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| Since the system’s installation, the dealership has seen 100% user adoption & positive feedback from staff |
Traka Automotive, leading provider of electronic key management systems to car dealers, has installed its networked key management system at Harry Fairbairn’s Glasgow BMW and Mini dealerships in Giffnock. Early results are showing car key losses have been eliminated and agent productivity is also up.
Remotely tracking keys
After a careful evaluation of several systems, BMW Harry Fairburn selected Traka Automotive’s fully networked key management system powered by eTag software. Since the system’s installation, the dealership has seen 100% user adoption, very positive feedback from all 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 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 automatically 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.
Networked key cabinets for business efficiency
Callum Rankin, Dealer Principal of Harry BMW Fairbairn, explains the benefits of the new key system:
“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, says that the system is: “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 added: “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.”
Callum Rankin of Harry Fairbairn again: “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.”
