On the service drive there is a plethora of technology options available to help your advisor be more efficient and improve the customer experience. Most of these tools you have vetted and they work seamlessly with your DMS and generally are very simple to use.

My question is – How come very few engage and use it one hundred percent of the time?

For instance you are transforming your write up process to a mobile tablet but your employee still uses it as if it were a desktop. Maybe you are implementing something as simple as an electronic menu and your employee does not talk to 100% of the customers about the maintenance recommendations off the menu. How about a new or a improved multi point inspection report and it is not communicated to the customer every time.

These are some basic examples of current technology that will help your team improve sales and customer satisfaction but might be utilized only forty percent of the time, in most cases it is even less. Frustrating, you are shelling out dollars for a product that only gets driven on a very limited basis and therefore does not give you the complete ROI.

As a leader and tying to implement some of these new technology tools you will naturally face the naysayers, or those who are not tech savvy or the most common reason are those who simply do not want to change. Here are a couple of techniques that will help you get them not only on board but rowing the same direction as you.

Specific training – Every person learns differently and at different paces. Online training may not be as effective as in person training. In addition you don’t want to waist someone’s time and send them through training when they are the type that like to dive in and figure out themselves and simply need a road map or overview. Here is a novel idea, ask your employee what type of training they are “most comfortable” with and have your vendor tailor a program to help them get the most out of it.

Review Vision – Trying to persuade your team to adopt a new process or new technology is difficult and in this case you need to share your vision as to why this will be beneficial TO THEM. Does it help them be more efficient, sell more service, make more money or meet their quota? Identify what is the benefit to them and how it aligns with the company’s long-term direction.

Pull the captains on the boat first – every shop has their influencers, talk with them first and make it their idea. This way the meeting after the meeting goes well and doesn’t unravel everything you just did. A few others that are supporting the new initiative will go a long way to help with implementation.

Fun and Rewarding – It sounds simple but some excitement and enthusiasm will go along way. Add in a slight reward or incentive and this will help you draw attention to the positive impact of the new program. Emphasize individual gains publically and this will help encourage the other employees to get on board.  Gamification will generate a buzz and motivate others as well.

We all know business lately has been good and most economists predict it wont continue at this pace for much longer. When this happens the team that will help the dealership transition smoothly is well functioning fixed operations team. Identify the tools you have at your disposal and evaluate how well you are using them to maximize your profitability and customer experience.

As a general manager or store director, you are approached daily with the latest and greatest technique to attract more customers to your service department. Although this is a very necessary action to grow your business and increase your customer database, I would suggest to look within your dealership walls for the actions that are causing more than 70% of your customers to defect after the warranty time period has expired.

The real underlying issues are our customers are skeptical due to a lack of trust and we have years of history to overcome to earn our customers business and loyalty back. The good news is you do have a “core” of customers that are loyal and continue to use your service department and will purchase their next maintenance service or service repair from you. In addition, every month your sales department continues to fill the front end of the funnel with new customers that service has the opportunity to hold on to and never let go.

Let's start today, actually let's start on the next customer that is purchasing a vehicle from you right now or coming in your service drive and look at it as your goal to reduce or narrow the opening at the bottom of the funnel to restrict the defection rate. Let's face it, our customers have many options, as I do when I’m picking up my morning coffee, but I choose to go to the same place that I have built a relationship with and barring a major catastrophe I don’t see a reason to defect. I know that selling and servicing a customer’s vehicle is a lot more complicated than making a venti skinny sugar free vanilla latte but the basic fundamentals of building a relationship are very similar.

Stephen Covey said, “Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”

It starts with building trust from day one. According to analysis of Better Business Bureau complaint data, consumers rank automotive repair providers in the bottom one percent of all service categories. So how do we earn the customers trust? Simple we become transparent and allow the customer to steer the enterprise during their service visit and we encourage the customer to be involved within the repair process. For instance showing the customer the dirty air filter instead of just telling them or taking a customer out to their vehicle and let them look at the oil leak helps break down that barrier of distrust. When a customer is not at your store a video or quick picture will tell a thousand words in your favor, again building trust.

