Would You Do Business With You?

Every month you spend thousands of dollars in advertising just to get customers to either call or visit your store. I guess because I have been around a while and have talking about this stuff all my life, dealers all over the country ask for my opinion on customer retention and advertising and how to increase customer pay service business. I am a simple guy – not a rocket scientist and my response usually starts with one simple question – Would you do business with you? I mean, have you ever tried?

When was the last time you pretended to be a customer and actually placed a call your service department? I think it is just good business to call your store once each week pretending to be a customer and when you do it, think about what it feels like to be put on hold and to be transferred around. Monitor how many minutes you burn up on your cell phone while you are waiting – trying to do business with your store. See when you would just hang up and see what it feels like to get voice mail (and pretend that you were on the side of the road broken down with 3 kids in the car.) See if your advisors inform you of why you should choose your store with things like features and benefits that you offer and count how many times your advisors actually ask for the business or try to set an appointment to get you in.

My suggestions – Hold a weekly service advisor sales training meeting. Talk about how to ask for the business, how to keep the focus on getting customers in and how not to sell too much on the phone, which drives them away.  Use role-play to drive your point home and to get them comfortable with selling. Let them know that you will be calling your store and that you are monitoring their performance. Call other dealers and independents with them (we call these ghost calls), so they can see how it really feels – and how bad they sound.

Make sure they know how to present features and benefits and reasons why customers should choose your store. Remind them that the goal is to convert every phone call into a repair order and that 85% of all service customers call first. Remind them that they have to get the car in your service drive first – then sell it. Some advisors ask for the mileage on a vehicle to try to sell a menu over the phone – my suggestion is to not talk too much – focus on how competitive you are, on how good your techs are and how great your warranty is…not on how much they will have to spend when they get there – they will never get there! This is simple, teach them how to sell– you know how to do this – you have been selling for years – it doesn’t matter if you are selling cars or service – it is all just selling!