Tag Archives: dealership for life

A Dealer’s Approach to Retention

We’re a talkative bunch at our Dealership and the thing we really enjoy are conversations we have

with our customers.  Sports, weather, and yes – even automobiles.  Over the years’ we’ve paid attention and even learned a thing or two from these conversations!  Vehicle owners tell us that keeping up with regular scheduled maintenance is the one thing that most find costly and inconvenient. They do understand how important this is to ensure safe and dependable transportation, but still find it hard not to feel this way. These conversations are what lead to the inspiration for our Lifetime program.  We decided we could help our customers feel a little better about taking good care of their cars.

Our Lifetime program was designed to make the “expense and inconvenience” of regular vehicle maintenance as friendly and convenient as possible and save our customers some money!  If we do our part and take care of them by saving time and money maintaining their car, we liked our chances that they will tell everyone about us. We looked at things this way …. it is the best advertising dollars we can spend. And we invest in the people who matter most – our Customers!  And so, our Lifetime service program was born……

With a New/Used vehicle purchase our customer is automatically enrolled in our exclusive program that provides these benefits at NO CHARGE!  It’s the way we do business.

Lifetime Oil Changes

Buying your next New/Used vehicle from us ensures that all your oil changes will be “on the house”!

Put another way…. Free!

Lifetime Tire Rotations

Replacing tires can be expensive, so we help extend their life by providing a complimentary tire rotation when you are in for an oil change.  We don’t want you to spend money on new tires any sooner than you have to……we’re sure you could use that money for other things!

Lifetime Car Washes

The oil changes will keep your vehicles’ engine clean inside, but we’re going to go one step further! We’ll help you keep the outside of your vehicle clean as well!  Just bring your vehicle by the dealership anytime we’re open and we will run it through our automated car wash.  Yep, you guessed it, we’re not going to charge you a thing — all your car washes are “on the house”!

Lifetime Engine Guarantee

When you see a vehicle on our lot, our Factory/ASE certified technicians have checked it over and we have confirmed it is mechanically sound and meets our requirements to be offered for sale — to an employee family member or a stranger.  One is as important as the other in our view. We know that we must stand behind what we sell ……. that’s just good business. It is how we have built our reputation. As part of our program we are now going to take this a step further than the typical dealership.  As the old saying goes….

” We are going to put our money where our mouth is!”

 

New/Used vehicles purchased from us are provided a Lifetime Engine Guarantee.  To enhance the value of the complimentary oil changes, periodically perform minimum levels of preventative maintenance on your vehicles’ fuel and cooling systems and we’ll stand behind the engine for as long as you own your car!

 

We are not here to sell you services you don’t need at prices that are not competitive.  That is not how we do business.  We are here to help you maintain your investment and manage your transportation costs by providing legitimate services at competitive pricing. Earlier we mentioned how expensive tires can be, well, so are vehicle engines!  Service industry data consistently shows that the primary cause of vehicle engine failures is the lack of regular preventative maintenance on one or all of an engines’ oil, fuel, and cooling systems.

 

We want to do our part to help you avoid this potential expense…… and it starts by providing you with complimentary oil changes. If you see value in our Lifetime Engine Guarantee, you can take it from there and stay on top of the fuel and cooling system maintenance.  Your choice either way. Regardless of what you decide, the oil changes are always complimentary.  Our Service Team can explain all details and benefits as well as answer any questions you may have regarding these services.  They will always keep you informed as your vehicle approaches the recommended mileage intervals of these services.

It’s that easy to have lifetime peace of mind when you buy and service with us.

