Service Drive Magazine June 2015

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SERVICE DRIVE A CBT AUTOMOTIVE NETWORK PUBLICATION

MAGAZINE

June 2015

Volume 1, Issue 2

Entire contents ©2015 Service Drive. All Rights Reserved.

FIXATE ON

A SIX-STEP PROGRAM TO IMPROVE YOUR

YOUR FIXED ABSORPTION RATE

SALES MENTALITY JEFF COWAN ... see PAGE 12

SERVICE DRIVES CAN LEVERAGE SALES LEADS THAT DIDN’T GO ANYWHERE

This is one of the most critical service metrics; here are tips to manage it effectively. ... see PAGE 6

PETER MARTIN ... see PAGE 16

HEADER HERE CONTINUE

BELOW PINCHING PENNIES ONHEADER MARKETINGHERE SPEND FOR SERVICE BACKFIRES

AUTHOR HERE GLENN PASCH ... see PAGE 18

STRATEGIES TO LOCK IN SERVICE WORK

AFTER A CAR PURCHASE

AMY FARLEY

RECRUITING SERVICE TECHS Competition to hire people with technical and mechanical skills is always rugged, and we ask dealerships where they are hunting now. ... see PAGE 10

PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID Permit No. 1459 Pewaukee, WI

... see PAGE 20

CBT Automotive Network 5 Concourse Parkway Suite 2410 Atlanta, GA 30328

TRAINING OVERHAUL PAYS OFF Colorado dealerships’ training chief finds the job isn’t easy in the service drive, but their push for consistency delivers quantifiable results. ... see PAGE 8

ATTENTION Dealers, GMs, GSMs, Sales Managers, F&I Managers, Marketing Directors, Service Managers, Internet Managers, BDC Managers and Pre-Owned Managers

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O M N I

H O T E L

FEB 9-11, 2016

A T

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C E N T E R

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Dealers across the country rely on and trust NCM® to put their service department on a clear and solid path to profitability.

Through a combination of service-specific 20 Groups, indealership consultations, training, and innovative business intelligence tools, our team of experts can help provide you a solid plan for success.

Don’t wing it. Take your department and dealership to new grounds (and stay there).

Contact us to get started. ncmassociates.com info@ncm20.com 877.803.3631

20 GROUPS | EDUCATION | CONSULTING | BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE | TRAVEL SOLUTIONS

SERVICE DRIVE MAGAZINE

Letter from the editor  IT’S 7:15 P.M. YOUR SERVICE DRIVE SHUT DOWN FOR THE DAY A FEW MINUTES AFTER 7. A longtime customer of the dealership calls from the road on his cell phone, semi-frantic because the brake light has come on and the brakes are making an unflattering noise. His call goes into voice mail, not to be returned until 8 a.m. the next morning at best.

This happens uncomfortably often for dealership service departments. A DMEautomotive study of more than 8,500 after-hours and overflow calls for services at 172 dealerships found 20% of the calls came from loyal customers who account for 59 percent of all service revenue, and nearly 70% more from “swing loyalists.”

Your service drive can’t stay open 24/7; very few businesses can. But, the hard reality is that customers who get voice mail after-hours or during a busy overflow period, or who get short attention from a frantic employee if their call does get through, are probably going to use that same smart phone to research another repair provider.

At a time when dealerships are looking for competitive advantages vs. independent shops, extended evening hours just won’t cut it. With their financial resources, dealerships have no excuse not to install an overflow call process, even if it has to be outsourced at certain periods.

Also, that process needs to be spot-checked and monitored, to make sure personnel are giving proper time and attention to the customer and logging a record into the CRM. Are dealerships really going to keep forfeiting that much service business when some extra effort in scheduling appointments could save the customer?

JON MCKENNA Managing Editor

You should be aiming for a fixed absorption rate above 100 percent

By Michael Roppo, Automotive Domain Results

8 Training service staff on consistent customer service wasn’t easy

By Jon McKenna

10 Dealerships look to school, OEM partnerships to recruit service techs

By Mary Welch

12 Try this road map to upgrade sales skills in the service drive

By Jeff Cowan, Jeff Cowan’s Pro Talk Inc.

14 A value proposition may help you more effectively market tires

By Chuck de Martigny, Jungle Cat Marketing Inc.

4 Service Drive JUNE 2015

Phone

678.221.2955 PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER Jim Fitzpatrick VICE PRESIDENT / COO Bridget Everett MANAGING EDITOR Jon McKenna ASSOCIATE EDITOR Russell Brown

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Simone Tieber DESIGNERS Betsy Alvarez, Ruth Gomez PRODUCTION MANAGER Jason Lowsy WEB DESIGN Keith Tuggle

SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER Tom Domagalski

16 Leads given up as dead by salespeople may be profitable in service

28 Avoid mistakes that can derail a service department’s social media program

By Peter Martin, Cactus Sky Digital

20 Marketing tactics improve chances of service work after car purchase

By Amy Farley, Force Marketing

22 Ask the Pros 24

Email

Newsroom@ServiceDriveToday.com

MARKETING ASSOCIATE Roxanne Luhr

In this Issue 6

SERVICE DRIVE TODAY

Take positive action to counteract effects of a negative online review

By Ryan Leslie, DealerRater.com

26 You can help fortify your service staff’s attitude that their work is critical

By Brenda Stang, Shifting Gears Training

By Kathi Kruse, Kruse Control Inc.

30

Dealerships must adapt to how millennials shop for service as well as cars

By Rich Holland, AutoPoint

34 Customer-centric web strategy can boost sales across your dealership

By Dennis Galbraith and Gino Cipperoni, eProcess

36 On the Set With CBT Automotive Network

ONLINE FEATURES

MEDIA SALES REPRESENTATIVE Jane Howard jhoward@cbtnews.com d 678.221.2964 c 404.452.9551

Subscriptions To subscribe electronically, log on to ServiceDriveToday.com and click the subscribe link on the side bar. Alternately, forward your company name, your name, address, phone number and email address to info@ServiceDriveToday.com or CBT Automotive Network, 5 Concourse Parkway Suite 2410, Atlanta, GA 30328.

Please send address changes to the above email or mailing address.

Permission to reprint or quote excerpts granted only upon written request.

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Visit www.ServiceDriveToday.com ServiceDriveToday.com

Got a ďŹ xed ops marketing strategy?

Learn about the multi-channel service marketing campaigns generating HUGE ROI

Second story in a series

MANAGING TO IMPROVE

your Fixed

ate

Fixed 2011

tion R Absorp 2012

2013

2014

101%

100%

99%

98%

2015 102%

Absorption rate

An above-100% rate is not only achievable but an advisable goal for dealership service departments.

BY MICHAEL ROPPO

F

ixed absorption is one of the most important measurements that dealers must gather and react to on a consistent basis, but that most manage poorly.

It is an indicator (and not one that is simple to calculate) of dealer performance and sustainability.

A fixed absorption rate at or above 100 percent helps

dealership leaders and managers hit growth targets even in down times.

It is calculated by taking gross profit from sales of parts and labor and dividing it by the dealership’s fixed expenses. So, it reveals how much of a dealership’s total expenses can be covered by profitability in the service and parts departments.

WHY THIS RATIO IS SO IMPORTANT Achieving a fixed absorption rate that is close to, at or above 100 percent is a goal for which all SMART dealership leaders and manager should strive. Why?  At that point, it’s easier to overcome lack of profitability in the sales department.  Profit margins in vehicle unit sales are often difficult to stabilize. Strong profitability in the service and parts groups helps the dealership through periods of volatility and uncertainty in sales.  Industry statistics show that dealerships with high absorption rates are better positioned to stay profitable through down markets.  Dealerships that set 100% absorption as a goal for all managers are better positioned to at least maintain vehicle unit market share.  There is a strong correlation between high absorption rates and high dealership returns on assets.

ServiceDriveToday.com 6 Service Drive JUNE 2015

ServiceDriveToday.com JUNE 2015 Service Drive 6

FIXED ABSORPTION BASIC FORMULA

1

Let’s examine the calculation in a little more detail: Parts and service gross profit/Total dealership expenses = Absorption rateThis breakout might help you along: 1. LIST THE $ OF GROSS PROFIT PER DEPARTMENT Parts Service Body shop Total

______________________ ______________________ ______________________ $_____________________

2. LIST THE TOTAL $ OF OPERATING EXPENSE PER EACH OF THESE DEPARTMENTS Parts Service Body shop Fixed expenses Dealer’s salary Total

______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ $_____________________

FOCUSING ON CPIS HELPS ABSORPTION

2

With all the dealership industry’s complexities and intense competition for market share, opportunity still continues to knock. Having the entire management team working toward a high absorption rate becomes increasingly important and should be a requirement.

Dealership execs and managers wind up enjoying a significantly higher absorption rate if they focus on improving the following critical performance indicators, which I discussed in general in my article last month for Service Drive Magazine (see May 2015 edition, pp. 14-15, “Understanding Critical Performance Indicators”):  Gross profit percent

 Calendar utilization

 The shop productivity rate

 Days worked in a month

 Revenue per technician

 Opportunities to do business, or the ASR rate

 Gross profit per technician  Hours per repair order  Effective labor selling rate

“Wish time,” i.e. the difference between the book time that the job actually pays and what the technician really wants to be paid.

Dealerships also enjoy progress toward higher absorption rates when they a. pay close attention to their revenue accounts b. continuously emphasize that all departments are part of developing a value-added proposition for

e. increase parts prices when necessary after examining the pricing lists and guides f. eliminate unnecessary discounts on parts and service that are applied in appropriately

customers 3. DIVIDE THE TOTAL OF (GROSS)

BY THE TOTAL (EXPENSES) to give you the service absorption percentage = _____ %

(e-mail me at mroppo@mironovgroup.com to find out more on this)

c. promote a mentality of managing an account as a cross-departmental team

g. cut expenses without trying to save the business into a profit.

d. obsess on increasing service and parts gross profit always

3

TEST WHETHER YOU’VE REALLY IMPROVED

Let’s say you’ve calculated absorption and tracked it as part of daily management, monitored CPIs, taken other steps to improve your rate. Now, ask yourself the following questions to test whether you have really created tangible improvements:  Is your dealership recovering shipping and freight charges on parts orders?  Does the service department have expense recovery procedures?  Are you charging for service vehicles and loaner expenses?  Is there a complete expense recovery requirement on shop supplies?  Are disposal, environmental, fuel, technology,

being recovered?  Is the department still handling a lot of singleline repair orders?  Are a number of customers declining service recommendations?  Are service advisors communicate every customer’s “next appointment” needed?  Is management tracking customer payperformance statistics for each advisor?

training and carbon footprint-type charges Parts pricing and labor coding are other process in the dealership environment that require analysis. They are complex activities that nonetheless often lack established processes, meaning managerial review and alignment are needed for the parts and service department to achieve intentional profitability and to help maximize absorption rate.

