Halfords, the UK-based provider of motoring and cycling products and services, has entered the business-to-business (B2B) software market with the launch of Avayler. This is a new business, offering Halfords’ proprietary software to streamline service delivery for companies that operate in multiple locations.
Avayler’s first customer is announced as American Tire Distributors Inc. (ATD), one of the independent suppliers of tyres to the replacement tyre market in North America and owner of online tyre retailer Tirebuyer.com.
Avayler’s platform will underpin ATD’s operations, supplying tyres to 80,000 garages across the US. ATD will also be the exclusive provider of the Avayler Mobile platform to the North American automotive market.
The software was developed to manage Halfords’ own garages, mobile vans and retail stores, and brings together systems and services developed in-house by Halfords.
Avayler brings benefits for both customers and companies alike. The Avayler Mobile product uses algorithms to calculate the available time slots for the customer according to where the nearest van is located and the parts available. It then uses dynamic pricing to value those slots accurately. The customer can track where the van is and receive notifications and updates while the colleague is en route.
The platform ensures companies can calculate the cheapest and quickest routes to their customer, maximise colleague productivity on the job, give details of traffic on the road, and provide the colleague with detailed checklists to ensure a safe and consistent service is provided.
The platform delivers a vastly superior customer experience, with no direct equivalent on the market today. Halfords has been using the platform for 3 years and today it manages over 70,000 services per week. Halfords Mobile Expert van operation, which has a 4.8/5 Trustpilot rating, has seen an 70% increase in job productivity and more than 200% increase in utilisation since it started using the platform, demonstrating the potential benefits to businesses and end-user customer satisfaction.
Avayler will be based in the UK but will serve customers internationally. The company is on track to expand its workforce to more than 45 people over the next 2 years, including 30 software engineers, and will continue to develop its IP as an omni-channel service management platform.
Graham Stapleton, CEO of Halfords, says, “We’re proud to be launching Avayler with ATD as our first client. This is an historic moment for Halfords and another major milestone in our transition to become a market leading motoring services focused business.
The Avayler platform has enabled us to optimise our motoring services operations across our stores, garages and mobile vans, reducing operating costs, growing profits and delivering a better customer experience. We’re very excited about the opportunities this platform will create for Halfords in the UK and internationally.”
Stuart Schuette, president and CEO for ATD, says, “At ATD, we’re committed to helping our customers thrive in an evolving industry. We continuously search around the world to bring new technology and capabilities that complement our customers’ businesses.
As the trend toward mobile tyre installation continues to grow, ATD is looking forward to accelerating access to best-in-class technology for our customers that are interested in entering the mobile tyre installation business. We’re excited to partner with Avayler to bring this offering to our tyre retailers.”
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