According to Apple Insider, Swedish automaker Volvo has revealed that it has added the Apple Watch to its service department to provide engineers and technicians with up-to-date information and save them paperwork.
About 1,500 personal service technicians servicing Volvo cars in Sweden have been given an Apple Watch specifically to help with customer service. Now, when the customer arrives at the garage, the engineer is notified of the details of the repair.
According to ComputerWorld, engineers can use the watch to view customer information and notes, then call them when repairs are complete.
There’s also a companion iPhone app, so engineers can choose to enter or read information more easily. But between watch notifications and iPhone details, that means no more printing records. Engineers also don’t need to go to a computer to record details or check information.
In the past, Volvo reportedly spent up to half a year training new employees on the 15 different IT systems the company has been using.
Johnnie Andersson, Volvo’s personal service technician, said: “With the Apple Watch, everything I need for my job is on my wrist. It’s also much easier to train a new technician on the Apple Watch and iPhone than with our desktop system.”
As an added bonus, no paperwork is lost in a busy garage, nor is important customer contact information.
Volvo did not disclose the exact number of reductions in training time for new employees. However, it said that 80 percent of technicians using the Apple Watch improved their customer satisfaction scores.
Post-service follow-up calls and emails also increased by 30%. At the same time, so far, the number of documents printed has been reduced by 40%.
While the Volvo digital team specifically brought in the Apple Watch to help improve customer service, they report that it is also helping engineers with other tasks.
“Some of our teams use the walkie-talkie feature to communicate with each other throughout the facility,” the team told the media.
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