Capitalize On Every Opportunity

Every dealership is trying to capitalize on every opportunity that drives into their service department, and I always ask myself if they are doing it the right way? What I mean is this; are there some dealerships that are overcharging for the parts and services they sell with the hopes of capitalizing on a few customers OR, are dealerships price shopping their competitors and advertising BEST PRICE or BEST VALUE SERVICING. I would rather have VOLUME in my department and make a respectable profit then struggle everyday to fill my shop.

There are a couple of ways to price shop your competitors. The first way is to utilize your BDC call center and have your BDC mystery shop your direct competitors. This usually means one or two other same brand dealers and at least two aftermarket independent shops. The second way to shop your competitors is to hire an outside firm to shop your competition for you. There are numerous firms that perform this service advertised on the web. The one I have used and experienced accuracy and prompt service was by a company called INTELICHEK. David Swan is the owner of InteliChek and can be reached at www.intelichek.com for more service information.

It is imperative that you have accurate tracking of your competitor’s prices for their service or product offered. I highly recommend outsourcing this critical component of your marketing strategy to a professional company that can get the job done competently and quickly. By outsourcing this procedure, it will allow you and your BDC to spend more time booking your current clients in for regular scheduled service as well as allowing you to concentrate on your declined services calls. I strongly recommend outsourcing to build you servicing pricing structure.

One dynamic way to increase your marketing initiatives is by retrieving as many email addresses as possible. Email marketing is the number one source of dealer marketing and it is growing by leaps and bounds monthly. With the prices of postal service and telemarketing skyrocketing out of control and impacting your marketing budgets, email is the most cost effective medium for your marketing initiatives today. Some handy tips on email collection are:

• Every communication point with your customers needs to start or end with the request of a current email address.

The best times to address the question of email collection processes in the dealership are during the following customer interaction scenarios:

• Sales lead in the showroom during deal write up
• F & I when closing the deal
• Service drive when writing up the RO
• Retail parts counter when selling the part
• Cashier during point of sale contact

If you request customers email addresses in all customer communication scenarios and provide reasons why the customer should release the information to you, the better chance you have of obtaining it. Some common areas to list the request for email addresses are:

• Within your direct mail pieces – provide written reasons why you require it.
• Stipulated on your web page.
• BDC call contact – ask for the email address.

Address the need and the reasons for customer email addresses on a poster in your dealership along with a statement that your business protects the privacy of its customers and does not sell email lists to second or third party companies.

Get collecting and get marketing!

David