High Effort = Low Customer Retention

Assess how convenient it is to do business with you. When a customer is choosing a place to do business, convenience is a major factor in the equation when they are pulling hard earned money out of their billfold to spend with you. This goes a lot deeper than just being open more hours. Have your significant other call the store and ask to have their car serviced, maybe have them ask a few questions about what service they would need to do at this time on their vehicle. Have them report back to you how easy it was to get an appointment at 4pm on a Friday afternoon or better yet maybe ask for a Saturday service repair and see the response they might receive. Look at your operation as an owner and remove yourself from the car business (I know this will be extremely difficult) for a minute and analyze every customer touch point and determine if your operation is convenient for your customers in all aspects that are trying to do business with you.

In a recent Critical Mix – Google Services Path to Purchase study of 1500 drivers, the number two most important feature when deciding on a vehicle service center was knowledge and expertise.

With information being readily available on most any thing possible it is hyper critical to customers that you are the subject matter expert. Having expert knowledge has become expected but then it is also recognized and acknowledged by more than fifty six percent of the customers. Those who can display their knowledge in a customer friendly way will be rewarded for their efforts. Customers want someone that will answer their question completely and in their terms. A solid training program starts building the foundation but a continuous learning strategy is a must. Those who demonstrate their knowledge will be rewarded with customers wanting to choose you for their repair business.

When surveyed, customers routinely say the reason why they don’t go to the dealer for maintenance and repair work is due to the perceived high cost. When looking at price a couple things to keep in mind is price does not always mean cheaper. Most salespeople agree that overcoming a price objection is a matter of conveying value. At the dealer level we have the opportunity to talk about the value of the service and explain a fair price does not mean the cheapest price. In order to do this you need to be aware of your competitors pricing and know that a customer today is researching other options on price when standing in your service drive discussing the services needed for their vehicle. A fair price along with a conversation about value of services will help your customer feel better about the perceived cost.

Attention ALL executive managers its time to roll up your sleeves and jump in feet first. Immerse yourself in fixed operations and become aware of the points within your service process that are causing your customers to defect at an aggressive rate. Spend some time with your service and parts staff and talk to them about some of these areas of opportunity and ask them how they feel they can improve and provide a better service. Be ready to take in an earful, but with your knowledge and expertise you will be able to help direct the fixed operations team in creating a customer centric process that will improve your repeat purchase cycle. Simply focusing in on 4 basic tactics, trust, convenience, knowledge and price and you will start to close the hole on defectors and build a strong and loyal customer database for years to come.

Recently scrolling through my LinkedIn feed, I noticed about every third post is a service manager or fixed operations director across the country looking for technicians. In addition to trying to find and hire technicians myself, I have come to the conclusion that business is good, but the pool of available technicians is not. I have seen offerings of sign on bonuses and additional benefits to entice a technician to come to work at the dealer hiring. Techs are in HIGH demand and they know it. This will cause some of you to make a bad hiring decision because of the urgent need. In short, there is not going to be a quick fix. You will need to grow your technician.

So that does not fix your problem right now – the shop getting stacked up and customers complaining about the amount of time it takes to have their vehicle repaired. Obviously this creates a CSI problem and also makes it tough for you to really have the opportunity to maximize every opportunity of this business coming in.

So what do we do? The first step is to make sure your production team is operating like a well-oiled machine and get every ounce of production out of them possible. Here are a few tips or reminders that will help you achieve your shops highest efficiency.

