Response times for fleets making service and maintenance bookings with Vauxhall retailers through the industry standard 1link Service Network e-commerce platform have been reduced to 20 minutes – with the aim of helping Vauxhall retailers win more business.

The rapid response time is the latest result of an initiative put in place 12 months ago by Vauxhall and epyx, the company behind 1link Service Network.

A Vauxhall Helpdesk was created at epyx’s Meriden, Warwickshire, offices with the specific aim of helping to reduce response times to service bookings, a strategy designed to generate more servicing work for Vauxhall retailers.

Ken Trinder, head of business development at epyx, explained that the initiative had been adopted as part of Vauxhall’s desire to improve this aspect of its service levels to fleets.

He said: “We discussed the issue of booking times with Vauxhall and together we came up with the idea of a dedicated service to help improve the networks performance.

“Getting a quick response to a booking and meeting the fleet’s needs in terms of dates and locations, is vitally important and this service has helped Vauxhall achieve this aim.

“To hit a 20 minute average across a network of more than 400 Vauxhall retailers is an excellent achievement. There is no doubt that this has brought more service and repair work into the network.”

Currently, a number of major manufacturers are working with epyx to increase the amount of work that proactively enters their franchise networks through 1link, explained Trinder.

He said: “Vauxhall has been at the cutting edge of this kind of initiative but other manufacturers are following suit. Raising service levels in this way is now a proven route for franchise dealers to win more fleet servicing business.”