The cellphone has become an indispensable tool for the vast majority of automotive technicians, according to research from IMR Inc.
An IMR survey shows that 99.6% of automotive repair technicians own a cellphone, and nearly half (46.4%) also own a tablet or iPad. Of these devices, 57% will end up in the technician’s working bay as a part of their daily toolkit.
According to the survey, 87.4% of technicians are actively using their cellphones for work in the bay to access the following: technical information; technician manual sites; catalog information; parts manufacturer websites for technical or product information; ordering parts; and watching training or instructional videos and content.
Overall, more cellphones are used in repair shops with one to three bays across all categories. Technicians in shops with eight or more bays use their cellphones less overall, but approximately 20% more for ordering parts.
“Smartphones and tablets play such an important role in how so many industries are doing business,” said Bill Thompson, president of IMR Inc. “The automotive aftermarket is by no means immune to this trend. Technicians have more access than ever to the important information they need to provide excellent service, and it’s critical for parts manufacturers, distributors and shop owners to understand how reaching technicians is changing in this digital age.”
With parts ordering being a critical function of cellphone use in the bay, technicians ranked the overall visual quality of parts manufacturer’s websites as follows: 83.5% answered “good,” 13.7% answered “excellent,” 2.8% answered “fair” and none ranked quality as “poor,” to show that technicians are satisfied with the way that parts manufacturer’s websites are rendering on mobile or handheld devices.
When using social media platforms, technicians are most active on Facebook and YouTube, followed by Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Snapchat and Pinterest are not popular among technicians, with 4% stating they’re not active on any social media platforms.
IMR says it conducts the aftermarket’s longest-running monthly survey of repair shops, which provides insights into various trends such as shop demographics, parts and brand purchasing, supplier usage and preferences as well as attitudes on current industry topics.
