Mapping out a route
Since then, Harley–Davidson have been creating motorcycles for fellow daydreamers and thrill seekers. Always looking to the future, those in head office recently turned their attention from the vast wilderness to the digital landscape. Seeing the speed at which digital technology was progressing, Harley-Davidson imagined a digital service pricing tool, which would allow their dealers to efficiently generate service quotes for customers. As this technology did not currently exist, Harley-Davidson were mapping a new route in the industry.
Hitting the open road
Having recognised the potential of a digital service pricing tool, Harley-Davidson approached the team at Spindogs. By sitting down with the client, we were able to find out exactly what challenges the tool would help them to overcome, both in head office and dealerships.
Back in 2020, we had identified the need for a digital service quotation platform to assist our European dealer network. Spindogs have developed a bespoke platform that enables our dealers to provide accurate and professional service quotes, and also track the performance of the service team through analysis of lost sales.
Designing flexible components
To start this project, we had our team of designers and developers put together a system blueprint. While we would usually create specific page layouts, we decided it would be better to design page components. This would make the system extra flexible, allowing us to quickly build custom layouts for each page. The idea was that this would also make it easier for future development, with all the components already available.
Uploading historic data
Once the components were in place, we could start to build the system and upload the data. To allow the new digital service pricing tool to work, there was a large amount of historic data which needed to be added. Through a manual process, we uploaded data relating to every bike from the last 10 years to the system.
Improving customer service
With the system up to date, dealers were able to generate professional, branded service quotes, with the option of including additional parts and repairs where necessary. These could then be provided to the customer in their preferred format, either as a printed document or a digital file.
(*All information used within the below designs are placeholder text and not factual figures.)
Extra stops along the way
Once we had completed the system, Harley-Davidson piloted it to ten of their dealerships. After the testing phase was completed, amendments were made based on dealer and customer feedback. The system was then launched to all dealerships in 2022 across the UK and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Following the success of the system, the client was eager to add even more functionality.
Developing a motorcycle tracker
A new feature that has been developed is a motorcycle tracker. This is a single place for dealers to see their own inventory, both at the dealership and in production. Where a dealer doesn’t have the required motorcycle in their stock or allocation, the tool allows them to search the local dealer network and send an enquiry to a dealer who has stock.
Reaching the final destination
Since the launch of the system to all UK dealerships on 31st March, we have received some fantastic feedback. With head office now able to track dealership performance, they were able to report that over 200 service quotes have been produced, with a total value of over £60,000 with the goal of exceeding £1 million by Q2 2024.
The platform now allows dealers to view and track the motorcycle stock in one place, including the ability to view where motorcycles are that are en route to the dealership. We plan to continue to develop the platform to create new functionality to help our dealer to provide the best service to our current and future Harley-Davidson riders.