Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) will be having a service workshop for its vehicles every 15km to 20 km in the country. At present, it has 4,000 touch points in 1989 towns and cities, thus making it the largest service network of any car maker in the country.

The company has added 208 service workshops in this fiscal. “The country has 5500 talukas and we are covering almost 98 per cent of these talukas apart from some hilly terrains in the north-east,” said Partha Banerjee, executive director (service), MSIL.

Besides having the largest retail network among all the car companies, Maruti has an an end-to-end digital sales platform. “The customer journey has been digitised but the vehicle journey cannot be digitised. So we are bringing the service part closer to the customer so that if he has any problem with the vehicle it can be addressed quickly and efficiently,” said Banerjee.

Customers can digitally book their servicing needs, create a job card, book a pick-up and drop of his vehicle digitally. “Once at the workshop, if the vehicle needs additional work or repairs, we upload videos with details and send to the customer for his approval.”

Of the 1989 towns and cities covered, most are in the urban areas. “In the rural areas we can have a brick and mortar workshop only if the area crosses a threshold of car park. We need to have a car park of 600 vehicles to have a physical brick and mortar workshop,” said Banerjee. In those areas where the company does not have a workshop, vehicles are repaired by Service on Wheels, a mobile service station.

In a move to offer faster on-road assistance for customers’ cars, a first-of-its-kind integrated service initiative, the Quick Response Team on bikes has been rolled out in 249 cities.