As the Honda Car dealerships have high daily customer and vehicle traffic, the top priority was to enhance the quality of customer services. Moreover, the dealership outlets needed the solution to take into account that they usually open from morning to evening, and light intensity can affect camera image clarity.

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

The Solution

The 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 can affect 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, according to Vivotek, be over-exposed or indistinguishably dark.

For this project, Vivotek cooperates with partner Forcemedia to integrate PMC’s Vehicle Vision license plate recognition system, which captures images of license plates through the camera and connects with Honda Cars’ internal customer information management system for real-time display of the customers’ purposes of visit and related records of service personnel; when customers come into the store, sales representatives can immediately welcome them through the intercom, or even usher them to their designated seats in the reception hall, gaining simultaneously knowledge of their waiting time and progress. Through smooth recognition of customer background information, the service traffic flow can be significantly optimised 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 tailored security solutions for the 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. “The Vivotek IP9172-LPC license plate recognition camera captures clear images and is capable of precise recognition, which allows 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.