D&R CAR CARE DOUBLES ARO THROUGH TRANSPARENCY AND OPENNESS
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ABOUT THE SHOP
Located in Statesboro, GA, D&R Car Care is a 16-bay, full-service auto repair establishment servicing domestic, Asian, and European vehicles. Founded in 2000 D&R’s mission has always been to use most up-to-date diagnostic technology, to be fully educated and certified in all areas of automotive repair, and to always offer a “Service the right way, the first time” attitude.
Being located right next to Georgia Southern University, car count has never been a problem for D&R Car Care but in 2014 owner Ray Driggers identified a problem. Their car count was actually to high to be able to provide the levels of service they were committed to provide for each customer. The result was that although car count was going up, the average repair order price per vehicle was going down, and the number of return customers was not what they expected. After some research, Ray decided that investment in a digital vehicle inspection solution would allow them them support their mission, “Service the right way, the first time.”
D&R tried several digital vehicle inspection products and ultimately chose AutoServe1 for several reasons but most important to them was that AutoServe1 seemed to be the company that wanted to work with their customers to improve the product. Also key to the decision was the ability to record video using AutoServe1. According to Ray,“It’s really hard to show a customer a bad ball joint with a picture. AutoServe1 makes it very easy to inform our clients about what’s going on with their car.”
After implementing AutoServe1, improvements far exceeded even Ray’s own expectations. D&R doubled their Average Repair Order price. Service writers substantially decreased the amount of time they needed to spend explaining repairs to customers while increasing customer satisfaction. Most importantly according to Ray Driggers is that “AutoServe1 has allowed us to stay truthful to our clients by pulling back the curtains so they can see what we see and know what we know about their vehicles.”
D&R Intensive Car Care Team Members
BEFORE AUTOSERVE1
D&R performed a courtesy inspection for most vehicles but the inspection did not really provide a value to the customer. Technicians performed a limited 24 point inspection recording the results using standard “rainbow sheets” with red, yellow and green colored check boxes. The process didn’t allow any real engagement with the customer. A service writer could show the vehicle owner the sheet and tell them what they needed for the yellow and red sections, but there was no way to really communicate how bad or how good anything was. It was not practical to take customers into the back shop, and most did not wait for their vehicle but went about their day. Most discussions about
Within the shop communication about repairs was difficult too. Service writers often had to leave the front desk and walk back to the shop to ask technicians to explain repairs or comments, using measurable time from both technicians and service writers.
