Automated kiosks and Service Stations for self-served check in and checkout have become common enough. Particularly powered by eCommerce and mobile first solutions, making people comfortable using them.
The industries that have started using automated kiosks and service stations have seen customer experience improve in fundamental ways.
Typically, online booking and service stations:
- Speed up processes with digital conversion and online booking.
- Smooth internal processes, helping staff get more done and focus on profit-producing activities.
- Empower customers to be in control, putting them in front of several choices for their own experience.
- Allow customers to complete check-in with no face-to-face contact from employees and other customers.
So, why this high interest for self-served customer journeys from car dealers and workshops?
1. They are looking into ways to remove barriers to make the customer journey more convenience. Online booking of appointment with check in options 24/7, process cost improvements and new revenue potential.
2. They are aware of technology that make the check in process efficient, not limited to opening hours. Fully integrated systems secure better planning of the daily production and will expose benefits and good ROI.
3. They forecast that when customers book service appointments online, most of them will choose self-served check in with key drop off. Gone are concerns about the human element of front desk interaction, the unique connection that until now was believed to keep customers coming back.
Our opinion is that all this new technology developed for online booking and self-served service stations make the customers feel in control of their experience and interactions for the better. Self-service make customers happier and more satisfied having the option to talk to an advisor by phone, book online, then do self-check in and drop of their car after hours.
Customer upselling
Interaction with a customer after an online booking is where the magic happens. Customers should be presented with recommended extra purchases.
By just clicking OK on automated text messages and weblinks, customers can easy have additional services offered to them.
Targeted and customized messages to the individual and presented in the form of a one-click mobile first recommendation, is a winner.
This is the future of upselling with digital conversions connected to mobile first self-served service stations. Any car dealer or workshop can improve the upsell rate from customers self-selecting an upsell upon check-in and checkout.
Customer convenience
Is there anything people loves more than convenience? By putting customer desires up front with a self-served service station, you enable the entire service process to flow more smoothly without any black holes.
Automated service stations allow 24/7 customer access for drop of and check out with pickup of keys. Mobile invoice payment with a few clicks in the same operation is integrated. Everything is tracked and the dealership’s software integration ensure that safety and security standards are maintained.
Digital conversion, mobile first online booking and system integrations result in positive first impressions.
Customers choose self-service
Customers will actively search out car dealers and workshops offering a self-led mobile first experience. Especially when having their car serviced, where people feel defensive simply because the lacks of knowledge to know what maintenance their vehicle needs and doing anything at a dealership will take longer than expected.
It also helps that service stations support social distancing, providing high-quality service away from other people and allowing customers to avoid in-person interactions if desired.
How to start with online booking and service stations?
Our advice is to search the market for solutions and choose wisely. Look for end-to-end systems where both advisors, staff and managers get all the knowledge, tools and support they need to succeed with digital customer journeys. This is the best way to ensure that your end customers (car owners) will adopt easily and increase the value of your investment.
The customer experience in a nut shell
Our solution are based on extensive insight and experience with installation, operation and support helping more than 100 car dealership and workshops go digital.
- Simple & quick process
- Supported education
- Expert support 24/7
- Expandable system
Sharebox onboarding, or as we call it the kick off meeting, is when we provides managers, advisors and staff with LIVE training, documentation, tutorials, videos, or any other kind of guiding they need to fully explore all the benefits for the first time.
Onboarding is one of the most important touchpoints for us. It sets up the initial impression of the Service Station, the admin dashboard and mobile payments solutions for the digital customer journey. It´s all about introducing the technology in a simple and understandable way to ensure people get the "aha"- moment right from the start.
Customized LIVE education
Although we have a digital DIY Help Center with FAQ materials where people can find answers on all the ins and outs, we do run LIVE education on Teams, Zoom or Whereby. Focus is simply about getting people up and running and have the payment providers available and connected for customer invoice payment on checkout; Klarna, Nets, Vipps, MobilePay, Swish, PayPal, Stripe or others.
Supporting DIY Help Center
Our LIVE education isn't a replacement for the full technical user manual. Yes, it´s a big document and it would take too long to learn everything. When we introduce our service to advisors and staff, we link them to supporting assets like FAQ and DIY videos for answers if needed. Of course, this information center is easy to access when daily operations goes high-five.
Easy to learn and manage
We don't throw advisors and staff in a deep abyss of technical challenges. Trying something too advanced from the start is going to leave people frustrated. Our Customer Success team always start them off with a simple task that demonstrates the key features and benefits of their new digital customer journey. Or if they use one of the integrated DMS suppliers, the key features on the familiar DMS dashboard, linked directly with the Sharebox back-end server controlling the service station.
Support from our expert team
People are going to have questions as they go into live operations. And we´ve constant available a fantastic support team. We provide personal support by chat, email or phone, and give answers while people are still in the process of problem solving.
Best practice for adaption
We´ve realized that we can't teach everyone everything about tech with bits and bites during the onboarding and LIVE education sessions. It's an introduction, not a full master degree course.
- Quote accept
- Registration
- Welcome mail
- Installation
- LIVE training
- In operation
User confidence prioritized
Confidence in using the solutions is one of the key drivers for people´s perception while using it on a daily basis. Advisors and staff armed with the knowledge they need to succeed, feel more confident and therefore more positive, about new, digital customer journeys.
Both the solution itself and us as an organization, will do everything that advisors and staff need succeed. Showing on LIVE training how to do things efficiently, will have them become reliant on our service. And people who really enjoy self-service and rely on it, talks about it. You get the point.
How to get the most out of self-service?
We've said that onboarding shouldn't teach advisors and staff everything they may want to know. Our customer success team provide additional follow up assistance to provide them with advice on how to use the service best possible. As you acknowledge, once everything is powered up and in operation, it´s just the start for building better business for months and years to come.
Continued development and updates
Because customer journeys evolve rapidly, more insight is added down the road. A highly dynamic knowledge base with fresh source of use cases, best-practice, software updates and tutorials will help people stay on top of their customer experience and the important role of convenience.
Fast or slow adoption
Mostly things go fast and amazing results are surfacing in weeks. Some however experience a slow adoption for online booking and self-served customer service. It may be the result of people not getting what they need from our onboarding or they are stuck in old routines. If we notice slow adoption, we always reach out and ask if they need a chat. It´s as simple as that.
Thank you for your time. Remember, we´re just a click away if you would like to learn more. A chat is fine as first step to discuss and share knowledge about synergies and future customer experiences.
Let´s talk.
Have a great week!
Kjetil Faye Lund
CMO
Sharebox AS