 

Multi-point Vehicle Inspection

And finally, every time your vehicle is in for a complimentary oil change and tire rotation, we will also perform a multi-point vehicle inspection so we can keep you up to date on the overall condition of your car.  Update you on things like brake pad measurements, fluid levels & condition, tire tread depths, condition of hoses & belts, etc.  We don’t want you to be blindsided with an unexpected service bill or find yourself stranded along the side of the road because no one was paying attention.  We want to be your dealership for life so we understand we are in this together.  The fact of the matter is simple – vehicles require regular maintenance to keep them running efficiently, dependably, and safely.  The sooner we both understand the overall condition of your vehicle each time it is in our shop, the better we can help you develop a plan to keep you on the road and help you manage your transportation dollars.  This regular Multi-Point Vehicle Inspection allows us to do this.  For us it’s never been about finding service work to sell you, but rather about performing the services and repairs you truly need and priced competitively to keep your ownership experience as affordable and hassle free as possible.

 

That’s our story……it’s why we do what we do.  Thanks for allowing us an opportunity to share it with you.

So, What Makes You Different?

What Makes You Different

Every automotive dealer believes that they run the best operation and do everything a little better than their competition.  Is this true?  I have the pleasure of going to all regions of the country every week and walking into automotive stores that are new to me.  I can assure you, that for most these stores, the look, feel and customer experience is the same.  Fortunately for the consumer, most Dealers have done upgrades on their facilities.  These range from cosmetic and operational changes to complete remodeling of their facilities.  The automotive buying experience has gotten much better.  But, the fact remains that all Franchise stores look the same.  The only difference is the employees that work there and this is where the Dealer that wants to set the standard for customer satisfaction should look.

It is your employees that are the key to improving your profitability.  Most come to you with prior experience within the Industry and established skill sets that you hope will mesh with your operation and sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t.  It is up to you Mr. Dealer to give them an edge over their competition in both selling and servicing vehicles.  You need a volume driver that will put more customers in front of your sales and service staff.  All of you have tried direct mail and that is like a quick shot of adrenaline that fades quickly.  You probably have done invitational sales and special promotions that are, at best, giving you one opportunity to sell something. Notwithstanding the fact that these programs are expensive!

So, how can you be different?  What is something new that will put your operation ahead of the competition and give your employees the best opportunity to sell?  Putting together a well thought-out and comprehensive retention program is the driver you need and must have.  You must be willing to create a new culture within your organization and drive it from the top down. Your managers must buy-into your program or else you will never get it off the ground, therefore they should be involved in building the program. Since this is something new I recommend you find a professional company, with years of experience and proven results to partner with you in this endeavor.

Where do you start?  List all the things you currently do to enhance the customer experience.  Things that are often taken for granted but are an operational expense non-the-less.  A few that are obvious are shuttle service, pick-up and delivery, complimentary beverages/snacks, multi point inspections and alignment checks, a vehicle wash at each service visit, quick lanes, etc.  Then you build on these benefits by coming up with services your customers cannot resist, such as, complimentary oil changes and tire rotations, ding/dent repair, windshield repairs, etc.  These can be for specific periods of time and capped to control the expense. All of these will cause your customer to choose your store for their vehicle purchase.  Include a rewards component that will continue to drive your customer back for all the service and maintenance that are required on their vehicle.  Keeping them in your service lane practically guarantees they will purchase their next vehicle from you. The final piece that must be in place is a robust communications component, via email, that keeps your customer informed about their vehicle, the services required and rewards earned and any specials that you periodically offer.

All this sounds complicated but let me assure you it is not.  What is needed to make all this work seamlessly is data integration and software tools that are employee friendly.  This is provided by your partner. Of course, you must do your part by establishing a new culture and getting your management staff on-board from the planning stages to implementation and ongoing training.

– Roy Olive

Freebie Love

Freebie Love

I read an article recently in USA TODAY under the heading “ Expect some freebie love when buying a new car “ The article mentioned the things Dealers use to reward customers with, such as a free tank of gas, a second set of keys, floor mats, etc. The article pointed out special perks,  such as service vouchers, window tinting, manicures, fresh coffee and cookies.  It even listed some extravagant incentives,  such as big screen TV’s and AK 47’s!

