Client’s Profile
ACT (Auto Claim Technology) is an exclusive automotive store that excels in paintless dent repair/removal, paint over-spray removal and hail damage repair for vehicles of all sizes. It was established in 1994 in Atlanta, Georgia. With 30 years of experience under their sleeves, they have satisfied thousands of clients and serviced 200,000+ vehicles nationwide. Despite being one of the leaders in the automotive services industry, their documentation process comprised of Excel sheet printouts and paper forms, both of which were time-consuming and redundant. ACT wanted to automate and streamline their entire process with the use of mobile technology.
Client’s Problem
- Every day, the manager at ACT received an Excel sheet detailing the jobs to be done, along with client contact information. The manager then assigned work to the field technicians, who visited clients’ premises to fix the issue.
- The field technicians had to deal with paperwork, noting vehicle details in a form before actually beginning work on the vehicle.
- Once the technicians returned to office, they had to copy out all the details from the paper form into a spreadsheet, in order to create an invoice. Added to this was the fact that the forms were subject to numerous errors. It was a laborious and inefficient process.
- Besides this, there was no backend service to streamline and analyze the data that had been collected over the years using the forms.
- However, the team of technicians and the managers were so used to the manual process, that they were 0% inclined towards getting anything automated.
How We Solved The Client’s Problem
We proposed the use of an iPad app to streamline their process and simplify the field technicians’ task. They had no other backend service, so we had to build it from scratch and link a mobile app to it. The mobile app was designed to replicate the company’s manual entry forms, making the automation process easier to adapt to.
We even created roles for all the field technicians, managers and other employees during the transition period. Each field technician had a separate pin number,granting them secure access. For each job order, the manager could assign cases through the app to the field technicians. The technician then visited the customer’s house, recording relevant details directly through the form page in the app.
To avoid manual entry errors, each field was given syntax requirements. Only when the format was followed were technicians allowed to proceed to the next field. This ensured that they entered error-free data. The app also allowed them to capture images of dents or other damages, along with the vehicle registration number and make/model. This simplified the data-capture process. Technicians could also scan the VIN barcode numbers, providing them with a unique identifier for each vehicle.
After data entry, the form was uploaded to the backend server, helping the manager create invoices without the hassle of re-entering data.
Impact On Client’s Business
- Before the app, it was taking ACT an average time of 4 days to create an invoice for a single client. Now, all customer invoices are generated by the end of the day.
- Errors due to manual paper form entry are avoided completely with the substitution of a complete app-form model.
- The field technicians initially found it hard to adapt to the new technology, but once they got the hang of it, they were happy with the ease of operation. They are now able to handle more clients, since they save a lot of time that used to be spent re-entering data.
- All data is available in a centralized location, enabling analysis and business intelligence efforts.
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Some Interesting Facts
We release 1-2 apps each month in the app store
60% of our business comes from B2C apps and the remaining 40% from B2B apps
Most clients start with an iOS app and develop an Android app later
