i3 International Fuels The Kent Companies with its i3 Ai Analytics

For The Kent Companies, easy doesn’t mean simple.

The Kent Companies of West Texas prides itself on a strong family business culture. Its roots run deep in the community through a range of businesses that include Kent Car Wash, Kent Tire, Avis Lube, KentKwik, Mr. Payroll, Huddle House, Rustic Café and Baskin Robbins. This breadth of reach allows The Kent Companies to daily achieve their slogan of “making your life easy” for the customers of their various ventures in a variety of ways.

But delivering “easy” to customers and clients isn’t simple. When customers experience smooth and effortless service in their dealings with The Kent Companies, sophisticated methods are behind it. Efficiency is key. To identify efficiencies, The Kent Companies has recently been implementing video analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) amongst a range of sophisticated tools. The Kent Companies selected i3 International, a company that specializes in business compliance and efficiency tools using video surveillance.

i3’s Ai solution interprets surveillance video and delivers business data and insights that The Kent Companies then translates into enhanced performance. Understanding that people have long to-do lists, shortening the waiting times for routine errands such as car maintenance, is a priority. Initially, The Kent Companies completed a trial of i3’s AI solution at one of their Avis Lube outlets.The goal was to quantify the number of cars entering each bay and the time taken to service them. Technicians mounted i3’s wide angle cameras for the best view of service bays and queues. i3’s AI module then counted individual cars in the cameras’ views and tracked service times. This information, once collected, was then stored in i3’s Cloud Managed System. Managers could then easily review the efficiency of the Avis Lube operations via the Internet, using i3’s CMS solution, while the customers benefitted from shorter wait times.

The Kent Companies went on to apply i3’s technology to its convenience store operations as well, further facilitating better customer experiences. Video analytics in combination with door count, POS data and heat mapping allows The Kent Companies to further understand customer behavior and anticipate their needs. Managers can enhance their business and marketing operations by reviewing concise daily reports spotlighting the number of clients entering a store, the average sales and how long the customers stay. These statistics indicated to managers how to best schedule their staff during peak hours, where to place high-margin items for best exposure and when to train staff to suggest featured products and services to increase the average transaction amount.

Armed with i3’s Ai data, The Kent Companies were able to fine-tune their service model and become even more efficient. The Kent Companies found the i3 International systems so useful that the solution was rolled out to 14 additional Avis Lube stores and to 75 other locations. An easier life is on the horizon for the residents of West Texas when they deal with the Kent Companies.