Many dealers struggle with getting customers to bring their vehicles in to take care of recall issues. The fact that the average recall completion rate is around 75 percent, tells us that standard recall marketing campaigns aren't as effective as they could be.

Your customers either aren't getting the message, or they set it aside and forget…

On any given day, weathercasters in our area predict a 20% chance of rain. It’s a safe bet with a one in five chance of being correct.

In an industry that tends to reward “Strong Wrong” more often than “Soft Right,” the bold and the brave may tell you that they can predict your sales with amazing accuracy via their proprietary…

Notifying customers when they are due for service is an obvious—yet crucial—part of any dealer’s marketing strategy. Unfortunately, not all notifications get the same results. Many well-intentioned efforts are too little, too late, and don’t have a solid strategy. And breaking through to…

Notifying customers when they are due for service is an obvious—yet crucial—part of any dealer’s marketing strategy. Unfortunately, not all notifications get the same results. Many well-intentioned efforts are too little, too late, and don’t have a solid strategy. And breaking through to…

One of the biggest obstacles many dealership service departments encounter is contacting and communicating with their customers. This is not only a problem with recall customers, but with all service customers in general. And failure to communicate can easily…

There are three huge ways to transform the Social Media at your Dealership

Tell Your Story

Telling your Digital Story is a huge step in the right direction. In the most recent quarterly conference call, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated that stories were the next big thing, and he’s a guy that knows the next big…

When you buy something online, checkout can take mere seconds. And chances are good that your credit card was saved from previous transactions, meaning you just have to click the checkout button and your order is submitted. At the grocery store, checkout takes maybe a few minutes—if you have to insert your card and wait for a receipt. So it comes as no…

Annual announcements are nothing new for Google. If nothing else, Google rolls out new marketing elements, metrics and key performance indicators on a daily basis. If any company knows change, it’s Google. The Google algorithm changes approximately 500 to 600 times a year.

As SEO and SEM experts know, you have to test your assumptions when…

One of the biggest benefits of an omnichannel marketing strategy is the ability to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. In this blog, I'm going to focus on the "right person" part of this equation.

If your goal is retention marketing and building customer loyalty, of course it's always best to market to the…

In today’s digital world, if you want your audience to hear your message, it’s crucial to stand out among the flood of marketing communications hitting them at every turn. But all too often, marketers use a “one size fits all” mentality, sending messages on a standard interval without taking into account each customer’s unique purchase patterns. The result?…

In my last blog, Technicians are the Key to Dealerships’ Future, I discussed how the race to acquire technicians may just be outweighed by the difficult task of retaining the ones dealerships already employ.

Of course, as consumers keep…

Does your service department software remove friction for your customers but add friction for your staff? Perhaps that is why we see so many software companies come and go in this industry.

With today’s transformation from a dealership-centric focus to one that is more customer-centric, technology companies are rapidly developing solutions…

Service departments account for and absorb most of a dealership’s losses in sales and fixed expenses. That is not going away anytime soon. With new car front-end grosses declining, most dealerships will increasingly rely on service business to, well, stay in business.

The problem isn’t a lack of service business, but a shortage of qualified…

San Francisco is famous for fog. The city’s given a nickname to its fog - Karl. Karl the fog even has an Instagram account with 243k followers.

As I traveled back from the NADA Show 2019 held in San Francisco, I’m reminded that our industry resides in a fog of Digital…

As front-end margins continue their decline, dealers are more reliant than ever on fixed ops revenue. Fortunately, the opportunity to maximize service revenue has never been greater for dealerships.

In the last decade auto sales have boomed. Factory maintenance programs are driving more initial service visits. Increased CPO sales are creating…

service@home™ extends service department access to meet the demands of today’s busy customers

LONG BEACH, Calif.,-- January 24, 2019 -- -- myKaarma, software that helps dealerships communicate better with their customers at every stage of the service process, right from check-in through to payment, today announced the…

In a twist of irony, I’ve come to realize what consumers and dealerships have in common when it comes to vehicles recalls – assessing how important they are. Every day I work with dealerships throughout the nation, trying to get them to understand that recalls are not only about vehicle safety but also about an opportunity to engage consumers at their moment…

All too often, dealers are hesitant to make an investment in training new and Preowned salespeople because turnover in the sales department can be as high as 70 percent according to NADA. Service, however, has always been most dealership’s foundation for profitability. That’s where the phrase “service absorption” comes from.

For the most part,…

In today's 20 group meetings, in circles, while attending a new car showing, and just about anywhere you go, dealers are talking about their DMS provider. Even DMS providers seem to be talking about each other, sometimes benignly, other times with soft-malice. And finally, it seems DMS providers today, as I read the litany of articles, want to offer advice on…

The word “transparency” gets floated around the automotive industry quite often – especially in the last few years. The days of “the invoice is locked in a safe at the corporate office” are gone and consumers have all of the access to data that they need. Yet some Dealerships are still trying to play the game.

I understand that dealerships need…