Have you bothered to look at your own website or that of your competition lately? We all do a great job promoting new and used car sales on our web pages, yet we place the service tab somewhere on the home page. Since the service department sells the second, third and forth vehicles wouldn’t it be prudent to have something regarding your fixed operations on the home page to peak your customer’s curiosity?
When I studied various dealership websites around North America, I was stunned by the miniscule amount of dealerships that have an introduction to service staff. What a great way to promote your business and raise morale, have your staff represented on your website? Posting a few videos of your shop foreman or team leader explaining your repair processes or an advisor performing a vehicle walk around are powerful tools to attract new customers and a great way to coach your existing ones.
Why are we as an industry constantly posting coupons? Coupons are a great offering however why are we not utilizing our sales department to offer discounts? What if we develop, advertise and display signage that states, “We offer the best price and service - everyday”? Nothing! If dealerships posted that they have the best price and services and backed it up with additional 10% off servicing if the customer takes a test drive in one of your new vehicles, you are sure to sell more vehicles.
Customers who test drive a new vehicle will be so impressed with it, they will tell their family, friends and coworkers. This is marketing at its best. Advertise this feature right on your home page. Place your online appointment scheduler tab right on your home page - don’t make your customers jump through hoops to book the next appointment. Your customers want ease of serviceability from the use of the on-line scheduler through the service experience itself. Stop being old and out of date and start being BOLD, REFRESHING and GREAT!
The more you inform your customers that you have the best price and service, the more they believe it because they read it wherever they go within your establishment or when they visit you on your web page. Place posters in the service write up area, in the lounge, the coffee bar area and heck even post it in the showroom. The more you tell them the more it becomes reality. "Geez they MUST be the best priced, I read it everywhere I go".
Search through your database and find out the mileages that most vehicles are coming in for multiple services and package those services. For example if your customer base that keeps their vehicles four or five years and have high mileage vehicles that require brake, transmission, power steering and coolant flushes - package these services and bundle them together. Your technicians and the dealership will still make money and probably more of it due to the fact that there is overlapping labor. The tools are already out, equipment is out and therefore the task becomes easier. Sell more, make more and be seen as offering a deal… Bundle your services - large internet and cable companies spent millions to find out ways to make more money - learn from others -BUNDLE!
Tires! I personally love tires. Tires give you the ability to examine the vehicle in detail, sell brakes, front end repairs and perform alignments. Now I know what you are all saying in your heads right now, “Tires have the lowest gross profit margins in the service department”! You are right, they do! Yet tires enable you to offer a commodity that is always in demand and allows you the opportunity to inspect and up-sell additional work. Therefore my question is this, “Why do dealers try and make a profit on the tire sales”? Why not sell tires for just above cost and use them as your loss leader to entice YOUR customers into YOUR dealership. Advertise TIRES right on your home page! WHY NOT?
Express lube anyone? Dealerships that have express lube lanes have much higher retention rates then dealerships that have not incorporated this strategic offering in their lineup. Express lube also enables you to capture a segment that is most likely going to your competition, and this competition is not even your same brand competition. Your customers are frequenting the Jiffy Lubes, Midas’s and Goodyear stores because they have done the research and found that a large segment of their business is generated from performing rapid lube or express lube along with discount tire installations.
It doesn’t matter what your dealership decides to place in its advertising and marketing lineup, some of this MUST be on your dealership homepage to showcase your offerings and your uniqueness to your customers. Why be the same old dealership when new and exciting can win the day.
We are a business sector that prides itself on selling new, bold, fresh and unique products, such as the model lineups of our vehicles. We advertise that OUR vehicles have such and such benefits and features yet we don’t place a high priority on listing WHAT IT IS THAT WE DO up front and center on our dealership home page. To be unique and different entails doing more than the same old things we have always done. Isn’t doing the same old things over-and-over again expecting different results, the definition of insanity?
David
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Life is Fragile
When I turned on my television set and watched the horrific events unfold in Japan, my first thought was, “What is this movie” then reality set in that this was a real event unfolding live for the entire world to witness. It was strange to still see other non trivial, but deadly events unfold around the globe, such as Gadhafi killing his countrymen and I had a thought. When we really look into the human mind and the behavior we display as a collective species around the globe, the view from the outside really isn’t that awe inspiring at times.
I would like to state that I would personally like to see more charity from everyday people, possibly the events of this last week will awaken in people the kindness and the pleasantries that exist in everyone. Our society over the last forty years has become much to self centered and closed minded. We live in a me-me era and it is not getting better anytime soon.
