Dealer-Suggested Service-Lane Tool Can Boost Satisfaction

A strategic partnership between two dealership service department vendors provides a potential boost to service-lane revenue and customer satisfaction.

Vehicle inspection system UVeye is now integrated with myKaarma, a communication platform. This allows service-lane customers to see a detailed scan of their vehicle on their phones within seconds.

“It’s just complete transparency,” Yaron Saghiv, UVeye’s chief marketing officer, tells WardsAuto.

UVeye is an artificial intelligence-empowered vehicle inspection system that can detect external or mechanical flaws and damage when a vehicle drives through the UVeye “tunnel.” Within seconds, it generates a detailed report that includes scans of the vehicle's underbody, tires and exterior.

Before the myKaarma integration, a customer had to wait to see and discuss the scan with a service advisor. Now, through myKaarma, the customer within 20 seconds receives a text with the UVeye scan information.

“You drive in and within a few seconds, you have a full kind of visual analysis in the palm of your hand…to discuss with your advisor,” Saghiv says.

Improving Customer Satisfaction

myKaarma has created a single platform through which a dealership’s service department can communicate with a customer using text, email or call. More than 2,000 dealerships use it.

All communications originate from one phone number which the customer saves on their phone. The customer can use that number to communicate directly with a service advisor, Ujj Nath, myKaarma chairman and CEO, tells WardsAuto.

That provides convenience, transparency and context, he says.

With the new partnership, “you get a text saying, ‘Hey, your car got automatically inspected by UVeye,’” Nath explains. That text also includes a link to the scan and report.

“Providing convenience and transparency in a way contextual to the customer’s situation is crucial,” he says. “When a customer is in for service, they don’t want to hear about the latest car model from the manufacturer.”

But they do want to hear from the dealership service department via text, according to the 2024 J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Index. It found that consumers were four times as likely to want service updates via text than by a phone call.

The UVeye/myKaarma combination can also improve satisfaction with service advisors, who discuss the scan findings after the customers have had time to review them.

The J.D. Power study found satisfaction with service advisors rose 31 points to 911 on a 1,000-point scale when photos or videos were provided to support the results of a multi-point inspection.

The 2024 U.S. Customer Service Index (CSI) Study is based on responses from 64,781 verified registered owners and lessees of 2021 to 2023 model-year vehicles. The study was conducted from August through December 2023.

Dealers Suggested the Partnership

The idea for linking UVeye and myKaarma came from dealers themselves, Saghiv says. At this year’s National Automobile Dealers Assn. show, dealership customers using both platforms, including #1 Cochran, a group with more than 30 rooftops in Pennsylvania and Ohio, suggested integrating the two, saying, “This just makes sense,” he says.

Around 300 rooftops currently use UVeye, primarily Volvo and General Motors dealerships, Saghiv says. Volvo Cars Tech Fund and General Motors Ventures are strategic investors in UVeye.

Some 50 dealerships use both because “we both appeal to really progressive dealerships,” Saghiv says.