Technology turns garage into automated business

The potential of the internet and the latest communications technologies to enable small local businesses to achieve a national presence is often mentioned but actual examples tend to be rare.

Souhan’s of Trim, Co Meath is one of those rarities. The family-owned filling station, shop and motor parts and service business has leveraged new technologies in every aspect of its operations to expand its market reach, improve customer service and achieve quite impressive efficiencies.

"We try to take advantage of new technologies whenever they become available to make life easier for us and to give our customers the best possible experience," says John Souhan.

The business was founded in 1969 when John’s parents bought a small two-pump filling station in the town. “It was very small but my parents expanded it over the years, buying adjacent plots of land and houses. Later on, I joined the business with my brother and sister and it is still very much a family business with the five of us running it.”

Innovation and openness to new ideas have always been features of the business. “My father was an engineer and he did a lot of steelwork for construction and agriculture in the area. In 1997, we completely redeveloped the site and opened a convenience store for the first time. When the National Car Test came in we invested in the same equipment that they use to enable us to do pre-NCT testing and servicing for customers. We also went into the exhaust business as this was a natural cross-over with our engineering expertise.”

The Souhan.ie exhaust business attracts customers from throughout Ireland and has attracted international attention as well. The company can custom-make any exhaust for almost any model of car from vintage, through classic, right up to the very latest models. Last week they had a 1970 Rolls Royce in for a replacement, and earlier this year a DeLorean rolled up for some work.

While the skills required are distinctly human, technology has played a key role in growing the business over the years. "If we wanted to be something more than a local garage we needed to expand and get our message out," says Souhan. "I had done marketing in college and I did a lot of work on our website which had been quite basic. We are now using Google AdWords very effectively and the site is highly rated on search engines. We are using Google AdWords to notify customers of offers and services and it has worked very well for us.

“Customers are now coming from all over the country to have work done on their cars here – they might have looked outside of Ireland for that specialist service before now.”

Tracking system

Every customer inquiry is logged and tracked to ensure that it is followed up and that the customer gets a quotation. “If we haven’t heard back from that customer in six months, the system prompts us to contact them to find out what happened. We also record every piece of work we do so that when a customer comes back to us we are able to look back at the parts used and so on. It frequently happens that a customer comes in with a classic car for the first time to get some work done on the exhaust system but we will have worked on that car for a previous owner and are able to very quickly resolve any issues they have.”

Technology pervades the business. The Vodafone OneNet service has made the telephone system far more efficient. "Before moving on to OneNet, we had 10 different landline numbers for desktop phones, credit card terminals and so on. Now we have one. And that number connects to all of our mobiles as well and we can transfer calls from mobile to landline and back completely seamlessly. It doesn't matter where I am or anyone else is – we can be in the shop or at home or out at meetings and we are contactable through the same landline number. No call ever goes unanswered. We also use the conference calling facility quite frequently."

The Vodafone bulk text service is also used extensively for marketing and customer contact. “We use this to enhance our service to our customers,” he explains.

“If a customer has a service booked in for a certain date we’ll text them the day before to remind them and allowing them to reschedule if necessary. This is all automated on the system.”

In fact, everything is automated with just about every device in the garage and shop connected to the internet or a telephone line through a Vodafone 4G SIM or wifi. Every delivery gets scanned into the stock control system. These are verified against orders which are all done online on tablets while sales through the tills are also connected to the system.

The workshop diary is also managed online. “We have 10 people working full-time in the garage and they all have their own schedules and jobs booked in. We designed the online diary ourselves inhouse and we are able to manage it from any location to ensure that our customers get the best service possible. When there are cancellations, we can offer those to customers on waiting lists and so on.”

Among the more unusual uses of communications technology in the business is the “connected carwash”. The automatic carwash in the garage has a machine-to-machine SIM card built into it and can communicate any faults whenever they arise.

“If a fault develops with something like the side brushes, the car wash texts me or another member of the family to alert us and we can come out and attend to it. We also have a number of off-site storage areas and the gates are also connected by Vodafone SIM cards and this allows us to open and close them remotely.”

OneNet efficiency

“Souhan’s is a perfect example of how a family-owned SME can make the technology work hard for them”, says Vodafone SME commercial marketing manager

Claire Reynolds

. “They use all the types of technology – they have machine-to-machine in the car wash, tablets for stock ordering, OneNet to make sure calls are always answered. They have looked at how the technology can work for them and used it to get a competitive edge and become more agile as a business. Their exhaust business is nationwide while the filling station and shop serves the local community – the technology has enabled them to tie the different strands of their business together.”

John Souhan sees more potential. “Vodafone is pretty much a one-stop shop for us when it comes to technology and they update us constantly on any new services that could be useful to us. But you’ve got to put the effort in to learn about the technology and how it can work for you and benefit the business. We are always looking for new ways of doing things with the technology – you never stop learning.”