Strategies for Service Department Success: Building Loyalty, Increasing Profits

Maximizing Growth Through Strategic Marketing Practices

Because we fail to use our Point-of-Sale materials properly in the right areas, whether it be in the Service Drive or in our customer waiting areas, our marketing and advertising has become a major failure point for our dealerships.

Promoting products and services in the Service Lanes and Customer waiting areas is becoming more important with today’s vehicle buyers and owners. With the new advancements in Service Lounge design making them more connected and Customer friendly, many customers would prefer to wait for any service requiring less than two hours. Effectively marketing to these Waiters will become even more important as time goes on.

Because we have always done it this way, Dealership's send out promotional materials to buy something or get something for free in return when there is really nothing free. It is in this kind of mixed messaging in our advertising, or the lack of messaging altogether, that we fail to properly get our message out to the buying public. We feel that our reputation alone will carry us through, so we do not advance ourselves forward by constantly putting our message out there to reach new Customers.

Service Departments that fail to market the differences they offer, and the value their products and services bring to Customers, will have to settle for fixed profit margins from factory authorized work and less on creative selling, competitive quality, and delivery of services.

Marketing is more important today than ever before as the extended new car warranties coming from the factories mean most warranty repairs are based on fixed profit margins. This means it will become easier to lean on profits coming from the factory authorized work and less on creative selling, competitive quality, and delivery of services.

Accepting this as the new status quo will dramatically reduce fixed ops profits unless creative marketing practices are implemented to bring in Customers willing to pay for the excellent quality and additional products and services we offer.

This quote rings true not only for automakers, but for dealership service departments that want to establish their ‘brand’ of service as being excellent in quality, excellent in delivery and competitive in pricing.

Marketing and advertising this to your existing Customers, and to those you want to bring in as new business, will help to establish your dealership as a Service Brand of its own in the geographical areas you serve.

Today’s buyers love the Internet because it gives immediate access to the latest trends and technologies, as well as product and Customer reviews. This generation of buyers cares more about what new things they can get in a vehicle than they do about what brand they need to buy to obtain it.

This can be a fantastic way to connect with new Customers who are looking for innovative ways to enhance their vehicles performance with the latest available features and technologies. ?Do you market these things in your area as a part of the extensive services provided in your dealership?

For instance, how much do you market the tires you have to offer through your dealership? Most people go to outside service franchises to get their tires, primarily because they are not aware that their dealership can offer competitive pricing for tires. Of course, you must be willing to compete price wise for that business, but most Customers would rather buy from a Dealership Service Department if the pricing were competitive.

The additional business that can spring naturally from this type of advertising can include things like front end alignments, brake services and specialty wheel sales which can produce substantial revenues for your fixed ops department.

Advanced training in online marketing through social media is an investment that can add extensive revenues to your service department and bring in new Customers who will connect with you via advertising on social media platforms.

Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are still valuable resources, but make sure you are keeping up with the latest trends in social media as many of the younger generation of potential Customers are turning to new social media platforms that are coming into popularity on an immense scale.

And stop the giveaway and low-price oil changes, tire rotations and front-end alignments. The customers who take advantage of these promotions never buy added services during the visit. Why? Because most of the time these customers would have come to you anyways for these services, when they do most are still under their factory warranty and if the car is older most just want the reduced price for those services and never buy anything else.

Once you do your own research, I think you will agree.

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