Why Service At A Dealership?

[Kevin Kulma]

Great info!

Curious about some of the Fixed marketing efforts you're doing to help keep more cars heading into the drive.

Recalls!

25% of vehicles on the road today have a recall associated to those and most of the those vehicles probably are 3-7 year old vehicles whom the owner has "some" sort of equity in the car. Not all recalls are created equal - some the parts are on back order for 6 months. However - software updates and sub 2 hour fixes are relatively easy for most service departments to handle.

1. Custom Recall Specific Landing Page to that Make/Model
2. Database Targeting to Specific Owners of Yr/Mk/Model
3. Social / Email Campaign - Can't Advertise Recalls - Awareness / Advise / Inform (very important)
4. Conversion Tool via Recall Lookup - NOT CTA to OEM SITE!

If you want to sell more cars - have more consumers in your drive getting service done. @ChrisR if you have any other questions - shoot me an email at [email protected].

 

[ChrisR]

Recalls!

25% of vehicles on the road today have a recall associated to those and most of the those vehicles probably are 3-7 year old vehicles whom the owner has "some" sort of equity in the car. Not all recalls are created equal - some the parts are on back order for 6 months. However - software updates and sub 2 hour fixes are relatively easy for most service departments to handle.

1. Custom Recall Specific Landing Page to that Make/Model
2. Database Targeting to Specific Owners of Yr/Mk/Model
3. Social / Email Campaign - Can't Advertise Recalls - Awareness / Advise / Inform (very important)
4. Conversion Tool via Recall Lookup - NOT CTA to OEM SITE!

If you want to sell more cars - have more consumers in your drive getting service done. @ChrisR if you have any other questions - shoot me an email at [email protected].

Thanks, I will reach out. We have been having some crazy recall volume, then the faucet turned off. The ideas are great, I'll work on some landing pages.

 

[digital_gangster]

Recalls!

25% of vehicles on the road today have a recall associated to those and most of the those vehicles probably are 3-7 year old vehicles whom the owner has "some" sort of equity in the car. Not all recalls are created equal - some the parts are on back order for 6 months. However - software updates and sub 2 hour fixes are relatively easy for most service departments to handle.

1. Custom Recall Specific Landing Page to that Make/Model
2. Database Targeting to Specific Owners of Yr/Mk/Model
3. Social / Email Campaign - Can't Advertise Recalls - Awareness / Advise / Inform (very important)
4. Conversion Tool via Recall Lookup - NOT CTA to OEM SITE!

If you want to sell more cars - have more consumers in your drive getting service done. @ChrisR if you have any other questions - shoot me an email at [email protected].

Hmmm, I also like these ideas and might have to do some reaching out. Thanks @Kevin Kulma

 

[Tallcool1]

Actually there are a lot of great stats out there. This is information is top of mind because I needed to do some research for a few 20 group meetings/industry events for our company over the last few month.

This info is via OE Market Director from one of the big domestics - sorry for being vague, don't want to broadcast this info w/o his blessing.

• A consumer who voluntarily service(s) his/her car (meaning out of warranty and not recall work) twice in a calendar year are 3x more likely to consider and buy their next new vehicle from that dealership
• 56% of the time - when a consumer defects from a dealership to independants ( Jiffy Lube / Pep Boys), it is because of TIRES.
• Here is the biggest stat - 72% of the time when a consumer buys a set of 4 tires at the dealership, they will buy their next vehicle from that dealership.

Thus the reason why CSI + Defection has become such a huge talking point on the OE side.

I have been on the "sales" marketing side for 15+ years.... in doing Fixed Ops marketing for the last 18 months. The possibilities for HUGE profits and ROI are really limitless with very little spend.

Very interesting statistics. I am certainly not going to argue the numbers. Numbers don't lie.

56% of the time - when a consumer defects from a dealership to independent.........it is because of TIRES. What does that mean? Does it mean THAT specific 56% of customers were loyal dealership service customers right up to the point that it was time to buy tires? Then they are lost to the independents for all of the service work? Why didn't they buy tires from the dealership? Is the independent cheaper? Is is perception that the independent has better tires? DOES the independent have better tires? Does it REALLY have anything to do with tires?

OR, is there something about a customer that will buy tires from a dealership? Is that customer more likely to purchase their next vehicle from that dealership with or without the 4 tire purchase?

70% of people 65 years old or older die in hospitals. Sooooo....if you are 65 or older, do not go to the hospital!

The numbers are valid, but I am interested in the story behind the numbers. There is much more to this than tires.

By the way, I am not doubting your numbers nor am I poking fun at you in any way. This is a great conversation!

 

[Kevin Kulma]

Very interesting statistics. I am certainly not going to argue the numbers. Numbers don't lie.

56% of the time - when a consumer defects from a dealership to independent.........it is because of TIRES. What does that mean? Does it mean THAT specific 56% of customers were loyal dealership service customers right up to the point that it was time to buy tires? Then they are lost to the independents for all of the service work? Why didn't they buy tires from the dealership? Is the independent cheaper? Is is perception that the independent has better tires? DOES the independent have better tires? Does it REALLY have anything to do with tires?

OR, is there something about a customer that will buy tires from a dealership? Is that customer more likely to purchase their next vehicle from that dealership with or without the 4 tire purchase?

70% of people 65 years old or older die in hospitals. Sooooo....if you are 65 or older, do not go to the hospital!

The numbers are valid, but I am interested in the story behind the numbers. There is much more to this than tires.

By the way, I am not doubting your numbers nor am I poking fun at you in any way. This is a great conversation!

Yeah - No worries. Automotive Vendors have been known to fabricate stats to serve their cause occasionally.

So - I have been told by multiple OEs that they have VIN level data on every service that occurs, both in Franchise dealers and Independents as well. Which, would make sense in alot of ways on why the OEM is so focused from a CSI score and defection. It is a simple equation - the more the consumer enjoys his/her experience in the dealership for service. The more likely they are not to shop around when the time comes to buy a new vehicle. There is a clear correlation between service defection and repeat buyers.

As for your questions: 56% of the time at point of defection is from tire sales. What that means is that out of the 100 customers a franchise dealership loses to an independant - 56 times it is because of some sort of Tire sale(s). The common understanding is that once a consumer does NOT service his/her vehicle with the dealer, the likely hood of getting that customer back becomes more challenging. You could make that same argument about a consumer buying a vehicle that is in your showroom as well. The chance of selling that consumer a vehicle is highest on their initial visit.

As for your question: On why Tires is the most likely point of defection or why a consumer chooses to go to Discount Tires/Pep Boys. In my opinion it is a number of things. Lack of Awareness | Pricing and Transparency | Perception

Based on experience and more specifically observing Dealer's Websites on the Fixed side for 18 months. How many dealers have more than 1 page dedicated to Tire Sales? Those pages don't redirect to an OEM site or a 3rd widget? And the majority of the time is a Dealer does have a content page or pages, it is duplicated content, code injected from the website provider or mandated OEM program.