1. Clearly define “efficiency” and “productivity” terms for your techs so they know and understand the terms and how they can impact the result.
   1. Efficiency – how fast you perform each flat rate hour
   2. Productivity – how many flat rate hours turned in a given time period, typically an 8 hour day
2. Define the GOAL – performance is always increased when the goal is specific and clear. When the goal is challenging but well within the employees capabilities, the employee will accept the challenge and typically do their best to achieve.
3. Tools – Does your team have access to the best tools? Ask yourself.
   1. Are they well maintained and in good working order?
   2. Are they easy to get to?
   3. Are all the attachments/fittings there
4. Shop supplies – how many times have you seen your tech at the back parts counter or back room looking for a connector, washer or lubricant to fiish a job. Usually they have to really look causing the loss of precious time
   1. Clean and organized
   2. Plenty of quantity on hand
5. Training – Fix it right the first time is not only good for CSI but it also drastically fixes efficiency without having to spend costly time repairing the mistake
6. Proper Dispatching – if you have worked with your techs for any period of time you know their strengths. Now feed it to them. If you have someone that is fast with heavy line or one that is speedy with electrical feed it to him or her.
7. Leverage technology – A slow internet connection or a wireless connection that is spotty not only creates frustration but it burns delicate time. Most if not all of the factory updates are large files and uploading them to your customers car with a bad connection takes forever.
8. Sales and marketing strategy – What items are you marketing to your customers? Hopefully they are ones that you can do with extreme efficiency and create good gross profit. Identify the most efficient labor operation and develop an internal spiff around that operation.

These are just a few to start with and if you observe your technicians routine or behavior there will be some other areas I’m certain you will have some constructive feedback to help your shops production. Good luck, make it fun.

“28% of clicks from Toyota branded parts/service queries were LOST to the independent rooftops or other advertisers”

Within the span of the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to attend a digital learning lab hosted by Toyota that had representation from Facebook and Google. In addition to that the following week Toyota announced to their dealers they are launching a coordinated effort with a handful of vendors to help all service and part departments start winning some market share in the digital space. Obviously Toyota is trying to wake up every Dealer, General Manager, Service Director and Digital Marketing Manager of the importance of being present in that space along with the need to enlist the help of some proven vendors to deploy an all out attack on our aftermarket competitors. Toyota, I tip my hat to you in leading the charge of helping your dealers engage in this area that needed drastic improvement and bringing awareness to the benefits of shifting some of your traditional marketing spend to fund a coordinated attack online.

Here is why I feel Toyota will be successful with this latest “program” that has been piloted in the Kansas City market where they had great success in driving traffic, recapturing clicks and increasing leads.

Ease of use – Ultimately Toyota has taken away any of the guesswork and made it simple for a Toyota Dealer Service Manager to launch a digital spend that will align with the market demand and maximize all of Toyota’s digital tools and resources to help them drive traffic to their front door.

Awareness – Really what Toyota is saying needs to be done is not new information. This is information the Google team has been yelling for the last 5+ years. They have been begging the dealership world to engage in this area for years only to achieve minimal success. When Toyota speaks, dealers listen and it sounds like their message will be received loud and clear and will help support the service managers need for help in digital marketing.

Affordable – This coordinated effort is very cost effective and easy to launch. Toyota is offering an incentive (co-op) for the first 3 months of the program to help the Dealers see the value of being present when someone searches “Tundra repair Seattle” or “Toyota service Nashville”

Working together – Hopefully this initiative helps all Toyota dealers to work together. The competitor in this space is the aftermarket and not the other Toyota dealer. Having a collaborative consolidated effort will help the spend work better and more efficient without as much overlap and below the belt digital practices in competitive markets.

Proven tools – Toyota has designed service and parts landing pages that are optimized to help increase your quality score and therefore improves        your organic search ranking. Simple, take stack of landing pages with all the sub pages and simply have site provider load them up. They are simple, easy to navigate, clean and very effective.

To use a well known saying but adding a twist is very appropriate at this time. “That’s one small step for the dealer (man), one giant leap for the industry (mankind)” Maybe this quote is a little out of this world but if all the dealers could implement a similar strategy today, maybe tomorrow we will capture more than 29% of this $310 billion dollar industry.

Unfortunately during most month end financial reviews the question of training expense will surface when a dealer is looking at the financial statement, and that is the problem. It is viewed as an expense and not as an investment for the profitability of the service department for years to come. Here is the second flaw: Most service managers or directors have a pay plan that typically pays them after all expenses, again creating the flaw of viewing training as an expense and possibly having the service manager making a not to train decision based upon their own pay plan or lack of expense control in other controllable expenses.

