3:08 pm, August 19, 2020
THE Lancashire-based Chorley Group has gone from strength to strength in the past 12 months – and it’s putting its success down a suite of software from RTC Automotive Solutions.
The group installed RTC’s aftersales software package across its five locations in early 2019.
It covers real-time online booking, arrival and handover, workshop job management, inspection, check-out, contact and reporting.
The rollout was supported by a full training programme for Chorley Group employees – including management, front-of-house staff, call centre personnel and technicians, administered by RTC.
Pauline Turner, managing director of Chorley Group, described the implementation as ‘seamless’, with RTC software successfully linking with the group’s Dealer Management System, provided by CDK, to deliver a fully integrated digital solution for aftersales.
Digitalisation has enabled the group to free up physical space that would have been assigned to paperwork storage, as well as saving time scanning and printing documents.
It has been so beneficial that the group’s Preston branch has now gone entirely paperless.
The group estimates that technicians’ overall efficiency has improved 15 per cent in the past year.
‘Every job is 100 per cent traceable and nothing is ever missed,’ said Pauline Turner.
‘With the ability to pre-allocate jobs, we can open the workshop outside normal service hours, without a manager present, and every member of the team is able to operate at full productivity.
‘On top of this, the software generates incoming workshop business through automated customer reminders, sending them an SMS or email when a service or MOT is due. Customers can then book their annual service and MOT online.’
After closing at the start of the UK’s coronavirus lockdown, Chorley Group’s branches reopened on May 1.
Richard Robinson, chief operating officer at RTC Automotive Solutions, said: ‘Chorley Group is leading the way when it comes to embracing digitalisation. Their example demonstrates that this new way of working has real benefits for workshops, even during difficult times.’
