In Humble, Texas, family-owned and operated Tejas Toyota has been providing a one-stop-shop experience for all things automotive for over 40 years.
When a customer pulled up to the service center, a Service Advisor would walk out to the vehicle with a clipboard, pen and paper to write down the vehicle information along with their reason for needing service. The advisor would then return inside to input this information into their computer system.
During busy hours, advisors would go from vehicle to vehicle before they could get inside to input the info into the computer. Sometimes they would be away from their computers for up to an hour at a time, creating a backlog of waiting customers.
Service Technicians could not start on a vehicle before the work order was created. This would create a "traffic jam" in the process, affecting everything from customer turnover to customer satisfaction.
After hearing about the success a sister store in San Antonio had with switching to a tablet method, Tejas decided to investigate. They decided on Surface Pro tablets with MobileDemand rugged cases to replace their outdated data collection process.
Tejas Toyota Service Advisors are now going out to the vehicle to capture customers as they pull up. Once the customer's information is captured and the vehicle is entered into the Surface tablet, a ticket is immediately printed in the shop that lets the service technicians know what needs to be done on the vehicle.
Since moving to the rugged Surface tablet solution, the entire service process has been expedited and greatly improved. Customer turnover has increased, customer complaints have decreased, wait times have decreased and miscommunications between advisors and technicians have decreased to nearly zero.
Also, Tejas has had no incidents of damaged tablets. The rugged cases provide superior protection against bumps and drops, plus the built-in hand strap allows the individual to firmly grasp the device while walking around.
“I don’t know why we took so long to switch to a rugged tablet solution,” said the Tejas Toyota Service Manager.