Background

Honda Cars, the auto dealer under Honda Japan, has over 2,000 dealership outlets in Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa, offering main services of auto sales, inspection, and maintenance and repair. Surveillance system contracts at some dealership outlets are expiring, and it is necessary to integrate surveillance system with license plate recognition software to speed up service procedures, enhancing overall service quality; thus, Honda Cars has begun searching for a more suitable security system.

The Challenge

Since Honda Cars has high daily traffics of customers and vehicles, the top priority is to enhance the quality of customer service. Security systems currently available on the market have low levels of stability and lack automatic zoom and focus functions; moreover, the dealership outlets usually open from morning to evening, and intensity of light also affects the camera image clarity. Thus, installing unsuitable equipment will only increase deployed manpower and maintenance cost.

Furthermore, reception hall and M&R facility are located in two separate areas some distance apart, and it is difficult for service personnel to provide timely assistance when the store is busy; even with service appointments made in advance, customers may not get immediate attention when they arrive at the store, which has led to increasing number of complaints, affecting store reputation.

The Solution

VIVOTEK IP9172-LPC license plate recognition camera is easy to install and rapidly captures clear images. Even at night when vehicles have lights on, which usually affects image clarity of license plates captured by cameras, this model can still maintain a high level of image clarity. In other words, in an environment of strong light contrast, the images this camera captures will not be over-exposed or indistinguishably dark. VIVOTEK IP9172-LPC license plate recognition camera offers high-quality video images.

VIVOTEK cooperates with partner Forcemedia to integrate PMC’s Vehicle Vision license plate recognition system, which captures images of license plate through the camera and connects with Honda Cars’ internal customer information management system for real-time display of customers’ purposes of visit and related records of service personnel; when customers come into the store, sales representatives can immediately welcome them through intercom, or even usher them to their designated seats in the reception hall, gaining simultaneously knowledge on their waiting time and progress. Through smooth recognition of customer background information, the service traffic flow can be significantly optimized to ultimately elevate overall quality of operations and level of customer satisfaction, offering the most hospitable service.

Results and Customer Feedback

VIVOTEK and partner Forcemedia tailor security solutions for auto dealers and have expanded the scope of service to dealers of other automakers across Japan in addition to Honda Cars, continually earning positive reviews. “VIVOTEK IP9172-LPC license plate recognition camera captures clear images and is capable of precise recognition, which allow us to provide smooth and high-quality services, significantly enhancing customer satisfaction. On the other hand, the camera captures images that are not easily affected by ambient light and there is almost no restriction when it comes to the spot of installation, which lowers the barrier and cost of installation,” said a system manager from PMC. VIVOTEK has currently expanded this security solution to over 20 dealership outlets in Japan and will continue to expand the scope of application in the future, elevating the service quality of local auto dealers.