Obviously training IS expense and very costly due to the fact that you need to send our technicians out of state to get the specialized OEM training required to help them grow and achieve the higher certifications. Also, keeping in mind the loss of production in the shop. Taking it a step further, how about those shops that have a huge deficiency in manpower and are forced with the need to staff immediately would be more likely to make a bad hiring decision, over pay wages to entice the new tech transfer and ultimately start the relationship on a one way street based upon need. If we sat down and figured how much this typical scenario costs the dealership, the numbers are staggering and would open your eyes to a few of my suggestions.

Training is a necessity and helps you retain your technicians. By passing difficult, manufacture tests, certified technicians prove their technical competence to themselves, to their employers, and to their customers. Moreover, shop owners and managers who encourage their employees to become certified can be counted on to be concerned about the other aspects of their business and their commitment to fixing the vehicle right the first time.

Here are a couple of basic thoughts

Create a Budget – Have a conversation with your service director and factory trainer and develop a game plan on what it would take to improve your shops competency without creating financial peril on the store yet still allowing your technical team to increase their knowledgebase and growing your employees.

Incentivize the management team – It might be as simple to say you have X amount of dollars to spend on training that will not count against your overall expenses, therefore our common goal of creating a culture of a well trained workforce does not only lie on your wallets shoulders.

Create buy in – Training is a benefit and should be treated that way. Create a value system that encourages the steps that enables the additional training by putting a premium on those that have spotless attendance, high production a team player or whatever metric you see that would help you drive the message, those who help themselves will be sent to the specialized additional training.

Monitor activity – Have a healthy relationship with the regional training center and the instructor so you can follow up on how your students perform. This may seem a little over the top but if you are spending your hard earned cash on training you may want a report card of how serious your student took their training. It is crazy, there have been times where I would send 2 technicians at different times to the same class and get different results. After a quick phone call I would find out that it seemed that one of the technicians used the training as a vacation and was not as diligent on the classroom activities as the other one. After a quick conversation those extra curricular activities when out of town simply cease.

Overall it is fairly simple, create a culture that fosters training and building employees. Although this article is pointed more directly to the technicians the same methods can be applied to all employees. By increasing training you will decrease the cost associated with turnover, improve customer satisfaction by improving competency and help create job satisfaction.

During a recent conversation with a service manager at a high volume import store we had a discussion about how hard it is to get the right front line team assembled to handle the expected needs of todays customer. Currently faced with need to replace three of his eight service advisors, the next thirty minutes quickly became about where to find the right person and what skills are best suited to blend well with the existing team and not bring any excesses baggage.

The service manager has taken over the roll close to six months ago and the toughest part of his job has been to put the “right” person in the right place and he quickly found out that there has been little to no premium put on growing your staff by training and mentoring. Simply put when the time was needed to promote from within he had no one on deck that would be able to step up to the plate and start swinging. Typically there is a porter, lot tech or internal service advisor that has been in training for the next step up ladder and in this store that was not part of the DNA. They simply have hired people to fill positions instead of hiring for the future.

For the next entry-level position vacancy you should be hiring the person that has goals and aspirations to run the dealership. Unfortunately the biggest mistake is simply finding the person that can do the job, onboard them and move on. This typically happens because you lack the resources to devote more time to it and the positions needed to be filled immediately.

A few months ago I read an article about Southwest airlines. This article talked about their company culture and the point that stuck out to me was that last year they filled 4,500 positions and the staggering part was they had 150,000 applicants. I put it in simple terms for the hiring service manager; this means that he should have over a hundred applicants to fill these 3 positions.

If you want to hire the best-of-the-best I would simply look and have a conversation about the candidates goals. Sure qualifications and skills have a vital role but when you ask someone about their goals you are able to determine what drives the candidate and where they see themselves in the future, really do their aspirations line up with your organizations goals. If those two lines up then you have a person that you can put in place, provide support and training and then the individual thrive when given the opportunity. Think of it this way; what people know is less important than who they are.

When hiring for attitude here are a few things you should be looking for.

