Interview with Limvirak Chea, CEO and Co-Founder at Fixter

Fixter is the UK’s first end-to-end online car maintenance service, designed to make arranging MOTs, servicing your car or carrying out repairs as simple as ordering a takeaway. Offering a fully digital, transparent and stress-free experience, with world-class customer service, Fixter makes car maintenance easy. Customers can simply book high-quality car maintenance online, without even having to leave the house.

Fully insured drivers are sent to pick up the customer’s car and drop them back all on the same day. With the use of technology, we have increased garage productivity and are able to provide extraordinary customer experiences at the same time. Since our launch in 2017, we have already expanded to 50+ cities across the UK and helped thousands of car owners get honest, convenient and affordable car maintenance services.
 
 

 

Why did you decide to start the company?

 
The idea of Fixter really came from my own experience as a car owner with a busy schedule. Car maintenance always seemed time-consuming and difficult to me. I never knew much about cars and I didn’t know where to start with maintaining my car properly.

I once had an experience when I booked my car into my local garage, but when I showed up my appointment wasn’t in their system because the person I had spoken to had forgotten to put the booking in Outlook, so I had to go home. I couldn’t find an easy and suitable solution for myself online and that’s how Fixter was born.

Since everything is online nowadays, I wanted to create a future-proof platform that can build a bridge between customers and garages, with the end goal of making car maintenance as easy as ordering a takeaway. We are working towards a digital transformation in the car maintenance industry in order to create a convenient solution for the generations to come.
 

How has the business evolved during the pandemic?

 
Fixter’s innovative service is particularly important to customers during the global pandemic. As the UK finds itself bound by strict Government guidelines, consumers are shifting online at an ever-increasing rate. Another crucial element being factored in is safety.

While many aspects of normal life have been put on hold, car maintenance is still very much needed to keep Britain moving. More than ever, privately owned cars are being used as safe and secure private ‘bubbles.’ Many of the most inspirational lockdown stories have been from local heroes using their cars to help the community. Some have delivered valuable aid to local food banks, whilst others have helped transport medical supplies to the front-line.

Even in day-to-day life, medical appointments and food shops remain essential to the population. Our contact-free, door-to-door service enables car owners to not just keep their car in good working order, but crucially, to protect themselves and those they care about by not making unnecessary journeys. We’re proud to have played our part in helping to keep Britain moving.

On an operational level, as millions of other businesses did across the world, we had to restructure with all of our employees working from home. The pandemic brought unprecedented challenges for the business to face but I’m proud of how we adapted during this uncertain time. The MOT extension was a major external factor that altered our projections for the year, but we still managed to achieve a 200% increase in year-on-year net revenues and look forward to an even more successful 2021.
 

What can we hope to see from Fixter in the future?

 
In the last couple of years, a lot of work has gone enhancing the customer journey we offer even further. In the next few years, we want to focus on creating a more profitable business for independent garages too. They are currently using a portal to communicate with us, that makes the whole experience easier for them and our customers. We aim for garages to be able to use the best of Fixter, throughout all of their operations and improve efficiency to run their garages.

We also recognise the dramatic rise of electrified cars, from plug-in hybrids to fully electric models, so have started working with independent garages to help prepare them for the growing shift. We are developing a digital Electrified Vehicle service sheet to ensure maximum transparency and will be upskilling mechanics to provide customers with the highest-quality, hassle-free service.

We’re focusing on securing funding for our international expansion. Having grown five-fold for the past three years in the UK, we have ambitions to replicate our successful business model throughout Europe in the next five to ten years.