Audatex Bodyshop Image Capture, streamlining estimation for Alton Cars
Alton Cars is one of the UK’s largest networks of vehicle repair centres, with 15 sites across the North and Midlands of England repairing in excess of 2,000 vehicles a month. The group is committed to providing first-class vehicle repairs and customer service, so reputation and efficiency is a key priority for the business.
In December last year, Alton Cars subscribed to Audatex Bodyshop Image Capture, an intelligent web application, that allows bodyshops to send their customers (the driver) a text message request for images of their vehicle and damage sustained during an accident. This gives the repairer valuable insight into the vehicle’s condition before it even arrives on site.
Alton Cars is currently using Image Capture completely free of charge as Audatex has waived costs for all repairer customers from May 1st – September 30th, 2020, to support them through these challenging times. In a world where visiting the customer may be unsafe, using Image Capture allows bodyshops to practise social distancing while gaining the necessary information they need from the driver.
Commenting on the benefit Audatex Bodyshop Image Capture has had on his business, Jay Ali, Group Operations Manager, Alton Cars said: “Using Bodyshop Image Capture has been a game-changer for us, especially during the Covid-19 lockdown period. Since lockdown began, we have continued to repair vehicles but needed to minimise our physical interactions with customers. Image Capture provided us with the perfect digital solution to get early visibility of the damage to the customer’s vehicle, and we’re actually finding that customers get photos to us quicker and more efficiently than ever before.
“Before using Image Capture, our process would typically involve the customer coming to see us, or we’d send out one of our vehicle damage assessors, and then photos would be taken. The entire process has now been completely revised, speeding up the repair procedure and providing a really impressive digital customer interaction with minimal effort.
“One of the key challenges we’ve always faced as a business has been directing customers about the types of images we need so that we can quickly and accurately assess damage and process a claim. Audatex Image Capture guides the customer around the vehicle to take the required images, so it has made it so much easier for customers to consistently take the exact kinds of photos required, to carry out the vehicle repair work to the highest quality.
“We are currently receiving responses to more than 80% of the requests we send, usually within a couple of hours of the message going out. On average we are getting around 10 really high-resolution images back from each customer. The images are so clear, and because the guidance the customer gets is so effective, we can prepare estimates from the pictures we receive, usually within a four-hour time frame. Previously this stage of the process could take anywhere between three to four days. It is allowing us to process estimates and receive authorisation before the car is brought on site.
“Our vehicle damage assessors also love that the images are automatically sent straight into the Audatex estimate shell as soon as they are received from the customer. This previously involved images having to be manually downloaded from customer emails and then uploaded back into the Audatex system.
“The working hours this saves across the business is phenomenal, given the volume of repairs we get through a month. In the majority of cases, we’re able to gain authorisation from insurers in half the time it previously took. Every minute counts and thanks to Audatex Bodyshop Image Capture, this is now more structured and has made such a timesaving impact that we are considering setting all jobs as shells for all customer images.”
To support our customers on the road to recovery through the COVID-19 pandemic, Audatex Bodyshop Image Capture is available to all new and existing customers completely free of charge until the 30th September 2020.
For more information or to sign up to Audatex Bodyshop Image Capture visit:
www.audatex.co.uk/solutions/ bodyshop-image-capture bodyshop-image-capture
