Managing and improving Quality on day-to-day basis in your Distribution network… and tracking it ! - Ekimetrics
Ekimetrics: big data specialists
Contact
Back to all Case studies

Managing and improving Quality on day-to-day basis in your Distribution network… and tracking it !

Matching Quality standards means increased Customer satisfaction and higher retention at your point of sales and service. But how to measure the matching ratio in real-time to stretch the overall performance in the physical store ? We developed our F.I.L.D. solution (Fast Intelligent Local Data) for a global car maker.

Industry : Mobility

Solutions : Operational Excellence

Results

4.000

Dealerships

600+

Users from HQ, Regional team, Dealership

+200

KPIs/dealer in sales, maintenance and parts

Challenge

Carmakers, Dealership groups, Rentals companies, Fast-fitters all have in common the need for a physical network to deliver their mobility products and services at the customer’s doorstep. On the field, real-time access to store data is a prerequisite to fact-based decisions. In a highly competitive sector such as Automotive, in-store Customer experience brings long-term advantages.

A Dealer Network Development team at a global automaker needed to implement a real-time assessment tool of the Brand standards and methods to field forces, and monitor action plans rolled out at the dealer/region/country levels.

Bringing this ambition to life would mean to identify a scalable solution, accessible to various profiles by activities and by zones, from group headquarters down to local operators. Harmonizing the data sources between markets and departments of origin, in order to gather them into a single datahub, was also part of the challenge.

Our approach

From Day 1 of the project, we focused on the key business objectives driven by the solution such as dealer performance, field forces expertise, customer satisfaction and revenue generation. Keeping in mind these business pillars during the project delivery, we simultaneously tackled two workstreams.

On the back-end, we delivered a scalable architecture to ensure a holistic solution. To reach this goal, we initiated a ‘flash diagnosis’ to identify the most promising data-use cases for the Dealer Network Development department. This is a proprietary approach that combines the client’s business knowledge with our data science expertise.

On the front-end, we adopted a design-thinking approach to co-design UX/UI with end-users of the web app and mobile app. Then we conducted User Acceptance Tests with projects ambassadors to promote adoption by key stakeholders on the field. Despite headwinds (Covid lockdowns), we completed these tests in less than one month.

The result was a truly bespoke operational lever aiming to maximize business impact, flexible enough to allow further data sets integration and customization by markets.

To achieve this goal, it was necessary to leverage, evolve, and sometimes professionalize existing internal data and analytics capabilities (data lake, IT, data architecture, etc.).

The result was a fully developed, industrialized and mobile solution, truly embedded in existing operation systems (KPI dashboard, action plan checklist, video tutorials, field visit report, etc.). This data science solution perfectly matched the client’s business vision (dealer performance scoring, Quality standard processes fulfillment, peers benchmarking, etc.), and was easily usable across markets and activities. Furthermore, the solution was built to be resilient enough to fit further data use cases that could evolve over the next few years.

 

Outcome

Ease fact-based decision-making processes

We enabled unlimited and real-time access to essential pieces of information for field forces (metrics, checklists of standards, tutorials, ongoing action plans…) who may find it difficult with few connectivities available, no access to meeting rooms, no possibility to open a computer or laptop.
All outbound flows (actual performance by activities, KPI objectives, dashboard with on-demand filters and aggregations…) and inbound flows (visit reports, photo/video proofs, action plan update…) are processed in real-time and immediately available. Furthermore, the user-friendly interface of the app was a key success factor in the speed of implementation and adoption.

Reallocate time from data collection to action plans implementation
We were fully aware of the value of time management for teams working in regional areas and physical stores locally. Daily reporting to the Brand headquarters can turn out to be highly time-consuming for them and thus leave less room for business impacting discussions.
Going the extra mile to ensure the success of the project, we finally delivered a one-app solution that smoothed data gathering and access to key metrics and helped zone managers monitor local performance efficiently. Our dual expertise in consultancy and data science enables us to translate data insights into a business action plan, ensuring projects deliver tangible client value.

Harmonize field forces competencies and tools
Despite having attained a high level of maturity in customer experience at the dealership, the customer’s goal was to improve on the results of the quality metrics, a simile for increased profitability. Thanks to our one-app solution, our client can harmonize processes and measurement among 20+ markets and 4.000+ points of sale, and create as many opportunity fields for real-time best practices sharing, optimization routes, and assessment with peers.
In a nutshell, we succeeded in delivering a fully automated solution that was more efficient than the former manual and somehow oral one. Who said there was no room for data science and algorithms when it comes to operations in the field?

More case studies

Case study

AI-driven sustainable advantage

AI-driven sustainable advantage
View the Case study

All our industries

Contact us!

  • We're committed to your privacy. Ekimetrics uses the information you provide to us to contact you. For more information about how we handle your personal data and your rights, check out our Privacy policy.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.