The concept behind a new "dial-a-battery" service seems simple enough: customers call a phone number and their vehicle's battery is replaced in less time than would be needed to tow the vehicle to a garage.
But rolling the scheme out across the Emirates and in other Gulf countries will prove challenging.
Asad Badami, the managing director of A-Map, which oversees the service and distributes spare automotive parts, discusses his strategy.
q&a
q Was the dial-a-battery concept born here? It seems to have been imported to the UAE.
a You could say that. Once we started doing our research we did see the service was available elsewhere. It was something I thought of, because we're in the automotive industry, and when I was sitting with friends and colleagues … you'd hear how difficult it is to get a battery in your vehicle. The idea kept popping in my mind: there has to be something out there, because we're in an era where things are getting easier.
q How exactly will the service work?
a Technicians are dispatched to a customer's location … and a new battery is provided with warranty for any potential faults. There's a myth only wealthy people use services such as these, but we want to provide it for the entire population.
q You are aiming to launch the service soon in Dubai before expanding to other emirates next year. What road bumps do you foresee having to navigate?
a We're ironing out internal issues and making sure everyone is competent enough to handle clients, and not jumping into things quickly. We've done market research for at least six months [and] surveys to see the demand for this. At this point, we're able to make sure we can cater to demand. But you have to realise this is a concept that has not been in the [local] market before.
q So what will your marketing efforts include?
a We have a marketing campaign which will be rolled out in [the first quarter] next year. Our agency is already working on it. We'll go through print media, radio, social media. We are already doing our Twitter and YouTube pages.
q About a year from now you are planning to push into countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Is that a realistic expansion target?
a It is very much realistic. A study has been done, of course. Places like these are similar to the UAE, where the road network is not that huge and people do require these services. The buying power of these people is very strong. Our target is to create one successful model, and it's about replicating that into these countries.
* Neil Parmar
