Page 20 - Australian Paint & Panel Nov-Dec 2020

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PAINT&PANEL NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020
WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
AUDI APPROVED REPAIRER NETWORK
GARETH WRIGHT, AUDI TECHNICAL TEAM LEAD, HAS BEEN JUST A BIT BUSY LATELY THANKS TO THE ARRIVAL OF THE ALL-ELECTRIC E-TRON.
roof – get a vehicle repaired then push it over to the service department to get re- calibrated the same day, it all helps the customer experience.
“Whenever we are looking to add a re- pairer we will always offer it to the local Audi dealer first”
“Dealers understand now more than ever how important it is to keep cus- tomers within the Audi eco-system. Then you have the opportunity to give that customer the best possible service, and it also gives them sales and service opportunities. For example, If a cus- tomer has had an accident - they might be coming up to a vehicle switch-over time, and that’s an opportunity to get them into a new vehicle while the old one is being repaired.
“We understand that becoming an Audi Approved Repairer can mean sig- nificant outlay for any business. That’s why we issue each approved repairer a continued contractual agreement so they can feel confident of achieving a re- turn on that investment.
We have an ideal Audi network plan in place and look at a lot of parameters to see if we need a shop in a certain area and what are the trigger points to say we need one.
We did a substantial study on this in 2019 and found that 80% of Audi cus- tomers live within 50kms of one of our Approved Repairers. So even though we have quite a small network, it’s very well placed for our current car parc.
“There is room for some further sites for our ideal network plan to be fulfilled. It might be in the future we look at find- ing a shop we can work with our other group brands, which would help to share the investment. Certainly, in rural areas I think there are going to be what the Europeans call body and paint factories that are multi-badged.
To ensure vehicle integrity, customer satisfaction, brand loyalty and that our bodyshops are sustainable we need to ensure our vehicles are repaired in our bodyshops, a key focus for us this year is marketing and customer awareness around our approved network, safety and the use of genuine parts.
“That’s why Audi has its own branded insurance ‘Audi Premier Motor Insur- ance’ that fulfills all these needs and more” Wright said.
“WE’VE HAD TO TRAIN OVER
220 delegates online in the last few weeks in prepara- tion for the launch of the Audi e-tron, this would typ- ically (pre-Covid-19) have been carried out with in- person training.
It’s been a significant process for us, bringing so many people into the Audi Training Online platform in one go. “We’ve assigned all delegates web-based train- ing modules to complete re- motely and on top of that, with this being a blended training we’re having to ar- range an online training session with each shop and Audi Australia’s own High Voltage Expert to make sure that the knowledge transfer has taken place.
It’s a big undertaking be- cause everyone needs to know the risks High Voltage vehi- cles present, from the Panel Technician to the Detailer.
Now that everybody has been ex- posed to this kind of training this puts us in a good position going forward.
Last year we launched our first lo- cal face to face training program which was very successful; this year we had to pause training due to obvi- ous reasons. We want to get back to that, but we have also now seen the benefit of blended learning. When delegates arrive for face-to-face train- ing, we need less time spent on theory and more time spent on practical ex- ercises, which leads to better out- comes overall.
NETWORK
There are 13 repairers in the Australian Audi Approved Network, and the latest one is Alto Audi Macarthur at Smeaton Grange which has a panel shop located within the Audi dealership as all Alto sites do.
“They run the European model where they like to keep it all under one roof. It is a growing trend for dealerships to also have a bodyshop. The majority, 60% of our shops are dealer-owned. I believe the business model is becoming more at- tractive to dealerships”
“It’s a benefit for our customers too – if we can keep everything under one
ABOVE: Audi has produced marketing material to raise customer awareness about using the network and OE parts.