A service tech from a dealership performs maintenance work at a customer’s driveway.
Groceries and meals can be delivered to homes. Why not perform service for cars and trucks at the driveways of vehicle owners?
That’s the premise of a mobile service technology for auto dealers provided by Curbee. The company currently supplies the technology to 11 dealership groups covering about 40 outlets.
Curbee is now taking its technology platform national.
“Customers don’t know you can get (vehicle) service in the driveway,” Curbee CEO Denise Leleux said.
Traditionally, vehicle owners took their cars and trucks to dealerships, garages and other providers of service for such things as oil changes, tire rotation, battery replacement, and work related to recalls. The time needed for such services can vary. Vehicle owners either waited while tasks were performed, or arranged to have rides until such work was completed.
With mobile service, those kinds of tasks are performed by someone who comes to the customer’s driveway.
Curbee was founded and backed by DVx Ventures in 2020. Curbee says its mobile service tech platform is designed to integrate into existing dealer management software.
“Now we want to go big,” Leleux said. “Now we want to offer it for all dealers.”
With mobile service capability, customers can schedule service. Those customers are given options in four-hour blocks. The night before an appointment, customers are notified of a one-hour window when the work will be performed. Someone comes out in a service van to do the work.
For dealers, such a service can be a way to improve relationships with consumers and increase revenue.
“When I talk to a dealer, I’ll say what are your goals and objectives for the year?” Leleux said. “And they typically say, ‘We want more loyalty. We want more improved customer satisfaction. We want more revenue. We want improved retention. We want to expand but we either don’t have physical space around our dealership or we don’t have the capital to expand.’”
Leleux described her response to such concerns: “You can have one initiative called mobile service. Because that’s what mobile service does. It meets the customer where they are.
“You can get your dog groomed. You can get your groceries delivered. Why can’t you get service in the driveway? You don’t have to take your car to the dealership anymore.”
Mobile service can “start with baby steps,” she added. For example, a dealership picks up the car from a customer’s home, has the work done, and brings it back.
There are more elaborate forms of mobile service.
“For the most part you can do that service in the driveway, It allows the dealer to meet the customer where they are and expand to a new channel of service.”
On occasion, an automaker issues a recall for certain parts or airbags. “Nobody wants to go to the shop for a recall,” she said. Instead, the work can be performed at the vehicle owner’s home. Diagnostic work can also take place to ensure all systems are working properly.
Major automakers are encouraging their dealers to implement mobile service, Leleux said. “It’s getting more and more prevalent I would say,” she said. “Most of the dealers we talk to say, ‘I know it’s coming and I’m either onboard today or I’m going to hang tight for a while.’”
Curbee, in a statement, said its system uses technology such as “AI-powered scheduling, predictive maintenance analytics and personalized customer communications tools.”
