‘Improving the customer experience requires more than an app’
How do you improve the ‘customer experience’ in a carwash? In other words, how do you ensure that customers are satisfied and come back to your location regularly? Superoperator is betting heavily on digitalisation. Thanks to data, you get to know your customer and you can respond to their needs, they say. The Finnish company recently held a webinar on the subject.
The webinar took place at the end of June and can still be viewed (see below). Speakers at the webinar about Superoperator’s customer experience include Mika Alapiessa and Riku Uotinen from the company itself.
Mika Alapiessa is a board member of Superoperator and specialises in digitalisation. He kicks off the webinar. Alapiessa calls digitalisation a ‘key driver’ for the customer experience. “By using technology you can do more washing and make more profit with fewer resources. A good customer experience ensures that the customer will come back next time.”
Making contact
Alapiessa asks viewers how they now make contact with the customer before they come to the location? And how do you make contact afterwards? “If the technology is right, then you have the data to help optimise your business.” Collecting data and interpreting it is exactly what Superoperator does for carwashes.
Riku Uotinen is the chief technology officer of Superoperator. He explains why improving the customer experience is more than just an app on the phone. The whole process of getting a car washed has not changed much over the years – apart from digitising the payment process. “At the end of the day, carwashes still sell the menu as it is on the sign,” he says. “Why not offer one entirely new experience?”
Focused service
Uotinen warns operators that digitalisation must have a function, so you have to think carefully about what you want to do with all the data before you deploy technology. He compares between customer experience and the customer journey. Without the use of technology, the customer journey starts at the car wash location. With technology, it can be anywhere. Customers can check in advance, just from the couch, which services are available, how busy it is at a location and which route is best for them to take. “Knowing your customer and knowing when he wants to do a wash gives you a head start,” says Uotinen.
License plate recognition is a good first step in improving the customer experience, argues Superoperator’s CTO. “All customers are different and have their own needs. By using the digitalised experience, you can make suggestions in terms of wash programme, products, prices… Really tailored to the customer. You can suggest using a wax if you know it’s been a while since your last wash. Or make an offer for the interior cleaning. Those are reasons for customers to come back to that location next time.”
Finally, Uotinen answers an important viewing question: do customers really want to share their data? “As long as they see that data sharing is used to improve service, it’s not a problem for most people.”
Watch the entire webinar (one hour, in English) below.
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