What workshop customers really want

What workshop customers really want

For the representative study, the car experts from the international repair and maintenance app Carly asked the question of what reputation today's workshop enjoys among its customers. Expectations and concerns emerged that are at the top of car repair and maintenance. What are your experiences with deadlines and cost estimates? What is most important when choosing a workshop? And what demands does the increasingly growing number of electric car owners have on their workshop? With over a million users worldwide, the app developed by the Munich company Carly is one of the most popular repair and maintenance apps.

The largest proportion of those surveyed only visit the workshop when it can no longer be avoided, namely for the §57a examination. What's interesting is that once they've gained trust, 79% of those surveyed remain loyal to their regular workshop, 55% of which is an independent workshop - even if problems arise. This is often due to a delay in delivery - over a third complained that the car was not ready at the agreed time. In addition, a quarter of those surveyed were no happier after the repair than before: either the error was not repaired properly or additional repairs that were not agreed upon were carried out. The latter is particularly exciting given that 49% of those surveyed said their biggest concern was that the workshop only carried out repairs that were really necessary.

When asked how the majority choose their workshop, the greatest agreement was on competence, closely followed by transparency. It was important to those surveyed that the workshop communicated early on whether additional repairs would be necessary. In third place is friendliness and respectful interaction. In order to communicate with the customer on an equal footing, workshops should also issue a detailed cost estimate and an informative invoice. According to the survey, 71% of those surveyed always or usually receive a cost estimate, and 87% of them adhere to it. 87% of those surveyed also commented positively on an adequate explanation of the invoice. Speaking of costs: 60% of those surveyed make sure that the costs stay within the announced budget when choosing a workshop.

In order to reflect the rapidly growing proportion of electric cars in Germany, Carly changed the panel of respondents slightly in a second step and included significantly more drivers of battery-operated electric cars. They are also progressive when it comes to digitalization, which is reflected in the fact that 33% of them prefer digital appointment coordination. In contrast, the figure for combustion engine drivers is only 10%. They prefer to pick up the phone or even drive to the workshop in person. Also striking: 80% of BEV drivers rate their car skills as high to very high, compared to only 24% of combustion engine drivers. “With this study, we wanted to show what is going well, but also where the service providers still need to improve,” says Avid Avini, Managing Director of Carly. In his opinion, workshops should pay particular attention to competence and transparency. Avini: “Around a quarter of those surveyed have already experienced unnecessary repairs, but for around half it is important that this does not happen when choosing a workshop.”