Intentional profitability and an intentional absorption rate are only achieved in the fixed ops arena through disciplined monitoring and influencing of CPIs to drive employees and the business forward to performing at maximum capacity in any economy.

“Having the entire management team working toward a high absorption rate becomes increasingly important and should be a requirement.”

Disciplined control of expenses at the same time the dealership or the service department is increasing gross profit will help produce an absorption rate closer to, at or above 100 percent. Doing so is an indicator of the strength of your dealership operations.

MICHAEL ROPPO Director of Fixed Operations and Training /QPS at Automotive Domain Results Michael has more than 30 years experience in training and consulting for Automotive Domain Results and its parent company, The Mironov Group. He helps dealers attain maximum profitability, customer satisfaction and retention, by improving the quality of their management teams and the personnel who come in contact with their customers.

Visit his website at AutomotiveDomainResults.com

ServiceDriveToday.com

JUNE 2015 Service Drive 7

A NEW EMPHASIS ON

Training In Service Drives PAYS DIVIDENDS

Colorado dealerships see improvement in key CPIs with customer service- and sales-oriented instruction.

BY JON MCKENNA

W

hen Lisa Spinder was hired in December 2012 as training and development manager of the adjoining Planet Honda and Planet Hyundai dealerships in Golden, Colo., a Denver suburb, Job One was training the sales staff to work with a new “no negotiations” policy with car prices. The dealerships’ service advisors would prove a tougher nut to crack.

Spinder had a 20-year career in training although she had never worked in the dealership industry. As she began to shadow the dozen or so service advisors and leads at the two dealerships to get familiar with their routines, she quickly concluded she faced problems.

“I initially was down there (in the service drive) for about a week, just in and out at different activities,” she

8 Service Drive JUNE 2015

recalled. “It really didn’t take long to realize where the holes were. The service department hadn’t had any real structured training.

“Everybody was kind of doing their own thing. There wasn’t any consistency or structure to how we approached customers, and no quality assurance going on other than a survey. They weren’t building rapport there, nothing that made the customer feel special and valued.

Instead, interaction with service customers was “very informal, kind of, ‘Hey, what can we do today?’ It was a nothing-special kind of greeting, no handshake, and only if the service advisor’s personality lent itself would there be a smile. Customers were not being recognized and dealt with in a timely fashion if the advisors were

busy. It was all very short and impersonal, and I knew we could do so much better.”

NEW TRAINING WASN’T POPULAR WITH EVERYONE

Spinder concluded the service team at the two Planet dealerships needed a formalized training regimen, covering not just the flat-price policy (which applies to repairs as well as unit sales; no coupons are accepted) but more importantly on consistent customer service and a reasonably assertive sales culture.

She got more pushback from the service advisors, and about half of those in the Honda dealership eventually

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left. “For the most part, it was because they did not want to be held accountable to productivity standards, follow through with building rapport, selling service, doing any number of the steps.”

However, the service drives at both dealerships are again fully staffed (eight service advisors and two leads at Honda, three service advisors and a parts and service director at Hyundai), and management reports marked improvement in several critical performance indicators (see table).

Spinder began administering sales representative training at the Planet Dealerships in March 2013 and

“It was so important to be sure we were doing everything we could to set our advisors up for success and provide them with a process that ... creates consistency for the advisor and subsequently for the customer.”

Service Metrics Improve At Planet Dealerships *

Planet Honda/Planet Hyundai At A Glance*

Critical Performance Indicator

January 2014

March 2014

April 2015

New Vehicle Sales

1,734

Hours/Repair Order

1.63

1.81

3.07

Used Vehicle Sales

1,413

Effective Labor Rate

151.21

171.36

299.32

Service Revenue

$7.4 million

Labor Dollars/Ticket

$92.82

$95.14

$97.56

Parts Revenue

$5.5 million

Retention

65.0%

64.9%

69.0%

*All numbers are for 2014

* Honda dealership only

started with the fixed ops groups a few months later.

After working with the service advisors herself for a few months, she decided to hire training specialist Jeff Cowan’s Pro Talk program starting in January 2014. Over the next year, a Cowan instructor visited the service drives three times for five days at a time, spending time with individual service advisors and customers and also leading frequent role-playing exercises.

Spinder meets in the Planet dealerships' training room with, left to right, service advisors Dirk Fitzpatrick and Tanner McEachern and advisor team lead Mark Rainey.

90-DAY PROCESS FOR NEWCOMERS

Amid the consultants’ work, Spinder was creating or retooling ongoing onboarding and training processes for repair technicians at the two dealerships. Now, about four hours of the standard two-day onboarding program given to all new Planet employees covers how the service drives work.

For the next four weeks, new service staff get an intensified instruction course featuring observation of work on Hondas and Hyundais, virtual video training, repair and customer service materials to read, and role-playing exercises. “For the most part, in that first four weeks they do very little independent work unless they come to us with experience,” she said. Newcomers are assigned to an experienced service representative who acts as a mentor for the first 90 days.

On a going-forward basis, morning service team meetings begin at about 6:15 a.m. Team leaders pick a training topic (for example, the walkaround) of the day and pore over it in detail during the meeting. Also, Spinder organizes monthly after-hours training meetings on various topics such as diagnostics for a particular model, held in a dealership conference room.

Plus, she continues to spend time in the service drive, observing how the advisors interact with customers and doing impromptu role-playing scenarios.

Kyle French, the parts and service director at the Honda dealership, sets the CPI metrics and goals with each

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service advisor. “That’s not my wheelhouse so I stay out of it,” Spinder said, although she does review the metrics performance so she can identify additional training and retraining needs.

LIKING THE RESULTS SO FAR

So, how does she evaluate the impact of the service drive training program? “We know we have room to improve but it’s not for lack of trying, but we are really proud of our numbers so far” said Spinder, who uses the word “consistency” repeatedly when she talks about training.

“It was so important to be sure we were doing everything we could to set our advisors up for success and provide them with a process that creates customer- and vehicle-centered transparency, that creates consistency for the advisor and subsequently for the customer.

“I learned I need to just listen and watch, pay attention to the needs of others, what’s going on in the drive.

Put myself in the position of what would be acceptable to you as a customer, and strive to deliver that.”

French said he is particularly happy with trend lines in hours per repair order and labor dollars per ticket in the Honda and Hyundai service drives. “Everything is rising. I think it results from the training and the quality of training.

“It really makes a difference to see a young crew of advisors, including some who had never been an advisor before, responding to this process. I have one who just (finished) his 90 days, and he’s averaging over three hours per repair order. I have other advisors who are right on the cusp. Advisors with 10-plus years of experience aren’t hitting those numbers.”

Like Spinder, he thinks the dealerships can keep improving in the way they address training in the service bays and shift more attention to topics such as delivery word track and a three-option process for closing sales.

JUNE 2015 Service Drive 9

School Partnerships Are The Latest Hunting Ground For

Scarce Skilled Repair Talent Service directors discuss where they’re having at least some success in the constant recruitment campaign. BY MARY WELCH

M Fowler: Forge ties with students early 10 Service Drive JUNE 2015

ercedes-Benz USA CEO Steve Cannon has one common bond with just about every dealership service manager in the country.

Like them, he has a hard time recruiting enough skilled service technicians and master mechanics.

In fact, Cannon, a West Point graduate, recently reached out to a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about whether a program could be started to steer technically skilled veterans returning from the Middle East into jobs at Mercedes dealerships, where a good technician can earn as much as $75,000 a year.

Okay, so what does a service manager who doesn’t have a friend at the Pentagon do? It has been a tight labor pool for reliable and skilled service technicians for some time, and the challenges in filling those jobs at dealerships isn’t getting any easier. With several service directors we interviewed about what recruitment tactics are working relatively well, if not great, we heard they are either growing talent internally or pirating it.

Growing the dealership’s own techs means forging close relationships with local high schools and vo-tech schools. Try to hire a promising high school graduate

before he can enroll in the vo-tech, or at least create an internship program to bring him into the fold while he’s studying.

DEVELOP RELATIONSHIPS WITH SCHOOLS, STUDENTS Be proactive. Ask high school teachers or vo-tech instructors to give you a heads-up about a motivated student, especially one who lives near your dealership.

Volunteer to speak to a class, host a field trip to the dealership and even join the school advisory board — anything to get your face and the dealership’s name in front of students as early as possible.

Todd Fowler, service manager at the Cherry Capital Subaru and Cadillac dealerships in Traverse City, Mich., makes a point of connecting early with high school students. When someone tells him about a kid with mechanical and technical abilities, Fowler is quick to offer him a summer or after-school/weekend job. “I just want to keep the relationship going.”

He also networks with the instructors at Northwestern

ServiceDriveToday.com

“It has been a tight labor pool for reliable and skilled service technicians for some time, and the challenges in filling those jobs at dealerships isn’t getting any easier.”

Ford computers for their studies.

Still, it isn’t easy to engender loyalty among the students to the dealership that invested time and money in them. “I’ve had a few pan out but most of the time, you put them through training and nothing holds them,” Dedomenic said.

Palace Chrysler Jeep in Lake Orion, Mich., is situated just a few miles from Chrysler’s national training center. “It’s difficult to hire skilled technicians, and they are demanding higher and higher rates,” said Service Director Jim Gentry, who recruits from the training center and hires students as apprentices for $11 to $12 an hour doing quick oil changes.

Indeed, the vehicle manufacturers represent another recruiting avenue. Try posting help wanted ads on their websites and otherwise letting people involved with their training centers know your dealership wants to hire.

“We get a lot of help from [EOMs],” he said. “Chrysler works closely with us and our program. They help give the students all the tools they need to get where they’re going. We have the latitude to train them for our needs.”

EXPERIENCED TECHS EXPECT FAT JOB OFFERS

Michigan College, a community college, and is helping the independent training school Baker College expand its program for service technicians. But, the payoff is usually delayed and sometimes never materializes.

“We put ourselves out there and say we’ll take any students, [but] even if you’re working with a kid in school, you’re still a few years away from hiring them,” Fowler noted.

For those needing more experienced talent, dealers told us they’re only getting results by offering more – more benefits, more pay, more pleasant working conditions – and hoping that word of mouth pays off for them.

“We give all our guys, whether they’re just starting to the more experienced, all the tools they need to succeed,” said Jim Arrigo, owner of Arrigo

Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram in West Palm Beach, Fla. “We have an air conditioned shop and mostly we let them know they can have a good career with us. That sort of things gets out on the street, and that’s how we attract good people.”

Fowler just “stole” a trained technician from a Ford dealership. “I cultivated him and guaranteed him more money, more hours and a happier environment. That worked. But really, we’re 78 miles from the nearest Subaru dealer, and there’s only two other dealers in my area. There’s no one left to steal.”

JOB ADS’ IMPACT WANES Of late, word of mouth seems to be more effective than advertising in newspapers, monster.com, Facebook, LinkedIn or Craigslist. “None of them work great,” lamented Dedomenic, who recently dropped $750 on a three-day newspaper ad.

