Volvo Sweden
Volvo has unleashed an enormous enchancment in buyer satisfaction after equipping its 1,500 service engineers with an Apple Watch to make use of throughout their day. What, on the face of it, appears a small change displays in depth cultural change throughout the corporate, which is actively engaged in digital transformation throughout its enterprise.
What can an Apple Watch do for automobile servicing?
Volvo has outfitted its engineers (Private Service Technicians) with an Apple Watch and iPhone (operating the Volvo Service app) to assist them work extra effectively than earlier than. The corporate’s main focus is to enhance customer support, because it acknowledges that technicians are the principle level of buyer contact throughout the lifetime of the Volvo they drive.
So, how can an Apple Watch in a storage enhance customer support?
- In use, the engineer will obtain a Notification when a buyer arrives on the storage with their automobile.
- The watch will present the client’s title, related notes, and automobile particulars.
- In the course of the restore, engineers can entry info — and as soon as the restore is full, they will instantly name the client to inform them.
- They will additionally schedule and make a subsequent follow-up name.
The profit is that with all this info being made accessible by the Watch (and accompanying iPhone app), engineers don’t want to make use of printed data, or entry a PC to remain updated. That’s not solely time-consuming, however studying use these techniques takes up time. The corporate informed me it took as much as 6 months to coach new recruits on the 15 completely different IT techniques Volvo used earlier than.
Now, due to sensible evaluation and sensible integration of legacy techniques, what technicians must know is all the time with them.
“With Apple Watch, I've every thing I would like for my job proper on my wrist," mentioned Johnnie Andersson, a private service technician for Volvo." It’s additionally approach simpler to coach a brand new technician on the Apple Watch and the iPhone than our desktop techniques.”
The result's that paperwork doesn’t disappear, technicians/engineers can keep centered, important buyer contact data aren’t misplaced and engineers all the time have readability and goal.
All of it sounds so easy. It ought to sound easy. Nevertheless it isn’t easy.
The app displays a cultural shift inside Volvo itself.
Simplicity by design
“Typically whenever you attempt to do issues within the simplest way, you achieve innovation out of it,” mentioned Sanna Lindström, Volvo Automobile Sweden’s head of digital transformation.
However making one thing easy out of one thing complicated required humble understanding. It didn’t imply limitless committee conferences, however did require the corporate to maneuver past conventional, hierarchical administration practices and have interaction with the true wants of the folks on the entrance finish of buyer contact.
Some would possibly mirror that the evolution of Volvo’s Apple Watch Service app started when the corporate launched the customer-facing Volvo Vehicles app, which lets drivers open doorways, set local weather, and begin the automobile.
To know the importance of the transformation, think about how the corporate labored on the challenge. It’s an method that ought to kind a part of the blueprint for any firm searching for to digitise its personal enterprise.
The making of the Volvo Service app
Volvo’s digital staff is comparatively small. I spoke with Lindström, Digitalisation Director Markus Lundström, and Erik Bylund, head of tech and structure to find how they approached the challenge.
The very first thing to grasp is that the staff labored in a sort of scrum style. Whereas they'd some concepts regarding what they thought they might construct, additionally they acknowledged the necessity to take their lead from the individuals who do the job.
Whereas the purpose was to spice up buyer relationships by serving to technicians spend extra time with the client than with the PC, the corporate understood that these on the entrance finish knew higher than anybody what was required. “It was vital to deal with the issues they really have, not the issues we thought they'd,” they mentioned.
Volvo’s groups perceive that relevance and context are important to profitable digital practices.
To construct an answer technicians would use, the groups watched what folks truly did through the day, relatively than catering to the duties they thought or imagined technicians needs to be doing.
That is the precise method. Everybody who has dabbled on the sting of digital transformation acknowledges that new digital processes that add complexity will not be solely counter-productive — they don’t get used. “We selected to concentrate on the mandatory,” Volvo defined.
'To concentrate on the precise wants'
The staff discovered that engineers wished and wanted contextual info. They didn’t want the interruption of leaving the job at hand to entry a PC, carry printouts, discover buyer contact particulars, or anything.
In reality, the previous approach of working actually bought in the best way. The analysis confirmed that to do their job nicely, technicians wanted to be cell for 40% of the day, shifting within the workshop, talking with clients, or visiting stockrooms for components. Scuttling again to the PC for info interrupted workflow.
One other temptation the staff averted was over-specification. It’s straightforward to think about how helpful an app could be if it has all doable info, however even the act of going by an excessive amount of info will get in the best way.
That’s one thing Volvo discovered. It noticed that engineers didn’t wish to be encumbered with an excessive amount of info — their working lives had been busy sufficient already — they merely wished entry to what they wanted after they required it.
They wanted to know the automobile, the issue, and the client. They should know the place when it comes to job completion the challenge is, which clients want a follow-up name and which car that they labored on belonged to a buyer. If they need extra knowledge, they will get it, however the necessities turn out to be extra helpful extra of the time.
As they got here to grasp these wants, the staff noticed how an Apple Watch would supply a helpful adjunct to an iPhone app, significantly to folks utilizing their arms to work. They noticed that the watch might present technicians with important contextual info when wanted.
In an period outlined by mobility, why ought to engineers traipse over to a PC for the knowledge they want? Why use paper when you should use a show? Volvo selected Apple’s options for his or her superior safety and steady app improvement environments.
The transfer to enhance 15 legacy techniques with one accessible entrance finish additionally displays the worth of fine administration of digital change. No firm can anticipate good outcomes if its techniques are clunky, gradual, or exhausting to make use of.
In a digital age the place we reside just like the Jetsons at dwelling and (in some circumstances) the Flintstones at work, workflows that depend on a number of incompatible providers and purposes add friction, generate errors, and infrequently ship the outcomes you want.
The UI must match goal. Volvo’s staff discovered make its app seamlessly combine with a number of back-end IT techniques. “Workers shouldn’t need to tolerate latency. The Volvo Service app integrates seamlessly with our backend techniques, to offer our technicians the information they want in real-time,” Bylund says.
The challenge delivered a number of advantages
The challenge is already producing optimistic outcomes. The corporate informed me that 80% of technicians who use the app have elevated their complete buyer satisfaction scores. Volvo additionally cites a 30% improve in post-service observe up calls and emails to clients, due to the tech pushing complicated processes out of the best way.
Digitalization Director Markus Lundström mentioned: “With the Volvo Service app we’re connecting folks by know-how. At one workshop, clients report a 37% enchancment within the means to entry their Private Service Technician.”
The corporate additionally reported a 40% lower in paper printouts. Volvo is additionally seeing the technicians use their new package to get different duties carried out. “A few of our groups use the Walkie-Talkie characteristic to speak with one another throughout the power,” they mentioned.
However the principle end result was Volvo's main objective: “The Volvo Service App is creating large curiosity throughout Volvo Vehicles globally. With Apple Watch our Private Service Technicians can create stronger, nearer relationships with clients.”
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