A case study of key management as installed at Harry Fairbairn’s Glasgow BMW and Mini dealerships in Giffnock. The firm reports that early results of car key losses eliminated and agent productivity up.
After evaluation of several systems, BMW Harry Fairburn selected Traka Automotive’s networked key management product using eTag software. Since the installation, the dealership says it has seen 100 per cent user adoption, positive feedback from staff and quantifiable business benefits. Agents use the desktop system to locate which key cabinet the key they need is in, or who took it out last. In the near future the system will be extended for use via tablets so that staff away from their desks can access the system to locate keys they need to move.
Once a new car is logged onto Harry Fairbairn’s Kerridge dealer management system, it takes less than 60 seconds for this data to be relayed into the key management system. Each new car key is attached to an iFob which carries the car’s mark, model, colour and car registration.
Callum Rankin, Dealer Principal of Harry BMW Fairbairn, says: “Our previous key management system had a knock-on effect in terms of lost sales. So if a customer comes to the dealership to test drive a specific used car that they had researched on your website, if they cannot access it in the 20 minutes they’ve set aside in their lunch hour to test drive it, they may not come back and that sale could be lost.”
Callum Rankin, who has been DP at Harry Fairbairn for three and half years, calls the system “the single best business improvement investment I’ve signed off since I became DP. It’s about more than storing keys – Traka’s fully networked key cabinets is unlocking efficiencies right across the business.”
Paul Smith, Director, Traka Automotive adds: “It’s only a matter of time before all busy dealerships will have some form of electronic key management. It’s effectively a management information system. It tracks and accounts for dealers’ key asset-base – even if vehicles are offsite. It reveals far more than the location of keys. DPs are beginning to use eTag’s reporting tools to assess departmental productivity levels.”
And Callum Rankin of Harry Fairbairn adds: “We now know all the efficiencies that the Traka system has helped us unlock have contributed significantly to online and in-dealership sales increases. I would not have invested in this system unless I knew it was both fool-proof and future-proof. Overall results so far give me confidence that I made the right decision and I’m now recommending that Arnold Clark roll the system out group-wide.”
