New solution helps consumers instantly book car appointments online, based on repair shops’ availability and service offerings.
San Francisco, CA — ClearMechanic, provider of technology to improve the auto repair experience, today announced a solution that allows San Francisco Bay Area consumers to book car repair appointments instantly without having to pick up the phone. Much like services in the airline and restaurant industries, consumers looking for a service center can now visit ClearMechanic.com, search for appointment availability at multiple dealerships and repair shops and instantly book an appointment with their provider of choice. Consumers will no longer need to make time-consuming phone calls or fill out elaborate online scheduling forms.
“Today, customers need to either wait for an emailed response to schedule an appointment, which can take up to 24 hours, or make a phone call during business hours,” said Brad Simmons, CEO of ClearMechanic. “Timeframes like this are unheard of in other industries. You don’t have to wait 24 hours to book an airline ticket or confirm restaurant reservations. It’s done online and it’s instantaneous. This is what we hope to bring to the automotive service industry.”
In a recent study of customer scheduling options in the car repair process, ClearMechanic attempted to make appointments at 75 Bay Area service centers. The study revealed that customers could not make appointments at 95% of these service centers during evenings and Sundays. Additionally, the average phone call to make an appointment lasted three minutes due to wait time, transfers and lengthy questioning by service personnel.
ClearMechanic’s sophisticated database of repair shops enables consumers to search for repair shops based on criteria not available in any other search engine. Consumers can quickly determine which shops accept their vehicle type, such as Honda and Jaguar, and search for specific services performed, such as smog checks or brake inspections. ClearMechanic also provides advanced filters, such as AAA certification, rental car availability and wireless Internet access.
Traditionally, automotive service centers have struggled to capture younger consumers. Dealerships fare the worst, with studies showing the age of average dealership service customers is now 50 years or older. ClearMechanic aims to make the process easier for younger car owners who have grown up with an expectation of instantaneous response times.
“ClearMechanic is introducing a long overdue solution in the automotive repair industry. It’s exactly like an OpenTable for service repair centers,” said automotive service expert Ronald Rameshnauth of OilReset.com.
The new solution will be free for consumers and will only charge a fee to service repair centers when an appointment is made through the system. In addition, the service includes a “refer-a-friend link” that rewards the referrer with ten dollars per confirmed appointment.
Currently, ClearMechanic has more than 200 service repair shops in the Bay area participating in the program. To book your next Bay Area repair appointment through ClearMechanic, visit www.clearmechanic.com.
About ClearMechanic, Inc:
Founded in 2009, ClearMechanic has proven experience creating award-winning applications for the automotive repair industry. Their existing mobile and web applications have delivered more than 200,000 repair recommendations and bring transparency and ease to repair center customers. ClearMechanic’s goal is to create a win-win for service centers and their customers and bring today’s Internet customers back to the service bay.
For more information, please visit www.clearmechanic.com.