(I work for a domestic automotive aftermarket Internet company as a product manager, and I know a little about various modes of this industry. I would like to share the discussion with you here and give some introductory knowledge to newcomers who want to engage in this industry. Please give me some advice if I meet an old driver. This article is the first in this series. Let's start with SaaS products, and then we will elaborate on the platform and O2O.)
In order to unify our understanding and facilitate the subsequent explanation, let's explain a few terms first. First, I have looked up a lot of information about the definition of this term. The straightforward and comprehensive explanation is that a car's whole life cycle belongs to the service category of the automobile aftermarket. Secondly, "SaaS" literally means: software is a service. Generally speaking, it is a company model that develops a series of software and then sells it to make money. The buyer is generally a B-side company.
combined with the above explanation, it is easy to understand the title of this article. As the name implies, the SaaS model of the automotive aftermarket is the software service product of the automotive aftermarket, and the users of such products are all kinds of auto repair and beauty shops. According to rough statistics, there are thousands of companies providing such software services in the market at present. According to the ranking of advertisements by related keywords to a certain extent, we can see that the competition is extremely fierce. It can be seen that there is such a demand in the store after the steam, so what are the specific aspects? Let's first take a look at the business demands of traditional auto repair shops and see how everyone plays when there is no software.
1. Pick up the car at the store, which is the most basic and simple offline scene.
1) information registration. When the owner drives to the store, the relevant personnel (front desk, store manager and proprietress) will pick up the car and register it. There are two kinds of information to be registered here. One is the owner information (convenient contact with the owner, secondary marketing, etc.); The second is vehicle information (vehicle model, mileage, etc.). The recording method is of course a pen and a diary. Done!
2) construction documents. Similar to hospital medical records. After registering the information, you should ask about the car condition, just like the doctor often asks, "What's wrong with you?" Here, of course, it depends on the needs of the owner, whether to wash the car, or minor maintenance, or the car breaks down and so on. Then the receptionist assigns the corresponding construction master to inspect the car. Generally, at this stage, a construction document can be generated according to the condition of the car, including the required parts, working hours and the corresponding quotation. Of course, if the required parts are temporarily out of stock, there must be corresponding replenishment methods and time. Handwritten documents can also be done.
3) change notice. Because the price of service may deviate with the change of construction difficulty, and the purchase price of accessories will also have unequal information, it is inevitable that the price will change during the construction process. In this case, if the owner is not in the store, it is necessary to contact the owner in time and tell the truth. The general practice is to call directly and explain, and usually it can be done.
4) complete the notification. After the construction is completed, inform the owner to pick up the car at the store in time. The phone is done!
5) fast payment. When the owner needs to pay after arriving at the store, there may be many payment methods, such as cash, credit card, WeChat, Alipay, etc. In order to avoid embarrassment, these common payment methods are generally allowed in the store, so there will be a problem. How to count the amount of each payment method? Notes with a pen can also be distinguished and used for auditing.
2. Appointment service.
1) appointment method. The traditional reservation method is somewhat similar to the traditional restaurant reservation. When a phone call is made, the time and general demands are recorded by the store. The owner only needs to arrive at the store on time, which is quite convenient and convenient for the owner.
2) stores allocate resources. Telephone booking is much more convenient for car owners, but it is a bit of a test of IQ for stores. How to allocate the time and stations of different types of services in a short telephone call and how to make the best use of the existing resources in the store is a technical problem.
3) reservation change. If there is a temporary shortage of workstations and masters, the owner should be informed in time to change the reservation information.
4) reservation preparation. After the car owner makes a successful reservation, the store should make preparations in advance according to the reservation content, such as adjusting goods and tools, which also involves the reasonable arrangement of resources.
3. After-sales service.
1) construction records.
a complete record of the construction data of the vehicle after the completion of construction is an important basis for the convenience of the next marketing, so the general stores will pay great attention to this record. Of course, if the store records it manually, the owner generally has no chance to see it.
2) evaluation feedback.
In order to grasp the operation of the store in real time, such as the work of shop assistants and masters, store owners may need real feedback from the owners. It seems that there is no good way to do this by traditional means. Unless the boss must intervene in major situations, it is difficult for the general customer experience to enter the boss's ears.
4. Service reminder.
1) maintenance reminder. The most common is maintenance reminder, which generally reminds the owner that your car should be maintained according to the mileage of the vehicle or the last maintenance time. Because ordinary owners, especially novice owners, often don't remember the maintenance date, the reminder function can not only improve the performance of the store, but also be friendly to the owner.
2) activity push. In order to rush the performance, stores will also engage in some preferential activities from time to time to stimulate car owners to the store. In the past, it used to be in the form of SMS, but in recent years, it is still feasible to send information about preferential activities through WeChat.
