Across the United States, every tire shop, dealership or auction has an inspection process for vehicles. Whether for a service appointment or for a trade-in appraisal, someone runs through a checklist.
But there are glitches in walkaround inspections that are bound to affect a dealership’s ability to effectively use the inspection when it’s done manually. In most situations, automating the inspection process alleviates the concerns. Artificial intelligence based systems like UVeye can make this process a lot more efficient.
How Automation Changes the Game
The human interaction is a main component in the automotive service experience is critical to customer retention. But is it the best use of time, and are there better ways to build trust with the customer? When the inspection process is automated with technology like UVeye’s AI-powered systems, it elevates the dealership’s benefits and improves the customer’s experience in one.
Automatic Tire and Undercarriage Inspections
Every vehicle entering the service lane is automatically scanned and within several seconds a complete analysis of the undercarriage and all tires for sidewall, DOT and tread damage is shown to the technician or the customer on a screen. Leaks, rust, broken components in the undercarriage or damaged rims, cracks on the side, old tires or worn out tread depth is automatically indicated and shown in a bright red color.
● Improved Efficiency in the Process:
Regardless how busy service advisors get, an automated inspection system doesn’t get tired or distracted. A customer entering the service drive can pass through the cameras effortlessly and the service advisor receives a report in seconds, and in more detail than a service advisor can capture.
Meanwhile, your human capital is performing functions that enhance productivity like reviewing the report’s images with the owner.
● Better Opportunities for Upselling:
With an automated inspection, the same inspection is performed every time, identifying opportunities for upsells that an advisor’s human eyes and limitations could easily miss. Whether it’s underinflated tires, a leak underneath, or damage that has gone undetected so far, the precise nature of UVeye’s hi-res image capture encourages better upselling.
● Enhancing the Customer Experience:
Naturally, customers have developed a mistrust of service advisors who ‘sell’, even when they have good intentions. With UVeye automated inspections, the service advisor is arm’s length from the inspection process so they’re merely making recommendations based on data. As well, customers can see that the same inspection is performed every time their vehicle enters the service department, establishing trust based on consistency.
Manual inspections are beneficial for dealers when they’re done correctly, and when they’re done on every vehicle, every time. You can’t guarantee that level of consistency with people, and there’s a labor cost involved with every inspection.
UVeye is a new ‘inspection as a service’ provider enabling automatic inspection for the undercarriage, tires and exterior of a vehicle. Computer vision based devices can assist dealerships to move from manual inspections to an automatic mode enabling efficiency and accuracy.
Tackling the above challenges aren’t easy but recognizing that things could be done better while utilising technology is a first step of this journey.