Old School Key Management is Expensive for Dealers Today

Lost keys are a result of an old school process and should never happen at modern dealerships.

Yet, every dealership has been there at one time or another. A guest walks in the door, prepared to buy, and asks to see a specific vehicle found online.

Your salesperson is excited because they know they have that car on the lot and they're sure your guest will love it.

They tell this guest a little bit about it and go to grab the keys...and they’re missing.

Your salesperson mutters a few choice words under their breath and starts checking countertops and asking around.

They dig in their pockets and ask the other sales associates to check theirs. Nothing.

Even if someone in your dealership ends up finding the keys before your guest leaves, your salesperson is embarrassed and upset and naturally, so are you.

Lost keys translate into lost time

When your team is busy tracking down keys, they waste precious time.

Time is the new currency in the car buying experience...time they could have used to help an additional guest. This translates into wasted hours and lower customer experience.

This leads to the second point.

Lost keys translate into lost revenue

The last thing you want to do is make your guests wait any longer than necessary.

Lost keys can cause a far greater backlog of waiting guests and it’s not uncommon for guests to leave if they wait around for a long time without a salesperson coming to assist them.

Even guests you’re able to assist may be less than impressed if you're wasting their time digging for lost keys or they can’t test drive a vehicle on your lot because the key is nowhere to be found.

“But we have another car on our lot I think you might like…” #salesfail

Again, lost keys—lost revenue.

Replacement Costs

Ultimately, when keys go missing and aren’t recovered, they must be replaced. At around $400 per set, replacements aren’t cheap.

Large Dealer Groups report spending over $10k each month to replace lost keys!

Consequently...

Lost keys affect your dealership’s image

Everybody loses when keys are lost; customer, salesperson and the store. The customer gets impatient, the salesperson gets frustrated and the dealer's reputation can be impacted.

If you want to ensure your store never loses a key again, consider implementing MDD’s real-time key-tracking system can help you save time, grow your bottom line and invest in your reputation.

If you are curious and would like to schedule a demo, click here.