if only local business worked like web 2.0

last week a tree branch fell on my poor little honda accord (yes i have one too). it is a great car. but in trying to get it fixed, i am wishing that the car industry, and more specifically the auto repair industry worked a little more like web 2.0.

-i would have been able to schedule an appointment online, so that the parts were already ordered, instead of being told that they couldn’t get the parts until next week.

-i would have had a competent person that i could chat with, even after hours or on the weekend.

-it would be open on saturdays. (which if you work all day, how do you ever get stuff fixed?)

-the company would have had an informative website with prices, that we could agree on before the service took place.

-i wouldnt have to compromise service, or price to get it done quickly.

…and most importantly, i could have had a working car.

imagine this process:

tree falls on car,

i decide not to claim with insurance, because i find three places that i can get the work done online that night at 2:30 when it happened… all for less than my deductable. i check out the services and repairs that are needed, and at 8:00AM they let me know when they can come pick up the vehicle and bring it back to me fixed. they can even offer a rental car for my disposal if i really need it. i would have paid online as soon as the service was scheduled, so i don’t have to go to their shop, which then can be anywhere, because they don’t have to make it convenient for customers. (cheaper rent, less vinyl furniture, etc…) it really wouldn’t be that hard to imagine. but it just takes one person to make it happen. (someone please do this in atl.)

but thanks to non-web-savvy repairmen with no online presence, i still have a spiderweb in my windshield that makes me leave a message with Gwen Stefani because she would still be walking through it.

yetty