I remember as a teenager in school being told that technology was going to make our lives better, easier and more relaxed, because we would have more time to do and experience things that were meaningful. To a certain extent the people who stated this, to all of us thirty some years ago were partially right. Technology has made our work easier however technology has also increased the speed that all we move. We are able to produce more, which gives us the ability to want and have more, but the wants and haves are all things.
These are inanimate objects that we fill our lives with and we are diluted to believe that we think these items will give us happiness. The things that mean the most are people and the experiences that each one provides the other. Learning lessons from others trials and tribulations is really what this life is all about, “personal development, growth and a commitment to help in a time of need”.
Technology has also enabled us to become much more complacent and alone within our own zone. We just don’t interact with people as much as our parents or grandparents did on a personal level. That face-to-face connection has receded and continues to fade away for the most part induced by the power of technology. We are all connected via Facebook, twitter and all of the other social networks yet we lack the ability to have a personal coherent conversation built upon self respect and respect for others because we have zoned out.
I have witnessed people having an argument at a shopping mall over the most ridiculous things. These people have no sense of proper interaction whatsoever. They become hostile and expose everyone around them to their violent language and perverse body and hand gestures. This is not what society was predicted to become! Yet unfortunately, here we are.
A recent study shows that text messaging has increased exponentially over the last two years and it has almost overtaken the spoken word. Have you taken the time to watch people interact with one another at a shopping mall, train station, restaurant or an airport? People who don’t really know one another really want to keep to themselves. Most times they couldn’t care less about you, your issues or your small talk. They want to be left alone. In a sense, this is a sad state of affairs we have gotten ourselves into. Don’t get me wrong, I love my I phone and all the other technological gadgets that we own, yet they are creating the ability for all of us to be impersonal with each other.
We saw what happened in Japan and yet the uprising and the killing still exists in the Middle East and elsewhere around the globe. It is great to see that countries around the world are stepping up to the plate and helping the Japanese people in one of the worst recorded disasters in history. If only we all had that same sense of charity within our own communities, places of work and our own countries.
If only people could really see how fragile life is, not just for someone else, but for us all. Maybe that would be the day that everyone would cry out in one voice that we need change, positive change and fast. Collectively, as a world we have been doing the same thing over and over again and we always expect different results, isn’t that the definition of insanity?
People need to start showing more respect to one another, use proper etiquette and exude pleasantries towards one another. I liken our society to a sports team in disrepair. You cannot win games if there is constant infighting. Teams that share together, pray together, eat together and speak about positive things together, yes these are the teams that succeed and win the day. This is what we as a society needs to be doing now to get back on the right track. Again this starts at home and needs to flow through the workplace and into our communities to make a verifiable difference.
Technology has given us some great advances such as the ability to have early warning monitors to warn people of impending disaster as well as the ability to know that something as devastating as this is happening instantaneously somewhere on the earth. Just think, five-hundred years ago nobody would be at the aid of Japan if this disaster would have occurred, they would be on their own. Nobody would know and therefore nobody would care!
We could all benefit as a private citizen, a community, a workplace, a state or a country if people could be charitable, giving, kind, receptive and pleasant to everyone they come into contact with, do unto others what you would want done unto you. Use technology for all of its benefits but don’t be caught up in the stigma that is starting to permeate our society of being along, ultimately that could spell disaster for each and every one of us!
David
I would like to state that I would personally like to see more charity from everyday people, possibly the events of this last week will awaken in people the kindness and the pleasantries that exist in everyone. Our society over the last forty years has become much to self centered and closed minded. We live in a me-me era and it is not getting better anytime soon.
I remember as a teenager in school being told that technology was going to make our lives better, easier and more relaxed, because we would have more time to do and experience things that were meaningful. To a certain extent the people who stated this, to all of us thirty some years ago were partially right. Technology has made our work easier however technology has also increased the speed that all we move. We are able to produce more, which gives us the ability to want and have more, but the wants and haves are all things.
These are inanimate objects that we fill our lives with and we are diluted to believe that we think these items will give us happiness. The things that mean the most are people and the experiences that each one provides the other. Learning lessons from others trials and tribulations is really what this life is all about, “personal development, growth and a commitment to help in a time of need”.
Technology has also enabled us to become much more complacent and alone within our own zone. We just don’t interact with people as much as our parents or grandparents did on a personal level. That face-to-face connection has receded and continues to fade away for the most part induced by the power of technology. We are all connected via Facebook, twitter and all of the other social networks yet we lack the ability to have a personal coherent conversation built upon self respect and respect for others because we have zoned out.
I have witnessed people having an argument at a shopping mall over the most ridiculous things. These people have no sense of proper interaction whatsoever. They become hostile and expose everyone around them to their violent language and perverse body and hand gestures. This is not what society was predicted to become! Yet unfortunately, here we are.
