Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F24
FIXED OPS JOURNAL
Subaru program gives customers
real-time online repair updates
A
ALEX KWANTEN
foj@autonews.com
key feature of Subaru's new certified
collision repair program enables
customers to use their mobile devices to get daily photos of their
vehicle as it goes through the repair process.
The AutoWatch software is produced by Audatex, a division of Solera Holdings. The Web
portal the vendor has created for Subaru also
allows customers to get updates by email or
text message and to direct questions and
feedback to the body shop.
At the same time, AutoWatch permits Subaru to monitor a shop's repair practices and
ensure it is complying with the certified network's standards.
"We get collision center statistics, with cycle
time and everything else that they're doing,"
says John Lancaster, Subaru of America's national wholesale parts manager. "We also get
PAGE 24
JUNE 2018
customer satisfaction information, and the
customer gets great communication out of it."
The technology employed by AutoWatch is
not new, but it is being applied comprehensively for the first time to an automaker-certified collision repair program, says Roy Duplantier, vice president of business development at Audatex.
"You can get visibility into the shop virtually,
as opposed to having to physically visit every
shop," Duplantier says.
Insurance companies, rental car providers,
independent body shops and fleet companies
use AutoWatch. Tesla became the first automaker to use the system in a certified repair
program capacity in 2015, but it never required its certified shops to adopt it.
Collision repair centers that use AutoWatch
operate more transparently and tend to repair
damaged vehicles faster, Duplantier says.
The system's two-way communication also
reduces phone calls and "puts more accountability on the shop," he says. "If you've been
notified about a concern in the process, and
you resolve it, the post-repair survey typically
gets a better satisfaction rating," he adds.
Dennis Kennealy, general manager of Autobahn Collision, a body shop affiliated with a
dealership group in suburban Phoenix, says
he has used AutoWatch successfully. But he
expresses reservations about the age and design of the product.
"There are other competing products that
might be more fluid in the repair process because they're built into the estimating software," he says.
Kennealy's shop has just joined Subaru's
certification program. Before that, he estimates, Autobahn was fixing 120 of the brand's
vehicles a month.
The new program is likely to require greater
use of AutoWatch, he says.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018
Contents
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - Intro
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F1
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F2
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - Contents
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F4
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F5
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F6
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F7
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F8
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F9
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F10
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F11
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F12
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F13
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F14
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F15
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F16
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F17
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F18
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F19
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F20
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F21
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F22
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F23
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F24
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F25
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F26
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F27
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F28
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F29
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F30
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F31
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F32
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F33
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F34
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F35
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F36
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F37
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F38
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F39
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F40
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F41
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F42
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F43
Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F44
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