Strengthening Customer Contact Points
Stores and the Web
To Be a Presence Customers Can Always Take Heart in and
Rely on
AUTOBACS, together with enhancement of its products and services, is augmenting points of contact with customers by creating an omni-channel configuration organically linking stores and the web, the call center, and other resources. In addition, through continuous approaches to customers, and registered members in particular, we are deepening customer relationships, and giving equal attention to increasing customer satisfaction and expanding earnings over the medium-to-long term.
Market Environment and Business Trends
In web-based sales, numerous competitors exist in the form of websites operated by automotive goods specialty stores, companies specializing in electronic commerce, and others. To differentiate ourselves within that context, we are offering services linked to a nationwide network of stores with service pits. With web-based sales another important point of contact, we are strengthening our relationships with customers, and registered members in particular, to expand earnings.
Strengthening Points of Contact
Increasing Customer Convenience by Linking Web Access and Stores
Adding to our own AUTOBACS.COM online shop, we are expanding our contacts with customers who purchase car goods via Internet shopping malls and other online channels. In addition, by inviting customers to have their online purchases installed at one of our stores, we are providing them with greater convenience while also promoting synergies by increasing customer traffic at our stores. The installation service for goods sold by Amazon.co.jp began in September 2014. Through another web-based service, which allows customers to make reservations for statutory safety inspections and oil changes, we are promoting store usage in a manner that emphasizes customer convenience. In the case of oil changes, we began in October 2014 to allow customers to not only reserve service times but also select the type of oil they would like to use. Customers can access reservation services via the AUTOBACS Official App, which offers the same functionality as a Maintenance Member Card.
Strengthening Relationships with Customers
Improving Store Operations to Appropriately Respond to Customer Queries
To appropriately respond to customer concerns and desires concerning the automotive goods, statutory safety inspections and maintenance, and automobile purchase and sales businesses, we are revising store operation priorities and moving forward with initiatives aimed at increasing the amount of time employees spend interacting with customers.
Revising the Membership System
In June 2014, we updated the Oil-Change Membership Club to create the Maintenance Member Club. While the former offered free basic labor for oil, oil filter, and air filter changes, the latter offers the same plus free labor for battery and wiper changes, tire rotation, and other services, numbering eight in all. By enhancing customer convenience, we are encouraging customers to use our stores on an ongoing basis.
Enhancing Marketing by Tailoring It to Car Types and Purchase Activity
With the update of the CRM system in fiscal 2015, we have embarked on initiatives aimed at using direct mail, email magazines, and our call center to recommend products and services to individual customers based on analyses of the type of car they own, their purchase activity, the preferences behind their purchases, and other factors.
In store operations with increased points of customer contact, we will respond to each individual item of customer queries.
In our store, we have undertaken experimental changes in store operations. The effect of these changes is clearly shown in the number of questions we get at our customer service counter near the entrance of our store. Before the changes were implemented, we were getting an average of 10 questions per day; after the changes, that figure has risen to 50. People have tended to ask more questions about their cars recently. Quickly responding to these questions, we are not only providing customers with answers to specific problems but also improving store efficiency by rapidly getting the right people involved. I believe that further improvements and an increase in points of customer contact will allow us to appropriately respond to a wider range of customer-specific needs.
Takeshi Negoro Store Manager, AUTOBACS Kaihin Makuhari Store
