Mobile Payments a Win-Win For Mechanics, Drivers

When a car is in the shop, customers and service advisors alike benefit when they have access to instant communication and fast payments.

For customers, this technology delivers transparency and speed, which are two of the things they want most when their car is being repaired. They want to understand the job that’s being done, know when the work will be completed and then get their vehicle back on the road as quickly as possible.

Automotive service professionals appreciate instant communication too. It saves them from having to try to reach customers by phone or email to get approval on an estimate. Too often, those just go to voice mail or sit in the inbox. In the meantime, the car sits.

“Dealers want to know now, and people want to know now, ‘Is my car ready? Did you guys start working on my car? What needs to be done on my car?’” Alex Wojcik, vice president of sales and co-founder at Kimoby, told PYMNTS. “So, providing this instant communication, this instant ‘know now,’ and sharing that information with your consumer makes all the difference for our dealer partners,” Wojcik said.

Optimizing the Customer Journey

Kimoby offers a cloud-based communication platform that provides service departments with instant messaging and mobile payment solutions. With this platform, service advisors can send photos, videos, appointment confirmations and invoices, and customers can pay on their mobile device.

“For the dealership, to have that control over the customer journey — with no paper — improves significantly the amount of revenues because it’s so easy to reach out to the customers,” Stéphanie Bédard, vice president of marketing at Kimoby, told PYMNTS.

Photos and videos are increasingly being used by service departments to show customers the parts that need to be replaced. With Kimoby, these are sent through text messages so that the customer can see them instantly without having to click on a link or visit a website.

Streamlining Invoicing and Payments

Mobile payments, too, are an increasingly popular option. Kimoby’s system is built on Stripe and integrates with several major payment processors, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, Visa, Mastercard and American Express.

For dealers, mobile payments free staff from having to collect payment at the time the car is picked up, and it provides security by confirming the money is coming in.

For customers, mobile payments enable them to see the invoice before they return to the dealership, ask any questions beforehand and then not have to wait in line at the end of the day to pay. They can just pick up the keys and go.

“Whenever the clients come in to pick up their keys, you can have that kind of discussion that’s a little bit more warm, and see how you can add value to their journey, how you can make them a loyal customer, instead of having to explain in detail an invoice,” Bédard said.

Accommodating a Growing Trend

Kimoby will soon be integrating telematics into its platform, helping dealers manage their loaner cars and shuttles by giving them information about such things as fuel level. This follows the company’s acquisition of the connected car platform ACE Marketplace in February.

“I’m looking forward to the upcoming years,” Wojcik said. “Mobile payment and instant communication is an upcoming trend, and there’s just going to be more and more. It’s just going to be a growing market.”