• Coachability – can the new hire accept critical feedback?
• Temperament – is the new hire personality best suited for the tasks of the job?
• Ownership – can the new hire take ownership of a problem and run with it?
• Ambitious – does your new hire have goals to grow and become a leader?

Customers expect an experience that is streamlined and hassle-free/friction-free. Regardless of the arena in which your business operates, they want you to be as easy to use as what they’ve experienced online. Channel shouldn’t matter: the info available online should be available in the store, and vice versa, and all channels with which you interact with the customer should be streamlined and integrated.

The digital disruption has already happened and our customers are utilizing our digital tools to interact with our service and parts departments. Specifically our dealerships website. It has been mentioned that close to seventy percent of our customers will do research online before their parts and services purchases. Where we have fallen behind is in the last estimation, less than TWO percent of the overall dealers website content is devoted to parts and services. How come the departments that typically produce over fifty percent of the operating profits has such a poor representation?

In a recent study performed by Google they mentioned that when a customer is performing their research the majority utilize a search engine search and other tire and auto websites. In fact…

63% - searched tire and auto websites

59% - searched tire brand websites

Unfortunately only 31% mentioned they went to your dealerships website…

Considering the lack of content on our dealerships websites I am really surprised that thirty one percent utilized this as a resource during their shopping experience. The goal should be to get your customer visiting your website for information as often as they have a question or need help. One of the first thing that should happen is to educate every customer that this is great tool or resource to use to get quick information. “What information are my service customers looking for?” The first place I would start is to listen to your incoming phone calls and log the questions that are being asked, make sure you have a reasonable solution with adequate information to fulfill the needs of those inbound calls. Next, ask your website provider for common information about searchable terms in your area and then finally look at your digital offerings and see how well you provide a solution.

Some things to consider when performing a review of your website I would ask yourself the following questions

Does your website….

• Provide a seamless experience
• Have sufficient information about service and parts
• Offer online scheduling
• Ability to sell your parts inventory
• Have parts specials
• Have landing page templates for brakes, batteries, tires, rental cars, express maintenance
• Do you have updated service specials that are consistent to your offline offerings in your other marketing campaigns
• How to videos of routine maintenance intervals
• Mobile optimized

Most of these are simply the basic steps to creating a service and parts presence but a majority of dealers do not utilize the digital tools out there that can help your customers’ digital exposure to your store and also drive traffic to your front door.

As I mentioned previously the digital disruption has already happened and we are behind the times. We need to run and fix our sites to meet the needs and demands of our current customer and naturally we will attract new customers that are routinely searching for the same information.

2016 is nearly half way over and business has been great, retail traffic is up, more new and used cars being sold and this is great news, right? Well of course it is, however lets avoid some of the common mistakes made during the last cycle when business was good only to come upon a time that followed with a not so great outlook. The last time the industry had a downturn we were all faced with a decision to make several reductions to protect the financial return. I remember sitting down and implementing a strategy of how to get more done with less manpower and at that time the goal was simple, get back in line with the industry standard taking in consideration the reduced sales of parts and labor. This was an extremely tough task and certainly not fun to do, but it was very necessary.

The point I want to make is over the next few years the service and parts business is going to be there for the taking and we all need to aggressively go after it, with one caveat; increase sales and performance intuitively instead of hiring someone to help with the added workload or volume coming in.

Recently I reviewed a dealers financial statement where their salaries/wages and benefits was more than ten percent higher than the industry guide; basically their human capital was costing them financial capital returns. After a short visit with some of the employees it became very evident most of the hourly employees that were hired on over the last year were brought on with a narrow vision of duties and responsibilities. In simple terms, the “easy” fix was to plug a person in place instead of defining a specific process and training to become more efficient at it.

To take it a step further this created a small silo effect within the workforce. They explained to me that one person does this task and then they pass it off to the next person that does the next task, and if “person A” does not do their job it at causes problems with “person B” completing their duties. As I analyzed the process I realized that every person has become “specialized” in their duties, instead of being aware of the final goal and what they could do to make the process flow smoother.

