Today, more than ever, online reviews can make or break your month selling vehicles. We can search for online reputation management companies and we will get hundreds if not thousands of opinions on how to manipulate the system of posting positive reviews. Many of these companies state that they have a secret to help your dealership look like they are flawless. This is done utilizing a lot of smoke and mirrors.
Studies by consumer behavior and search experts say that 7 out of 10…
ContinueAdded by James Schaefer on June 25, 2012 at 11:58am — 1 Comment
I’ll admit it. I fear bringing my vehicle in for service as much as visiting the dentist. I recently brought my car in for service, and for some reason, it reminded me of a routine dental check-up. Bear with me on this analogy.
Just like you want your teeth to stay white and strong, you want your car to run in tip-top shape. However, when the time finally comes to go back in for a check-up, you curl up in the fetal position, and softly cry (That’s what I do, at least, you may…
ContinueAdded by Will Michaelson on June 15, 2012 at 10:30am — 3 Comments
Last evening, as I was thumbing through my April issue of National Oil and Lube News (NOLN), I began to reflect on why and how the folks in the independent automotive repair and maintenance business managed to take such a large chunk of service business away from the franchised dealers. Well, in truth they didn’t take it away…we gave it away…years ago…based on our focus on warranty work, our prices, and our indifference to the service…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on May 22, 2012 at 4:30pm — No Comments
Hi All,
I collaborated on the following Edmunds’ article. I think the DealerELITE membership may find it very interesting and helpful. A dynamic has developed into search queries on Edmunds, and the broader web, where customers who are holding on to cars much longer than in years past, are increasingly searching for service advice on their aging vehicles, many…
ContinueHi All,
I collaborated on an Edmunds’ article, Turning Service into Sales, that I think the DealerELITE membership may find very interesting, and more importantly, helpful. It is a particular dynamic that has developed into search queries on Edmunds, and the broader web, where customers who are holding on to cars much longer than in years past, are increasingly searching for service advice on their aging vehicles, many out of OEM warranty. Coming from a sales background myself, I may…
ContinueAdded by John on May 21, 2012 at 1:08pm — No Comments
Part one of this topic was published here on January 19, 2012. In that article I discussed the four no-cost or low-costactivities that, when executed flawlessly, will increase a service department's customer R.O. count by at least 10%. Today I’ll address several other proven strategies to increase your customer-paid service…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on May 10, 2012 at 11:00am — No Comments
I was calling the other day to set up some travel and when I dialed I got a real voice versus an IVR. The funny thing was, I checked to make sure I dialed the right number.
Now how funny is that. We are so accustomed to getting a recording (you have reached...) or a support line, (please enter your account #) that when we actually get someone it makes us feel…
ContinueAdded by Glenn Pasch on March 27, 2012 at 8:58pm — 14 Comments
In today’s durable goods market there are two main factors other than the product itself that will ultimately influence the consumer’s purchase decision, regardless of the type of product. These two factors are quality of service and customer satisfaction. Turning the consumer from a potential customer to a loyal customer is a complex process. The business through…
ContinueAdded by Mark Odat on February 28, 2012 at 9:00pm — 13 Comments
In late December, we posted an article titled, “How Do You Increase Service Department Sales?” In that article, I noted that there are only three ways to do this, the most difficult being to increase the number of customer-paid service transactions (customer R.O. count). Up To Speedreader feedback indicates this is a high-priority subject, so today I’ll discuss one way to increase your customer R.O. count.
What follows is a…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on February 2, 2012 at 12:27pm — 1 Comment
Good Morning Automotive universe......
As I travel around North America setting up Business development centers for dealerships I get asked the following question quite often. How can we convince our current sales team to reach out to more customers and enlist them to help the Business Development Center?
The answer is quite simple really, convince them that in order to make a great living and "work less" over time they need to build their…
ContinueAdded by Ian nethercott on January 30, 2012 at 12:36pm — No Comments
The labor sales potential for any franchised dealer’s service department is first dependent on the units in operation (UIOs) for that franchise in the dealer’s market. Unfortunately, very few of the manufacturers provide this UIO information to their dealers. For a fee, vehicles in operation (VIOs) are available by zip code from R.L. Polk, Inc.
Since there are other estimates used in the calculation of labor…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on January 24, 2012 at 10:30am — No Comments
“It only takes one bug in the potato salad to ruin a picnic,” according to one of the little old ladies I went to church with as a child. As I move further away from a precocious child and closer to being a sweet little old lady, I am realizing that she was not registering a complaint about church picnics but planting a seed of wisdom that would develop as I grew older. One little bug can ruin the…
ContinueAdded by Stephanie Young on January 19, 2012 at 12:30pm — 8 Comments
This is a pretty basic question, right? But when discussing this subject recently during 2012 annual business planning conferences with several client dealership service managers, I discovered that the answers were far more elusive than they should have been. Most of the NCM client dealers continually try to achieve 5% - 8% year-over-year improvement in Fixed Operations profitability. And those that successfully do so fully understand that it doesn’t just happen. This level of…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on January 6, 2012 at 1:30pm — No Comments
As I’ve written previously, the two most important elements of effective Accountability Management are 1) measuring what you need to manage and 2) inspecting what you expect. In the Service Department, the repair order analysis process is one of the essential steps in executing these two accountability elements.
The R.O. analysis is intended to provide information about Customer-Paid (C-P) sales that is supplemental to that available in the typical DMS. The proactive Service Manager…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on December 29, 2011 at 5:00pm — No Comments
Very few dealers are both aggressive and effective in selling Extended Service Agreements (ESAs) after the new or used vehicle has been delivered. If you are so fortunate to be among this minority, you don’t need to read any further. Since most F&I departments don’t seem to have the inclination or motivation to work these post-delivery opportunities, let’s explore an alternate strategy…structuring a process to have our service advisors aggressively and effectively sell ESAs in…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on December 13, 2011 at 5:39pm — 1 Comment
Hi again,
I wanted to post another article, in regards to the partnerships we develop. Paul Long wrote this a while ago, and I wanted to get the opinions of the community.
Ok, we admit, the subject line is a bit high-minded. And that's not a bit surprising considering the source of it is Dr. Emmett Murphy, New York Times best-selling author of
"…
Added by Will Michaelson on November 11, 2011 at 12:45pm — No Comments
Added by Ally Isakson on October 19, 2011 at 9:24pm — No Comments
If I wanted someone to just take my order and deliver, I would go to a fast food drive thru. When I go to have my car serviced, I want service. I believe that service advisors are more than just order takers or the message delivery system between a consumer and a technician. Think about it? An advisor according to …
ContinueAdded by Stephanie Young on September 21, 2011 at 9:30am — 7 Comments
Fran Milbower Director of Fixed Operations for Proactive Dealer Solutions has some great thoughts on "texting" for the dealer body. If your store needs a list of email addresses for the different cell phone companies we can help.
As director of Fixed Operations, Fran has helped hundreds of dealers grow their service department. If your store has a service BDC already and wants to take it to the next level or you have your service advisor team taking the calls, we can help.
Your…
ContinueAdded by Ian nethercott on August 9, 2011 at 10:15am — No Comments
We have been working with salespeople, managers, service staff, and business development representatives for many years now. All of the people we work with including sales and service managers at dealerships understand the importance of multiple phone numbers.
If you had multiple phone numbers for every customer, could you reach more customers in a day?
Would you sell more cars and set more service appointments?
Then why is it that when you get a customer on the…
Added by Ian nethercott on July 24, 2011 at 9:23pm — No Comments
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