The above is the business appeal of typical post-steam stores. We can see that most of the work can be done by hand with a pen without software assistance, but considering the efficiency, convenience and accuracy, it is obvious that the traditional manual recording method is still far behind. According to the above description, readers who have made products may have seen that these business needs can actually be realized by software, so we roughly list the corresponding functions of the above business: cashier function, membership system, integral function, inventory management, financial management, royalty management, reminder push function and so on. For the specific functional structure, please refer to the following figure:
In the course of my work, I have come into contact with many similar softwares, all of which are similar, because business attributes and business boundaries determine the functional structure of the products. The difference between different software products lies in their different emphases. For example, some focus on cash register function, some have characteristics in marketing and promotion, while others do a deep analysis on the value of car owners. Including our own company, we have also made some attempts. The author also personally led and participated in the design and research of several products, as well as the demand research in the early stage and the feedback follow-up in the later stage. Let's focus on some pits that the author personally experienced, hoping that everyone can try to avoid them.
1. Layers of coats of real needs. Friends who have made 2C products must know that the access channel of user needs is relatively single and the path is relatively short, because the business logic itself is not too complicated. However, the demand components of 2B products are relatively complicated. Let's talk about the demand sources of 2B products first: 1) Direct B-end users, which need not be explained; 2) The sales staff of our company, 2B products, make money by selling software products themselves, so the sales staff can get first-hand customer feedback information, which is also a valuable source of product demand; 3) Company leaders and bosses, this is also understandable, because the will of senior leaders sometimes even affects the life and death of products, whether for political achievements or pure sense of existence; 4) Other R&D, operation and product growth needs of the company.
Let's take a look at the disadvantages of various demand source channels. First of all, business users at the B end can provide first-hand demand information, but if they contact users one by one, the workload can be imagined, and all kinds of appointments can be made. Of course, if there is a special user research department, this channel is undoubtedly the best; Secondly, the demand from the company's sales team, sales staff are likely to transform the demand for commission and KPI. For example, business users may want an important function, but sales may feel that this will not help their own performance, so they will automatically filter it, or even in order to get a KA customer, they strongly demand customized development of a function, which is often only applicable to this customer, and is of little value to the entire product line, but may consume huge resources; Third, the demand from the boss does not rule out that the boss will have his own unique views on the industry, but every product has its own soul after all. If you accidentally don't grasp the direction, it is easy to go astray; Finally, the operation and the internal demand of the product are still the same sentence. Everyone will consider the problem from their own standpoint, so it is inevitable to do some self-enrichment functions.
The above is the common fault of the 2B model, which is actually verified in the automotive aftermarket without exception (with a wry smile). After all, it is developed from traditional industries, and these human weaknesses are really unavoidable.
2. Demand priority and customized development.
1) From the profit point of view of the company, it is possible to win a big customer for each additional function. If we consider the short-term benefits, everyone will do this kind of thing, and the reality is indeed the case;
2) From the perspective of the company's own development, it is not conducive to the company's long-term sustainable development to add oil and vinegar to its own products in order to meet individual needs, and finally turn the products into a nondescript monster.
3. product pricing strategy
products are also commodities, so whether to consider the cost (R&D, promotion, manpower, etc.) when pricing is a problem worthy of attention. There are already many sets of pricing algorithms in the market, so I won't go into details here. It should be noted that some companies need to be cautious when they want to obtain the first batch of customers at ultra-low prices. If it is not done well, they will lose their wives and lose their soldiers.
4. Selling points and differentiation
As far as I know, there are thousands of SaaS management software in the post-automobile industry, in fact, 8% of them are similar. It seems that the cost of developing software is getting lower and lower now. Everyone imitates and plagiarizes each other and then gets a share at a low price, but this kind of business is doomed not to last long, just to make quick money until the industry is dead, and then move to another industry to pit. After all, there are very few companies in China that really dive down to do research on users' needs silently, and can stand being unprofitable for a long time and tirelessly do basic data. Just like the atmosphere of the whole domestic Internet, they are impetuous and pursue short-term profits. Of course, when it comes to this, some people will refute, how can you live without profit? It is indeed the first task to survive, otherwise everything will be empty talk, so naturally everyone will consider a compromise plan, while doing short-term projects, while grasping the main business. Just like my company adopted this model boldly, it is still alive and well anyway.
5. Promote
The fragrance of wine is afraid of the depth of the alley. With a perfect software product, how to sell it through marketing is the time to reflect the company's value.
1) offline promotion. Organize an effective marketing team. A good sales team is essential. After all, it is normal to go up and down the mountain to attack the city and attack the city. The sales team mentioned here is mainly for some small and medium-sized enterprise customers. If it is a bigger company, a professional BD team is needed.
2) online promotion. SEO and SEM advertising are the most common means in major search engines, but which platform is effective and how to arrange the advertising strategy is another professional field. By the way, the information flow distribution platforms (today's headlines, Aauto Quicker, Tik Tok) in recent two years have a high ROI in some industries, but it's hard to say in the automotive aftermarket. We haven't tried it, but if there are good ideas, it's still worth a try. After all, these platforms have a higher degree of accurate segmentation of people, and they have some advantages over large search engines.