Being able to effectively track and manage your customer vehicles while being serviced or repaired is a challenge many automotive aftersales teams face.

With many dealerships having multiple service bays (and as many technicians!), it’s important that your workshop controllers and service managers have complete control and visibility over where customer vehicles are in the service process.

So, what can your aftersales team do to ensure that your workshop is effectively managed and unlock your team’s success?

What is Workshop Management?

Workshop Management is the way that your aftersales team – specifically your Workshop Controller, Parts Team and Service Advisors – can get a ‘live’ view of your workshop, and are able to track and update the status of vehicle while it’s being serviced or repaired by your dealership.

It enables all parts of your team to have visibility of the customer vehicle, technician job allocation, EVHC status, customer contact requests and more – so you always know what task is next, who needs to complete it and, importantly, when the customer can come to collect their vehicle.

Why is it important?

Within a workshop, there are many team members doing different tasks, as well as multiple vehicles that all need work completing against it.

Being able to effectively coordinate this activity – by having a single view of all vehicles, who’s managing the service or repair, the status of that vehicle and if any authorisation is required for additional work – is critical for the success of an efficient service department.

You may need to allocate specific tasks to certain individuals with a specific skill-set, through effective resource management your Workshop Management solution can see where this resource is currently being used and when it’s available – helping to get that customer’s vehicle seen to faster by the right person.

How can I implement a Workshop Management system that’s right for me?

Every automotive dealer is different, so a recommended approach for any Workshop Management system is to allow it to be configured to meet the aftersales team’s needs.

For example, you may wish to create a bespoke status for the vehicle based on your teams, such as ‘Valet’, ‘Authorisation request’ or ‘Ready to collect’. Each team is different, and agreeing a set of statuses that matter to your business with your Workshop Management provider is essential.

Another important factor is making sure that the Workshop Management system connects to other tools in place at the dealership. For example, ensuring that your EVHC solution automatically updates the vehicle status when any additional repair work is found, or having an online check-in solution that automatically connects to the workshop management system, so you know the car is onsite and ready to be worked.

What type of visibility will it give me and my team?

A Workshop Management solution should give your team a clear view of all the vehicles.

Being able to colour-code or have dedicated statuses for each job allows your workshop control and service advisors to see the current position of that vehicle at a glance.

We work with a number of dealers that have the vehicle status clearly shown on a large screen around the aftersales team – so at any time, everyone can see work planned, scheduled and customers that need to be contacted.

Why is a Workshop Management solution good for your dealership?

Having an effective Workshop Management solution allows your dealership to increase visibility across the team – in doing so, there are efficiency gains across the board.

Technicians know what work is next, service advisors can contact customers to request authorisation, or update them on the status of their vehicle, and the workshop controller can quickly and easily identify blocks in work, and look to reallocate work quickly – increasing efficiency and productivity.

What are the key features of REALaftersales?

REALaftersales is REALtime Communications’ core aftersales solution. Through our Workshop Management solution, we enable your automotive workshops to create digital checklists, complete full EVHC checks and track and monitor vehicle status through all parts of the journey.

In addition, you can create outbound call campaigns, contacting customers that have outstanding repair work on their vehicle.

Through our Workshop Management solution, you get a live view of all workshop activity, you can customise the view to meet your dealers’ needs and get instant notifications on EVHC progress through the workshop.

We also integrate with other third parties, including tyre, media and payment providers – so, no matter how your dealership wishes to work, we integrate with other industry partners giving you a single seamless process to follow that simply works.

Key features include:

  • Live workshop view​
  • Fully customisable vehicle status​
  • Notification of overdue and overrun jobs​
  • Instant notification of EVHC process​
  • Pop-up messages​
  • RTC Loan Vehicle management​
  • Checklist​
  • Declined work view​
  • Waiting customers, authorisation gained, parts in stock and SMS messages.

To find out more about REALaftersales and how we can support your dealership, contact us today – info@rtcauto.co.uk and one of the team will be happy to help.

 

About REAltime Communications (RTC)

REALtime Communications (RTC) is a digitalisation specialist, working with UK dealerships to deliver complete, seamlessly integrated solutions for sales and aftersales. With 20 years’ experience developing and deploying software, RTC is proven as an expert in digital transformation and a growth partner for dealerships in a fast-changing industry. More than 700 franchised dealers now use RTC.

RTC’s technologies allow systems, processes and communication channels to integrate and share data in real time, leading to revenue opportunities, efficiency savings and sustainable benefits. With a full-service approach, RTC is committed to helping dealerships adopt a customer-centric model, meeting motorists’ demands with a personalised experience.