How Uber for Business helps service centers run smoothly

If you run an automotive service or repair center, you know there are a lot of things that can go wrong. A mechanic out sick, a back-ordered part—these issues influence your success (and your customers’ experiences) each day.

While you can try to mitigate the impact of being short-staffed with a new schedule or search for a back-ordered part among local repair shops, there’s another way to keep things running smoothly: Uber for Business. With the Central dashboard, you can relieve disruptions and help streamline operations at your repair center to get customers back on the road right away.

Provide on-demand rides for customers

No more waiting on shuttles or sending service center employees out to drive customers home. With Central, you can easily arrange a ride to get them where they need to go. Just enter their pickup and dropoff locations, select a ride option, and choose a pickup time. Customers don’t need to have the Uber app or a smartphone to take the ride.

You can also select a flexible pickup time to allow customers to decide when they’re ready to leave. And when it’s time for them to return to pick up their vehicle, you can request a ride for them through Central or provide a voucher.

Honda Auto Center of Bellevue has saved nearly $45,000 annually by switching from shuttles to rides arranged on the Central dashboard. “Our dealership is always looking for new ways to stay competitive and improve our customers’ experience,” says Janine Zimmerman, Parts and Service Director. “By replacing our shuttles with rides with Central, we’ve done both of these things while reducing our spend by 47%.”

Remove the need for chase cars

Keep your service center staff where they can make the most impact—at your location. Skip sending an employee in a chase car for a vehicle dropoff, and call a ride back for them with Central instead. Now an employee dropping off a customer car can return to work with ease, and you’ll have more of your team available to help customers on-site.

Reduce reliance on loaner cars

Loaner cars can be convenient for customers but can present difficulties for repair centers. If your business has no loaner cars available, you may have to limit the number of repairs made in a day. Using Central to supplement a loaner fleet is a simple way to increase daily repair capability.

BMW of Ramsey provides customers with a loaner car or a courtesy ride through Central. “Uber for Business is convenient and helps limit the liability of a fleet as much as possible, allowing us to focus on our customers,” says James Crowe, Service Director at BMW of Ramsey. “We try to use Uber for everything.”

Get parts delivered

Instead of having staff leave to pick up parts, help streamline day-to-day operations by getting parts delivered with Central. This lets you keep a team available while expediting the movement of parts and repairs, creating even more happy customers.

Manage spending with ease

You can manage expenses, control costs, and review usage in one easy-to-use dashboard. All the rides taken using Central will be accessible in one place, making filing warranty reimbursements, reconciliation, and billing easy.

Use Central integrations

To streamline your operations even more, Central integrates with a number of major dealer management systems (DMS), like CDK Hailer. You can request rides for people and parts all in one place without navigating away from your existing software.