What do we use smartphones for in our daily life apart from communication? - Right, the answer is for so many routine stuff that everyone feels bored when it comes to listing them. However, the variety of purposes never ceases to amaze. Let’s take a look at automotive service stations, for instance. How they might refer to our smartphones? Keep reading to find it out.
According to V12 DATA Internet source “More than half (53%) of automotive internet shoppers use a mobile device in their quest for automotive information.” In other words, 53% of potential customers for different car-care service providers prefer smartphones or tablets to computers. Obviously, the time to consider having a mobile app has come. Why? To increase clients turnover by improving business services and total customers experience.
A small research to explore the types and purposes of apps for car owners and benefits they offer for service providers has been done in Factorial Complexity. As a result, they were distinguished into four groups. Let’s take a look at some mobile applications:
Navigation Applications
Very useful utilities for citizens which helps avoid traffic jams, road hazards, finds the nearest gas or service station, car wash, shows your location and the rout or the place you have parked your car.
It is a nice spot to replace the add of a service or indicate a geolocation of a shop.
Here are some examples.
Features of Waze Navigation & Live Traffic for iOS include:
- See what’s happening - Alerts about traffic, police, hazards and more on your drive;
- Get there faster - Instant routing changes to avoid traffic and save you time;
- Know when you’ll arrive - your Arrival Time is based on live traffic data;
- Pay less for gas - find the cheapest gas along your route;
- Always find the way - choose from a variety of voices to guide you while you drive.
Scout GPS Navigation & Meet Up for Android is the only social navigation app. It allows:
- Creating a Meet Up;
- Get reminders one hour before your Meet Up event is set to begin and as your guests arrive;
- Receiving notifications when traffic is slower than usual on your daily commute home or to work;
- Real-time traffic and live speed updates help you find the best and quickest route to avoid gridlock;
- Save your customized route preferences, favorite map views and schedule personalized commute departure alerts for home and work;
- Discover new places along your route for the cheapest gas, restaurants for a bite to eat or other amenities.
Maintenance Applications
Great tools for both motorists and car geeks, who tend to record everything: mileage, fuel consumption, costs, etc. In this kind of apps you can keep a maintenance diary, watch out the time to replace some worn parts, oil, fluids or undergo a scheduled meeting with your mechanic.
This is a golden niche for car-care service providers. As after having developed this kind of an app for your clients, you can set up a backend panel for notifying them about a necessity to visit your service center and immediately offer them free time slots to do it. A fascinating solution that ties customers to your services.
Here are some links to the stores.
- Tracks gas mileage and vehicle maintenance;
- Attachments to store photos and PDFs;
- Charts: MPG, stats, gas price, gas expenses, service expenses;
- Customizable service reminders, with presets like oil changes, tire rotations, and more;
- Priority support via in app messaging;
- Supports multiple vehicles;
- Store vehicle data: VIN, License Plate, etc.;
- Excel compatible email reports (CSV attachment);
- International Units: MPG (US), MPG (Canada), MPG (UK), MPG (Imperial), L/100km, gal/100mi (US), gal/100mi (Imperial), km/L, km/gal (US), km/gal (Imperial), and mi/L.
We, in Factorial Complexity, also have experience in developing this kind of mobile apps. ServLynk for Android by Factorial Complexity is a quick, convenient and hassle free way to have your car cleaned at your comfort, it's never been so easy!
- Select your car details and the services you require;
- Set your car location, select a date and time;
- Securely pay using Stripe and we'll send out a pro to wash your car.
Here are the real numbers how much time the development process took us in man-hours:
- Mobile (React Native) - 708
- Web (a very basic admin panel, this is mostly for backend) - 257
- Design - 131
- QA - 129
- PM - 122
If you would like to find out more about the process of mobile apps creation or our workflow, do not hesitate to contact me.
Tool Applications
They are supposed to connect a vehicle with a smartphone. Such apps include following features: lock/unlock a car from afar, heat/cool an automobile before drivthe ing, display location of a parked vehicle on a map, check charging (if it is an electric car). This type of apps is great for car manufacturers to add some concept of the future, which may attract new and millennial customers. For instance, Tesla features include:
- Check charging progress in real time and start or stop charging;
- Heat or cool your car before driving – even if it's in a garage;
- Lock or unlock from afar.
Service Applications
It is a general notion for specific but essential services for cars. For example: vehicle history reports, e-commerce apps for car selling, mobile apps for renting a car, traffic laws, etc.
Taking into account the fact about automotive internet shoppers, the future is behind this kind of apps for any car-care service providers as their convenience, availability and ease of use capture more and more customers every year.
Let’s take a look at some of them.
Rentalcars.com Car rental App features:
- Book the nearest car at the lowest price;
- Pick your car up with your phone;
- Enter your details once – and only once.
CarMax supports:
- Search by make, type, model, year, price, features, MPG, and more!;
- See car details and photos.
Indeed, smartphones have submitted and at the same time simplified our life. Even when we want to take care of our cars, we use mobile apps on our phones. This is the reason to pay attention and invest money in a digital aspect of a business. Smartphone or a “third screen” is a new platform for sales and clients search. Nothing can soothe a customer’s experience and a provider’s service better than a user-friendly and attractive mobile application. It is a new way to keep in touch with clients whenever and wherever they are.
