@navidnathoo Hey Navid! You're right, the industry definitely needs to be fixed.
Check out this video of how some shops try to scam customers on oil changes by taking advantage of their lack of knowledge.
https://www.facebook.com/fiix.io...
This coming week we're also going to publish another video showing how Fiix is 30-50% cheaper than a regular repair shop! Stay tuned!
@fiixmechanics@navidnathoo Cool stuff! You might want to ditch using the Fiix account in the discussion, it's so much more valuable and authentic to hear from an actual person. @rrhoover
@navidnathoo some b-school friends of mine studied a similar problem for a class project but decided o focus on on-demand oil changes, but the overall gist of "the industry is broken" in terms of scamming customers is totally on point. I remember that was one of the biggest complaints they found doing their market research and customer development. True or not, it's what the customers feel is happening to them. I'll have to hunt their company. @navidnathoo
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@kmx411@fiixmechanics I don't know where to start. First of all, the idea is great. I'm a fan, I'm a big car person and normally I do the work myself. However, sometimes I don't have time, the tools, or the space to do what I need to. I ALSO don't have time, or the motivation to take it somewhere, for a multitude of reasons, including cost, time, and lack of references (and laziness), so my car may sit for a while, until I can make arrangements to work on it. I think it's a great idea with potential to bring mechanics to people, not the other way around. With that said...
This is very similar to HomeAdvisor or Thumbtack or others in many ways in that you have to get the supply side correct, or the demand side doesn't matter. Onboarding (setting expectations, how the services works, payments, jobs, how to use your site, etc), insuring trustworthiness (background checks, references, reviews, industry certifications), dispute resolution (between customer and mechanic, mechanic and you, you and a customer), insurance, scheduling (Pros in the Home Services industry are VERY particular about others scheduling things for them, in my experience), and more... Difficult problems to solve. Getting mechanics to sign off on quotes before ever seeing a car, and flat-rate pricing may work for some, and for some services, but you will most likely receive a violent reaction from others. If you want to chat more let me know, but to keep from writing an enormous response I'll cut it short.
Looks awesome, good luck!
@hellosmoore Thanks for the kind words! We're slowly building our marketplace and working closely with mechanics to build an app that makes it easy for them to work. Many of our mechanics have already messaged us asking for more and more Fiix work. Soon demand will be high enough for mechanics to use Fiix all day!
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@kmx411 I think what you'll find is that as you grow, and bring more people on board, the majority of your mechanics will fall in between very little usage and moderate usage. In most cases, they won't all be power users filling their entire daily schedule, everyday, with work. You'll have people filling in low-work periods, mechanics who pick and choose the "good jobs", people who want to choose when they work, where they go, how far they travel, what cars they work on, what neighborhoods they want to be in etc. All of that will leave you with mechanics with less-than-full schedules. I HOPE you have the great problem that all of your mechanics are booked all day, but most likely, you'll have people doing less than that. Early adopters are not representative of your entire mechanic base, and a lot of people in industries like contracting, home improvement, mechanical, etc are laggards, and you'll have to deal with people who aren't as good at technology, don't want to integrate their calendars to your service, and just want to use your service to get the occasional job.
I don't know your exact model, but those are some things you might experience. Also, these are just my thoughts, for whatever they are worth.
@hellosmoore@kmx411 Firstly, thank you very much for the insightful feedback! You bring up some really great points. Our model, at least in the early stages, is slightly different in the sense that our aim is to contract out mechanics that currently work at dealerships or auto repair shops (where the best talent is) so that we are able to deliver the best talent to customers. Thus far we've been able to keep mechanics busy during there off hours and match their availability with consumer demand which is typically highest during the evenings and weekends (when mechanics are free). In the long-term, we do hope that all auto repairs (except for major repairs) are conducted mobile and can fill a mechanics schedule full-time (if they choose to keep busy). As for tech integration, I believe we will slowly see a shift in increased adoption of tech as millennials occupy the majority of the workforce by 2020.
You really have great insight into this space. Please share any thoughts you may have!
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I noticed that in your video you are criticizing the up sell model. This may sound weird, but I actually go to services like Valvoline for the up sells. I know very little about cars and want to do the best to maintain my little sedan. If I didn't do this I wouldn't change any of my fluids or filters until there was a problem. Maybe I'm a sucker, and none of that maintenance is necessary, I wouldn't know!
@_lcky there are many ways to up sell. Some use fear tactics, others use scams, and we use honesty. Many shops pay mechanics on commission, if they sell more, they make money. This puts the mechanic in a weird position where acting against the customers best interest can result in reward. Some of our friends and mechanics have told us their shops even taught them tricks to convince the customer they need an oil change when they don't.
At Fiix, our mechanics are paid significantly more than a traditional shop and have no incentive to up sell. After every job the mechanic does a 50 point inspection on the entire vehicle and gives you a rundown on what you should and shouldn't be concerned about. Then, because the mechanic is on your driveway he can show you the problem himself. We even outfit the mechanic with the tools he needs to give you a follow up quote for any repairs you do need.
