Multi-Car Workshops - "The future"

India’s car servicing industry is expected to be a Rs. 33,000-crore business by 2020, up from Rs 20,000 crore now, and multi-brand servicing networks will grab 8% of the business by then. At an average cost of Rs 4,500 for service and Rs 7000 for repairs, the size of the car service industry is just above Rs 40,000 crore.

In India, trends have been witnessed that after the completion of the warranty of a new car, around 65% of the consumers migrate to the local service workshops. These workshops provide economical car services, closer to home advantage, and personalized services. However, some other critical factors such as the original spare parts, service quality and technical skills are sometimes not determined. Hence, trust remains an important concern while getting service done from a local service workshop. The multi-car workshops are targeting this uncertainty. They are trying to improve the customer experience by offering better services which can develop trust coupled with economical service packages. The emergence of organized players in multi-car service market came into field owing to the attractiveness of the huge potential in car service market.

The car servicing market can be classified into three categories -

• single brand segment-run by authorized car dealership network catering to a particular brand of cars
• multi-brand workshops that deal with different brands
• network of unorganized multi brand (local workshops)

Multi-car workshops covers a wide range of services, from periodic maintenance to mechanical services to cashless accident repairs along with other items such as 24-hours breakdown assistance, insurance renewals, etc. However, the services offered may vary from workshop to workshop.

What are the future prospects in multi-car servicing workshops?

For the multi-car servicing workshops to succeed, a proper business model, cost effective and value added services, and a positive attitude of the service provider combined with rising sales of user cars can lead to surge in the revenue. I think the increasing awareness amongst the people towards the genuine parts, leveraging service from online, and consumer avoidance of high service charges at authorized centers have been leading growth drivers in the market.