CBT News sits down with Mahesh Shah, EVP, Chief Product and Technology Officer at CDK Global, to discuss their new partnership with Lyft and Hyundai. Mahesh tells CBT News that this initiative is all about providing a ride-share service and delivering convenience to every customer that walks into the dealership.
We have all experienced when we are waiting for our car to be serviced and we have to get a shuttle service or a loaner car, and this partnership aims to eliminate all of that hassle and allow the dealer to facilitate the ride-share service, Hailer, for the customer to get them where they need to be. Check out the full interview with Mahesh in the video above.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: 
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Hi everyone. Jim Fitzpatrick with CBT News. On today’s show we’re so happy to have with us Mr. Mahesh Shah who’s the Executive Vice President and Chief Product and Technology Officer at CDK Global.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Welcome into the show, Mahesh.
Mahesh Shah:
Hey, thanks Jim. Thanks for having me.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure. Let’s dive right in here. CDK in partnership with Lyft and Hyundai is rolling out Haler. Tell us about what that initiative is all about.
Mahesh Shah:
Basically what it’s about is it’s about providing a ride share service to any customer that comes into a dealership through Lyft. As a customer walks in and they’re getting their car serviced, we’ve all experienced it, where you have to go through and get a shuttle service or a loaner car. What this does is it eliminates all of that. It allows the dealer to facilitate the ride share for the customer, get them to where they need to go, send them a text so that they can trigger a Lyft return at any point, or to go anywhere else if they wish. They don’t even need to have the Lyft app. It’s all integrated and they can decide to give this out to the customer for free, through maintenance. We have lots of different scenarios that allows the dealer to manage that whole experience.
Mahesh Shah:
The whole intent is to make it really convenient for the person who’s coming in for service. For the most part, I would say our dealers are generally managing that cost as it goes through so that the customer can go and do what they need to do without the need for a loaner or a shuttle service, which can sometimes be inconvenient for the person coming in.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
How does providing service customers with transportation improve the customer experience?
Mahesh Shah:
I think it’s just a matter of eliminating friction for them. As people need to go places, the more it moves away from the normal way that they operate, the more friction is created in that whole experience. If they have to get on a shuttle and wait for a scheduled ride, it’s very inconvenient for them in terms of where they’re going. And candidly, it’s also a more complex operation for the dealership to manage as well in terms of scheduling people that have to come in, where they’re going to go, and how they’re going to manage that.
Mahesh Shah:
Today I would say ride share, especially Lyft, is a common thing for almost everybody to go do. I can’t think of anybody who hasn’t used Lyft and so we’re basically integrating some of the simple things they do in their daily life, into the experience as they come into a dealership.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
It’s not a lot of fun for the dealer either to have a tremendous amount of loaner cars in their program. That can be a very costly expense for them.
Mahesh Shah:
It’s expensive for them and for those that opt for a shuttle, there’s also expense there. I think ultimately they care about the customer experience and if the customers are happier and it’s simpler for them to move about their daily life so that it’s not something that slows them down when they have to bring their car in. I think it’s also better for the dealership because a lot of people don’t bring their car in or they delay on bringing their car in because sometimes it’s a little inconvenient for them and they’ll wait a little bit if they know they have to wait for a shuttle or things like that and the more we make it easy for people to come in when they need to get stuff done and that it doesn’t impair their life in any way, I think the better it is for both parties.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Ride share companies were originally seen as the nemesis to automobile dealers. There were a lot of dealers out there that felt, uh oh, these programs are going to take money out of our pocket because people may just choose to use ride share companies versus purchasing an automobile. What’s your take on that? It looks to me like you’ve satisfied two elements here.
Mahesh Shah:
I actually think it’ll balance out because the person who’s driving the ride share, the vehicle, is also a customer. They’re buying vehicles as well. What we’re seeing is they’re on average more miles being driven per vehicle and you might get it spread out a little bit more in terms of higher concentration of people buying and so you might see a slight decline. I’m not sure the data’s a little inconclusive right now. But one thing is for sure we are seeing miles being driven going up, which by the way is good for everybody. It provides convenience for people and it generates more economy for the dealerships, especially for their service work that they do for these dealerships, and it gives people that are driving these cars, something as well, some economy there.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And this really helps out in a very large way with regard to enhancing the overall customer experience, right?
Mahesh Shah:
Yes, absolutely. I personally think that’s going to be critical. Everybody has certain expectations and that consumer grade capability in experience is going to continue to be really, really important.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, that’s for sure.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Mahesh Shah, Executive Vice President, Chief Product and Technology Officer at CDK Global, want to thank you so much for joining us on CBT news.
Mahesh Shah:
Thank you so much, Jim.
CBT Automotive Network, the number one most watched network in retail automotive. This has been a JBF Business Media production.
