How Aircall Helps Fixter Improve the Car Maintenance Experience

Everyone knows routine car maintenance is key to extending the life of your vehicle, but it can be inconvenient and costly, especially if the driver chooses the wrong mechanic or doesn't fully understand what services their car actually needs. Luckily, British drivers don't have to step foot in a garage or negotiate with mechanics. They can simply make one call to Fixter.

Founded in 2017, Fixter aims to take the hassle out of car maintenance. When a customer's vehicle needs servicing, Fixter picks it up (prioritising the driver’s convenience, of course) and then takes it to a carefully vetted local mechanic. With a network of 500+ garage partners nationwide, Fixter negotiates the best rates, saving customers roughly 30% on routine maintenance and minor repairs. When the work is done, Fixter returns the vehicle to the customer on the same day.

"We provide a complete end-to-end affordable service," said Fish Jindarat Srisuk, Performance Marketing Manager at Fixter. "On top of that, some people find it quite daunting to deal with mechanics, who are sometimes too busy to explain the details of what work needs to be done and why. Fixter talks to the mechanic and explains car maintenance to customers in simple English."

Delivering a satisfying customer experience is the key to Fixter's success, Srisuk said—and Aircall’s cloud-based phone system helps the company deliver this.

How Fixter Uses Cloud-Based Telephony

For Fixter, the customer journey starts online when customers book a service, and lasts until they get their fully serviced vehicles back again. Much of this journey is automated to maximise efficiency and make the process more convenient for customers. For example, customers receive emails or text messages with information about their car's location. They also receive digital quotes for required work, which they can accept or reject in just a few clicks.

However, if there is an issue with the automated communication made, or if customers need to ask questions or make changes, it's imperative that a human is available to provide truly personalised support.

Sam Bell, Fixter's Customer Service Manager, explained,

"Phone support is still the preferred method to talk directly to the customer—to explain the work on their vehicle that is advised, to answer any questions they may have regarding this advice, as well as when they can expect the vehicle back. These personal touches can't be entirely replaced with automation."

Phone support is not only relevant when customers have problems. Srisuk said it can also play a "pivotal role" in the booking process for some customers. "It's not like online food delivery. Your car is worth a significant amount of money, and some customers really need to have that human connection and sense of security when using our service. So being available by phone is very important."

Phone calls also help Fixter create a feedback loop. If Fixter receives a particularly good or bad online review, a customer service agent reaches out for more information. Then they pass this information along to the product team.

"We're a growing company and we're always working hard to improve the features that we offer," Srisuk said. "When things go great, the customer service team calls to extract and clarify what we're doing well. And when things don’t go to plan, we learn more about their pain points. These phone calls are an important source of feedback for us. It provides a direct link to the customer."

Why Fixter Rides With Aircall

Fixter started using Aircall a few months after its inception in 2017. They quickly outgrew their original phone system and needed a tool that could achieve the basics, such as "being able to log calls, tag and track calls, record and listen to calls and download and analyse call data." They also wanted a phone system that would integrate seamlessly with Salesforce, their CRM.

After exploring several options, Fixter chose Aircall's cloud-based phone system, which offers a full suite of business phone capabilities. This includes the ability to take and receive calls from any location, check voicemail, set up drag-and-drop IVR, route calls, record calls and more. Aircall also offers one-click integrations with 100+ CRMs and other business tools.

Aircall's native Salesforce integration allows Fixter's team to take phone calls from within the Salesforce platform or through the Aircall app. Either way, all phone calls are automatically logged under the right contact in Salesforce, alongside any notes taken during the call. This makes it even easier for Fixter's teams to keep track of interactions with customers and with partners, such as the garages they work with.

"We have a network of about 500 garages nationwide," Srisuk explained. "To achieve this, we need to really stay on top of our communications with them. We recruit them and build a relationship with them over the phone. But as a startup with a small team, we need to do that in the most efficient way. Aircall's integration with Salesforce helps ensure that flows easier."

Fixter also uses Aircall's analytics to keep track of how their teams are performing and how many customers are reaching out.

"Analytics+ is my favourite feature," Bell said.

"Analytics+ provides me with a weekly analysis on customer wait times and other customer experience-related metrics. I also like the live activity feed so that I can see which calls are coming through."

Additionally, by utilising Aircall's call tags, Fixter can track virtually any information about inbound and outbound calls, including what the call was about or what topics it touched on. This data can then be viewed on Aircall's dashboard or tracked on custom Salesforce dashboards with ease.

Future of Fixter

As Srisuk explains, Aircall will continue to play a key role in Fixter's growth — helping the company nurture customer and partner relationships, and source product feedback that's instrumental to continued product development.

"As a startup, we need to be really quick at identifying and solving problems. We need instant feedback from customers and instant communication between the customer-facing teams and product teams. Aircall lets us create these real-time feedback loops that really fuel our growth and let us solve customers' problems even quicker."

Srisuk noted that Aircall shares this customer-focused mindset, which has only improved Fixter's experience with their phone system. "We have an Aircall Account Manager who gets in touch with us and solicits our feedback on the product on a regular basis. This openness and responsiveness to feedback is something we really believe in ourselves, and we think it's a great quality for our suppliers to have."