A recent study shows that text messaging has increased exponentially over the last two years and it has almost overtaken the spoken word. Have you taken the time to watch people interact with one another at a shopping mall, train station, restaurant or an airport? People who don’t really know one another really want to keep to themselves. Most times they couldn’t care less about you, your issues or your small talk. They want to be left alone. In a sense, this is a sad state of affairs we have gotten ourselves into. Don’t get me wrong, I love my I phone and all the other technological gadgets that we own, yet they are creating the ability for all of us to be impersonal with each other.
We saw what happened in Japan and yet the uprising and the killing still exists in the Middle East and elsewhere around the globe. It is great to see that countries around the world are stepping up to the plate and helping the Japanese people in one of the worst recorded disasters in history. If only we all had that same sense of charity within our own communities, places of work and our own countries.
If only people could really see how fragile life is, not just for someone else, but for us all. Maybe that would be the day that everyone would cry out in one voice that we need change, positive change and fast. Collectively, as a world we have been doing the same thing over and over again and we always expect different results, isn’t that the definition of insanity?
People need to start showing more respect to one another, use proper etiquette and exude pleasantries towards one another. I liken our society to a sports team in disrepair. You cannot win games if there is constant infighting. Teams that share together, pray together, eat together and speak about positive things together, yes these are the teams that succeed and win the day. This is what we as a society needs to be doing now to get back on the right track. Again this starts at home and needs to flow through the workplace and into our communities to make a verifiable difference.
Technology has given us some great advances such as the ability to have early warning monitors to warn people of impending disaster as well as the ability to know that something as devastating as this is happening instantaneously somewhere on the earth. Just think, five-hundred years ago nobody would be at the aid of Japan if this disaster would have occurred, they would be on their own. Nobody would know and therefore nobody would care!
We could all benefit as a private citizen, a community, a workplace, a state or a country if people could be charitable, giving, kind, receptive and pleasant to everyone they come into contact with, do unto others what you would want done unto you. Use technology for all of its benefits but don’t be caught up in the stigma that is starting to permeate our society of being along, ultimately that could spell disaster for each and every one of us!
David
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Great News – Need Reviews
Currently the economy seems to be picking up, albeit slowly. The automotive sector sold more cars the first few months of 2011 then the same period the last two years. Hiring is up which means more eligible consumers are entering the vehicle purchasing market. Used vehicle sales are driving the market forward with fuel economy vehicles paving the way to future record automotive sales. With fuel prices rising due to the continued unrest in the Middle-East, I think it is fair to say that fuel efficient vehicles are going to drive the market over the next two to three years; at least until consumer fears are alleviated.
With all this good news you are probably asking yourself when the bad news comes, with more good news, I don’t have any bad news to share. To continue taking advantage of the markets upswing, you should spend some time examining your processes and procedures and perform a review of what is and isn’t working for you, at your particular store.
Your service and parts department generate the largest revenues in the facility, so work on establishing procedures that will enhance your customers experience and raise it to a higher level of excellence. First time customers from a new or pre-owned purchase will choose to stay servicing with you more readily, if you offer them an experience that exceeds their expectations. Review your current CSI reviews and find out what your customers truly say about your level of servicing. Pick each CSI question apart and find the cause of concern with each one. The most important item on your list is FIX IT!
Get ready for the next wave of vehicle purchasing and servicing and ride to a larger profit margin by reviewing and fixing your department while you have time now to make the changes. Don’t wait until you become too busy to make the changes, you will never catch up. Unfortunately a lot of dealerships will wait until their competition has exceeded them on every level before changing. There is a saying that sums up my thoughts, “Change NOW - before you HAVE TOO”!
David
With all this good news you are probably asking yourself when the bad news comes, with more good news, I don’t have any bad news to share. To continue taking advantage of the markets upswing, you should spend some time examining your processes and procedures and perform a review of what is and isn’t working for you, at your particular store.
Your service and parts department generate the largest revenues in the facility, so work on establishing procedures that will enhance your customers experience and raise it to a higher level of excellence. First time customers from a new or pre-owned purchase will choose to stay servicing with you more readily, if you offer them an experience that exceeds their expectations. Review your current CSI reviews and find out what your customers truly say about your level of servicing. Pick each CSI question apart and find the cause of concern with each one. The most important item on your list is FIX IT!
Get ready for the next wave of vehicle purchasing and servicing and ride to a larger profit margin by reviewing and fixing your department while you have time now to make the changes. Don’t wait until you become too busy to make the changes, you will never catch up. Unfortunately a lot of dealerships will wait until their competition has exceeded them on every level before changing. There is a saying that sums up my thoughts, “Change NOW - before you HAVE TOO”!
David
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