IKEA is on my mind. It should be on yours.
I moved recently. And it got me thinking about remote service and the opportunity for dealers.
We needed to get a bunch of new beds, as our move is combining two families a la Brady Bunch (I’m guessing most dealers are of an age to get that pop culture reference — lots of Universus staff members are too young). Two adults. Five kids. Two dogs. One cat. Yes, the cat runs the shop, as is right and proper.
So we headed to IKEA and bought a bunch of beds. To maximize storage, we bought a bunch of beds with drawers, which in IKEA’s world translates into many boxes with many, many parts. Given all the other demands on time, we decided not to assemble them ourselves, so we inquired about IKEA providing not just delivery, but construction services.
And that’s how I learned about TaskRabbit.
IKEA outsources the assembly to TaskRabbit, which I interacted with entirely through their iPhone app. I explained what I needed, found a choice of contractors with ratings and experience details, booked and paid for it. I never had any human interaction with anyone from TaskRabbit, only with the contractors who are available on the app.
Welcome to yet another instance of the gig economy. Anyway, this is what got me thinking about automotive service.
What if I could book my vehicle service as easily as I booked the assembly of a bunch of beds? What if I got an email from TaskRabbit proudly proclaiming they had added vehicle service to the app? What if TaskRabbit had been working in the background to aggregate dealers onto the app so I could have the best of both worlds: the convenience and ease of booking through TaskRabbit, and the assurance of dealing with a local franchised dealer?
I don’t care what anyone says about satellite service, the costs involved, the “we’ve tried it before and it didn’t work” that I’ve heard on more than a few occasions. It is coming, at scale. I’m sure of it.
And I can’t imagine it would be hard at all to expand or repurpose the lines of code in the TaskRabbit app to exactly that.
As you have seen many times in these pages over the past few months, the Global head of IKEA will be speaking at the CADA Summit in Toronto in February. They are a company that is absolutely worth watching and learning from.
I’ve been involved with the CADA Summit since its inception years ago. I have never felt as excited about the speaker line-up as I am about this year’s group. As we watch the industry continue to change at an ever-hastening pace, I have also never been as certain about the need for this event.
I hope to see you there in February, but don’t wait too long. It will sell out, and I already have my attendance confirmed. Is yours?
