Introducing Kwik Fit virtual tours with Google Maps Business View

Over the past two years, we’ve been busy creating 360 degree virtual tours of our fully refurbished, new format centres that will allow customers to take a look around their local Kwik Fit centre and see the wide range of equipment on offer.

If you’ve ever used Street View in Google Maps to look around your local community and wondered “wouldn’t it be great if you could look inside the buildings too,” well now you can do just that. Using Google Maps Business View we’ve been working with specialist photographers Striking Faces to create virtual tours which allow you to move off of the high street and into your local Kwik Fit centre using the standard Google Maps Street View application.

Creating a virtual tour

The images are shot using a full-frame Nikon camera shooting at 38 megapixels so that even the tiniest details can be seen. A fish-eye lense is fitted and a series of equi-rectangular shots are taken which are then stitched together to create a full 360 x 180 degree image. We take around ten of these shots covering all areas of the Kwik Fit centre which, when added to Google Maps lets you effectively walk through the entrance of the centre and explore the reception area, waiting room, tyre store and the vehicle workshop.

Quality Control

Shooting 360 degree photos at a busy Kwik Fit centre has its complexities. Little things like moving vehicles and even passing clouds can cause issues when the images are stitched together so creating a seamless 360 degree photo can take time. An occupational hazard of taking photos in a bustling workshop is that many of the images contain people and cars. We ask all customers for their permission before shooting to ensure they are comfortable with this but faces and number plates are blurred out in post-production anyway, as per Google’s privacy policy.

Here’s one we made earlier

We’ve already created virtual tours of over 100 of our centres with many more in the pipeline. Here are a few examples of the tours completed to date.

Kwik Fit Pontefract - Southgate:

Kwik Fit Stevenage - Argyle Way

Kwik Fit Reading - Richfield Avenue:

Next time you’re searching for your nearest Kwik Fit on Google Maps, if you see an orange marker, why not take a look inside.