Market your area’s lifestyle, not just your dealership.

If you’re in the Sun Belt, try running ads for service techs in northern newspapers during the winter, and in high unemployment areas. Fowler recently tried advertising in southern Michigan and Detroit, spending $4,000 on ads in five newspapers.

Dealerships we talked with aren’t yet subsidizing their service techs’ tool purchases, given that techs must purchase many of the tools while in school and, as their careers progress, buy them on an as-needed basis.

OEM TRAINING PROGRAMS ARE INCREASINGLY COVETED Biondi Motors of Monroeville, Pa., works closely with Allegheny County Community College, which offers automotive technology programs on working with Ford, Chrysler and GM cars. For example, the college has a two-year program that trains and certifies students exclusively for Ford dealerships.

Biondi is not shy about letting the school know it wants to sponsor students.

“They may get 12 to 18 kids in their program a year and every dealership is looking to sponsor one,” said Mike Dedomenic, service manager. “It’s all set up through Ford, and we work with the students during the summer and also on Saturday.” The dealership pays the kids, provides them with uniforms and, importantly, lets them use Biondi’s ID number to access

ServiceDriveToday.com

JUNE 2015 Service Drive 11

Service advisors must emphasize sales, as well as technical, skills with techs.

6 1 2 Service Drive JUNE 2015

Steps To Develop A True Sales Mentality Service managers often have the weakest sales instincts; here is a road map to improvement. BY JEFF COWAN ServiceDriveToday.com

T

here was a time when we at PRO TALK would visit a dealership, train the service advisors and expect to achieve desired results. That has changed given a significant shift in the needs of the service customer, the vehicles, the manufacturer and the dealer. Today when we visit a dealership, we must also work with and train the service managers, cashiers, porters, parts counter, greeters – anyone who talks to customers.

However, I have noticed the service manager often needs the most support. Since most service managers earn their way up after working as a technician, parts manager or possibly an advisor, they typically are taught by their predecessor or through an outdated management class. The most glaring deficiency in these management classes has to do with sales management.

Many dealership service departments failed to recognize that what used to be a simple “service and repair” center has evolved into a “service and service retail” center offering many additional products and services. This being the case, the role of service manager has evolved into a service sales manager.

When this evolution is not acknowledged or recognized, the extra services, products and sometimes even repairs are not effectively offered and sold, resulting in an underperforming department. How does your service department avoid becoming an underperformer and instead overachieve? By following these six steps:

‘SALES’ SHOULD BE IN YOUR JOB TITLE

1.

RECOGNIZE, EMBRACE AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOUR JOB HAS BECOME BOTH SERVICE MANAGER AND SALES MANAGER.

If you have never attended a selling class, read a selling book or watched selling videos, then this is where you start. You have to become a master salesperson in your own right if you expect your staff to follow your direction. How can you instruct them to meet outstanding sales numbers, if you yourself do not know how to do that?

2.

SELECT YOUR SALES TRAINING VERY CAREFULLY.

You will find there are many product vendors and factory sales training programs available to you.

Some are decent but most revolve around how to sell specific products, and the benefits are usually specific to those products.

Search the Internet for your training. Begin by searching for a general selling program with books and tapes, like those from Tom Hopkins, Zig Ziglar or Brian Tracy. More recently, Jeffrey Gitomer and others have joined the list. Then, look for specific training programs on the products your service department will sell. Plenty of independent venders provide that type of training.

3.

ONCE YOU ARE MORE FAMILIAR WITH SALES BASICS, CREATE YOUR OWN SALES PROCESS.

This process should be based on uncovering needs, presenting solutions and asking for the business. It should be as simple as you can make it and one that all service employees are required to learn and fully execute.

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Keep service customers happy and returning for more work.

SET SALES GOALS FOR EACH SERVICE EMPLOYEE

4.

SET BOTH BUSINESS AND PERSONAL GOALS FOR EACH OF YOUR SERVICE EMPLOYEES.

You want each service employee to have and know defined goals, why you are pursing those goals, and the benefits to him. You must manage to those employee goals, and when they reach their goals, you reach yours.

These goals should be set annually and discussed monthly with each employee, to ensure that everyone stays on track.

5.

LEARN HOW TO WRITE AND PRESENT SALES MEETINGS.

6.

SET MINIMUM STANDARDS AND HOLD YOUR STAFF ACCOUNTABLE TO MEET THEM.

Your first job will be to create a basic training class. It may take a few days to a few weeks for your employees to complete. It should be followed by twice-weekly sales meetings last about 15 minutes, followed by a monthly sales meeting that lasts 30 to 60 minutes. I would recommend that annually, you hold recertification meetings to retrain every employee and refresh a condensed version of the base program.

Do not let creation of content for these meetings overwhelm you. At first it may seem daunting, but eventually you will find it gets easier and easier. The general approach I suggest is to: 1) Identify your staff ’s concerns; 2) Create or search out a sales solution for each problem; 3) Role-play the solution with your staff; 4) Monitor whether your staff is utilizing the information you provided; and 5) Determine if the problems are being addressed and solved.

Service managers must execute this most important step, or the whole exercise becomes pointless. Every serious selling job I ever had required that I sell a

minimum amount of product, that I make people happy and keep them coming back for more product. A smart manager knows it requires a great deal of effort to get the customer to come in the door, sees each customer as an opportunity and knows if the opportunity is not maximized, minimum numbers will not be achieved.

YOU MUST BE ONE TO SET TARGETS Don’t let employees dictate what the level of success will be. You are the leader. You decide where you are going, develop the plan to get there and execute the plan. Managers who fail to assume that responsibility ultimately fail in their positions. When employees refuse to do what you ask of them – like walking around cars, memorizing word tracks and other tasks that guarantee your success – you show your dealer, your manufacturer and the world that you are incapable of leading or managing.

A question I routinely get asked is: How can I tell if I am in jeopardy of losing my job as service manager?

The answer is simple. You uncover the average numbers in service sales, customer paid repair order, effective labor rate, survey scores and customer retention for the manufacturer that you represent. Then, you compare your department to those averages. Once you discover what those averages are, compare yourself to them.

If you are average or below, as 50 percent of those reading this article are, then you are in danger of losing your job. As a matter of fact, I would not feel totally safe in my position if I were not in the top 20 percent. The movers and shakers reside in the top 20 percent; this is where true talent exists. My first and only goal would be to get to that top 20 percent as quickly as possible, and work to move up from there.

The good news in all of this is that while the task may seem daunting, once started it will become easier and easier to execute, resulting in great success. The bad news is that if you don’t recognize that “service and service repair” has been replaced with “service and service retail,” you are wasting a golden opportunity.

If you don’t train your staff and yourself to become professional salespeople, you are wasting a golden opportunity.

JEFF COWAN President of Jeff Cowan’s Pro Talk Inc. Jeff, in his 28th year of training, is recognized as the creator of the modern-day walk around and selling processes for service departments. Currently partnered with NADA, EasyCare, NCM, MPi and other vendors and manufacturers, Jeff is the nation’s authority when it comes to training service advisors and service support staff. Visit his website at automotiveservicetraining.com and sign up for free, weekly training.

JUNE 2015 Service Drive 13

Dealerships Must Identify Solid Reasons For

Customers To Buy Their Tires Create a value proposition in which both your service staff and buyers can believe BY CHUCK DE MARTIGNY

T

here are lots of good reasons why your customers should and would want to buy tires from you as their OEM car dealership. The problem is, most dealerships fail to identify these reasons for their own purposes, let alone present them in an effective way to their service customers. That failure helps explain why most customers don’t consider the OEM dealer when it’s time to replace their tires.

Identifying these compelling reasons to buy from you will help your dealership develop a value proposition, the marketable attributes of your tire retailing program.

Your staff needs to embody this value proposition, and your marketing needs to present it clearly to customers if you hope to win not only the tire sale but also their ongoing loyalty.

So, what is a value proposition that differentiates your dealership from competitors selling replacement tires?

Well, to get started: Do you sell tires?

This may sound like a silly question, but according to research from NADA, 40 percent of OEM customers don’t know their dealer sells tires. So, here is a good place to start your value proposition.

WE SELL TIRES! At the risk of seeming obvious, it is imperative that you let your customers know your dealership is in the tire business, and reinforce that message with your customers consistently.

Logically, the other 60 percent of customers are aware you sell tires but consider your competition to be the better choice.

Why? According to the NADA studies, your customer’s perception is that they offer: • MORE EXPERTISE – Tire specialists • MORE SELECTION – Choices • MORE INVENTORY – In stock now • LOWER PRICES – Advertised specials In order to compete effectively, your dealership’s value proposition must address these four perceptions headon, PLUS add some additional value. Here is how:

14 Service Drive JUNE 2015

1. What makes us better than the independent or chain tire store?

Your answer: We are the authorized dealer and vehicle brand specialists. We have more real expertise and knowledge about our customer’s vehicle than the independent tire stores do, not to mention better-trained and better-qualified staff, more up-to-date equipment and a personal relationship with our customer.

We know exactly which tires are best suited to our customer’s needs. We know that our OEM tire will provide the best overall performance for the vehicle, especially if the customer wants to retain the performance experienced during the initial test drive. We also know what the factory recommends as alternatives to the OEM tire:

FACTORY TRAINED/CERTIFIED TECHNICIANS AND ADVISORS, PLUS STATE-OF-THE-ART FACILITIES ENSURE THE RIGHT TIRES FOR THE SAFETY, PERFORMANCE & COMFORT OF YOUR BRAND VEHICLE

2. Which tires do you sell?

The most frequent answer is: We sell all major brands and all sizes, and we can get any tire you need. Although this answer may be technically correct, unless you stock all these tires you claim to sell, your staff and customers won’t take this seriously.

So, your answer needs to be: As the authorized OEM brand service center, most of the vehicles in our service drive are your OEM brand vehicles.

By focusing on a selection of tires for each specific model of your brand, we have a significant competitive advantage. Furthermore, as the certified service provider for your brand, we can offer factory-approved tires for that brand.

The independents offer good-better-best choices.

As our brand champion, we want to be better than the independents and offer only THE BEST tires – best for our brand and best for our customers. Our selections are best performance, best value and best price, a far more suitable selection for our brand.

Tell customers quite clearly, you DO sell tires.

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Effective POS displays note factory authorization, extra benefits

WE SELL THE BEST SELECTION OF FACTORY-APPROVED TIRES,BEST FOR YOUR “BRAND” VEHICLE AND BEST FOR YOU 3. What tires do we stock?

We should display and stock the OEM-recommended replacement tire for the top models coming through the drive, which represent 80% of our sales.

VEHICLE MATCH GUARANTEE ALWAYS THE RIGHT TIRES FOR YOUR BRAND MODEL 4. Are we more expensive?

We buy our tires from the same major distributors from which independents buy. And, most OEMs have a national price-match guarantee program to support our competitive pricing. So, we offer a:

PRICE MATCH GUARANTEE 5. When do you talk with customers about tires?

