Making Car Servicing Easy

Making Car Servicing Easy

Maintaining a car can be a tedious job. From taking an appointment to physically taking your car to the service centre is a long process. To make it easy, IIM-A graduates Kushal Karwa and Amit Bhasin founded GoMechanic, technology-enabled car service centres, in 2016. Currently, GoMechanic is associated with 170 car repair workshops across Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru. 

Telling us what made them launch  the brand, Karwa, during a visit to Pune, said, “After graduating from IIM-A, both Amit and I did consultancy for a few years. I primarily worked as a consultant in the auto sector. From there, we got a basic understanding of the after-sales service market. Both of us had bought used cars and maintenance was a huge issue. Being professionals, we just had time during the weekends. The cost of servicing was high and there was no transparency and we had to run to various mechanics to get the same thing done again.” A lot of vehicle owners face similar problems. 

The duo started off by setting their own workshop to understand the challenges. “We used to personally pick up the cars and interact with customers, and after we understood the model, we started building GoMechanic. We approached more workshops and got them to work with us,” Karwa added. 

Key areas 
When asked what are some of the key points they focused on while launching GoMechanic, he replied, “The foremost thing is transparency because the customer should know what they are paying for. What will be the cost if you own a particular brand of model. The next thing is the availability of spare parts because these are not easily available at the required time. How do you communicate with customers in the age of technology so we have worked out things in a way that the mechanic can directly communicate with customers if there are any changes. We follow a standard procedure across.”

Tying up with workshops  
Throwing light on how they choose workshops and trained mechanics, Karwa says that there are more than 3 lakh small and big size auto workshops across the country. “We have a ground team whose job is to find the right workshop. We go by various parameters, the first thing is the technical skill of mechanics. Most of them have the experience of working in authorised service centres. The second most important thing is the infrastructure of workshops. Do they have the tools and equipments to work on your car? Third, is the kind of technology adoption these workshops can go through,” he said adding that  GoMechanic further trains the mechanics.  

About the transparency, he said,  “We give clients an upfront estimate. Also, we, as a cost structure, are very low because all our spare parts are procured in bulk at our workshops, which is done centrally. Because we are purely into servicing, our labour costs are also low,” he said.   

Way forward 
The start-up recently announced a services and maintenance partnership with Revolt Motors, makers of India’s first AI-enabled electric motorcycle. The partnership is part of the Electric Future ethos for which GoMechanic will be making major infrastructure renovation at its workshops to accommodate dedicated EV servicing bays. “This partnership will be extended to Pune. As of now, we are concentrating on bikes. Once electronic vehicles come in, the future will converge,” he said. 

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