This weekend, we will all welcome an extra hour as the clocks go back to signify the seasonal change. In line with this change, Audatex launched its ‘An Extra Hour in the Day’ research which explores the advances of the vehicle repair industry and the impact that technology is having on businesses achieving their goals.
Audatex surveyed 250 independent and franchised bodyshops in the UK, with the overarching finding being that workplace inefficiencies cost UK bodyshops on average one hour per day, per employee.
Following the research, Audatex is releasing four new Insight Papers that will analyse how technology can drive efficiency by automating processes, enabling employees, retaining and better sourcing customers and building better supplier relationships.
The first Insight Paper explores the area of the streamlining process and how technology can fix the inefficiencies so commonly found in the vehicle repair industry. The research finds that manual or paper-based processes are resulting in inefficiencies for most workplaces, with more than half of bodyshops still using a manual approach to vehicle collection and delivery (60%), courtesy car management (54%) and workshop planning (46%). This admin-heavy approach slows down each step of the vehicle repair process for both repairers and customers, and runs a high risk of human error. The lack of streamlined management processes is slowing down the industry unnecessarily, leading to prolonged key-to-key times and lower customer satisfaction levels.
In addition to advancing vehicle technology contributing to the need for innovation across the sector, growing customer demands for a more empowered digital service are also feeding this industry-wide shift. As technology continues to evolve, the vehicle repair industry can’t afford not to meet the needs of its customers and the requirement for up-to-date repair processing methods and integrated systems needs to be made a high priority. The paper also explores how bodyshops and repairers can utilise bodyshop management systems and its capabilities to achieve its strategic goals.
Read the full Insight Paper here.