This got me thinking about a couple of things: first, how far we have come as an industry in trying to create happy customers after we have sold someone a car.  I have seen it go from  service-drive waiting rooms,  nice furniture in the service lounge,  donuts to bagels and lunch counters,  big screen TV’s,  to wireless internet, all in an effort to build a pleasing environment for a previous sales customer; Secondly,  just how many of these rewards/perks are so poorly thought out.  What is the purpose? Are we just spending money to make someone happy or is there a strategy behind these efforts/expenses?

Most of the rewards/perks mentioned in the USA TODAY article are like throwing darts, you don’t know what the target is.  A reward is something someone earns for doing something YOU want them to do. A bribe is something we give to someone in advance, and then hope that the desired behavior follows.  A good example of this is when we are raising children. If you say, here is an ice cream so be quiet,  that is a bribe. On the other hand if you said, be quiet until we get home and I’ll give you an ice cream, that is a reward. The items mentioned in the USA TODAY article were all bribes.  Everything mentioned is nice but purposeless. If we are rewarding them just for buying a car, great but if our objective is to create a customer for life, it’s going to take a much better plan than a free tank of gas.

Airlines and hotels do rewards best. “Fly on our plane, spend money with us and we’ll give you points for future travel”. The same works with hotel rewards. They say, do the behaviors we want, book a room, spend money, and we will reward you with points you can use later. Rewards work much better than perks to create a long-term relationship with a customer who has purchased a car.

When setting up a rewards program the first thing you should decide is, what’s important? If it is the old theory of “just sell the car, there are 10,000 people moving into this state every month”, then just stick with perks. On the other hand, if you want to grow your business with a deep customer base that will support you in good times or bad, you may want to look at a program of rewards that will thank the customer every time they perform services with you.

Free floor mats are nice but for the same expense we could give them a rewards card that can keep them coming back to the dealership for years. We give customers plenty of reasons to buy here, price, payments, terms, but very few reasons to service here. Why not design a program to keep the customer in your service drive for the life of their purchase. JD Powers says that if you keep a customer in your service drive twice a year for the entire time they own their vehicle, they will repurchase 86% of the time at your store. Take a minute and let that sink in. What a great way to incrementally grow your business.

There are many ways to design a program to give a customer a reason to service their vehicle at our store. Some of the best proven practices include, lifetime engine, lifetime powertrain, oil change programs, rewards cards and customized prepaid maintenance packages. Many of which can be reinsured.  These options are not perks, bribes or hit/miss. All of these have proven to keep the customer coming back year, after year. They are trackable, effective, and profitable.

So before you spend 400.00 in marketing every month to get someone to walk in the door, think about designing a program with a long-range purpose behind it. Freebie love should last longer than a one night stand.  Design your vows and have a long-term marriage with all of your customers.

– Jack Garrity

Why you should visit NADA Booth #6115

NADA100 Booth #6115

Dealership for Life has been helping hundreds of dealerships across the country retain more customers every month with our customized marketing and retention programs that BRAND each dealership specifically!

What are you doing to retain your customers? Is your Service Department busy?

Stop by NADA Booth #6115 and see how your dealership can benefit from our full range of dealer branded retention and marketing products. Since introduced in 2004 DFL has become the leader in administering lifetime powertrain, lifetime engine, and rewards programs for dealers all over the US and Canada. Our process is designed around many of the best practices used in the loyalty business today. Some of which include, individual customer web sites, retention generated custom email campaigns, interactive customer mobile app, full DMS integration and monthly in-store sales/service training that is unmatched in the industry.

Dealership for Life is the most comprehensive marketing and loyalty program in the country. With territory exclusivity, DFL will provide the competitive edge over other dealers.

Enrolling over 30,000 new members for DFL Dealers each month and retaining an average of 80%. Over 2 Million since 2004!