Most customers buy replacement tires from the first seller that recommends them. We see the customer first. We need to start proactively offering tires to all our customers before they need them, and again when they need them. Do you realize that 15 percent to 20 percent of the customers in your drive today need replacement tires right now?

That means we should be inspecting all the tires coming through our drive every day.

TO ENSURE YOUR SAFETY AND COMFORT, WE PROVIDE A FREE TIRE INSPECTION ON EVERY VISIT 6. What other value-added benefits can we offer?

You probably have room for wall displays of tires.

CHUCK DE MARTIGNY CEO and Founder of Jungle Cat Marketing Inc As the CEO and founder of Jungle Cat Marketing, Chuck helps OEMs and dealerships boost profits with innovative point-of-sales marketing initiatives. His extensive consumer marketing and retail merchandising background includes major consumer product marketing launches for companies such as Cabbage Patch Kids, Coleco, Donkey Kong and the Grolier CD-ROM Encyclopedia. His focus on tire merchandising allows dealers and manufacturers to achieve extraordinary sales growth and increased customer retention through replacement tire sales. To learn more visit www.TireMerchandising.com.

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Most major tire distributors have a road hazard protection program, which adds significant value.

Mount and balance, and valve stem may be included (or at least identified with a special price offer).

Inspections such as alignment, brakes and suspension checks add value, too, with the potential to generate additional revenue for you at little cost.

Nitrogen and tire rotation also are popular add-on options.

Bundling these add-ons is a winner with most customers. And, don’t forget to promote the monthly mail-in rebate offers. They cost you nothing but are meaningful to your customers.

Once you have identified the various competitive advantages and elements you wish to incorporate into your value proposition, flesh it out into a statement that can be shared with your team and your customers.

Make sure that everything you offer in your value proposition is something your dealership really can and will deliver. Your advisors need to memorize the story, your website needs to tell the story, and your service drive needs to show the story.

In today’s competitive environment, with 84 percent of our service customers migrating to the independent tire stores to purchase replacement tires, your value proposition is key to retaining (saving) these customers before they leave. Remember, 86 percent of your regular service customers will purchase their next vehicle from you. Fewer than 9 percent of those who leave will come back to purchase again.

JUNE 2015 Service Drive 15

A ‘DEAD’ SALES LEAD

st

1 Privzineg

Revi ds a e L s e l Sa

CANBE

GOLD FOR YOUR SERVICE DRIVE

Use targeted e-mail to convert a non-car buyer into a service customer BY PETER MARTIN

T

here is no such thing as a dead lead. Even if a prospect ends up purchasing a vehicle from another dealer, you still have an opportunity to market service work to him or her and help earn future business as a sales customer.

Through targeted follow-up, dedicated coupon micro-sites and other approaches, dealers can drive service revenue in a way that improves vehicle sales.

Service-centered e-mail messaging tends to bring in a larger audience than does sales-related messaging.

Customers only buy or lease a car every few years, but their vehicle requires service every couple of months.

To drive home the point, on the next page I show results from actual dealership clients of mine that underscore

16 Service Drive JUNE 2015

how significant services provided to non-vehicle-sales customers are in overall service business and revenue.

In communications to these seemingly dead leads, focus only on service and don’t even try to sneak in a sales message. There is no need to mention that the prospect has or has not bought a vehicle from you.

Dealerships should re-engage their Internet leads that didn’t result in vehicle sales, by marketing to those prospects for service work. By mining and cleaning your existing data in a new database, you can formulate a service e-mail marketing plan that utilizes personalized campaigns and coupons.

The average dealer has a robust database with thousands of leads. Re-engage dormant prospects with personalized content (online coupons, special offers

available only to your “Internet family”) delivered on a custom monthly schedule. Your BDC can only make so many follow-up phone calls, and targeted e-mail reaches prospects the BDC lacks time to contact. The average repair order for a returning customer is about $500; imagine that figure multiplied by the dormant leads sitting in your CRM. Early each month, send an e-mail campaign to the potential service customers in your prospect list, with the goal of just getting them into your service department. Dealers spend most of their advertising budgets on new vehicle sales and often fail to promote service. Monthly e-mail messages offer an easy and cost-effective way to start getting those customers back in the door.

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CHEVROLET DEALER IN BALTIMORE Total Repair Orders

Share Of Total For That Month

Total Repair Revenue

Share Of Total For That Month

Has never purchased a vehicle or service from the dealership

75

17.5%

$37,309

28.7%

More than a year has elapsed since the last purchase of service from the dealership

46

10.7%

$9,920

7.6%

Description Of Customer

FORD DEALER IN PHILADELPHIA Description Of Customer

Total Repair Orders

Share Of Total For That Month

Total Repair Revenue

Share Of Total For That Month

Has never purchased a vehicle or service from the dealership

9

11.0%

$2,293

9.3%

More than a year has elapsed since the last purchase of service from the dealership

7

8.5%

$1,959

7.9%

TOYOTA DEALER IN BALTIMORE Description Of Customer

Total Repair Orders

Share Of Total For That Month

Total Repair Revenue

Share Of Total For That Month

Has never purchased a vehicle or service from the dealership

19

4.5%

$3,087

3.2%

More than a year has elapsed since the last purchase of service from the dealership

32

7.5%

$15,663

16.5%

MORE SPECIFICALLY, I SUGGEST THAT THESE MESSAGES:

MORE ABOUT COUPON MICROSITES

• Avoid hard-sell tactics and jargon. The average customer probably can’t identify every part under the hood, and jargon particularly can backfire with women customers, who account for a majority of service orders.

Sixty percent (and counting) of online service searches are undertaken to find promotions, discounts or coupons. Are the coupons on your website up to date?

Are they restricted to certain makes or models? Are your coupons mobile-enabled?

Consider creating a dedicated coupon microsite where you can host all of your dealership’s coupons and change the offers as necessary. Make it easy for your service customers with a one-stop-shop approach to service coupons.

Service coupons for all makes and models bring in additional customers who would not normally consider your dealership and also help reactivate dormant leads.

The majority of your service customers are women, and women love coupons. And, when your coupons are mobile device-enabled, you make it that much easier for your prospects to act on an offer. They can show the service advisor their coupon directly on their mobile phone.

• Rather, discuss general problems a service customer might be experiencing, in a conversational manner, and then offer to take a look rather than immediately trying to sell service. Frame the message as a service tip rather than a push to buy repairs. Include a how-to video and a coupon, in order to enhance your message and build a relationship. Your hope is that the prospect will look forward to the service tip of the month and choose your dealership as the go-to for repairs.

• Try a campaign with messages signed by the service manager, for a personalized touch. This humanizes the dealership and makes the service manager seem more accessible to customers.

• Utilize a custom coupon microsite, but make sure to provide coupons that apply to all makes and models. Many dealers only offer coupons for specific makes and cost themselves service revenue in the process.

PETER “WEBDOC” MARTIN President of Cactus Sky Digital Peter is a technology correspondent and digital marketing expert for the automotive industry, and particularly works with e-mail marketing, mobile-enabled e-mails, conquest e-mail marketing and selling to women. He is a frequent speaker at industry events such as NADA Digital Dealer, AutoCon and RVDA.

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JUNE 2015 Service Drive 17

IT'S CRAZY TO SHORTCHANGE FIXED OPS ON MARKETING DOLLARS, AND IT’S TIME TO

STOP MARKETING $$$ ARE LOW

1 in 4 marketing dollars, and more digital campaigns, should be devoted to service departments.

BY GLENN PASCH

FACT: According to the NADA, fixed operations is a $310 billion business. Do I have your attention? Yet, dealerships account for only 27 percent of this market. Why so little? Who has the other 73 percent? Again, is your interest piqued?

FACT: Fixed operations account for an average 54 percent of dealerships’ net profits but only have (wait for it) 2 percent of the visibility on the average dealership website. 2 percent?

I

know it seems a bit crazy that the generator of more than half the profits is hidden in the back like your crazy uncle. Is it because fixed operations is not sexy or flashy? Is it because there are no salespeople in fancy suits meeting and greeting customers? I think all of the above.

Let’s take the reverse view for a moment. If you know you have a very profitable or popular model in your fleet of cars, would you hide it deep in your website? Would it take four to five clicks to find it, and when you got to the page would there just be a generic photo with a form saying, “Contact Us”?

Of course not. Yet, that happens every single day with dealership websites. Now, is it logical to expect that, if fixed operations gets such a small percentage of the real estate on the main website, that percentage would correlate to the dealership’s marketing budget?

18 Service Drive JUNE 2015

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5 reasons you should turn to our crack service team ...

revenue-generator. Their “digital” marketing efforts may amount to only a newsletter with a service coupon or an e-mail blast. However, there is no consistent marketing throughout the digital world for parts or service.

5% TO 15% OF SPEND IS WRONG MOVE I asked a few of my clients for some real numbers to test my hypothesis. My findings: On average, dealers devote as little as 5 percent to at most 15 percent of their marketing budgets to the service and parts departments.

I would recommend increasing that share slowly. I know it will never be more than 40 percent, but I think 25 percent is a good place to target.

To many, this situation actually should be seen as a great return on their investments. Market a little and make a lot of money, so why change anything? Yet, on the flip side of that argument, spending 85 percent to 95 percent of your marketing budget to get 50 percent revenue from car sales seems not so smart.

My point is that with some adjustment to marketing, service and parts could generate even more revenue. I think two factors have led to this situation:

GIVING CHAIN STORES AN OPENING 1. The independent chains – Jiffy Lube, Meineke, Pep Boys, etc. – have taken advantage of this lack of commitment from dealerships. They have played up the image that their work is cheaper, or that dealerships will take advantage of customers. They claim that they are “quicker” and in turn a better value. All of these claims are just perceptions in a customer’s mind, and can be overcome with proper marketing by the dealer.

2. Dealers do not know how to expand their marketing efforts outside of offline marketing (in the form of mailers with specials, for example) to enhance this

I have been told by some dealers who have woken up to this problem that they used to focus mostly on sales numbers, vs. retention or repeat customers through service. Once they understood the treasure they had in their service drives for pre-owned cars, and that great service meant retaining clients long-term, they changed their thinking.

TACTICS TO IMPROVE ONLINE PUSH First, dealers need to commit to marketing fixed operations.

I know that sounds easy, but in many dealership cultures I have encountered, service is considered second fiddle in the pecking order of things. Change takes effort, and just talking about what should happen without commitment is a waste of time.

So, once we have commitment, dealers need to review their current digital marketing efforts and decide where they could expand.

• Do they have optimized landing pages for services they handle, with video explaining the service? Here are two examples from Bowen Scarff Ford-Lincoln in Kent, Wash.: » www.bowenscarff.com/ford-service-nearrenton.htm » www.bowenscarff.com/do-i-need-new-tiresnear-renton.htm

GLENN PASCH CEO of PCG Digital Marketing Glenn is a trainer at heart. He is a highly sought-after speaker, writer, coach and operations strategist, as well as a customer service fanatic. He has spoken throughout the U.S. and Canada, educating audiences on a variety of topics including business leadership, change management, digital marketing and the impact of this new technology on culture, business and society. Visit the website PCGdigitalmarketing.com.

