Swedish automaker Volvo has revealed that it has added the Apple Watch to its service arm, providing engineers and technicians with up-to-date information and saving them paperwork. Each of the about 1,500 personal service technicians who service Volvo cars in Sweden has been given an Apple Watch specifically to help with customer service.
Now, when the customer arrives at the garage, the engineer is notified of the details of the repair. Engineers can use the watch to view customer information and notes, and then call them when repairs are complete.
Since the Apple Watch the engineers use has a companion iPhone app, they can choose to enter or read information more easily. Between watch notifications and iPhone details, engineers don’t need to print records. Plus, they don’t need to go to a PC to record details or check information.
According to reports, it used to take Volvo up to half a year to train new employees on the 15 different IT systems the company has been using internally.
Volvo personal service technician Johnnie Andersson told the media: “With the Apple Watch, everything I need for my job is on my wrist. It’s also much easier to train new technicians on the Apple Watch and iPhone than our desktop system.”
As an added bonus, no more paperwork will be lost in a busy garage, nor will important customer contact information be lost.
Volvo did not disclose the exact number of reductions in training time for new employees. However, it said that 80 percent of technicians using the Apple Watch improved their customer satisfaction scores.
Post-service follow-up calls and emails also increased by 30%. At the same time, the number of documents printed has decreased by 40% so far.
While Volvo’s digital team brought in the Apple Watch specifically to help improve customer service, they report that it is also using other tools to assist engineers with their work. “Some of our teams use the walkie-talkie feature to communicate with each other throughout the facility,” the team said.