“Our business has grown 320% in the last ten years due in large part to the loyalty and marketing programs designed by Dealership for Life. Their efforts and results have had a significant impact on every department in the dealership.”  Chip Doetsch – President of Apple Ford Lincoln

“Now that we have been on the program for ten years, it works as advertised. Eight out of ten customers come back to our service department compared to three or four for the average dealer.” Ken Shreve – President of Hamilton Hyundai

“Loyalty always starts with a great experience. Give them a reason to buy and a reason to stay. When your staff is offering great customer service and following the processes in place, customers would have no reason to defer their business to anyone else!” Jack Garrity – DFL Partner

“With over 30 years of experience in the automotive customer service and repair industry, Hamilton Auto Group achieved sales to service customer retention at over 90%, making it ranked #11 in the nation” Rick Manring – DFL VP of Fixed Operations

Stop by NADA100 Booth #6115 and talk to Chip, Ken, Jack, Rick, and the rest of the industry leaders.

Follow up to the Public Relations Specialist article

I have had a few calls from people about last month’s article. The main question was how you would go about setting up this type of program in a store. I will try to outline the steps I would take to develop the Apple Experience in the service drive.  What we suggested was a way to get more millennial and newly graduated college students into our business. How would you create a wow buying experience for the customer after they purchased their car? How would you set up a brand new profit center by developing a public relations manager? How would you get better penetration on F&I products? And finally how would you pay for it all. Let’ drill down on some of these things in a little more depth.

First step is to advertise for recent college graduates. Let them know this is a manager training program. You may want to hire more than one as the program grows. I would start their salary at 600.00 per week plus commission. In order to offset this cost I would have the company I buy my F&I products from contribute part of this expense. I’m sure they will have no problem with this because this person will be selling their products full time and the penetration should go through the roof. If you have an agent or customer Retention Company or really any other company that is doing business in your store they can contribute as well. All of these people will benefit in the long run and what’s wrong with someone paying the dealer to do business in their store.  Think about it, if that cost is split three ways you are hiring a college grad in a management position for 200.00 per week. If it is split with more vendors it will be even less. As this person gains more experience they can be worked into other departments and now your management program is up and running.

The second step is setting up the program. Everything we want sold should be laid out on an I-pad. When the customer comes in for service we pull them up and we have a list of what they purchased in F&I and when they bought their car. We will know when they go out of warranty, or when their service contract expires. Did they purchase a prepaid maintenance package or other products like key fob coverage, wheel and tire coverage or ding and dent. The public relations manager can then review the benefits of each product with the customer even showing a short video on the value add for any of these products. If the customer doesn’t have time for a review we can email a feature benefit presentation to them so they can look at it at their convenience.  Think of a business development center for your F&I products. The public relations manager will make a commission off of each product he sells.  We could also wrap it with an equity mining tool and he could be commissioned on car sales as well.

The third step would be the sale of accessories. Everyone wants to sell more aftermarket products. Tires, batteries, and wiper blades could be advertised in a target marketing campaign. Sell bed liners to truck customers, wheels, rain guards and window tint to customers on the anniversary of their purchase. The PR manager could get all the op code declines and develop a coupon campaign that could go out nightly. With all the information from the DMS at his fingertips he can easily spot when a customer is ready for an upgrade. All of this marketing could be done on-line with just a little help from a graphics department.

Even the question of who manages and trains the public relation/ manager trainee can be answered using one of your vendors. Any vendor who is currently in your DMS could easily work with your F&I provider to develop this program. They could hire, train and supervise and then when you decide to promote them to another department, they could do it again. It really is a low risk, high rewards proposition for any dealership.

The last step is truly the public relations part of the program. This person will be the liaison between the service department and all of the other departments in the store. If you have a rewards program, a customer website, a customer app, weekly coupons, a lifetime engine or powertrain component all of this can be reviewed and sorted out either in person or through email communication. This person’s success will be based on their ability to develop a good relationship with the entire data-base and develop your store into the customer’s dealership for life.

– Jack Garrity