Essentially, the current state of up selling is driven by the wrong motivations, and we're trying to change that.
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@kmx411 nice. Do you track mileage data from your customers so that you can make informed decisions about their maintenance in the future?
@_lcky not at the moment, but we're looking into hardware pieces that can help. A great idea for the future :)
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@kmx411 If you haven't already, check out the Edmunds API http://developer.edmunds.com/ (free!!)
It has car manufacturer maintenance recommendations by mileage, safety recalls and service bulletins. here's an app I used it in:
https://play.google.com/store/ap...
It only goes to 1991 though, if you know of something similar but older lmk?
I agree with @_lcky on recommendations from the garage side I was a suspension etc tech at garages and dealers and also a fleet manager for a rental, sales and lease lot that had in house maintenance. I felt like not making for example bald tire or brake pad recommendations was a safety critical issue and some people really relied on it while others obviously didn't.
I had a personal policy to treat every customer like I would want my Grandma treated at a garage and I *rarely* had a complaint.
The industry is...the automotive industry, depending on who you ask will give you a different answer how to help it haha. I've only been a garage customer for a vehicle of my own three or four times max so I'm very biased.
I started mycarleaks.com (RIP) a couple years ago to *simplify the car repair shopping process* (car owners made videos of the car problem and garages would bid on work and buy $3 credits that would be used when a job was accepted) but I went on to other adventures.
It was a similar challenge that I gave up on and I wish you the absolute best of luck with Fiix!!
@joshuawilluhn@kmx411@_lcky Thanks for sharing Joshua! We'll be sure to check it out, it sounds awesome!
You're right about customer service. We aim to provide the best service to both our customers and mechanics. Your personal policy is a great tip.
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Loved your pitch on Justin's Snapchat. Very glad to see you got into YC. I grew up in Aus with http://www.lubemobile.com.au/ and expected to see the same amount of services offered but only saw a fraction on your website, do you think you will get there or is that actually a departure from you core business strategy?
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@tomfrauenfelder Hey Tom! We love that you liked it! :D
We are actually in the process of adding roughly 50 more services to our website. We can currently perform over 500+ services such as spark plugs replacement, battery replacements, starter replacements, etc. We're just working on getting the pricing correctly for our *instant quote tool* and we should have them on our site by the end of this week!
In the end, it is part of our core business strategy. Our goal is to take the hassle out of owning the car. We want to be able to provide as many services as possible to our customers, so that they can have an extremely convenient way of fixing their car no matter what happens.
For our special Product Hunt Community, we want to offer you all a $10 discount on your next auto repair service with Fiix!
Use the following link to redeem the coupon: https://www.fiix.io/quote?offer=...
Again, we're currently only available in the Toronto (GTA), Canada and surrounding area, so if anyone is from there and wants to try us out, feel free to use the link and share it with friends and family :)
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@zainmanji How is this different from YourMechanic?
@shekyboy Hey Abhishek!
1) We’re still in conception stages, but going forward we look to focus more on the crowd that just wants a instant mechanic and has no knowledge about how to fix their car or what specific repair they need. YourMechanic has more of an emphasis on knowing your repair.
2) We're in different regions than them.
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@zainmanji Would that be cost effective for the user? I mean you could have estimation costs on top of repairs.
@shekyboy It's interesting you bring up that point. Typically we charge a fee to diagnose the issue for customers but if they end up using our service we refund the inspection. Eventually I'm confident we will see tech be more heavily involved in diagnosing issue either by installing devices into your car or using different mediums to enable customers to provide videos and pictures of the cars symptoms.
@zainmanji@shekyboy@zainmanji@shekyboy As fiix tries to find its 'own thing', I hope it will also try to figure out original UI/UX design. Right now it seems to be an exact repli... well, lets just say 'heavily inspired' by yourmechanic.com
So much of auto repair is word-of-mouth / reputation based. How can they ensure quality?
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@shep_ben Hi Ben! Great question. You're exactly right, quality is very important.
Our mechanics are fully-licensed mechanics with an average of 10 years of experience in the field. We currently go through an intense interview process with our mechanics to ensure that they have the skills needed to perform the job, and we also get our already on-boarded mechanics to assist us with the interview/on-boarding process.
For the first few jobs of a new mechanic, we have an already experienced mechanic to go on the job with them to ensure that everything goes smoothly. After a job is completed, we ask for feedback from the customer to get their thoughts on the mechanic and how the service went overall. We take every complaint or feedback seriously. If anything goes south, we are fully insured so we take care of the problem personally and the mechanic would get removed from the platform. We highly incentivize the mechanics to do an excellent job as well :)
In addition, we never allocate a job to a mechanic where they don't feel comfortable performing it or don't have the necessary qualifications to handle it.
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