Page 16 - Australasian Paint & Panel July-August 2019

16
News • In Focus
PAINT&PANEL JULY / AUGUST 2019
IAG REPAIRHUB A HIT WITH
CUSTOMERS
SAM STREET VISITED IAG’S NEW REPAIR HUB TRIAL IN SYDNEY.
F
IAG ANNOUNCED THAT IT
was to introduce a trial with partner repairers 'to test cut- ting edge technologies and streamlined processes to further im- prove quality, provide greater customer experience and return cars back on the
road quicker' in August 2018.
'Drop and go' centres were established
at three sites, SmashTec in Marrickville, Sydney and Smash Repair Solutions (SRS) in Melbourne and Underwood, Brisbane. Repair Hub is a joint venture between IAG, RACV, SRS and SmashTec.
While IAG reports increased custom- er satisfaction with the drop and go concept, a new trial with NRMA Motor- ing Services in Seven Hills, Sydney has been described as the next evolution of
the trial and is called a Customer Hub. I visited the pilot location, the NRMA Motorserve Car Servicing & Repairs centre in Western Sydney. Showing me around was IAG's Steven Fitzpatrick, executive general manager motor repair model, Troy Johns, industry relations, Max McCoy from the motor supply chain team and
SRS's Veronica Jory.
Fitzpatrick outlined the concept: “The
proposition is how can we provide an ef- fortless customer experience? How do you take away the multiple trips that custom- ers currently undertake to a repairer. How do you make sure the customer is getting the right hire car options and so forth? So we're having those conversations with the customer. The aim is to provide an effort- less customer experience and keeping
them fully informed every step of the way. “Because we have essentially a shared brand with the NRMA, both members and customers trust the NRMA proposition and it makes sense to have the customers
come here.
“One of the things we're testing here is
that if the customer comes in for some in- surance work and their car service is due, 'we' can take care of that too. We can pro- vide an end to end motoring experience as an NRMA proposition.
“So we're starting to blend both organi- sations' capabilities in terms of repairing vehicles as well as car servicing. Custom- ers are responding very positively they don't really see the two NRMAs as differ- ent, so it's a great opportunity for both of us to provide a seamless interaction.
“Today it can be time-consuming for a customer who has had an accident. You have to turn up to the repair shop, they do a quote, it needs to get assessed, then they have to order parts... we're trying to eliminate the multiple steps that a cus- tomer currently takes and make it easy and a good experience.
“So if we can handle all the customer interaction, then we can let the repairers do what they do best – repair vehicles to a high quality standard. The repairers don't have the arguments with the customers over what is accident damage, they don't have to follow up as much.
“If there is a delay, such as parts not turning up, in terms of extending the hire car for the customer we can do that auto- matically without them having to call in to our call centre.”
Max McCoy is co-ordinating the test and learn, which has been operating out of the Seven Hills site for around three months. “This Motorserve business is one 23 that NRMA has in NSW. It carries out mechanical repairs for 25 cars per day. It's ideal for this trial because it's large and has warehouse space for hire cars and
ABOVE: Steven Fitzpatrick, Veronica Jory, Troy Johns, Brett Shelton and
Max McCoy.
RIGHT: Repairhub desks.
OPPOSITE: Dedicated assessment bays.