No lengthy paperwork
Nobody wants to spend hours at a service centre. Ideally you drop the car off, have it repaired and drive away. So ŠKODA AUTO looked for a way to make servicing more pleasant for drivers and to speed the whole process up. Some repairs mean the customer has to come back to look at the fault and agree to have it fixed, and that takes time on both sides. The most effective answer was close at hand: extend the ŠKODA Portable Check-In app that already existed.
Just photograph it and send it
Which brings us to Portablecam, a system of our own. Its purpose is to let a service order be extended when a new fault comes to light. An example:
1
A customer comes in wanting the brake pads replaced. While the car is being repaired it is automatically given a thorough inspection.
2
The mechanic notices further possible faults, warped brake discs and a damaged exhaust, say.
3
He documents them with a photograph, a video and a description, and puts together a quote for the repairs. All of it goes into the app and off to the client.
4
A notification arrives in the client’s inbox. The link takes them to the documentation, and they can decide whether to extend the order to cover the newly found faults.
If the client approves one or more of the additions, the service centre is notified and can get to work. If they decline, only the original order is completed. The inspection and the notification leave the original price untouched.
A result that helps the client and the service centre alike
The Portablecam backend is built on .NET Framework 4.8 and the frontend on React 16. We implemented it into the working ŠKODA Portable Check-In app, so the delivery also included a new API tying the new environment to the existing software, integration and test scenarios, and detailed user documentation.
Result
The application also has an administration website for managing user data and the attached photographs and videos. Service documentation is deleted automatically once a set period has passed, and an administrator can delete it sooner, at the dealer’s request or the customer’s. Inspections and timely repairs through extended orders save customers not only the time of a second visit, but also the greater damage or the accident an unnoticed fault might cause. The repair bill could easily end up many times higher, quite apart from the risk to health. The service centre gets an excellent tool for talking to its clients and a smoother flow of orders because of it.
