Expediting Industry 4.0 for Automotive Service Industry

As a catalyst, how do you see the automotive repair and maintenance market?

The automotive market is the second-largest consumer market, just after housing, in terms of value. The automotive repair and maintenance market is a large subset and critical part of this largest consumer market and a very important part of the automotive consumer journey and life cycle. Modern consumers are looking for a transparent, seamless end-to-end experience, which is missing big time. This created significant scope for innovation in the automotive retail and repair market. As part of our platform, we have delivered what the industry and consumers need.

In the era of digital transformation and industry 4.0, what do you think are the biggest challenges the auto repair industry face?

With a few exceptions, larger automotive retail systems, engagements, and transactions are fragmented, riddled with frustration and complexity for the consumer and lack the efficiency and seamlessly connected experience found in other retail markets. In today’s digital world, modern consumers hate siloed, disconnected experiences that lack transparency. I.e., consumers do not want their transactions to be attended in siloes, they are the same person or the entity, looking for connected, personalised, and transparent engagement/experience. Providing that is the biggest challenge for the automotive repair industry.

How is Tekion positioned to help the industry on this?

Tekion is strongly positioned to help the industry globally. Automotive is a complex industry with many stakeholders and players that need to come together and be seamlessly connected to provide simple and delightful experiences to consumers. There has been a dire need for a modern technology platform that will take all the complexities in, bring simplicity out, connect the key stakeholders, remove all the fragmentation and friction, and bring seamless and delightful experiences. Tekion’s Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC) is that platform and is at the forefront of that revolution. Through one comprehensive enterprise platform, retailers operate more efficiently, provide better experiences to consumers and generate additional revenue opportunities. When the consumer experience is exceptional, the motivation for brand and dealership loyalty and the willingness to spend more money will increase exponentially.

How has the pandemic accelerated technology adoption across the traditional auto repair players?

The pandemic actually became an enabler of technology adoption in the automotive retail and repair ecosystem. In our case, as dealers and consumers demanded contactless transactions, our cloud-native technology platform enabled a seamless transition to 100% digital processes with nothing more than an Internet connection.

How do your offerings set themselves out from the competition?

In addition to the competitive advantages, Tekion brings to the retail ecosystem, we are continuously enhancing our Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC) offering with key innovations to ensure that we are exceeding the demands and meeting the opportunities of a changing environment. Consumer-facing applications enable retailers to sell and service vehicles in the most simple, secure, and contact-free way while providing great AI-driven personalized experiences to their customers. It facilitates vehicle sales and service from anywhere eliminating the need for any physical or face-to-face interactions between retailers and consumers.

Key features of Zero-Contact Digital Service:

Completely contactless vehicle servicing either in-store or entirely remote.
With Premium Concierge (an entirely remote service option), consumers can arrange a vehicle to pick and drop off from their home or office.
With Secure Key Lounge, consumers can opt to drive to the dealership, check in from their phone, drop their key in a secure locker, and pick their car in the same manner at their
convenience.
Either option allows consumers to track the entire service process, select parts, and
services, and pay for the repair from their phone.
ML/AI algorithms present product and service recommendations based on the consumer’s vehicle, preferences, and previous interactions.

How do you see the relationship between service centres and companies like Tekion evolving?

Digital transformation has become critical for all businesses, and automotive sales and service centres are no exception. Tekion and its platform enable the service centres to best serve the modern consumer and the changing industry. We not only pride ourselves on our technology platform, but we also do on our level of service and ease of doing business as well.

Our Zero Contact Sales & Service provides the right level of end-to-end experience in any automotive consumer journey. The experience is seamless and completely connected whether they are browsing, purchasing, or servicing.

Other points of connectivity include:

Online Service Scheduler including AI-driven service recommendations based on previously declined services and similar vehicles’ service history.
Consumer Portal allows consumers to track service progress, approve services, and pay when complete.
Web and Mobile Check-in for the fastest contactless experience.
The latest Onboard Diagnostics technology that creates ROs automatically.
Connected Digital Displays that will greet your guests, highlight your service specials, or cross sell interdepartmentally.

What’s your take on the Indian Auto Service Market’s readiness for AI, IT and IoT?

The Indian automotive market is one of the largest with significant promise for growth. We believe that there is a terrific opportunity for the automotive service market to adopt AI, IT, and IoT to enhance the experience for their consumers and strengthen their business.

How do you see India as a potential market and what are your plans to tap the market?

The Indian automotive market was on a growth trajectory until the pandemic impacted sales. Though sales volume is gathering momentum this year, it must reach a certain level for the ecosystem to strengthen. For us, India presents a huge opportunity as we have a strong presence locally with our teams well-positioned to service our potential customers. Compared to mature automotive markets, such as the US or Europe, the volume of business in India is low. We have strong interests and demands, we are still exploring the timeline. Please stay tuned.

As an ex-Tesla, what is your take on the evolving role of ADAS in the auto repair realm?

The ADAS is considered a big technological leap and a safety feature that many organisations are involved in bringing new enhancements to the market. Understanding and knowledge through proper training on ADAS need to be spread across the auto repair realm for them to better support and service consumer vehicles. As you may know, the natural evolution of ADAS is full autonomy.

What do you think will be the future of the automotive repair software market?

The automotive repair software market did not experience any big innovation or disruption in the last few decades. Consequently, it impacted the business due to fragmentation and a lack of seamless interactions with the OEMs and consumers. A seamlessly connected platform that connects to vehicles and consumers is the need for the automotive repair market. That is the direction software should evolve to truly transform and bring value to the ecosystem.

We have already created that as part of our ARC platform. As one powerful application that runs the dealer’s entire Service business seamlessly, ARC also offers: