During the ownership of your BMW and Mini, one of the things that most owners do is to request for a quotation for a particular service or repair. Here are some sample quotation requests that we received on a daily basis:
For Regular Maintenance:
“Hello Vebo, what is the cost for engine oil service?”
“Hello Vebo, what is the cost for brake pad?”
For Minor Repair:
“Hello Vebo, what is the cost for engine oil leak?”
“Hello Vebo, what is the cost for coolant leak?”
For Major Repair:
“Hello Vebo, what is the cost for overhaul?”
“Hello Vebo, what is the cost for aircond repair?”
For Unknown Repair:
“Hello Vebo, what is the cost for this repair. ( Image of drivetrain error on iDrive )?”
“Hello Vebo, what is the cost to repair for this sound?”
At this point, most customers would expect a cost estimate to be provided right after the question is asked. However, most of the time, it would be difficult to provide an accurate price since additional information and inspection would be required.
Our readers probably wonder why is it so difficult to provide a quotation. Most quotation request to Vebo currently comes via 2 channels; phone call or whatsapp. Going back to the sample questions asked above, here are the reasons why a quote cannot be provided immediately:
For regular maintenance
Unknown vehicle type especially for first time customer
For brakes, each model is using different type of brakes and is it for the front or rear brakes?
For minor repair
Unknown leak location thus not able to provide quotation as inspection is not being carried out yet.
For major repair
No diagnostic being done thus unknown reason for the need of overhaul
For unknown repair
No scanning being done as such drivetrain error are general error which consist of many factor that cause this error. Thus, no quotation is able to be given out due to unknown reason.
Due to these reasons, further conversations between the workshop and customer needs to continue and in some cases, customers are required to pay a visit the workshop before a quotation can be provided. When the car is in the workshop, depending on the issue, further computer diagnostics, tests and inspection will be performed.
So once the workshop collects all relevant information, the next step is to get in touch with the relevant suppliers to get the updated price. Since BMW and Mini parts are mostly imported, price do change over time.
The quotation can then be provided to the customer once the supplier provides the spare parts cost.
As a summary, the image below shows the steps that existing customers needs to go through before a quotation can be released.
Existing Customer (Repair Job)
New Customer (Repair Job)
We also reached out to our prospects and customers to get their view on the Quotation process via a survey. The survey was conducted via Google Form and are shared via various platforms.
One of the questions we asked is what are their preferred communication channel to receive the quote. 87.8 % seems to prefer Whatsapp while remaining respondents prefers an app.
Interestingly, all respondents are willing to use the app if price estimates are shared during booking.
The respondents seems to be divided equally when asked if they wanted a fast but inaccurate quote vs an accurate but slower quote.
When asked if the respondents are able to trace the VIN/Chassis of the car, it seems like 8.2% of respondents are unable to trace it. The VIN/Chassis number is an important piece of information that allows the workshop to accurately source for the correct parts from the supplier.
The BMW iDrive can be a useful system to check the car's maintenance needs. For example, engine oil change, brake oil change, front or rear brake pads and others. Knowledge on knowing how to find the relevant information on the iDrive will help the workshop determine what needs to be serviced/changed and ultimately provide a relevant and accurate quotation to the customer.
As a conclusion, since there's multiple steps that are required for a workshop to provide a quotation, it would make sense for the customer to be guided to provide relevant information which would then lead to a transparent and accurate quotation. This can be achieved via the Vebo Connect app since the app has the ability to:
Keep the customer's and vehicle's information.
Guide customer on raising an accurate quotation request.
Provide a single platform for the customers to manage their cars.
Allow workshop to systematically keep track of all quotations and respond on a timely manner.
Stay tuned as we'll continue to improve the Vebo Connect app to serve you better!