Key developments in Iveco customer service
Watford, 4 July 2012
Iveco has developed a range of new service tools and support packages to ensure it delivers the best all-round support to commercial vehicle operators nationwide.
Many of these systems and processes have been developed with the heavy truck market in mind – a sector where minimising downtime is critical due to the size, ‘just-in-time’ nature and high value of payloads being carried.
This expertise allows Iveco’s light commercial vehicle customers to benefit from the same 24/7 aftersales support as a heavy truck fleet operator; in contrast with many light commercial dealer networks which are predominately focused on the car market.
OneCall system rolled out across Europe
An initiative pioneered in Winsford to reduce vehicle off-road (VOR) times has been rolled out across Iveco’s European dealer network, following its unmitigated success in the UK.
OneCall was developed as a support service for immobilised vehicles, where the required parts were not available immediately or a technical issue was taking longer to diagnose. What began as a ‘one-way’ system log, updated by dealers, evolved into a comprehensive two-way communication system with an emphasis on interaction between dealer and manufacturer.
Alan Coppin, Customer Care & Technical Services Director, explains: “We’ve created a ‘living tool’ between Iveco and our service network. Dealers are required to record the details of any vehicle – light, medium or heavy – once it has been in the workshop (VOR) for four hours. As soon as a vehicle is entered onto the OneCall log it allows full transparency between dealer and manufacturer – showing all stages of work being carried out.
“OneCall is a comprehensive tool which tracks the vehicle’s progress until it is delivered back to the customer. Crucially, it enables us to be actively involved in any VOR incident within four hours of an issue being notified to a dealer. This gives customers the confidence that they are not only in the dealers’ hands; both dealer and manufacturer are working together to get their vehicle back on the road as quickly as possible,” he adds.
Assistance Non-Stop
Iveco has further improved its Assistance Non-Stop (ANS) response times in the UK to just 50* minutes (*average in 2011). ANS allows Iveco customers to request emergency roadside assistance anywhere in the UK on a 24/7 basis.
The average response time is measured from the moment the phone rings in Iveco’s European ANS call centre until the technician arrives at the roadside. 50 minutes is the quickest annual average time ever recorded by Iveco and is measured on a UK-wide basis, including the M25.
“Some manufacturers quote response times excluding the M25, but we have always given the full picture – and we are very proud of our achievements. Hitting a 50 minute average is a significant achievement,” says Coppin.
Every six months Iveco reviews the parts stock carried on each dealer’s ANS service vans, to ensure the on-board inventory is enabling the dealer to complete as many roadside repairs as possible, in the quickest time. This ongoing commitment to fine-tuning performance has been pivotal in reducing the time it takes to complete the average ANS job – 84 per cent of call-outs are now repaired roadside in less than two hours.
Coppin believes that Iveco’s ANS coverage and response times are amongst the very best in the industry, but his target is to reduce the requirement for roadside assistance in the first instance.
“Our ultimate goal is to reach a point where you eliminate as many causes of breakdowns as physically possible. To do this our factories and product development teams value real-life feedback. If we see the same breakdown issue recurring, we feed this back to our product development teams, who can work to ensure the issue is rectified.”
Dealer diagnostic tools
In addition to using Iveco’s E.A.S.Y. diagnostic computers, Iveco dealer workshops are now equipped with fibre optic probes which can be used to capture images inside major components – such as the engine and gearbox.
Coppin, explains: “The probes require significant investment, but they enable our dealerships to offer advanced levels of diagnosis. It’s effectively the same type of technology used on humans in operating theatres, but adapted for a workshop environment.
“The probes allow our dealers to diagnose and rectify problems with far greater accuracy and in a fraction of the time it would take to physically strip down an engine or gearbox to look inside,” he explains.
The probes incorporate a light and camera and can be inserted through an aperture into different vehicle components. In the case of an engine, a technician can remove an injector, before guiding the fibre optic scope into one of the engine’s cylinders. Images can be recorded and shared with Iveco personnel, helping dealers to diagnose technical issues promptly.
Certificate of Professional Competence for Service Managers
All Iveco Service Managers in UK dealerships have completed a Certificate of Professional Competence training course, developed internally by Iveco in conjunction with the Freight Transport Association (FTA), and dubbed the ‘mini-CPC’.
The mini-CPC helps Service Managers to gain a better understanding of the pressures faced by their customers, including a greater understanding of O-licence legislation.
Coppin explains: “Iveco dealerships and workshops are at the sharp end when it comes to helping fleets improve their Operator Compliance Risk Score (OCRS), which is why it is important for them to fully understand the O-licence process and the pressures our customers face. Equipping Service Managers with these additional skills means they can provide better all-round customer support.”
In addition to the mini-CPC course, Service Managers now act as the nominated ‘compliance point of contact’ within each dealership and benefit from full FTA membership paid for initially by Iveco. This ensures they receive all correspondence, legislation updates, e-news, publications and have access to the FTA Member Advice Centre, with a brief to circulate relevant issues within the dealership departments locally.
Iveco
Iveco, a Fiat Industrial company, designs, manufactures, and markets a broad range of light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles, off-road trucks, city and intercity buses and coaches as well as special vehicles for applications such as fire fighting, off-road missions, defence and civil protection.
Iveco employs almost 25,000 people and runs in 11 Countries in the world using excellent technologies. Besides Europe, the company operates in China, Russia, Australia and Latin America. Around 5,000 sales and service outlets in over 160 Countries guarantee technical support wherever in the world an Iveco vehicle is at work.
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ref: IVECO 12022
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