CASE STUDY. Raising Airbag Recall Repair Rates

Transcription

1 CASE STUDY Raising Airbag Recall Repair Rates

2 A recall of defective airbags affecting millions of cars from nearly two dozen brands offers an interesting comparative study on how well the automakers handled the unprecedented challenge. With the onus on automakers to manage the recall effort and remedy the problem, one major automaker stood out for its advanced use of data and communications to significantly increase repair rates.

3 INCREASING THE REPAIR RATE More than 46 million vehicles in the U.S. were equipped with airbags that could potentially explode spontaneously under too much pressure. The faulty airbags posed a wide-scale safety risk to U.S. motorists, causing serious injuries and even deaths. With so many lives at stake, automakers were under intense pressure from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to make sure remedies happened quickly. NHTSA issued a coordinated remedy order (CRO) to automakers that set forth the requirements and obligations for remedying air bag inflators in their cars, trucks, and SUVs. The goal for every automaker was to achieve a 100 percent repair rate. But if tracking down millions of current vehicle owners with accuracy wasn t daunting enough, contacting them and convincing them to bring their cars in for service made the goal increasingly difficult. To make things more complex, automotive recalls have hit record highs in the past two years, resulting in increased recall fatigue among consumers. The used car tracking service, Carfax, estimates that there are more than 36 million cars on the road with unaddressed recalls. Data was the biggest problem. Automakers, as well as NHTSA, rely almost solely on Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) to track ownership of affected vehicles. Automakers historically used a singlesource, public data provider to manually verify VINs. The problem with this approach is that the data can t be trusted to accurately identify the true vehicle owner, or if the car is even currently on the road. Some cars are re-sold privately. Some are stolen. Others end up in salvage yards due to accidents. Some end up in commercial fleets. Others are re-sold into neighboring countries. And some remain unsold on dealer lots.

4 The Total Removed Solution improved repair rates from 45% to more than 77%.

5 BETTER DATA, BETTER RECALL The automaker struggled with this challenge as well, relying at first on limited VIN data and manual outreach efforts to try to reach possible owners with inconsistent results. As with its competitors, the company achieved less than desirable remedy rates with this approach. The company then turned to Stericycle Expert Solutions, the nation s #1 recall specialist, to help improve its information accuracy and meet its public safety obligations. Having managed automotive recalls for more than 15 years, Stericycle Expert Solutions had developed a first-of-its-kind data collection and stakeholder outreach system called Scrapped, Stolen, and Exported Total Removed Solution, which integrates a variety of complex data sets to precisely target the right vehicle owners and improve engagement. The company s proprietary data management solution has been proven to improve customer awareness, ensure accurate reporting, and improve recall remedy rates. By removing scrapped, stolen, and exported VINs, the automaker immediately experienced a repair rate improvement from 45 percent to more than 77 percent using the Stericycle Expert Solutions Total Removed Solution. The net result is vehicle ownership data that is highly refined and trustworthy. It paints a more accurate picture of where each vehicle under recall is located. It enables automakers to target their outreach efforts much more efficiently and achieve higher remedy rates.

6 Stericycle Expert Solutions also built on its data accuracy with a proven customer outreach process to further improve compliance. The ACCELERATE Outreach Program utilized multichannel communications to keep vehicle owners informed of the airbag issue and connected to service providers. It provided regular tracking throughout the recall process while also revealing insights into repair rates. Using a variety of data sources means that automotive OEMs don t have to waste time chasing the wrong owners or vehicles that are no longer relevant to the recall. We pour through complex data sets, including data on scrapped, stolen, or exported VINs, to precisely target the right customers and improve engagement. Our unique data management processes maximize customer awareness, ensure accurate reporting, and improve repair rates. Wayne Mitchell, Director of Automotive Solutions

7 CRITICAL RECALL SUCCESS FACTORS Understanding of the complexities involved Scalability, experience, and knowledge Flexibility, responsiveness, and perseverance A trusted partner with the recall reflexes to act quickly & effectively

8 We protect what matters. StericycleExpertSolutions.com 2018 Stericycle, Inc. All rights reserved.