provide better service and work much more efficiently. 

With the help of advanced tools, most vehicle damages can be accurately assessed without requiring a physical inspection. 

Improving the repair process for drivers using digital tools provides companies access to valuable real-time insights. This way, companies can track all ongoing repairs and see how the body shop and the drivers communicate with each other. By tracking this process, companies can learn from driver behavior and analyze network performance.

With digital tools, companies can access every repair they have handled and use this historical data to make better decisions in the future for similar damage cases.

What does it mean?

Undoubtedly, digitalization significantly improves the service, but it cannot fully take over. The management of vehicle damage repairs still requires human intervention. However, with the aid of digitalization, fleet or damage managers are better equipped to identify and resolve any issues that may arise during the repair. Drivers also benefit from digital solutions, as the entire repair experience becomes significantly more comfortable and less time-consuming for them. 

Author: Lutz Garschagen.

 

Translated automatically from German.
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