Is your auto dealership’s service department generating at least half of your gross profit? It should be. But, service centers need the right mix of customer support, transparency, technology, speed and efficiency, and loyalty in order to maintain that kind of benefit for the business. If you’re keeping up with what auto buyers want—and establishing long-term relationships with return buyers—then investing in a service lane that delivers is a no brainer.
1 – 5 Digital Strategies to Drive New Business into Your Dealership Service Center
V12 DATA: Your dealership’s service center should fuel more than 50% of your entire gross profit. That being said, what amount of your marketing budget goes into promoting your service center? Car owners are keeping their vehicles longer and longer. And, a perceived bias against dealership service centers isn’t helping. It’s time to focus.
2 – Ask Jim: A Service Focused Q&A
Digital Dealer: Vehicle inspections are an opportunity to enhance your service lane’s credibility, improve the customer service experience, and lay the foundations for future service opportunities. So, when should your service department have an inspection completed? Ask Jim Roche, SVP at XTime.
3 – Car Dealerships Use Data to Determine Service Customer Worthiness
Wards Auto: Your service customers fall somewhere on a spectrum from highly loyal to highly likely to defect. Spending the same amount of time, effort, and money to woo every prospect in an equal way would make sense if you didn’t have any data. But, of course, you do. Here’s how to be smart about making the most of your service lane data.
4 – Service-to-Sales Can Be a Gold Mine
Automotive News: What if a routine visit to the service lane turned into a transaction that resulted in a new car sale for your best customers? Sounds like the dream, right? It begins with building trust with your service team, because pursuing brand new customers from scratch costs your dealership more than you realize.
5 – Turn One-Time Visitors Into Lifelong Customers
Digital Dealer: Changing buying habits, combined with a shift in expectations from consumers, is placing a lot of pressure on your service lane. If your dealership delivers, though, you have the chance to make higher profits and win back future auto buyers by building a hyper-loyal buyer base. It’s a win-win (if you do it right).
Check back next week for more Drive to Success.
