INCONSISTENT price quotations and expecting customers to have expert knowledge of their car maintenance needs may cause up to 1 in 5 motorists to give up on completing a service booking.
That’s the finding from Auto Data Solutions (ADS), who identified common failures in the typical service booking journey offered by many franchise dealers.
Wildly inconsistent quotations are common, with ADS highlighting 5 different prices quoted for an intermediate service, ranging between £165 and £413.94, for the same car.
The study by ADS found several common friction points that may cause customers to abandon a booking, with inconsistent service quotes for the same work, no price provided at all, and too often no guidance on the work they need.
Proof of negative impact came from trials for a new tool designed to boost service customer confidence with consistent pricing up front and clear guidance on the work needed.
ADS extensively monitored the impact of SMR iQ across the Budgen Motor Group network, which saw a 19.7% increase in net bookings during a pre-launch trial.
The underlying problem, according to ADS, is that many dealers have evolved a fragmented booking journey for service customers, using multiple systems which often contain contradictory data.
For example, the company found 5 different intermediate service price quotations for a MINI Electric at every franchise dealer group with whom they enquired. These ranged from £165 to £413.94 and were quoted by different dealer groups or single-site websites and call centres.
ADS says that website booking forms, AI assistants, external contact centres and even service personnel frequently work with different information and often have no knowledge of the customer’s precise needs.
Consequently, customers frequently drop out of the booking process altogether, when faced with price confusion and an expectation that they must be their own maintenance expert, ADS reported.
To address the problem, ADS partnered with developers Intuitive Dealer Tools to launch SMR iQ, which is powered by multiple sources of OEM SMR data and updated in real time. SMR iQ provides full details of service schedules and tariffs, creating a ‘single source of truth’ for anyone fielding service booking enquiries.
SMR iQ removes friction from existing customer booking journeys by providing clarity and transparency to drive customer confidence in completing their booking. It is also designed to integrate seamlessly with websites, booking tools, contact centres, service advisors, chatbots and AI-powered customer journeys.
The system has been extensively tested by Budgen Motor Group, who saw service booking conversion rates of 45% and overall bookings increase by 19.7% during the trial.
That uplift in bookings suggests that common frictions may currently lead to around 1 in 5 customers looking elsewhere for a smoother experience.
To address the problem, ADS partnered with developers Intuitive Dealer Tools to launch SMR iQ, which is powered by multiple sources of OEM SMR data and updated in real time. SMR iQ provides full details of service schedules and tariffs, creating a ‘single source of truth’ for anyone fielding service booking enquiries.
SMR iQ removes friction from existing customer booking journeys by providing clarity and transparency to drive customer confidence in completing their booking. It is also designed to integrate seamlessly with websites, booking tools, contact centres, service advisors, chatbots and AI-powered customer journeys.
The system has been extensively tested by Budgen Motor Group, who saw service booking conversion rates of 45% and overall bookings increase by 19.7% during the trial.
That uplift in bookings suggests that common frictions may currently lead to around 1 in 5 customers looking elsewhere for a smoother experience.
Replacing our traditional enquiry-led process with the more intuitive and consistent SMR iQ helped our customers to better understand exactly what their car needs and how much it will cost. This has clearly increased their confidence, which is reflected in stronger booking conversion rates and increased bookings overall.
As well as improving customer experience, SMR iQ offers enhanced efficiency for dealers by reducing reliance on manual pricing checks and shortening time spent on customer enquiries. It also boosts customer confidence by making the transaction easier and more transparent, while reducing the chances of discrepancies between original quotation and final invoice.
It is no surprise that so many customers drop off during a traditional booking process which fails to tell them what they need to know up front and even sometimes offers misleading information.
For example, we see a high proportion of service quotations for electric vehicles which include an oil change.
SMR iQ is designed to resolve the problems of fragmented information systems, inconsistent pricing and the expectation that every customer knows exactly what their car needs by giving them everything they need to complete their booking with confidence.
Our colleagues at Budgen have demonstrated the commercial value of SMR iQ in the real world and we are delighted to see the uplift in service business they have enjoyed during the initial trials