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May 2, 2005
Car repair as an innovative area
We don't often think of car repair as an innovative area. But according to a story in today's Wall Street Journal, "Eyes on the Road," a new innovative business model is emerging in car repair:
Car dealers and car makers know that most customers don't like to bring their vehicles in to dealer shops for service. But what if dealer service technicians could make house calls?
It turns out, they can. Ford's Volvo brand is expanding a year-old program that encourages Volvo dealers to equip service technicians to perform various kinds of repairs in a customer's driveway or workplace parking lot.
The mobile technicians can't perform all kinds of work, of course: Changing fluids, for example, is out because of concerns about handling hazardous waste. And big mechanical repairs, such as changing a transmission, require the kind of tools only found in a real shop.
But a surprising array of fixes can be handled outside of a standard repair shop, because today's cars are as much digital devices as they are mechanical ones.
This is potentially a break-through innovation that can save a lot of wasted hours waiting at the repair shop.
However, it all depends on your frame of reference. If you are the repair shop, it doesn't necessarily look all that great:
But some dealers don't see much upside in putting mechanics on the road. By definition, a technician who's driving around doing four or five house calls a day probably isn't serving as many customers, or generating as much repair revenue, as a technician who's at a fully equipped dealership work station for a full shift.
"A couple of our stores have mobile vans," says Mike Maroone, president of AutoNation, the country's biggest auto retailer. "It's not very productive." Mobile mechanics can't carry all the parts they might need to fix a customer's problem, Mr. Maroone says. Moreover, he says, "high-caliber technicians do not want to be running all over town."
I guess it comes down to whose time is more valuable - the customer's or the repairman's.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at May 2, 2005 12:39 PM
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