Whether you are in sales or service, your store’s ability to compete with independent service shops and chains has a huge impact on your future. Now that the Massachusetts version of Right to Repair is going to be adopted nationally, manufacturers will no longer be able to provide dealers with a competitive advantage. Independents will have equal access to online information. By 2018, manufacturers will no longer be able to develop systems requiring proprietary equipment for diagnostic testing.

Leading dealers are already fighting back with aggressive pricing on key items, rapid parts delivery systems, fantastic service, and a new focus on marketing service. The result is far more service business, more customer relationships, and record vehicle sales. Franchised dealers can compete with independent service providers, but it requires great marketing, great systems, and execution to match. The deal is finalized yet, but it's close. How will your store fair in months and years ahead?

Whether you are in sales or service, your store’s ability to compete with independent service shops and chains has a huge impact on your future. Now that the Massachusetts version of Right to Repair is going to be adopted nationally, manufacturers will no longer be able to provide dealers with a competitive advantage. Independents will have equal access to online information. By 2018, manufacturers will no longer be able to develop systems requiring proprietary equipment for diagnostic testing.

Leading dealers are already fighting back with aggressive pricing on key items, rapid parts delivery systems, fantastic service, and a new focus on marketing service. The result is far more service business, more customer relationships, and record vehicle sales. Franchised dealers can compete with independent service providers, but it requires great marketing, great systems, and execution to match. The deal is finalized yet, but it's close. How will your store fair in months and years ahead?

There is more to an inexpensive oil change than getting a chance to put the vehicle on the rack. It’s an opportunity to gain new relationships. Advanced dealers are growing their service business to grow their future vehicle sales business. Pulling customers back into the store with oil changes, tires, and the like makes you the one dealership the shopper has a relationship with.

On the service side, the biggest source of competition comes from chain repair stores, not dealerships. But the dealer who can wrestle that service relationship away from the chain repair store is the one with a leg up over all other dealerships when it comes time to shop for a new vehicle. Operating with transparency in the service lanes increases the likelihood the customer will trust the dealership’s sales department. Competitively pricing commonly shopped items like oil changes and tires sets the perception for reasonable prices on larger repair orders and vehicle sales.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent trying to get people on their sofas to come in and look at the new vehicles. Luring them into your service lane and waiting area can be far more cost effective. The cars are right there with no way to TiVo them out of the picture.

Marketing for service business has never been more cost effective. A small Search Engine Marketing budget combined with a great website can bring a huge increase in service business. Before long, that increase in service traffic can result in increased vehicle sales. There are no gimmicks. You have to earn the business with digital marketing, competitive pricing on key items, and great service throughout the process. Steal the customer away from the chain repair shops, and you might be stealing her away from another dealer’s future sales board as well.

There is more to an inexpensive oil change than getting a chance to put the vehicle on the rack. It’s an opportunity to gain new relationships. Advanced dealers are growing their service business to grow their future vehicle sales business. Pulling customers back into the store with oil changes, tires, and the like makes you the one dealership the shopper has a relationship with.

On the service side, the biggest source of competition comes from chain repair stores, not dealerships. But the dealer who can wrestle that service relationship away from the chain repair store is the one with a leg up over all other dealerships when it comes time to shop for a new vehicle. Operating with transparency in the service lanes increases the likelihood the customer will trust the dealership’s sales department. Competitively pricing commonly shopped items like oil changes and tires sets the perception for reasonable prices on larger repair orders and vehicle sales.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent trying to get people on their sofas to come in and look at the new vehicles. Luring them into your service lane and waiting area can be far more cost effective. The cars are right there with no way to TiVo them out of the picture.

Marketing for service business has never been more cost effective. A small Search Engine Marketing budget combined with a great website can bring a huge increase in service business. Before long, that increase in service traffic can result in increased vehicle sales. There are no gimmicks. You have to earn the business with digital marketing, competitive pricing on key items, and great service throughout the process. Steal the customer away from the chain repair shops, and you might be stealing her away from another dealer’s future sales board as well.