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“On average, dealers devote as little as 5 % to at most 15 % of their marketing budgets to the service and parts departments.”

• Do they have specific SEM campaigns or remarketing efforts to highlight service? Google has shown how branded service keywords have a huge opportunity that dealers can leverage.

• Do they have a great “Thank you” page for customers who book service, which pops up and offers other options for them to view while they are still on the site? Prestige Volvo in East Hanover, N.J., (www. prestigevolvo.com/index.htm) does this well.

• Do they understand reports from their SEO and SEM provider, when written in layman’s terms? Unless they do, how can a dealer see if the vendor is driving relevant traffic to these pages in order to convert leads?

All these approaches need to get the same attention given to selling vehicles. Increasing your marketing spend with a targeted campaign will generate interest. That being said, just as you would increase your floor staff or BDC staff to handle an increase in leads, so too must you adapt in the service lanes.

PREPARE TO HANDLE MORE CUSTOMERS Remember that you may need to adjust for an influx of new customers that aggressive marketing would bring in. You may have to increase the number of advisors or of shifts in the service bays, to maximize their occupancy.

I have seen dealers open up service shifts from 6 p.m. to midnight to maximize their service bays.

Now, much of this will not be possible without a real desire to change, and many must admit their dealership leaders are not fully versed in this type of marketing.

That is perfectly fine. Reaching out to your digital marketing agency for help is the first step to unlock entrepreneurial efforts to grow the businesses.

If dealerships continue to do what they have always done in terms of marketing fixed operations, they will never keep their customers from going to the independents. Moving forward, they must realize that underfunding marketing for service and parts is taking away revenue from the bottom line.

It is time to take back some of the 73 percent market share dealers are leaving on the table. It is time to bring service marketing out of the shadows and to its rightful seat at the marketing table.

JUNE 2015 Service Drive 19

Take Fundamental Marketing Steps

To Lock In A Customer’s Future Service Work 3 approaches can help keep your dealership top-of-mind after the vehicle sale.

D

riving customers to your dealership for service work is half the battle. The other half is keeping them. Are you doing everything you can to retain your customer base?

There are three steps that every dealer generally can take to help ensure customers come back, starting with the first time they visit your dealership.

These steps may be easier than you think, and service managers either can undertake them directly or influence how other departments tackle them.

20 Service Drive JUNE 2015

1. OFFER INITIAL INCENTIVES Whether a first-time customer has come to purchase a vehicle or get one serviced, the dealership is given its first opportunity to create a customer for life. One way to lure those customers back for future service work is to set up an incentives or rewards program.

BY AMY FARLEY

For example, customers could accumulate rewards points from each service visit, redeemable on future service or on a vehicle purchase. The program also might include a 5 percent discount on each service visit, or offers for free oil changes or car washes for enrolled customers.

Don’t have an incentives or rewards plan yet? You could still have a great impact on customer retention by giving first-time customers a checkbook of service coupons to be used over the next year or two. Include the

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normal oil change and battery coupons, but make a point of including coupons to replace a tire or a full set of tires.

Studies show the dealership from which a customer buys his or her first set of tires from is seven times more likely to sell that customer the next vehicle.

Most of the time, customers will stuff these coupons into their glove compartments. No worries. While those customers may not need service right away – particularly if they just purchased a new vehicle – chances are when they do, they’ll remember your dealership.

2. BE RIGOROUS IN COLLECTING CUSTOMER CONTACT INFO Incentives are not the only way to set yourself up for customer retention success following a first visit to your dealership. Your dealership also should collect all pertinent data from each customer, to ensure you have multiple options to reach them with future marketing and relationship-building messages.

It’s important to make sure the dealership staff collects each customer’s preferred methods of contact. This could require your sales team to go over a new buyer’s paperwork to make sure every field is correct and filled out; or your service advisors verifying land line and cell phone numbers, mailing addresses and e-mail addresses during the payment process.

Need another way to gather contact info? You could place pads of forms in your waiting area that let customers receive free or discounted service if they register contact numbers, then have cashiers enter that information into your DMS or CRM at day’s end. The reason: Customers who may be leery about sharing contact information with a dealership often can be enticed to do so with an incentive like this.

The bottom line is that without proper contact information, your dealership won’t be able to reach out to customers when they are likely to need service. All dealership departments need to take time to gather this information at the first opportunity.

3. REACH OUT TO CUSTOMERS WITH REGULARLY SCHEDULED CAMPAIGNS With contact information in hand, target customers with regular, personalized campaigns to keep your service center top-of-mind.

There are a number of tactics you can employ with regard to these messages, using information on file about a customer’s vehicle and his or her previous service appointments. You can customize each of the following messages to an individual customer:  A thank you e-mail or letter sent after each customer visit to the dealership  A reminder message that it’s time for routine maintenance  A note telling the customer he or she had missed a service appointment

4. TIME AND PLAN YOUR OFFERS The messages and offers should gradually become more aggressive as the customer exceeds a regularly scheduled maintenance visit. For example, a customer who is one month past due for regular maintenance should receive a $5 off service offer, while one who is three months overdue may receive a $15 off discount. But, be mindful not to under- or over-communicate in this regard.

As you create or revise service-related offers to customers, remember that it’s best to stick to oil changes, tires and generic discounts, as these have proven to garner the best responses. Customers know they need oil changes and new tires on a regular basis, and if they don’t need either when you send your offer message, any other type of service they might need will fall into the generic bucket.

Regular, personalized and valuable direct marketing campaigns like these can serve to keep your dealership’s service department on the minds of customers, and in turn keep them coming back. Retaining a customer throughout the vehicle’s life cycle can be a challenge, but dealers who put in the time and effort necessary to start a relationship off right and stay in contact with the customer can succeed.

 An informational bulletin about any news on that vehicle, declined repair or part recall that might affect them  An alert that the vehicle is overdue for a particular service  A request for referrals of friends and family  An offer for a discount on a repair or service they may have previously declined

Follow-up messages to customers must be well planned.

“Regular, personalized and valuable direct marketing campaigns like these can serve to keep your dealership’s service department on the minds of customers, and in turn keep them coming back.”

AMY FARLEY Media and Communications Manager at Force Marketing Amy is a skilled writer and editor with a keen interest in digital trends and topics in the automotive industry. She utilizes her knowledge of what is new in retail automotive marketing to help Force, an automotive digital, direct mail and email marketing firm based in Atlanta, Ga., evolve the dealer-to-customer shopping experience. Visit the website at Forcemktg.com.

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JUNE 2015 Service Drive 21

Askthe

Pros: D

o you have questions? We have experts who can answer them. We have partnered with some of the top fixed operations consultants in the business who are ready, willing and able to share their knowledge and advice with you. All you have to do is email your questions to Newsroom@ServiceDriveToday.com, and we’ll take care of the rest.

IS IT A GOOD IDEA TO GIVE SOMEONE A PRINTOUT OF THE COMPUTER DIAGNOSTICS, IF THEY HAVEN’T COMMITTED TO HAVING US DO THE REPAIRS YET? I KNOW A LOT OF CUSTOMERS ARE TAKING THE PRINTOUT AROUND TO THE INDEPENDENT REPAIR SHOPS TO SHOW THEM. — JIM T., CARSON CITY, NEV. Don Reed, CEO DealerPro Training: Jim, the quick answer to your question is absolutely “Yes.” Why would it be a bad idea to give a customer the results of your computer’s diagnostics? The most common answer is, “They might get the repairs completed at an aftermarket shop.” My response to that is if you run the diagnostics for your customer, your service advisors now have an opportunity to make the sale with a proper feature-benefit presentation of the needed repair. Whereas, you run the risk of alienating your customers by refusing to share with them the diagnostic results and will probably lose a customer. This is not conducive to building owner retention.

Secondly, those diagnostics simply provide a “system

failure code” and do not necessarily diagnose what part has specifically failed, which means your technicians must interpret the code reading and in many cases complete further tests in order to determine the cause of the failure and how it can be corrected. It is imperative that your service advisors explain all of the repair processes to be completed by your factory-trained technicians to build value in servicing their vehicle at your dealership.

At DealerPro, we are currently working with dealers all across the U.S. and Canada and find that many customers are coming to their dealer with failure codes provided by the aftermarket, which tells the customer to “go to your new car dealer for the repair.”

The bottom line is, always put your customer first by providing the highest level of service you possibly can, and watch your service sales soar.

IN YOUR EXPERIENCE, WHAT PROPORTION OF DEALERSHIPS ARE SETTING UP SOME KIND OF TOOL ACCOUNT FUND OR TOOL LOAN FUND TO HELP OFFSET THE HUGE AND GROWING INVESTMENT TECHNICIANS HAVE TO MAKE IN UPTO-DATE TOOLS? — JOEL J., CONWAY, S.C. Lee Harkins, president and CEO of M5 Management Services Inc.: Great

question, Joel, but no easy answer. I don’t see very many people setting up tool loans or funds other than for the new hire apprentices. Many stores refuse to be the bank for employees. Over the years, companies have developed ways to pay the technicians an hourly rate for labor and another for the rental of their tools. The advantages were to be for tax reasons, but I have never seen it work. Most of our clients ran away from it and didn’t want to get involved.

Tool programs for the apprentice technician are something many dealerships have implemented.

You have several options here, such as:

Purchase programs: Some stores, when the technician graduates, will buy them a starter set of tools with the stipulation that they must be employed by the store for a given period of time. After then, the tools are theirs. Some have worked out deals with their tool vendor, and other have gone to big-box stores and got them. Some stores have developed written contracts for the employee to sign.

Store-owned tools: This is popular in the quick service

area. The store buys a complete set and allows the technician to use them. The biggest challenge is, many times (tools) get misplaced, stolen or both.

WHERE DO YOU SEE THE BIGGEST SINGLE SOURCE OF WASTEFUL UNDER-UTILIZATION OF TECHNICIANS’ WORK-HOURS, I.E. STANDING AROUND DOING NOTHING OR BEING WASTED ON LOW-WAGE SUPPORT TASKS? — LOU S., ALBANY, N.Y. Chris Collins, founder of Chris Collins Inc.:

I know this happens, but standing around isn’t that common in the shops I work with. Now, to answer this question we have to assume that parts run efficiently, and techs aren’t waiting for simple parts for long periods or time.

The biggest time-killer by far is pulling cars in and out

22 Service Drive JUNE 2015

of the shop. Think about it. A tech gets assigned a job, goes and gets the keys, finds the car, drives it in, racks it, then does the work that’s requested on the RO and hopefully an inspection. Depending on your system, at this point he may give the inspection sheet to parts, then the advisor.

They wait or pull the car out. Either way, most of the time the car gets pulled out again waiting for approval.

It’s very inefficient.