Making this transition is a tough battle, but necessary. Here are some tips to help this flow smoothly and help you not fall in the excessive manpower trap.

• Look for more efficient ways to get the job done – identify the bottlenecks, is it the process or the people?
• Improve communication – open book here, be transparent, explain what and why things are happening
• Explain and then re-explain the reason and the goal – Employees will have a lot of questions, meet them head on and allow plenty of time for questions.
• Determine if the task is a “necessary” or a “nice” benefit to the customer – Examine which ones are mission-critical and really matter, which ones are questionable or discretionary, and which ones were assigned years ago and are no longer necessary.

Keep a steady eye on the future, execute your game plan and be prepared for everything our industry can throw at you. Have a game plan, stick to it and allow your team to build and grow.

As a general manager or store director you are approached daily with the latest and greatest technique to attract more customers to your service department. Although this is a very necessary action to grow your business and increase your customer database, I would suggest to look within your dealership walls for the actions that are causing more than seventy percent of your customers to defect after the warranty time period has expired. The real underlying issues are our customers are skeptical due to a lack of trust and we have years of history to overcome to earn our customers business and loyalty back. The good news is you do have a “core” of customers that are loyal and continue to use your service department and will purchase their next maintenance service or service repair from you. In addition every month your sales department continues to fill the front end of the funnel with new customers that service has the opportunity to hold on to and never let go.

Lets start today, actually lets start on the next customer that is purchasing a vehicle from you right now or coming in your service drive and look at it as your goal to reduce or narrow the opening at the bottom of the funnel to restrict the defection rate. Lets face it, our customers have many options, as I do when I’m picking up my morning coffee but I choose to go to the same place that I have built a relationship with and barring a major catastrophe I don’t see a reason to defect. I know that selling and servicing a customer’s vehicle is a lot more complicated than making a venti skinny sugar free vanilla latte but the basic fundamentals of building a relationship are very similar.

Stephen Covey said, “Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”

It starts with building trust from day one. According to analysis of Better Business Bureau complaint data, consumers rank automotive repair providers in the bottom one percent of all service categories. So how do we earn the customers trust? Simple we become transparent and allow the customer to steer the enterprise during their service visit and we encourage the customer to be involved within the repair process. For instance showing the customer the dirty air filter instead of just telling them or taking a customer out to their vehicle and let them look at the oil leak helps break down that barrier of distrust. When a customer is not at your store a video or quick picture will tell a thousand words in your favor, again building trust.

High Effort = Low Customer Retention

Assess how convenient it is to do business with you. When a customer is choosing a place to do business, convenience is a major factor in the equation when they are pulling hard earned money out of their billfold to spend with you. This goes a lot deeper than just being open more hours. Have your significant other call the store and ask to have their car serviced, maybe have them ask a few questions about what service they would need to do at this time on their vehicle. Have them report back to you how easy it was to get an appointment at 4pm on a Friday afternoon or better yet maybe ask for a Saturday service repair and see the response they might receive. Look at your operation as an owner and remove yourself from the car business (I know this will be extremely difficult) for a minute and analyze every customer touch point and determine if your operation is convenient for your customers in all aspects that are trying to do business with you.

In a recent Critical Mix – Google Services Path to Purchase study of 1500 drivers, the number two most important feature when deciding on a vehicle service center was knowledge and expertise.

With information being readily available on most any thing possible it is hyper critical to customers that you are the subject matter expert. Having expert knowledge has become expected but then it is also recognized and acknowledged by more than fifty six percent of the customers. Those who can display their knowledge in a customer friendly way will be rewarded for their efforts. Customers want someone that will answer their question completely and in their terms. A solid training program starts building the foundation but a continuous learning strategy is a must. Those who demonstrate their knowledge will be rewarded with customers wanting to choose you for their repair business.

When surveyed, customers routinely say the reason why they don’t go to the dealer for maintenance and repair work is due to the perceived high cost.

