Reducing Out-of-Service Time to Improve Customer Loyalty

Overview

We were recruited by a leading automotive firm to manage its customer relationship centre (CRC), which dealt with customers’ queries regarding courtesy cars during the days their own vehicles were off road (VOR days).We were tasked with monitoring these areas, reducing the number of VOR days, and handling queries regarding vehicle repair, car hire, and delayed parts.

The average number of VOR days is now standing at 4.2, a reduction of 65 percent, translating into a savings of £3 million in 2009 alone for the client. It has made the service the valuable one it is today.

Challenge

The company have experienced difficulty in monitoring

  • Car hire spend
  • Trends
  • Causal factors
  • Dealer performance

We were tasked with monitoring these areas, reducing the number of VOR days while handling queries regarding vehicle repair, car hire and delayed parts.

How We Did It

Percepta understood that reducing the number of VOR days would require customers’ issues while their vehicles were being repaired being resolved promptly. So we set up a team of car hire and parts specialists to handle those issues.

We created clear guidelines for every request, which included how to handle escalations to external suppliers, and created a tracking system that identified which areas were generating the most/least VOR days.

The tracking system collected data on car hire spend, trends, causal factors, and dealer performance. The following results emerged:

  • Gained valuable information on dealer performance and other areas such as dealer support, which allowed a quicker response to technical issues to reduce VOR days;
  • The tracking system was able to identify dealers who had processes in place to reduce VOR days and those that did not;
  • We are able to provide accurate data that did enable swift diagnosis and parts ordering.

This restructure has proven to be a true success for Percepta and the client, as the average VOR day is now standing at 4.2, a reduction of 65 percent, translating into a savings of £3 million in 2009 alone for the client. It has made the service the valuable one it is today.