Radiant Automotive Commercial Equipments has been reselling car diagnostic equipment from Ludhiana since 2008. Autel, Jaltest, the complete Thinktool line – this is the kind of machinery that lets a workshop owner in any part of the country accurately identify vehicle malfunctions. Over the years, Radiant's network of garages grew to include more than 30000 organizations, employing a combined sales and service team, as any diagnostic tool dealer worth their salt knows that the sale is only half the battle won – potential clients may turn into actual ones, and actual ones may ask for technical support over the phone.
This is when the scale of operation began to hurt Radiant in Ludhiana – in more ways than one.
The Challenge of Scaling Beyond Phonecalls
A car diagnostic tool is not a commodity that comes with straight answers. A workshop owner in Hyderabad or a mechanic in Mysore may ask the same question about which Jaltest device is the best fit for their current fleet, or if the Thinktool equipment is compatible with the existing garage software after the purchase. The same clients may come back months later to ask more technical questions about Jaltest firmware updates.
Dealing with such inquiries is time-consuming, but manageable while the network of Radiant is built on word of mouth, with hundreds of satisfied garages posting testimonials on the company's website, naming the team members that helped them personally. However, as the company grew and the client base became increasingly widespread, some of the shortcomings of the manual system began to manifest.
Phone inquiries about the purchasing process had to be processed at whatever time the customer called, whether it's during business hours or not. Salesmen who take such calls are then unable to handle other requests, be it technical support for another workshop or even potential clients getting in touch. Questions regarding the same diagnostic tools, repeated by different customers, have to be answered multiple times, eating into the same menagerie of resources. In addition, a prospective buyer in Ludhiana needs more time and energy to be convinced of the purchase of an Autel device, but there is no way to differentiate between a customer who wants to know about the specifics of the car diagnostic equipment and one who is ready to buy right away.
There is no systematice way to segment inquiries based on the intent of the ask, and no way to address recurring questions without the involvement of a human worker. Finally, there is no effective mechanism to keep track of which workshops have purchased equipment from Radiant and which have not, and the technical support is only as good as the response time of the individual service agents that the client communicates with.
However, Radiant has been doing well to serve their clients, and the system had not failed them until this point.
What Bizzriser Did To Help
Bizzriser has configured the WhatsApp Business API for Radiant India, segmenting their inquiries and automating communication with existing and potential clients.
As a result, a new request for technical support or the purchase of car diagnostic equipment can be routed to the appropriate team members faster, with recurring questions answered in an informative and comprehensive manner. Potential clients receive tailored responses based on the product inquiries, while existing ones can raise support tickets via guided WhatsApp interactions before being routed to the relevant departments for more complex issues. New car diagnostic equipment releases and other relevant events are then broadcasted to the target audience of businesses in a timely manner, while the general inquiries are stored for tracking the performance of the company's operations.
It is notable that none of these improvements were made at the expense of the in-house sales and service teams, who continued to operate in the same capacity as before. However, the automation of the most common stages of the customer journey allows non-repetitive inquiries to be addressed by the workers directly, saving a considerable amount of time and effort.
The Results
Within a few months of implementation, Radiant has seen the changes to the efficiency of their operations, which spoke volumes for the effectiveness of the system.
The response time to potential clients was greatly reduced, as the first message or reply could be sent and received at any time of the day without requiring the attention of a human representative. This is especially important for inquiries sent after the business hours of the company, which would otherwise have to be answered the next day and could be easily forgotten altogether.
Service teams were also able to dedicate more time and effort to complex issues reported by the workshop owners, as the basic technical support questions were being routed to them automatically. In addition, the response to the broadcasted product release announcements saw a spike in activity shortly after delivery, which could not have been achieved with the previous system. This helped Radiant to better understand which areas of their business require the most attention based on objective data, rather than relying on anecdotal evidence. Finally, the automation allowed the company to operate more consistently across a wide area without putting an excessive strain on the limited resources of the support team.
Why It Works
A diagnostic equipment reseller with a national presence cannot rely on a couple of phone lines to handle the growing volume of inquiries. However, the previous system of routing customer calls to the nearest available representative failed Radiant when trying to scale to larger volumes. Bizzriser has equipped the company with an automated tool to address the needs of their large client base while keeping the same level of personalization and support that their workshops so enjoy. The system handles basic questions, guides the client through technical support procedures before transferring the call to the relevant specialist, and keeps track of all conversations for analysis after the fact.
Bizzriser offers Indian businesses WhatsApp Business API automation solutions for routing inquiries, responding to product-related questions with tailored messages and sending relevant product announcements as broadcasts to segmented audiences.