Who is Schloss-Garage?

Schloss-Garage, with its locations in Winterthur and Bonau, is the largest brand representative for Abarth and Alfa Romeo in Switzerland. Spread over the two locations, Schloss-Garage employs around 20 people, who have been able to achieve various successes in recent years, such as the Eurotax Award: for the best used car dealer in Switzerland 2019.

The family business is already managed by the fourth generation of the Maier family, who have been able to distinguish themselves from the competition with innovative approaches since the very beginning. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that Schloss-Garage dealt with the new topic of car subscription at an early stage.

How has the demand for cars changed and what challenges does it pose for Schloss-Garage?

With the appearance of new technical possibilities, the demand of customers is also changing. For example, digitalization is changing the car sales market with new emerging types of car ownership such as car subscription. This new form of rental confronts Schloss-Garage with various challenges:

• New sales channel on the Internet: Digitalization is changing buyer behavior and more and more transactions are being made on the Internet. This trend is most noticeable for consumer goods, but is also steadily gaining momentum for more expensive goods.

• High administrative effort: The processing of bookings causes a considerable amount of work, as a wide variety of documents have to be checked and made available. In addition, support for existing customers is another major financial factor.

• Large number of competitors: The car subscription market is growing rapidly and all major players in the industry are positioning themselves and investing in specialized companies in order to stay ahead of their competitors.

Meanwhile, to meet these challenges, there are only two solutions. On the one hand, Schloss-Garage could have developed a system itself and hired additional staff. On the other hand, there is the possibility to tackle these challenges with a specialized partner like CARIFY AG.

How can the Schloss-Garage benefit from the cooperation with CARIFY?

The cooperation with CARIFY has various advantages for Schloss-Garage. For example, the free platform offers various tools that reduce the administrative effort for the garage to a minimum. The services offered include:

• Correspondence with customers: All communication with customers is handled by CARIFY AG, this saves the garage costs for staff and brings the possibility to use resources for the main business.

• Payment processing and credit check: A detailed credit check is performed for each booking and payment is secured by CARIFY AG. For Schloss-Garage, the complicated accounting process is eliminated and the risk is transferred to CARIFY AG.

• Handling of damages: CARIFY takes over the entire handling of damages with the insurance company and the customer. This allows the garage to focus on repairs and generate after-sales revenue.

• Attractive platform: The platform has a large reach and therefore appeals to many potential customers. This minimizes the costs for advertising and at the same time the own products are proposed to a large target group.

• Generate own used cars: New cars can be advertised on the platform and by renting them out, they are brought into a more attractive price segment and subsequently sold better.

• Operation of the dealer profile is very easy: The price can be determined for each vehicle individually and if a large number of vehicles is to be made available, this can be done simply via a file upload. As an additional service, the CARIFY account management team is always available to answer questions and guide them through all processes.

What is the conclusion of the Schloss-Garage from the cooperation with CARIFY?

The head of sales at Schloss-Garage, Nico Gehrig, describes the partnership with CARIFY as follows: "There is a great team behind CARIFY, with whom we are in close exchange and the product is constantly developing!" Since the launch in August 2020, the following key figures have been achieved:

• Total number of subscriptions : 250

• Total number of customers : 230

• Active subscriptions: 151

• Vehicles on platform: 119 

• Monthly turnover = approx. CHF 75'000

• Average turnover per car / month: CHF 500 

Schloss-Garage has proven within two years that the business case car subscription works for them as a garage and that CARIFY offers them the optimal conditions to keep the process as simple as possible while maintaining a high quality standard.

How do I become a CARIFY partner?

Becoming a partner is super easy. Just contact us via our website or by phone and let our sales team advise you. The only things you need to bring along are vehicles and the desire to contribute to shaping the mobility of tomorrow.

Do not hesitate and become a subscription provider today!

CARIFY AG, Weberstrasse 3, 8004 Zurich, Switzerland 

https://www.carify.com

+41 43 588 22 09