I recommend reading a book called “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement,” by Eliyahu Goldratt.

It has been used by the Harvard Business School and is an easy read. It touches on the “theory of constraints” and will make you see how inspecting the cars up front in the drive can change shop efficiency, closing ratios and CSI, all in a very dramatic and positive direction.

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SAVE THE

DATE

FEB 9-11

2016 O M N I AT

C N N

H OT E L C E N T E R

AT L A N TA

Attention Dealers, GMs, GSMs, Sales Managers, F&I Managers, Marketing Directors, Service Managers, Internet Managers, BDC Managers and Pre-Owned Managers CBT Automotive Network is proud to announce the 2016 CBT Automotive Sales, Service and Marketing Conference & Expo.

The retail automotive industry's top leaders and keynote speakers will come together to present more than 100 powerful sessions and thought-provoking panel discussions during this dynamic three-day event.

Mark your calendar now for February 9-11, 2016.

We'll see you in Atlanta!

Visit CBT Conference and Expo.com for more informaaon

DON’T ACCEPT NEGATIVE ONLINE CUSTOMER REVIEWS

As The

Last Word

Service groups need an action plan to address the problem and then mitigate damage to their reputations.

BY RYAN LESLIE

L

et’s say a customer who recently visited your service drive was disappointed that the actual time taken to repair her vehicle was quite a bit longer she had been quoted. Not understanding the reasons for the delay, she takes to the web to voice her displeasure, and your service department has just received quite the nasty review on Yelp.

Great. Now what? Could that review linger in cyberspace, forever scaring off potential new service customer? Or, can your people do something to limit the damage?

While negative reviews may be inevitable, they are not entirely detrimental. They do bring your management’s attention to systemic problems, and if all your online reviews were glowing, consumers probably wouldn’t believe them anyway. And, they need not be permanent. Following is a step-by-step plan for dealership service groups to address negative customer reviews and try to mitigate their effects.

Story continues on page 25

24 Service Drive JUNE 2015

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View a poor online review as an opportunity to demonstrate publicly how seriously your service drive takes customer satisfaction.

“Ms. Consumer, thank you for taking the time to write this review. We take feedback from our customers very seriously and would like to hear more about your visit, so we can try to remedy this situation if possible. Would you be willing to call me at (xxx) xxx-xxxx at your earliest convenience?

Thank you, Designated responder/general manager”

While negative reviews may be inevitable, they are not entirely detrimental.

1. CREATE AN ACTION PLAN

Negative reviews should be viewed as inevitable, because customers naturally worry about costly repairs and (aside from car buffs, mechanics and engineers), most of them don’t understand the intricacies of their vehicles. The service department needs to have an approach to set a customer’s mind at ease before he or she ever arrives in the service drive, to establish trust in your abilities and intentions. But, you need an action plan to follow when such trust proves elusive.

It should include: 

A designated person, or a service you have hired, to monitor review sites. Like G.I. Joe used to say, “Knowing is half the battle.” You can’t mitigate negative reviews if you don’t know they exist.



A customer-friendly associate assigned to respond to negative reviews. This person should have a title (say, general manager) that conveys to the customer that he or she has authority to remedy their problem, and a cool head in what can often be a tense interaction.



A commitment to investigate EVERY negative review. Negative reviews provide critical insight into your customers’ experience, so investigating them helps your service staff improve how they interact.

2. KNOW THE REVIEW SITE’S TERMS

Neutral review sites (DealerRater is one) provide equal footing for consumers and businesses and allow for a public response to a negative review about your dealership. Some sites (for example, complaintboard. com and ripoffreport.com) don’t provide a means to respond to the review without some form of payment, however.

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Read the site’s official terms of use. If you conclude the reviewer has breached them somehow, you may have a legitimate claim to get the negative review removed.

In reporting a violation, be specific about your reasons for wanting a review removed and cite the applicable section of the terms of use, politely but firmly.

Even if you are successful in having a bad review removed, continue to investigate the claim to ensure you haven’t missed an opportunity to improve your people and process.

3. SEEK RESOLUTION

Not all sites are created equal. Some have specific programs and tools to help dealers reconcile with consumers, because that benefits both sides. Most consumers don’t WANT to write a negative review; they would prefer to have a great buying experience.

Work with the review site when possible to leverage any channels they may provide, such as private communication with the reviewer. If no such channels are available, then you effectively will need to address two distinct audiences – the reviewer and future readers of the review – with one microphone.

How you write your public response addresses future readers of the review. You need to prove that your dealership cares about the reviewer’s concerns and are willing to make every effort to make him or her happy.

For example, consider a response like:

Notice that there is NOT an overt apology. At its core, an apology is an admission of guilt. Until you’ve heard from the reviewer, you aren’t in a place to admit guilt.

There may be a very reasonable explanation for her dissatisfaction but that isn’t your fault, and a premature apology sets the stage for further disappointment, not reconciliation. An expression of humility and a willingness to “fix a problem” is far more effective than apologies and groveling.

If the reviewer never communicates back, so be it.

You’ve “covered” that negative review with a positive response that shows you are trying to help her, and that is what will be important to future customers researching online. Be sure to investigate the source of the review and take the necessary steps to improve your people’s actions and your process, if applicable.

Hopefully, however, the reviewer has taken the public response is an overture to take the conversation offline. More often than not, he or she will get in touch to discuss the experience, which is your opportunity to rectify the situation and turn it into a positive consumer experience. By listening to the customer’s problem, proposing a solution and taking time to remedy the problem, you can earn a raving fan for your dealership.

At that point, you have earned the right to ask the customer to update or alter their original review. A sample communication could be: “Ms. Consumer, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to remedy this situation for you. Let me ask you a question: Do you feel the same about us now as you did when you wrote that review?”

If the answer is “Yes,” you still have some work to do. Continue to probe for what it will take to repair the relationship. If the answer is “No,” you should follow up with something like: “Great! We work hard to make sure that the reviews online about us are reflective of our business and how we try to treat our customers. Would you be willing to update your review and let everyone know that, although we made a mistake, we did fix it and you are happy with us again? It would mean a great deal to me and our dealership.”

In summary, negative reviews are a certainty, so prepare today. The service manager who is willing to enact an action plan to mitigate negative reviews through reconciliation, and is fully committed to investigating and learning from them when possible, will be in the best position to pull positive results from the situation.

RYAN LESLIE Director of the Dealer Experience Team at DealerRater.com Ryan is a frequent contributor to industry forums and has presented at multiple industry conferences and dealer associations as a recognized thought leader on reputation management. His automotive career began in 2003 as a “lot monkey” hanging window labels and taking digital photographs for dealer specialties. He is passionate about real reputation management for dealerships and is dedicated to helping the best dealers differentiate themselves and their employees from the rest. Visit the website at www.dealerrater.com

JUNE 2015 Service Drive 25

Steps To Take Right Now To Create A ‘We Matter’ Attitude Among Service Staff Position your people as experts, track pro and con customer reviews, loop in your dealer on successes.

BY BRENDA STANG

Y

ou’ve walked into businesses for the first time and encountered confident employees who clearly know their value, both to the business and to you the customer. How did that affect you as a customer? Were you more inclined to accept that business as credible and trustworthy?

Similarly, there is a different vibe at dealerships where the service staff act like they are well aware of their department’s worth to the business’ current and future well being. They walk a little taller than service managers and techs at other dealerships, full of confidence, which in turn makes customers feel more confident about being treated well and getting quality work. In turn, every other department in the building takes notice and respects the service drive.

Am I dreaming or tossing out impossible standards?

No, I’m not. I’ve seen service departments like this in action. They are led by managers who value their staffs and their well being a great deal and who realize they can’t afford to let other dealership departments tell service’s story. They also know the service drive’s success cannot hinge only on the service manager talking the talk; after all, he can be in only one place at one time. Everyone on the service staff needs to be working to standards, day in and day out.

Managers who head up this different breed of service departments and proactive, as a reactive mindset weakens their cause and produces an environment where staff feel underappreciated and like victims.

They understand the dealership business model and make sure the services techs understand it as well.

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Okay, enough about this Shangri-La of service drives.

How can your service department move toward such an environment of excellence, starting today? Here are three ways you can immediately start building a service department that stands up to be counted: •

Proudly position yourself as experts to your internal customers

•

Make sure social media are portraying your service department in the way you want

•

Keep your dealer/general manager in the loop

BE THE EXPERTS

Just like customers, sales consultants need an expert with whom to talk. So, don’t stand back and wait for mechanical problems to arise. Step up and take control, but in a friendly way. Let your dealership co-workers know you are there to help them, not make things more difficult.

Don’t wait for the other departments to discover and appreciate the service group. Stand tall and raise your profile within the dealership. Establish yourselves as the experts and be the store’s go-to area of expertise.

How? Here are three approaches I would suggest: 1. Run training clinics for the rest of the dealership.

Models newly released from the factory sometimes need technical explanations. Check with the sales

staff to ask if there aspects of the vehicle they would like to go over with your staff ’s master technician, so that they in turn can discuss them more confidently with their customers? Are there certain repairs with which they need to become more knowledgeable, in case customers ask about them? You will find salespeople will appreciate and respect the service group for putting on these clinics. Stand taller. Be seen as the experts, internally.

2. In turn, ask the sales department to organize a “ride and drive” event for your service team as new models hit the showroom. Apart from improving your staff ’s familiarity, this shows you have a healthy respect for the sales team’s skills, and in turn that improves rapport between the departments. Be known as a big supporter of other departments.

3. Organize a maintenance clinic and ask the salespeople to talk it up with their customers. It is very important for your service staff to understand and appreciate that 76 percent of vehicle owners who are happy with your service will end up buying another vehicle from your store.

But, with improving overall quality these days with vehicles’ mechanical components and systems, fewer warranty visits are needed. That’s why a maintenance clinic helps keeps your group’s expertise front and center. Be seen as the expert in the dealership, and walk tall.

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Service techs should present themselves, internally and externally, as experts.

TRACK AND MANAGE SOCIAL MEDIA REVIEWS

More and more customers check out dealerships’ online reviews before paying a visit. Is your store using an online review system, like DealerRater’s? Chances are pretty good it does, for vehicle sales purposes. Here’s the thing: It’s just as important to monitor customer reviews of their service experience.

If your dealership doesn’t have a process in place to monitor online customer reviews of service work, be proactive and make the case to create one. Why is this so important?

A. Positive reviews establish your store as a desirable provider of service work, giving potential customers the expectation not only that they will enjoy a positive car-buying experience but also that the service drive will treat them well in the future. This is powerful stuff for the dealership.

B. Good reviews also establish your service consultants as the go-to people to take care of the customer after the sale. Make sure your service consultants also understand this is a form of marketing that positions them as experts. Result: Increased staff confidence, and this is priceless.

C. Negative reviews must be dealt with swiftly. But, as the service manager, you also must help your

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consultants understand it is not as important to change a negative review as to show online, publicly, how your service drive handles problems. This is powerful stuff guaranteed to put a little swagger in their steps.

