AutoApp takes care of every step of car servicing in Singapore for you. All you have to do is choose what you want, and what you need taken care of
SINGAPORE
If you can pause that Zoom meeting for a few moments, you can now get your car fixed without having to do anything else.
Picture this: Your car needs its regular oil change and tune-up, yet you absolutely have to be home for back-to-back videocalls. If you can take a few minutes in-between those meetings (or and pause ‘Tiger King’ for five minutes, hey we’re not judging) you can get your car serviced.
That’s because there is a new way to get your car serviced in Singapore and it’s called AutoApp. It eliminates all the hassles of car maintenance as we know it.
Let’s sum up the traditional method, and we warn you, it might get tedious so just skip this paragraph if you’ve heard it all before:
Your car needs servicing, or even worse, something’s broken. Let’s say you don’t have a mechanic you can trust – you go on the Internet to find one, ask your friends for recommendations. Even after you decide, you need to spend time – possibly even take leave – to send the car down to the shop. You wait for whatever time, the mechanic gives you a quote, you want a part that’s less expensive, you wait some more. You hail a ride back home, time passes, you have to take a bus back back to the mechanic, you get there and ask for an invoice, you wait for them to generate it, you pay….ok you definitely get the idea by now.
With AutoApp, you skip all of that. No endless Googling, no MRT, buses, no ride hailing, no waiting around on a wooden stool in an industrial park getting bitten by mosquitoes – not to mention social distancing.
So think about this: Even if you stayed on the couch for the entire process, how much time and effort would you have saved?
AutoApp is an application developed by Singaporean startup Ignition Labs. It’s available for Android and Apple smartphones, and is designed to make car servicing as easy as possible for Singaporean car owners.
“Our business is really all about giving your time back,” says Sheldon Trollope, the spokesman for AutoApp, and co-founder of Ignition Labs. “It’s all about increasing convenience for our users, saving their time, and it’s a new way to care for your car.”
One easy way to think about it is this: It’s like FoodPanda, except instead of fixing your craving for Korean fried chicken, you fix your car instead.
“Look at the level of convenience food delivery apps and other app-based services give us today,” says Sheldon. “We’re doing the same thing, except it’s for anything you need done on your car.”
Here’s a summarised, step-by-step guide to the AutoApp process. Keep in mind too, that AutoApp keeps you informed at every stage of the process.
Singaporeans pay a lot for their cars, and that immediately begs the question: Why should I trust AutoApp?
The simple answer is, because AutoApp is here to stay, and intends to deliver customer satisfaction for years to come. To start, AutoApp’s founders all have a background in the motoring industry and automotive aftersales, and it shows.
Unlike ‘gig economy’ apps, AutoApp’s Service Ambassadors are full-time employees of the company and themselves have lots of experience with car servicing, so they’re able to communicate technical issues to both customers and the workshops. Naturally, there’s also full insurance coverage when the cars are being sent to and from the job.
While car owners only have one, cleanly-designed app to utilise, AutoApp developed an entire back-end to support the user experience, including apps for the service advisors and workshops. That helps document the service process at every step of the way, keep the car owners constantly updated, and bring transparency to the entire process.
“At the end of the day, we want customers to trust us and we want to build a relationship with them, and that’s why we spent a lot of time and effort to get this right,” says Sheldon.
AutoApp can cover any type of car service, repair, or maintenance job. From repairing damage, to installing new parts, sending a car for inspection, and anything else a car owner needs.
The obvious answer is: Anyone who needs their car serviced with minimal fuss.
Instead of spending your time waiting for your car to be fixed, you could even head out and ask for your car to be delivered to you there – AutoApp can pick up and return a car anywhere in Singapore, from 8am to 8pm, Mondays to Saturdays.
But AutoApp can be especially helpful to people who find car servicing a difficult or confusing process: New car owners who are mystified by the entire process, or people who have absolutely no interest or understanding of engineering (which is honestly most of us!) and simply want their cars fixed right.
And to get back to our idea at the start, you can see how there’s now a trustworthy, convenient, and easy way to service your car, all without having to leave your living room. It can’t help you pay for that Netflix subscription, but the time you gained from using AutoApp probably will.