Training and confidence key to TPMS success

Autogem is offering a TPMS training courses in order to help specialist get the most out of their equipment investments. With garage supplier Autogem reporting the widespread take up of its i-sensor solution (launched almost one year ago), there are now said to be hundreds of TPMS installations across the country. According to the company, i-sensors are being fitted at single owner operator sites, regional multi sites and also at some of the national chains. Some sites are said to be having “tremendous success” in selling i-sensors with a couple of sites crossing the 25 replacement sensors a month mark. Interestingly one of these sites is based in the north and the other based in the south, with completely different ownership structures with one being a single site business and the other a member of a national chain.

However Autogem joint managing director Prashant Chopra has also noticed that some sites are not nearly selling as many sensors as they could and are considerably below average market expectations. In addition to this, some sites sell very well and then suddenly slow down with their replacement sensor sales. After visiting these customers Autogem concluded that training and confidence ultimately remained the common denominator to success with the category. Autogem field trainers have trained over 1000 technicians to correctly diagnose, service or replace direct TPMS sensors and have done so at customer sites, conference facilities and also at our London head office but the category develops, staff change and customer in centre trainers can sometimes suffer a Chinese whisper affect when disseminating the training.

Online assessment

“To that end we are delighted to take our onsite training and convert it into an online assessment, training and self-certification platform. The assessment aspect allows us to see where a tyre technician’s knowledge exists and where it may need some revision, the training is made up of a variety of courses which include online videos and question and answer sessions that allow users to progress through and revisit at their convenience. We have the easiest TPMS tool with the widest available coverage and with our new training portal the ability to deliver and continuously redeliver where necessary the training to provide our customers the confidence to succeed”, Prashant Chopra commented.

Moving forward continuous development of the programme provision is seen as essential. When i-sensor was launched it could create 47 out of 51 OE sensors. Today it can clone and create 67 sensors and also allows for wireless reprogramming of sensor IDs and PC based reporting also.

The online platform is described as the first of several developments Autogem plans to provide in 2014.