KEEP THE DEALER/GM APPRISED

Most dealers and top execs came out of the dealership’s sales side. So, they might be predisposed to devote most of their attention to sales and marketing. Thus, it is vital that you, the service manager, keep them in the loop about your issues. I have found most dealers really do want to show more support for service, but they may not know when the time is right.

So, how can you do a better job keeping your dealer in the loop?

1. Share any accomplishments and good news stories involving the service drive. Believe me, your dealer/ GM is always looking for more opportunities to

acknowledge and congratulate staff, to let it be known that they count. Give the GM talking points and let him take care of the public congratulations.

2. Invite the dealer to share his story and vision for the dealership – and, specifically, where the service drive fits in – at a special staff meeting. Share anything relevant, from improved CSI and customer pay numbers to a staffer’s work anniversary.

Become a go-to area for the dealer about positive staff news. Nothing makes a service tech stand taller than having the dealership publicly acknowledge his importance.

Don’t make more of a challenge to improving in these three areas than it needs to be. Pick one area to start with and work on your tactics daily. Stay disciplined, and before long you will see your service department stand taller, walk with more confidence and be more prepared for customers and co-workers to depend on them.

BRENDA STANG Chief Shifter at Shifting Gears Training After 19 years in the dealership world, Brenda shifted a gear and started an organization to train and coach dealership managers. During her time in the Ulmer Auto Group she worked with GM, Toyota, Nissan, Dodge and Chrysler stores. As Managing Partner for two of the top GM dealerships in Western Canada for the past 14 years, Brenda worked with her management teams to develop and practice the best habits to be effective and efficient. Brenda is a Certified Trainer, Coach and Speaker with the John Maxwell Team. You can reach Brenda at LeadershipIsInfluence.com.

JUNE 2015 Service Drive 27

Avoid This Recipe For Failure In Using

Social Media for Fixed Ops Fall back on old media strategies, and overlook the impact of Facebook ads, at your own peril. BY KATHI KRUSE

A

s we all know by now, social media are the goto destination for consumers to get information and advice when they start to research an important purchase.

In one recent study, nearly 70% of customers surveyed said they spend more time online than offline gathering information pre-purchase, with a relevant percentage doing their research online only.

By now, your dealership may be using social media to connect with consumers in hopes of developing a business relationship prior to their fixed ops services. You also may be having second thoughts about how you’re going about it. Consumers have found it’s difficult to obtain trustworthy information, especially from vendors who sound like they know what success is. They’ll tell you how their product/service fixes all your “problems,” but how do you really know if that’s true?

The best place for a dealership to start is by taking a hard look at what you’re doing right now and see how it measures up to proven social media marketing methods that successful companies have employed. Failure isn’t failure if you learn from it, so make sure to avoid the following five sure-fire ways to fail at using social media in a fixed ops operation.

1) USING OLD MEDIA TACTICS ON NEW MEDIA CAMPAIGNS A client of ours recently decided to go with a “social media provider” because it was free. It’s been a few months now, and this client’s Facebook page has taken a huge hit – not only in growth of the page but also in engagement, reach, leads and sales.

This “provider” basically turned the business’ page into an Infiniti commercial. Over and over, they’re blasting out the “benefits” of the service department.

Now, commercials about your service operation have their place, but certainly not on your Facebook page; that’s too much, too soon.

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Two negative events usually result when a business blasts messages on social media that are actually aadvertisements. First, people un-follow you. Users don’t want to engage with content that’s solely about products/services and doesn’t answer their questions or acquaint them with reasons why people buy from your dealership.

Second, your content looks exactly like everyone else’s, thereby making your dealership appear boring and forgettable.

Social media and content marketing are all about getting the right message to the right customer at the right time. Marketing on each social platform where your customers spend time requires careful analysis to identify what to post and how often.

2) IGNORING THE POWER OF FACEBOOK ADS Social media (in this case, Facebook) are now “pay to play.” You must pay to have your content seen by your target customers.

There are many different strategies to employ with Facebook ads, depending on your goals. Following are the four basic types of ads you’ll want to explore: • “Promote Your Page” ads that increase “likes” • “Boost Your Post” ads designed to increase engagement and promote content • “Send People to Your Website” ads intended to drive appointments and sales • “Increase Conversions” ads

3) YOU’RE GETTING “RESULTS” BUT YOU’RE NOT SURE WHAT THAT MEANS Without setting clear objectives and goals for your so-

cial media marketing, you will have nothing to which to tie your results back.

I hear many, many dealers, GMs and fixed ops managers say they’re successful because their Facebook page has a few hundred or a few thousand likes. Likes are only the first step of your overall social media marketing strategy. Engagement, reach, leads, customers and sales are metrics you must set goals around and then measure, to know for sure what your results mean and what your next steps are.

Kruse Control’s suggested social media approach is: • Set goals and objectives • Define strategies to meet your goals • Execute strategies • Measure results • Tie results back to goals = ROI

4) YOU’RE UNABLE TO IDENTIFY AND DEFINE YOUR TARGET CUSTOMER In the old days of networking, they used to say, “If you think your customer is everyone, think again.” The reality is, there are people out there who will never visit your service drive. Some will, some won’t. So what?

Social media allows you to focus your time, effort and budget on those people who are most likely to buy from you. But, you have to identify who they are.

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“For the love of Pete, please don’t leave your (social media) reputation up to a rookie. It’s okay to give someone you think deserves it a chance, but please get them some training and support.”

Defining your target customer is vital if you want to take full advantage of social media’s targeting methods.

Designing a winning content strategy to attract new customers or to engage your repeat customers let you to provide value to the relationship. Figure out what questions, concerns and interests your target customers have, and be as useful as you can with the content you publish.

5) YOU’VE GOT A ROOKIE IN THE STARTING POSITION Nearly every time I speak at a conference, I meet two or three people who’ve been given the title of social media director even though they have no experience either in the automotive retail industry or as a marketing professional. Sometimes they haven’t done either.

Would you put a brand new service advisor in the service drive with no training or guidance? Would you allow an apprentice technician to work on a problem transmission or engine issue? No, you wouldn’t.

So, don’t trust your online reputation to someone who has no idea how to develop a solid marketing plan or execute it. For the love of Pete, please don’t leave your reputation up to a rookie. It’s okay to give someone you think deserves it a chance, but please get them some training and support. The money you spend today will pay large dividends in a few short months, when you have a fullfledged social marketer in your organization.

ServiceDriveToday.com

KATHI KRUSE President of Kruse Control Inc. Kathi is an automotive social media marketing expert, blogger, speaker, coach and author. Her passion for the car business spans a 30-year career managing successful dealerships in Southern California. Kathi is the author of “Automotive Social Business – How to Captivate Your Customers, Sell More Cars & Be Generally Remarkable on Social Media.” Her Kruse Control blog is the leading automotive social media blog in the U.S. and Canada. Visit her website at KruseControlinc.com.

JUNE 2015 Service Drive 29

Retailers such as dealerships must continuously transform their business models to accommodate the instant gratification desire of these younger consumers.

SERVICING MILLENIAL CUSTOMERS Embrace the digital-first way this generation shops for service as well as for cars, or put your business at risk. BY RICH HOLLAND

D

ealership and fixed operations retention has always been a vital ingredient in the health of a dealership. While huge budgets are spent on the acquisition of new sales customers, the service department is in the background ensuring that the dealership has a solid foundation and can sustain it during economic downturns. Keeping the service bays full and customers lining the drive is imperative to profitability. However, dealerships are facing a twofold challenge. First, consumers inherently distrust dealers. Second, the service market is highly competitive – independents dominate consumer service business with vehicles outside warranty. And for new vehicles, dealers have two to three years to build that trust before they risk losing that consumer to an independent, should they fail.

Many dealers have settled into a predictable retention marketing strategy, with service reminders, coupons, etc., to keep service customers coming back to the dealership and entice those who have gone missing.

Past generations are accustomed to these more traditional forms of communication – phone calls and direct

30 Service Drive JUNE 2015

mail pieces. These strategies have been working well – until now.

Times have changed. With new technologies arriving seemingly every day, things will continue to change at an increasingly rapid pace.

Today’s car shopper grew up in a much different world filled with smart phones, iPads, blazing-fast Internet and instant information at their fingertips.

These consumers are used to fast, constant connectivity. Retailers have long been buying their attention, and consequently their business with digital interactions and incentives. These consumers don’t know a world that requires effort to shop different dealers for the best price or service. Meet the millennials.

In a recent article in Time magazine, industry expert Dale Pollack stated that millennials will account for 75 percent of all vehicles purchased by 2025. Dealers would be wise to understand this quickly growing consumer segment and analyze how to adapt to entice – and keep – this new customer base. Those that adapt will likely be clear frontrunners for winning sales and service business over the next few decades.

WHAT EXACTLY DO MILLENNIALS WANT FROM A SERVICE EXPERIENCE?

Millennials are accustomed to a world in which they can buy a refrigerator online in seconds and have it delivered almost immediately. Retailers are continuously transforming their business models to accommodate the instant gratification desire of these younger consumers. Millennials are impatient. They want information when, where and how they want it.

They are price shoppers to a degree, but will pay more for quality and convenience.

Because they favor consistency and reliability, millennials have their vehicle serviced at a franchised dealer over an independent – at least while their vehicles are under warranty. They pay for convenience and peace of mind – seen in the increased popularity of service contracts. This trend could be an advantage: more time to build trust and value in dealership service.

Story continues on page 32

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COMING TO

TORONTO, RALEIGH, INDIANAPOLIS, SAN DIEGO

Continued from page 30

SO WHAT DOES A DEALERSHIP NEED TO DO TO BUILD LOYALTY AND RETAIN MILLENNIALS?

Build trust – Building trust is the single most important thing to create a loyal millennial. In service, this translates to consistent inspections and service recommendations. It only takes one visit with contradictory service recommendations to lose that trust.

Enable these customers to validate any recommended service through third parties, and in a manner that they can understand. Be sure to reinforce a consistent process. If your service advisor recommended something on their last visit, which the customer declined, it’d be wise to ensure it’s also recommended on their next visit.

Millennials are very visual. They are used to using electronic devices to access information that includes pictures and video. Simply advising the need for a new air filter is no longer enough. It is advantageous to build trust through visual education. Show them their old filter and teach them the benefits of changing it through photos and video.

critical reason why millennials switch to independents once their warranty has expired. Independents advertise their pricing and make it easy for millennials to access.

There’s no doubt that the independents’ price transparency contributes to the perception that dealer service is, in general, more expensive.

Communicate Better – Millennials are the most digitally connected generation in history. Technology has provided myriad ways for them to communicate. The lynchpin to their trust: communicate with these customers in the way in which they prefer. We can no longer rely solely on phone calls and direct mail. Many millennials don’t listen to voicemails, and ignore calls from unknown numbers. They will, however, respond to a text message in seconds and read their emails. You will find faster response times to service recommendations and spend less time tracking these customers down. The ability to communicate with millennials in their preferred method can increase shop efficiency and provide a better customer experience.