When reviewing your pricing strategies a couple things to keep in mind is price does not always mean cheaper. Most salespeople agree that overcoming a price objection is a matter of conveying value. At the dealer level we have the opportunity to talk about the value of the service and explain a fair price does not mean the cheapest price. In order to do this you need to be aware of your competitors pricing and know that a customer today is researching other options on price when standing in your service drive discussing the services needed for their vehicle. A fair price along with a conversation about value of services will help your customer feel better about the perceived cost.

Attention ALL executive managers its time to roll up your sleeves and jump in feet first. Immerse yourself in fixed operations and become aware of the points within your service process that are causing your customers to defect at an aggressive rate. Spend some time with your service and parts staff and talk to them about some of these areas of opportunity and ask them how they feel they can improve and provide a better service. Be ready to take in an earful, but with your knowledge and expertise you will be able to help direct the fixed operations team in creating a customer centric process that will improve your repeat purchase cycle. Simply focusing in on 4 basic tactics, trust, convenience, knowledge and price and you will start to close the hole on defectors and build a strong and loyal customer database for years to come.

Recently I had the opportunity to attend and speak at the 2016 DrivingSales Presidents club in Miami, Florida. The event was packed with top-level thought starters and leaders in the industry and offered many different discussions to help attack the automotive business as it is today. Since then I have a few of you within the community reach out to me and ask for a quick recap of my discussion.

Fine Tune Fixed Ops Digital Performance

With the average profit margin on new car sales rapidly decreasing, the importance of customer retention being much more than an industry buzzword, the 310 billion dollar service and parts opportunity of which we are capturing less than thirty percent and the average age of the vehicle on the road today increasing to over eleven and a half years  your fixed operations team needs the help and support to create a presence within the digital space to help capture and direct the seventy million monthly repair searches to your dealerships front door.

Here are a few things to review and implement in your current digital strategy.

High awareness and low familiarity – your customer is aware of your name and service center but has very low familiarity with you other than your name. More customers are researching online to become more informed of their service needs and service facilities. We need to do everything possible to help them find our store with updated and relevant information packed with rich content.

Going mobile - The increase year over year of those that do this on the go with their mobile smartphone co-pilot shows that our online information needs to be optimized for their viewing pleasure.

Clean and Easy to Navigate – make sure your digital hand raiser has an easy time to navigate your site and find the information they are looking for with little resistance.

Video is still king – If you really want to drive results and views utilize the power of video. More and more customers are looking for “how to” videos to familiarize themselves. Customers are more likely to watch a quick video than read a page to get that information as well.

Online scheduling – Review your online scheduling tool and make it easy for your customer. Are you using the most up to date tool that will help you capture the business by making it easy and with very few steps. Regardless if they are new or an existing customer they should have the same simple process. Can your customer book an appointment into your service department in less than 5 steps?

Up to date content – This is one of the areas that require the most attention. Make sure your coupons are seasonally correct and not expired. During my search I found a large amount of specials that were out of date and expired, I found fall specials even though we are past spring and heading into summer. More importantly make sure your content pages are up to date with the latest recall and service related information. An easy way to identify some of the content you should have on your site is to review all your inbound calls, what questions are being asked and see if those questions can be answered on your website. Review the Google ad words preview tool for your area and make sure you have all those boxes checked as well.

When I performed a quick study of those that have most of these basic tools in place and seem to have a grasp of their digital relevancy, I found a couple of commonalities that allow them to make their presence felt.

Budget – To accomplish the required footprint in this space you will need to shift some of your traditional marketing spend to digital. In addition to this know and understand that you will exhaust your budget rather quickly under the traditional (and antiquated) guidelines. Those that provide that presence understand that this is an area where they will simply be higher than the average but are willing to spend more to help drive more to their store.

Support – To deliver on some of these tactics the service manager or service director is going to need some help. Those that do really well with this have a dedicated fixed operations digital content specialist, in some cases before jumping into the expense deep end the store simply used more of the already in place digital marketing manager time allocated to fixed operations to a fifty-fifty split.

The search volume continues to grow and we have a lot of work to do to reduce the gap between our aftermarket competitors. This is something that is going to require a lot of time, resources and energy but will be rewarding when reviewing some of the conversion rates.