How a nationwide mobile car detailing service used Smart Clusters to boost technician efficiency
Overview
WashDoctors, a leading UK mobile car detailing company, has been serving clients nationwide for over 8 years with a team of 120 technicians. At the core of its operations is a custom-built CRM and scheduling system, managed by its in-house engineering team. This system allowed clients to book appointments and pay online, as well as for dispatchers to schedule on their behalf, but it often created inefficient technician routes, leading to lost revenue due to large gaps between appointments. Recognizing that they were wasting up to 3 hours of potential service in an 8-hour shift and needed to optimize the system, the team sought an external solution to address these challenges.
Challenge
The online booking system allowed customers to book any available time slot without factoring in travel time or proximity to existing appointments, so technicians were frequently spending over 1 hour traveling between appointments, often getting stuck in heavy traffic, leading to frustration, decreased job satisfaction and ultimately a high turnover rate.
The in-house scheduling system did not have any built-in route optimization capabilities, making it difficult to keep up with business demands and growth, and hiring external developers to scale and enhance the system proved to be quite costly.
Solution
To tackle these challenges, WashDoctors selected MarketBox, specifically for its Smart Clusters API product, which directly integrates into their custom scheduling system. By sending their booking data and technician travel zones and schedules, WashDoctor’s scheduling system receives a list of optimized "eco-slots" to show the client, taking into account real time traffic patterns, travel time and more. These eco-slots are a way for WashDoctors to offer discounts to customers who choose optimized times, which also means less drive time for technicians.
Dispatchers can preview and book from these optimized time slots from their booking system for clients, while clients can choose to book directly. When dispatchers or clients book from these suggested times, technicians are able to cut down on travel time, lower carbon emissions and boost client-provider satisfaction.
By partnering with MarketBox, the team benefits from ongoing updates and refinements to the product suite, decreasing load on internal engineering resources.
Results
Average increase in daily appointments
Decrease in technician turnover
Reduction in technician drive time
Reduction in CO2 per driver per week
Conclusion
By leveraging MarketBox’s Smart Clusters, algorithms and API, WashDoctors increased profitability and customer satisfaction, and greatly reduced technician churn.
Customer feedback
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"Before Smart Clusters, we were allowing our customers to book appointments online, but the gaps between appointments were 60 minutes on average. Our workforce, mainly contractors, would complain and we dealt with high churn. With Smart Clusters, we are down to an average of 23 minutes between appointments. We operate with fewer contractors, who are now making more money and driving less between appointments."
Founder & CEO, WashDoctors