Feature

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As dealerships look for opportunities to in-crease the frequency of interactions with clients and enhance the value of each customer engagement, many are shifting focus from single-occurrence front-end sales interactions to the numerous lifetime Fixed Operations opportunities.

Historically, creating and maintaining cus-tomer loyalty in Fixed Operations has been a battle for franchised dealerships. To add transparency to the vehicle inspec-tion process, many dealerships have been performing some form of paper-based multi-point inspection (MPI) process for years. However, shifts in buyer behavior and rapid technological advancement are significantly impacting on-the-spot sell-through of identified Service work.

In declining (or perhaps better said, de-ferring) a service or repair recommenda-tion identified during the MPI, customers often cite a lack of time and transparency as overriding factors in their decision-mak-ing. On the surface, this seems difficult to comprehend as no entity in-market invests more in the way of tools, technology and training than dealerships do in servic-ing their supported automakers and their models.

So, if there’s no better individual than a factory trained / certified Technician to determine the condition and safety of a vehicle, what’s keeping the customer from trusting their insights and authorizing the work that’s been identified?

Time & Transparency T w o K e y s f o r I n c r e a s I n g s e r v I c e r e v e n u e

b y m aT T pa r s o n s

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S e p t e m b e r / O c t O b e r 2 0 1 5 | | F i x e d O p S m a g a z i n e

Time mattersPast personal experiences, word-of-mouth and now online reviews have contributed to an impression and reality that the deal-ership’s Service process is not necessar-ily the fastest in-market when it comes to identifying service / repairs needed, com-municating clearly the time and cost of each service or repair, and then actually repairing the vehicle.

Independent repair shops focus on a small set of specific repairs, allowing the entire Service workflow of inspect / iden-tify / quote / repair to be completed in a faster total turn than a dealership. Studies have shown that a customer’s propensity to purchase recommended services is at its peak within the first 15 minutes after checking the vehicle in with the repair facility. Instead, dealership Service work-flows are typically a series of overlapping, yet linear, events:

1. Performing an MPI, 2. Identifying potential work beyond a pri-mary repair concern, 3. Determining the needed core parts and ancillary components, 4. Pricing of those items, 5. Identifying labor times / operations, 6. Pricing the labor, 7. Presenting the results to the customer for consideration

All too often, this process significantly ex-ceeds this ‘magic’ 15-minute threshold. Every Service Advisor has witnessed the obvious disappointment of a customer who has been waiting in the lounge for an hour, only to be told that their vehicle has only just now been inspected, rather than completed. (Talk about a miss-match in expectations!) The customer is expect-ing the Service process to be complete but learns that their vehicle has only passed through the initial stage(s) of the repair process. Selling additional work at this point for many Service Advisors becomes much more difficult and can damage an al-ready delicate customer relationship.

To build trust and retain customers, dealer-ships are refining process workflows with new tools and technologies. Technicians are becoming empowered to quickly per-form an MPI while simultaneously quoting common repairs with little to no interven-tion by either the Parts Department or other Service Department personnel. Re-quired service and / or repairs, including the identification of critical information to support a completed MPI, are being per-formed in parallel (as opposed to a linear fashion) with the customer’s primary ve-hicle concern(s) so that the Service Advi-sor can engage the customer when they are most receptive to purchase – within the magic 15-minute initial time block.

“so, If There’s no

beTTer IndIvIdual

Than a facTory

TraIned / cerTIfIed

TechnIcIan To

deTermIne The

condITIon and safeTy

of a vehIcle, whaT’s

KeepIng The cusTomer

from TrusTIng

TheIr InsIghTs

and auThorIzIng

The worK ThaT’s

been IdenTIfIed?”

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Transparency - a picture Does speak a Thousand WordsHow many of us today would blindly pur-chase something off of the Internet or in a store without first seeing the product being advertised? Pictures sell; it’s just that sim-ple. MPIs that include photo or video evi-dence of exactly why repairs are required see a significant increase in sell-through.

Industry findings show that when photo or video evidence is included in the Service process, a 10 - 16% lift in sales is realized. The key, however, is that the photo or video evidence must be actual evidence. Stock photos of a generic air filter or engine belt don’t deliver the same impact as the dirty or damaged air filter or the worn or cracked belt from the customer’s own vehicle. The transparency created by this evidence is undebatable and it provides the basis for a trusting relationship between the customer and your Service team.

The good news is that your Service staff carries a camera with them every day. Smartphone ownership and usage is so common and so engrained, that it takes mere seconds to capture a quick photo of a damaged belt or dirty air filter. No lon-ger do dealerships have to acquire spe-cific single- use hardware or technologies

to perform advanced functions. To deliv-er better results, use what you and your employees already have -- a smartphone -- and incorporate it into the normal pro-cesses of your repair facility workflow.

Everyone wins in this scenario. The cus-tomer has visual evidence of recommend-ed service or repair(s) presented to them and can instantly authorize any or all of the work to be completed. The dealership sells

additional revenue per repair order and the Technician earns more with the ability to create trust through transparency with the customer.

in closingConsumers have continual rising expec-tations of quality work, all while demand-ing shorter wait times. Creating a process workflow that meets customers’ expecta-tions can be challenging. However, with the right approach that combines the skills and capabilities of your staff, the use of widely-adopted and readily available tech-nologies, and software solutions that are adaptable to your specific needs, you can see a significant lift in hours per RO and total customer pay.

Matt Parsons is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing with Plymouth, Michigan-based IFM Americas, a company of Infome-dia Ltd. Matt has spent 30 years in support of the automotive retailing and automotive OEM market sectors. He is viewed as a subject matter expert in the areas of tech-nologies and their impacts on the automo-tive retailing sector and the overall consumer experience.

“The phoTo or vIdeo

evIdence musT be

acTual evIdence.

sTocK phoTos of a

generIc aIr fIlTer or

engIne belT don’T

delIver The same

ImpacT as The dIrTy

or damaged aIr

fIlTer or The worn

or cracKed belT

from The cusTomer’s

own vehIcle.”