The wall between fixed operations and sales needs to come down.

• Franchised dealers must regain some of the accessory sales lost to online and offline competitors. That is not going to happen unless Parts, Service, and Sales all work to make it happen.
• Regardless of what is done with social media, it is impossible to maximize customer relationships for loyalty and advocacy if the store is not uniformly committed to growing those customer relationships.  
• Service revenue is lost every month when customers call in for service on the same tracking number they used when initially shopping for the car itself. Sales people don't get paid to answer service calls, and the way some of them handle those calls surely reflects it.
• Most service managers don't get paid to teach people how to operate their vehicles. And it shows when customers call up complaining about their car not operating when the customer simply doesn't know how it is supposed to operate. Vehicle delivery is insufficient at thousands of stores. Of course, most sales people don't care about that. Their only worry is about the next sale, not the last one.
• Occasionally, nasty comments are tossed back and forth over the variable-ops/fixed-ops wall, but most of the time these departments uttered their disdain for each other to the consumer.

When Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech at the Berlin Wall, telling Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," it was not a new policy position. The five previous presidents had all wanted the same thing. In fact the wall did not come down for another 29 months, nearly one year after Reagan left office. Persuasion takes multiple efforts, even when it is clearly the right thing to do.

Many stores are changing their commission plans on accessories, splitting the gross profit equally between parts, service, and sales. Although there are plenty of success stories coming from the use of this approach, some stores baulk at the idea of taking such a big step right away. At a minimum, GMs can start by adding non-human touchpoints that introduce service to sales customers and sales to service customers. Here are a few product examples:

1. AdVantage Tec, an Innovation Cup finalist at DSES, uses 15% of the TV screen in the waiting area for promotional messages, often promoting sales to waiting service companies.
2. Dealer e-Process won the 2011 AWA Fixed Ops Technology Award for their service solutions on dealership websites. Many websites are virtually controlled by Sales and neglect service opportunities.

I'd love to hear what your store or product is doing to help tear down this wall. 

The wall between fixed operations and sales needs to come down.

• Franchised dealers must regain some of the accessory sales lost to online and offline competitors. That is not going to happen unless Parts, Service, and Sales all work to make it happen.
• Regardless of what is done with social media, it is impossible to maximize customer relationships for loyalty and advocacy if the store is not uniformly committed to growing those customer relationships.  
• Service revenue is lost every month when customers call in for service on the same tracking number they used when initially shopping for the car itself. Sales people don't get paid to answer service calls, and the way some of them handle those calls surely reflects it.
• Most service managers don't get paid to teach people how to operate their vehicles. And it shows when customers call up complaining about their car not operating when the customer simply doesn't know how it is supposed to operate. Vehicle delivery is insufficient at thousands of stores. Of course, most sales people don't care about that. Their only worry is about the next sale, not the last one.
• Occasionally, nasty comments are tossed back and forth over the variable-ops/fixed-ops wall, but most of the time these departments uttered their disdain for each other to the consumer.

When Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech at the Berlin Wall, telling Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," it was not a new policy position. The five previous presidents had all wanted the same thing. In fact the wall did not come down for another 29 months, nearly one year after Reagan left office. Persuasion takes multiple efforts, even when it is clearly the right thing to do.

Many stores are changing their commission plans on accessories, splitting the gross profit equally between parts, service, and sales. Although there are plenty of success stories coming from the use of this approach, some stores baulk at the idea of taking such a big step right away. At a minimum, GMs can start by adding non-human touchpoints that introduce service to sales customers and sales to service customers. Here are a few product examples:

1. AdVantage Tec, an Innovation Cup finalist at DSES, uses 15% of the TV screen in the waiting area for promotional messages, often promoting sales to waiting service companies.
2. Dealer e-Process won the 2011 AWA Fixed Ops Technology Award for their service solutions on dealership websites. Many websites are virtually controlled by Sales and neglect service opportunities.

I'd love to hear what your store or product is doing to help tear down this wall.