Additionally, electronic tools can make all the difference when presenting recommendations. In our research, we found the use of tablets to present inspection results and service recommendations led to an increased acceptance of those recommendations. And, even more interesting, the customer was willing to pay

Provide information – Millennials expect access to information. You can be sure they have heavily researched the vehicle – price-checking, understanding warranties, and looking out for any recalls. In many cases they come armed with more information than the dealer. Transparent information is a crucial element to winning their business. Dealerships must strive to provide any and all information, whether that is about pricing or recommended repairs. Failure to provide information is a

more when they received the estimate and recommendations electronically.

Millennials are changing the way business is done by seeking better experiences. Innovative businesses capitalize on this and use technology to better service this demanding new generation. Domino’s Pizza, for example, provides real-time status updates on the progress of any pizza order, while Amazon sends tracking updates for packages via texts. As new technology transforms retail, millennials will increasingly demand similar experiences from dealerships. Consumers used to be satisfied with the ability to gain access to information – tracking, order status updates, etc. – by visiting a retailers website. Now, simply providing the information isn’t enough. Millennials are expecting that businesses deliver that information to them, instead of having to retrieve it themselves.

Building trust, providing information and communicating better are key to winning – and keeping – millennials’ service business. This can only be accomplished through concerted effort that incorporates consistency, transparency and technology to provide the experience they demand. Technology will always continue to guide millennials’ actions. Adopt these changes and cement your place in this new world of technology.

RICH HOLLAND Managing Director of AutoPoint As a frequent speaker on the future of automotive dealership service, Rich believes in an “adapt-or-die” theory of innovation. With more than 30 years of diverse experience, he is a recognized expert in information technologies and creating customer loyalty through digital excellence. Visit the website at Autopoint.com.

Brian Pasch is on CBT Automotive Network!

Brian Pasch, CEO of PCG Consulting, author of “Mastering Automotive Digital Marketing,” and one of the foremost authorities in automotive marketing, examines the latest topics and best practices that are changing the way auto retailers do business today. Brian interviews some of the industry’s brightest minds in the retail automotive business.

View the latest show at cbtnews.com

32 Service Drive JUNE 2015

TUNE IN EVERY WEDNESDAY ServiceDriveToday.com

Evolving the dealer-to-customer shopping experience through an integrated approach of multi-channel marketing.

CUSTOMER-FRIENDLY WEBSITES

PRODUCE FOR DEALERS Special features and publishing sites in native language turn visits into more sales.

BY DENNIS GALBRAITH AND GINO CIPPERONI

34 Service Drive JUNE 2015

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D

ealers hear a great deal about new technology, but the issue that is of paramount importance is moving customers closer to the sale. More of those customers than ever before are visiting dealer websites, and savvy dealers are making bold new moves to capitalize on a higher percentage of site visitors than ever before. The changes involve innovation in content, design, technology and even a key move back to an older way of doing business.

longer simply listed on the dealer’s site, but categorized using tabs and titling for ease of navigation shoppers never enjoyed before. As the amount of information increases, navigation on dealer sites becomes more important than ever.

CONFIGURATORS

All of this is lost if the site is not presented in the preferred language of the shopper. For example, the number of Spanish speaking shoppers continues to grow each year. Translation technology exists, but is imperfect at best. Studies have been performed to see how natural Spanish speakers react to basic translation

Vehicle configurators have been popular with many shoppers since the early days of automotive Internet.

Nearly every manufacturer has provided shoppers a method of configuring their preferred vehicle since at least 2000. What dealers lacked was their own configurator on their own site with no risk of losing the shopper to competing dealers. Today, some dealers actually have configurators on their sites that are superior to their manufacturer’s configurator in meeting customer needs.

CALCULATORS

Payment calculators existed on dealer sites for many years with no improvement to usability. The shopper was required to know what interest rate they qualify for. Clearly, very few do when they arrive at the store, no less while they are on the dealer’s site. Today, dealers are beginning to add payment calculators based on the shopper’s credit score and the dealer’s actual lending tables. With CreditMiner integration, dealers can know the shopper’s exact credit score without asking for their Social Security number. Both the shopper and the dealer know exactly what terms and interest rate the shopper qualifies for, as well as the resulting payment.

EASILY SHARED INFORMATION

Vehicle Detail Pages (VDPs) have relied heavily on photos, videos and seller’s notes to meet the information needs of shoppers. But savvy dealers are thinking beyond the information needs of the site visitor themselves. Most vehicles are not purchased by a single individual, and the site visitor is very likely to be the more committed of the decision makers. To sell more vehicles, dealers provide much more information than ever before and do so in a manner making it easy

PREFERRED LANGUAGE OF CUSTOMERS

“HAVING A SPANISH SITE BUILT FROM THE GROUND UP TO REACH OUT TO THIS LARGE AND AFFLUENT DEMOGRAPHIC ALLOWS YOU TO COMMUNICATE TO THIS GROUP IN A WAY THAT YOUR COMPETITORS AREN’T.” of a website (i.e. the kind many dealers have now).

There were a few key findings worth pointing out.

It has been shown that direct translation can polarize some members of a community as it results in an inauthentic voice. With simple translation tools, the voice of the site changes to something that sounds broken and incoherent to a native speaker. This is viewed as off-putting and actually does more harm than good.

When we look at the data, acculturated Hispanics tend to prefer Spanish advertising, labeling and signage for informative reasons, but also because they feel respected (57 percent) by companies that demonstrate appreciation of their heritage and culture through Spanish advertising and dedicated Spanish websites.

They exhibit greater loyalty to these brands (53 percent). More surprisingly, Hispanic adults who are English dominant and consume media in advertising, also tend to perceive companies that market and advertise in Spanish positively; not for their utilitarian benefits, but for deeper emotional implications such as “respect of my heritage” (29 percent) and “appreciation for my culture” (26 percent). Simply using Google

WHAT DEALERS LACKED WAS THEIR OWN CONFIGURATOR ON THEIR OWN SITE WITH NO RISK OF LOSING THE SHOPPER TO COMPETING DEALERS. for one shopper to share the information with the other.

Downloadable brochures and owner’s manuals are a case in point, but many dealers also show the awards and accolades attributed to the vehicle, the NHTSA crash test ratings, and EPA green scores. Virtually no dealers provided this information a few years ago. Now the practice is becoming increasingly common among leading dealers. Features and specifications are no

you begin to develop a solid reputation amongst the Hispanic community in your area. If we look at the data, we see that Hispanic searchers who communicate exclusively in Spanish tend to share more promotional and high-equity content than those who prefer to communicate in English, and even more still than general population influencers. This means that building a Hispanic following today has a very good chance of growing into a very strong referral network as years go on.

The bottom line here is, as we look to the future, more and more businesses will have full Spanish sites.

Getting to the party early gives dealers a chance to dominate this growing market and make it difficult for competitors to catch up once they finally get on board.

A superior website opens up additional opportunities

Translate tells these users that you want to offer them a good experience, but don’t want to put in the time and effort to do it right.

Having a Spanish site built from the ground up to reach out to this large and affluent demographic allows you to communicate to this group in a way that your competitors aren’t. This gives you a huge leg up in your marketplace, not just now, but years from now as

for driving traffic to the site. With higher percentage of shoppers to the site converting to store contacts, a plethora of digital advertising options begin to not only make sense, but also offer superior return on investment to leads acquisition, third-party listings and traditional advertising.

With a Spanish language site, there are a number of reasons to invest in Spanish paid Search. Spanish language paid search offers a huge opportunity to reach users who are only searching in Spanish, but do it in a way that is extremely cost effective. If we look at the data, we see that, on average, dealers’ average cost per click for a Spanish language search campaign is between 100 to 200 percent lower than the CPC of an English paid search campaign. This means that dealers can effectively reach this audience with a much smaller budget, while still maintaining a high rate of return.

Not only does Spanish language paid search cost less than English paid search, but it also allows you to be first to market in an area often overlooked by traditional marketing. Traditional media sources – especially radio, magazines and newspapers – see higher levels of consumption in Spanish than digital media, but Spanish speakers are also very active online. This gap is likely due to a deficiency in the availability of Spanishlanguage digital media, which may lead consumers who prefer Spanish to engage with English media first.

Offering reliable Spanish-language resources may be a good way to reach some under-served Hispanic communities.

As it has always been, great marketing starts with a focus on shoppers and meeting their information needs. Technology has not, and will not, change that. Technology works best for the marketer when it improves shopping for the customer. Leading dealers recognize that many shoppers want to explore vehicles with a configurator, don’t know their financial options and need expanded information to persuade their partner. As fundamental as any other marketing element, shoppers want to shop in their preferred language.

DENNIS GALBRAITH CMO at Dealer e-Process

GINO CIPPERONI Digital Marketing Specialist at Dealer e-Process

Dennis is the author of “Sales Integration” and “Online Automotive Merchandising,” and is widely known for his expertise in automotive marketing.

Prior to joining Dealer E-Process, he owned two successful startup companies, was Vice President of Advertising Products and Training for Cars.com, and led the automotive internet division of J.D. Power and Associates.

As a Google and Yahoo/Bing Certified professional, Gino puts his economic and statistical training to work for auto dealers. He has worked with hundreds of dealers across the U.S. and Canada to help them figure out the most optimal way to allocate their advertising dollars and generate results. Visit the website at www.dealereprocess.com.

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ON THE SET WITH

AUTOMOTIVE NETWORK

CBT’s Russell Brown (left) moderating a panel discussion at the recent American International Automobile Dealers Association’s International Auto Industry Summit in Washington. Also shown are Hyundai Motor America president and CEO David Zuchowski (center) and Paul Holdridge, VP of sales for Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc.

Zach Klempf, CEO of Selly Automotive

Chris Collins of Chris Collins Inc.

Don Reed, CEO of DealerPro Training Solutions

Mike Allen, chief White House correspondent for Politico, at the AIADA International Auto Industry Summit

Mike Burgiss, founder of MakeMyDeal

Bill Wittenmyer, partner at ELEAD1ONE (left), and John Gottschalk, SVP of dealer relations for FordDirect (right)

Jason Dorsey, chief strategy officer at the Center for Generational Kinetics, appearing at the AIADA International Auto Industry Summit

Tim Barnett Jr., new car sales manager at Steve Rayman Chevrolet in Smyrna, Ga. (left), and CBT’s Russell Brown (right)

AIADA President Cody Lusk, addressing the recent AIADA International Auto Industry Summit in Washington

34 Service Drive JUNE 2015

Jeff Cowan of Jeff Cowan’s Pro Talk Inc.

Brian Pasch, founder and CEO of PCG Consulting Inc.

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© 2015 Automobile Protection Corporation-APCO. EasyCare is a registered trademark of Automobile Protection Corporation – APCO. MOTOR TREND® is a registered trademark of TEN: The Enthusiast Network Magazines, LLC.

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